The Early Widows

Release Date: May 4, 2010
Read: Credits & Lyrics
Purchase: itunes | Six Shooter Records

BE A MAN
JACK OF DIAMONDS
ISLANDS
THE HEART OF A RIVER
I HAVE NOT SEEN THE LIGHT
TURN AROUND
MRS. MONTGOMERY
SNOWMEN
CARRY ON
ALL AROUND THIS WORLD

Near dawn I will depart in tears;
and while my years go on curving,
my swift course will curve scythes.

And under the cold holy oils of a dying moon,
with the timbre of steel in the indolent earth,
dogs, howling, will dig a goodbye.

– César Vallejo

BE A MAN

I am a fly on the wall of a house where the windows are always broken
I am a pause in a storm on a dark stair whenever your name is spoken

Be a man about this
Be the coward or the kiss
Be a man about this

Somewhere there is salt in the air of a season that touches the hem
of an island so northern
Some air is knitting a day for a woman whose eyes are upon the horizon

Be a man about this
Be the boredom or the bliss
Be a man about this

Be the number or the name
Be the picture or the frame
Be the shoulder or the shame
Be the moth or be her flame

I am the birth of a dawn through a curtain
The hurt of a dawn through a curtain

Be a man about this
Be a man about this
Be a man about this
Be a man about this

JACK OF DIAMONDS

Yellow bird, yellow moon
You’ve arrived while the spring is out of tune
River run, river slow
From the Grand Coulee Dam to Jericho
To the island where the wounded echoes go

Over that horizon, past the streets of Evangeline
There’s a boy among the redwood and the pine
Jack of Diamonds you’re no friend of mine

Seventeen, seven sins
Can we just hide here before the war begins
River run, river rage
From the beak of a yellow bird beside a cage
To a field of broken drums upon a stage

Over that horizon, past the streets of Evangeline
Past the bedrooms where the wounded girls recline
Jack of Diamonds you’re no friend of mine

Where do you go dear? Who do you know dear?
Who do you rage for tonight?
Who do you lie beside? Who do you sigh beside?
Who do you look to for a sign?

I’m a boy among the redwood and the pine
I hear the sirens out on the county line
Jack of Diamonds you’re no friend of mine

ISLANDS

At the mouth of the open sea the leaves will be turning red
While the man that they thought I could be lives in a book you read
Where the coast is uncomfortably close the sturgeon have fled

I supposed that with a Japanese rose I could undo you
So I pinned it to you

There’s an island straight ahead named after a dead man
Where the crest at the tip of its wrist is ladled with virgin sand
Where the coast is indelibly close we’ll strike up the band

And I’ll wonder whether we were the ones who meant nothing to you
The ones who withdrew you

Heavy the hand, heavy the harvest
Steady the hand, steady the harness
Pray for the land, pray for the locust
Pray for the land, pray for the locust

At the mouth of the open sea the wedding is winding down
All the guests are beginning to mourn the death of a wedding gown
Your ghost is unbearably close – unbearably bound

Now the lights make early widows of nights that try to outdo you
Now the crows are blackened ribbons and bows that hang from a new you
I supposed that with a Japanese rose I could undo you
So I pinned it to you

I pinned it to you

THE HEART OF A RIVER

We don’t want to live in the city no more
We don’t want to lose what we’re looking for
We don’t want to lean on the gallery bars
Looking at something that’ll never be ours

We want to be part of the heart of a river
We want to be part of the heart of a river

We don’t want to live in the city no more
We don’t want to live with a lock on the door
Give us a glimpse of the garden tonight
Just a glimpse of the garden

We want to be part of the heart of a river
We want to be part of the heart of a river
We want to be part of the heart of

You don’t know where we like to go, do you?
You don’t know, do you?

We don’t want to live in the city no more
We don’t want to lose what we’re looking for
We don’t want to lean on the gallery bars
Looking at something that’ll never be ours

We want to be part of the heart of a river
We want to be part of the heart of a river
We want to be part of the heart of
We want to be part of the heart of

I HAVE NOT SEEN THE LIGHT

I have not seen the light but I have cursed the day
Speechless as the sun, shapeless as the clay
I have not called to God in my hour of need
The minutes spin around the gingham on her knees

I have not seen three ships passing in the night
Like hands across her hips
I have not seen the light

I have not broken down, I have not been betrayed
I have not said a word, I have not been afraid
I have not learned to crawl, I have not learned to die
Are hands upon the plough under someone else’s sky?

I have not seen three ships
Their sails all grey and white
With voices on their lips
I have not seen the light

I have not seen three ships
Their sirens on the sea
Wreathed in red and brown
They do not sing for me
I have not lost my way
I have not lost my sight
I’m staring down the sun
I have not seen the light

TURN AROUND

Everyone’s raining
Everyone’s pouring
Everyone’s hailing
Everyone’s storming
Everyone’s raging
Everyone’s roaring
Everyone’s raining
Everyone’s pouring

Turn around, my love

Everyone’s staying
Everyone’s going
Everyone’s praying
Everyone’s glowing
Everyone’s frightened
Everyone’s frightened
Everyone’s raining
Everyone’s pouring

Turn around, my love

MRS. MONTGOMERY

Remember me to Mrs. Mongomery
To the tall cherry tree, the lily and the lake
Be good to me, oh road to recovery
For the life that you see is the life that you take

Oleander
Late September
There’s a man standing on a bridge
A river is chosen
The west wind blows in
There’s a man standing on a bridge

Remember me to Mrs. Montgomery
To the tall cherry tree, the lily and the lake
Be good to me, oh road to recovery
For the life that you see is the life that you take

The life that you see is the life that you take

SNOWMEN

We want you on beds of burnished silver
Beneath the buckling of the rafters
And the twilight stung with cinder
We want you blonde above the rapture
That blows through empty chapters
At the heart of all that matters

We were cold
But now we’re freezing

We want you to tell those constellations
The cross and all its stations
That we are bound by patience
We want you to sway with subtle motion
To ration this commotion
For we are bound by ocean

We were cold
But now we’re freezing

Where were you before they built these towers?

We were cold
But now we’re freezing

CARRY ON
For Jack Marks

Once, the weather was mine
The lark and the plough
The arrow, the vine
The weak and the wild
When I was a child
I was a child

Against a backdrop of rain
I studied the course of your blood in my veins
And how red it ran
The child and the man
How red it ran

Carry on
Until everything breaks
Until everything breaks

Once, your island was mine
A dark hand allowed this island to shine
This island of mine
This island of mine
This island of mine

Carry on
Until everything breaks
Until everything breaks

ALL AROUND THIS WORLD

Hang me
You hang me like tinsel upon your words
Like twilight entwined in the day’s awful nerves
Are these our measures?
Is this what we deserve?
I’ve been all around this world

Hang me
You hang me as though crows would scatter afraid
How quiet these lives that our mothers and fathers have made
We speak in shadows
Our shadows are lost in the shade
I’ve been all around this world

Hang me
You hang me – but how hungry and stubborn we shift
These moons are too many, these bodies too swift
I think of you often in a dress set gently adrift
I’ve been all around this world

Hang me
You hang me like curtains in front of a storm
Like a highway of ribbons
Like a love I should never have worn
This is our home. This house is where you were born
I’ve been all around this world

DAVID BAXTER Electric guitar
BURKE CARROLL Pedal steel
GARY CRAIG Drums, percussion
STEW CROOKES Tubular bells, electric guitar
BAZIL DONOVAN Bass
JULIE FADER Voice
BLAKE MANNING Drums, percussion
OH SUSANNA Voice
JUSTIN RUTLEDGE Electric, acoustic and 12-string guitars, piano, wurlitzer, voice
HAWKSLEY WORKMAN Electric guitar, piano, percussion
JESSE ZUBOT Violin, viola, mandolin, soundscapes
AMOY LEVY, NEVON SINCLAIR, SHARON RILEY Choir

Produced by Hawksley Workman

Recorded and engineered by Stew Crookes at The Woodshed, Toronto
Additional recording by Stew Crookes at Knob and Tube, Toronto, and Stewdio, Toronto
Mixed by Stew Crookes at Stewdio, Toronto
Mastered by Phil Demetro at The Lacquer Channel, Toronto

All songs © Justin Rutledge 2010
EMI Blackwood Music (Canada) Ltd. / Junction Morning Publishing (SOCAN)
Except: “Be A Man” – Music by JR, Words by JR and Michael Ondaatje / 2010 (SOCAN) “I Have Not Seen the Light” – Words and music by JR and Darrell Scott / I Imagine Music (ASCAP) “Turn Around” – Words by JR, Music by JR, Dan Burns / Dan Burns Music (ASCAP), and Carina Round / Carina Round Music (PRS/ASCAP) (P) Six Shooter Records Inc., 2010. All rights reserved.

Management – Helen Britton / Shauna de Cartier
helen@sixshooterrecords.com / shauna@sixshooterrecords.com
Booking – Rob Zifarelli at The Agency Group – robzifarelli@theagencygroup.com

Cover painting by Stewart Jones – www.stewartjones.ca
Painting photographed by Finn O’Hara
“Lolo With Rose” illustration by Lolo Dahl – www.lolodahl.com
Layout by Chris Peters with assistance from Martin Tielli

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage (Canada Music Fund) and of Canada’s Private Radio Broadcasters.

In the west end of town the kids are doing just fine.

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