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Big Sky

by Levi Thomas

/
1.
Take shape and run from my tongue My body is broken and there's work to be done I hear the whisper in my belly and lungs So I drink the potion to unleash the flood On this grey highway it seems I've lost the trail Burned out this machine it was destined to fail I'll push it over and break me a paint Lope towards the river where I know she waits She's home in the garden serenading soil Stirring a tincture of wildflower oil She chants to the canyon howling me home In the flash of the morning Where the Buffalo Roam
2.
Cairo 04:57
Green skies over Memphis black sludge in New Orleans Ghost towns in the delta broken hearts in Tennessee Bathe my love in muddy water warm snakes in the weeds If the hydra takes the throne I'll steal some land for you and me When there's no hope for California to Cairo I'll disappear Pharaoh of the Mississippi king of the final frontier
3.
Ain't like my dreams are coming true may as well waste an afternoon Stare while morning glories bloom let the fog burn off to blue I'll swallow some sun filtered through the smog there's nothing in my head just a little sense of dread Dip my paw in mud and wine meditate on power lines Phone cut off for three days now wish I had a plot to plow tomatoes on the vine linens on the line a family to feed through this ugly misery Now fear no way to crawl back out Hung dry no shadow of a doubt In my worried mind
4.
Road, Kill 03:29
I got it out of my system fruit stand mystics, gas station roses Sweat it out on blank pages cocktail napkins with lipstick traces Asked the binary sages burned a hundred, felt no changes Heard the eagle scream Licked my wounds clean Road, Kill my pain Lonesome, On'ry, and Mean Saw your ghost on the highway skin and bones clutching that bouquet Threw a famous look my way a little luck for that mangy stray Dreamed your name in a tattoo while I was burning bushes just for someone to talk to Walked a crooked mile put my guts on trial Walked a crooked mile green eyes high and wild
5.
Tire Fire 04:32
I could make the river home Throw the dog a bone and grow my own I could get to know your soul Watch your mind unfold and just get old A nightly sunset stroll Among the catacombs and garden gnomes Then we'll cozy up around a tire fire And watch the ashes float across the sky I'll torch and till the the land If you'll take the simple hand of a well fed man In a mansion made of tin We'll wash away our sins in bathtub gin I got a michelin star chef To cook your crystal meth, so get some rest Then we'll cozy up around a tire fire And watch the ashes float across the sky Cause peace ain't hard to find If you're willin to unwind With an arsenal and a bunker in the barn No peace ain't hard to find If you paint your own road sign "private land we don't call 911"
6.
Build yourself a shrine to stare at when you're stoned Cloth from foreign lands pictures of your home Light your sacred heat travel through the flame Red wine weeks gone bad killers for your pain Blame it on your name It's how you became Lit up like a disco ball hanging by a thread Holy Water, Holy smoke boiling in your head Left for dead in a living room a failed attempt to swoon So honey, bottle up and go drown them baby blues Blame it on the moon You goddamn fool ********* Lay me down on broken wings Wash my feet with gasoline Strip my bed of every stricken sheet and let me slide To Big Sky
7.
Morning came and on her breast my poor skull was laid to rest She struck me down the night before To rest in her arms could I ask for more? Wrecked my brain the whole night through Sang "I Only Have Eyes for You" an eastern room a cactus bloom and those waking eyes would be my tomb
8.
Cowboy Stuff 05:35
I gotta find a place to stay Til something better comes my way But I tend to roam and my friends are all knocked up I'd like to write the word someday But it's easier to run away And the less I work the less I want to And the Hydra's out on the campaign trail But I see no chosen king to end this tale And when the big one hits the bay And I watch the city melt away There's always Montana Down on luck cowboy stuff Get high and spin roses and skulls Call my boys and cook up a plan to Rob a bank before it's too late Blow it all and float in space And comedown slow beside a swimming pool And as I recline in the sky I see her blue veins going dry But if it all turns out to be A simulated reality There's always Montana

about

I was sitting in a small restaurant in Deming, New Mexico eating a bowl of what tasted like yesterday’s posole. So hot it burned my soul. The coffee they were serving was so thin it was barely above instant, and the mariachi radio station seemed to be playing just loud enough to pierce my brain straight through...Anyone that’s traveled with me knows I am not a morning person. But here I was, in the middle of the desert, waiting on a friend to pick up a guitar no one had realized had been left in the back of my truck the night before. Sand and candy wrappers swirled through the streets and the only people up seemed to be me and the family who ran the place. No one came in or out, no one walked the streets, no sirens or train whistles cut through the radio blare...My brain playing last nights tunes over in my head. Levi’s tunes, creeping in from all four corners. One side Oakland, loud and cutthroat. Broken glass music. Everything at 11 or minus 1. Hushed confessions between buddies who trust each other enough to confide their weakness’. Under the cover of darkness, where we first became friends...Another side Missouri, the birthplace of Chuck Berry and Jay Ferrar, Porter Wagoner and Boxcar Willie. Stage right of Memphis, stage left of a lot of nothing. Where sweating it out in dive bars playing country, rock, and blues is a right of passage and pulling a guitar string lowdown on the neck still makes the hips wiggle...In the third corner of the old Victorian dining room, just as the soup begins to cool down, comes the band. My ears still wringing from the night before. My heart still hurting knowing my friends are headed the other way. Songs like Mans Best Friend, Cairo and Roadkill, roll over in my brain. Moments where they work the song over, layer after layer, pushing their instruments together like a vice. These boys have been riding heavy into the dark together for some years now behind Levi; driving their stake into the ground for the love of each other and the song... He pulls up to the last corner of my mind looking as tired as always; skinny and half awake. His words dripping off his leather jacket. “I burned a bush just to have someone to talk to” he murmurs. He’s high off of lasts nights show as well. It reminds me how much we both ached to go on tour, how we picked out little cowboy towns to play on the map, how we knew as songwriters there were hidden truths in between destinations, in strangers, on nights like last night. We find them and put them down on a record. That’s what we do...I’d finished my posole and coffee and tipped heavy, feeling a thousand times better. And Levi sat down and ordered the same, as I said goodbye again...

Big Sky is a record of memories like this. Flushed out and filtered through the Ozark heat rock and east bay grime. Through wide desert mesa’s and fleeting moments, where romance is finally and forever lost to the truth. Enjoy it.
-Pete Fields, August 2🖕🏻2🖕🏻

credits

released October 2, 2020

Levi Thomas-Guitar, Vocals
Dominic Aiello-Drums
Alan Brandsted-Guitar
Darwin Siegaldoud-Bass
Joel Robinow-Piano
Nate Hahn-Pedal Steel
Brian Azevedo-Drums on "Cowboy Stuff"

All songs written and produced by Levi Thomas
Recorded Fall/Winter 2019-2020 by Zach Parkes at Watershed Sound in Oakland, CA
Cowboy Stuff recorded by Winston Goertz-Giffen at Santo and his house
Mixed by Raj Kumar Ojha
Mastered by Kevin Kilpatrick
Art by Desiree Cannon

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Levi Thomas Oakland, California

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