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Leave This Circus

by The Muchmores

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    4-panel Digipak with artwork by Beth Pacentrilli (bethpacentrilli.com)

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1.
Dying Town 04:51
falling slowly to where i left you the last time trying to keep my feet below put on spurs and ride on, cowboy go west young man and find yourself a home pushing freedom on those who'd rather be tethered to your heart and keep you down leave this circus and do it quickly before they call you up "the compliant clown" get the hell out get the hell out out of this dying town hurt some people go ahead and break all the hearts you need to get out on the road just like Burden go get your sleep in and bluff all of the sunsets till they fold and get the hell out get the hell out get the hell out out of this dying town get your head up get away from all the things that your daddy did when he was young shine those shoes up dance till heaven makes you stop and then keep going till you are done get your head up get away from all the things that your daddy did when he was young shine those shoes up dance till heaven makes you stop and then keep going till you are done and get the hell out get the hell out out of this dying town gather up the pieces put them in your pocket for a rainy day when you can pull them out keep on moving never put your roots down till you're sure that's where you'll live on through the drought and get the hell out get the hell out get the hell get the hell out get the hell out out of this dying town
2.
listen up now you've kept your ears filled up with other voices way too long listen up now i've kept my voice below a whisper since i was just a child but those days are over now now i'm wild untamed and loud you might want to take a few steps back and listen now put both your hands up i've got something for you coming down the track put both your hands up you're gonna need them for the trip you'll be taking on the back of my own two hands i made with my fist-pump cavalcade riding single file with lights turned on in the middle of the day i'm not the same son you called on over without claim on birth or name i'm not the same one you spoke on down to from the pulpit that holds up your cane i'll be seating you down now at the front row of the crowd not to make much but so you can see and hear that i am proud get in your box now it's where the dead have always gone and i know that you would hate to disappoint them you're probably hoping that i've always felt the same now i'm moving earth and stone while you're all just skin and bones lacking blood you were ashamed to wear in youth in your "happy home" i'm all alone now free as air and wracked with debt you left for me to fill so come on back now we've still got work to do and i've been thinking maybe we'll talk out all the days and flames that i started as a way to burn down the house i thought you said was yours but somehow stayed
3.
Ivan 03:30
ivan ain't the only one to sit around and talk with death he comes into my room and he whispers under his breath you'd think he'd tell me lies but he's telling the truth "you'll always be alone" i'm taking a drive again with the friend that you hate the one you told me never to ever be out with late he comes and goes like a crow and he's never going home he'll always be alone lonely isn't quite as bad when i don't have to be there alone and i'll fly around like icharus with sorry old wax wings in a flock of fools who are all always alone fire on the hillside: go and light up the night swim like a fish towards that summertime moonlight just remember friend, this will always be true: you'll always be alone lonely isn't quite as bad when i don't have to be there alone and i'll fly around like icharus with sorry old wax wings in a flock of fools who are all always lonely it isn't quite as bad when i don't have to be there alone and i'll fly around like icharus with sorry old wax wings in a flock of fools who are all always alone
4.
i bow my head under the weight of what i said after the snow the snow had given way your words of thanks and consolation they bare their teeth and bite it all it all away from me and all that's left is circumstantial benefit you waited till you found something good enough to hold onto you'll wait until you find that it weighs you down you'll drop it into the ground i touch my feet with the tips of my hands they're rough and old but i'm still young i've got a lot of life before me your facts and figures wrap up my head in a sheeps-wool blindfold my eyes are kept from the malice of the world and all that's left is circumstantial benefit you waited till you found something good enough to hold onto you'll wait until you find that it weighs you down you'll drop it into the ground thou mayest rule the dark crouching at your door tonight thou mayest rule the dark crouching at your door tonight thou mayest rule the dark crouching at your door tonight thou mayest rule the dark crouching at your door tonight you waited when you found i'm not good enough to hold onto you stayed there when you felt me weigh you down you waited when you found i'm not good enough to hold onto you stayed there when you felt me weigh you down you dropped it into the ground and that's what's left of circumstantial benefit but i'm still left with circumstantial benefit
5.
The Bear 03:59
we checked out of the world a while ago to see if we could find peace the concierge- a guru in a strange hat- he couldn't tell us where to go we struck out by the riverside you told me you'd follow me where i'd go "no matter where if we die we die together kept out of a plain old hole" we slept under the stars we kept out all dishonesty with our good hearts we drank our milk we ate our honey from the comb two kids in love on the run but then you left you didn't like where i was going you kept my heart in your bag i sent the bear i met to hunt you down in vengeance and bring back your pretty head i decided to make a new reservation with our man back in the world they wouldn't take me i am "damaged goods" they said "savage, lost, and untried" i tried to blame it on the bear "he's the savage, with my heart in his chest" they told me i would have to hunt him down and kill him and bring back his pretty head so i brought myself to do it i kept out all the honesty i'd had with you there convinced myself and the world i'd earned a settled place and a plain old hole
6.
home has never been a place that is right now it's only ever in my mind in the past a ghost of my invention with the name of home snow covers up the road that leads that way i wonder if i'll ever see the day that will melt the white that keeps me from a place called home home isn't where they say it is when they say "it's with your heart" cause my heart is surely beating in my chest but i still don't have a place to call my own a place to call my own my home this house has substituted poorly for a place like a mother's dark warm womb a space where there's nowhere else to be a place called home home isn't where they say it is when they say "it's with your heart" cause my heart is surely beating in my chest but i still don't have a place to call my own a place to call my own when you told me that you'd love me and that we'd make a home i knew you were lying through your teeth not that you knew it but home isn't a place even the best love can make home isn't even where i want to be but it'd sure as hell be nice to know it's there accessible when i am scared of everywhere else of everywhere else of everyone else
7.
you dressed up for our afternoon together you left your umbrella at the door we sought out the shelter of a coffee shop and found out what earl grey is for you told me your were sick and tired of loneliness you told me that you'd build something new i told you i'd help build your castle in the clouds if i could only rent one room you agreed and we were off to cut our stone straight and smooth to keep out the wind i brought back marble for the floors only the best for a friend i waited for you to come back and piece together loneliness with me you never showed you kept on cutting stone for your private wing you ordered carpet for the floors i surprised you with an unannounced visit i thought that you might be glad to see how i've grown and still stayed the same just like our favorite tree now i'm gone and it's easier for you to see me as a blessing in the dark but you never showed it when i was there except for your weakest smile i waited for you to come back and piece together loneliness with me you never showed you kept on cutting stone for your private wing you ordered carpet for the floors i waited for you to come back and piece together loneliness with me you never showed you kept on cutting stone for your private wing with the locked, oak, bolted doors
8.
you looked me over and said "you're a young man, it's time you aged like whiskey in a barrel" you looked me over and said "you're an old man, it's time you made something of yourself" i looked myself in the mirror and said "you're an old man, you've got hate in your heart that you know like a lover wrap yourself tight in a blanket to keep your cold you've mastered the call of the birds to keep them close" but the urgency of now won't make me break into a run i'll name this river now like i found it when i was alone and i'll just walk i'll just wallk i've been around myself a bit too long kept my own counsel in an empty palace run off the jesters and queens who made my kingdom the ultimatum laid that i can't keep but the urgency of now won't make me break into a run i'll name this river now like i found it when i was alone and i'll just walk i'll just wallk the urgency of now won't make me break into a run i'll name this river now like i found it when i was alone and i'll just walk i'll just wallk
9.
The Guest 04:11
press play like an old home movie you put me back into the shoes of a young child break out a lovingly warm lie, a french word and a sigh they grow me up you say that it's not right what we do, and i can only say to you that i know you're right but we keep talking on the phone under covers with our own little fight you say "settle down, put your feet on solid ground" and every time you do, i get stirred up i wish i could leave you all behind like a memory or wine needing time to show true body, blood, and bite that can only be called "fine" when tasted right i love your art school sense of lines and the way you spend your time like it grew on trees mistakes are all made from where you stand and are more than often planned i'm living proof you say "settle down, put your feet on solid ground" and every time you do, i get stirred up you say "settle down, put your feet on solid ground" and every time you do, i say "hell no"
10.
the smell of horses and loaded magazines my wild west show is tearing at the seams the dust i come from weighs me down my own rodeo needs a clown i find my face is painted with a frown take back all the wasted time and wind it on to your clock stuff in all the wasted breath and keep it under lock i feel all the wasted beats coming from my heart but the moon, it shares it's wasted light tonight i'm sipping sunlight filtered through the clouds i'm finding door posts nailed into the ground fish are freezing on the reef eels are waiting for a winter feast camera clouds are flashing in the east take back all the wasted time and wind it on to your clock stuff in all the wasted breath and keep it under lock i feel all the wasted beats coming from my heart but the moon, it shares it's wasted light tonight take back all the wasted time and wind it on to your clock stuff in all the wasted breath and keep it under lock i feel all the wasted beats coming from my heart but the moon, it shares it's wasted light tonight
11.
i had a dream that the stars ran away for a tryst with the blue-black of night hid from the moon and half-blinded the sun built a new way to be on the run i had a dream that the stars were aligned so straight you could only see one our fates were all written by princes and law and bought sold and traded at the point of a gun and we won't lay down and die we'll live to fight another day, die another day we waited to long for the stamp and a word to tell us to take in a breath we sat along side while you cut off our limbs to build up a world you called "good" we laid down the weapons you deemed were unjust while kangaroo courts built the home you built with our money, and you tore up the roads you broke all our backs to lay down and we won't wait for the start of a war we'll kill and save who we see who we see fit stick to your lies and be loyal to one thing we'll stick to our guns and be strong as a wild bird's wing oh you won't save up for the cost of a precious thing but we won't give up for our children, god, or anything and we won't lay down and die we'll kill and save oh, we won't wait for the start of a war we'll live to fight another day, die another day die another day
12.
Not the End 02:35
this is not the end this is not the end of all our hopes and fears of all our hopes and fears this is not the end this is not the end of water rising up of water rising up this is not the end this is not the end of all our silly talks of all our silly talks this is not the end this is not the end of all our hopes and fears of all our hopes and fears
13.
Holy Roller 04:27
she can be your holy roller, she can sing your hymns she can put on clothes to cover all the bits that make you sin don't you know that falling forward might mean you're on a weaker limb? but she won't just let you blame her for all the kind of people you've been like a lying dog, a wife-beating drunkard man like a tall don juan with something left in your hand when you come back home smelling like the fever of spring oh, i bet she'll never show you the best woman she can be she can be your dark night lady, wear your favorite dress and shoes the ones that make her look like one of your five other women too but hear me once, she promises nothing. no way to make her stay inside but she won't just let you keep her for the pleasure of your wandering eyes like a lying dog, a wife-beating drunkard man like a tall don juan with something left in your hand when you come back home smelling like the fever of spring oh, i bet she'll never show you the best woman she can be you're a lying dog, a wife-beating drunkard man you're a tall don juan with something left in your hand when you come back home smelling like the fever of spring oh, i bet she'll never show you the best woman she can be the best woman she can be the best woman she can be

credits

released January 19, 2018

The Muchmores are:

Calvin Armerding
Shelby Price
Jeff Hennessy
Cameron Duncan

Musical support from Ken Davis (keys) and Jacob Johnson (electric guitar on "Holy Roller")

Album artwork by Beth Pacentrilli
bethpacentrilli.com

Special thanks to Corey Pelton for loaning us the Reverend, which ended up being the backbone of the record.Thanks to Furman University for (unknowningly) loaning us a recital hall to record the piano. Thanks to Nathan Hall and Ben Comstock for teaching me to write songs and for consultation throughout the editing process. Thanks to our fifteen or so fans who stick with us through months on end of no shows, deadlines being pushed back, and our insistence that we do everything on the cheap. Thanks to our families, loved ones and friends for everything.

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The Muchmores Greenville, South Carolina

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