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The Valley

by Matt Buetow

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Digipack CD with a poster of song lyrics featuring artwork by Grace K. Stopher

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Valley via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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1.
All I’ve Known In new eyes you can try to find your way back to that old life With familiar skies and the same straight lines you can crawl inside You can waste all the time you want and no one will know She pushed it too far, trying to drive the whole way in that broken down car In one night until she let it slide that she could lie and lie But alone or not she had a thousand miles to go Singing we should quit our holding on this feeling that we’re losing it and let it fall Because the easiest of bruises and the softest of the nooses are all I’ve known It’s all I’ve known He wanted something just strong enough to take away the thoughts at least On to another life, just a little high, and she was crawling by And together they would spiral in and out of control So if we can let it orphan, this feeling that we’re losing it and let it fall Because the easiest of bruises and the softest of the nooses are all I’ve known It’s all I’ve known Now we can quit our holding on this feeling that we’re losing it and let it fall Because the easiest of bruises and the softest of the nooses are all I’ve known It’s all I’ve known
2.
The Valley 02:48
The Valley There’s snot on his sleeve and he’s slurring, but that ain’t where you want to wear your heart You tried to let it go and just keep moving, but you need that heavy coal to turn your wheels Yeah, you need to let ‘em know just how it feels To leave town Goldenrod and milkweed split like cotton The old red barn to tell you how it was The red winged blackbird’s singing Eight years old sprawled out on the lawn But you gotta get back home to hear that song again But my complications have me racing through my days, my headaches will not let me belong To everything I heard in that early evening blackbird’s song The music will not wait and all the days will not come free, but the fireflies have been there all along So what’s the harm in spending one more summer in the valley lost What’s the harm in spending one more summer in the valley lost
3.
The Stream 03:54
The Stream: When each lit up window becomes a candle and the painting takes it’s shape There’s a peace that speaks through what rush can undo and thoughts that take up space My summer dreams of a softer landing from all the wheels I’ll break So I’ll kiss forest and I’ll kiss you softly as you lie fast awake In the stream there’s an open space Where it’s deep enough to touch my waist Where the clear blue is all it takes To bring me back to life again. To bring me back to life again A tear for the family and a tear for the thought of the space between the lakes A month in a moment, a life for a father, the love we wait to thank My summer dreams of a gentle evening and a peaceful smile, your face Futures and wastelands, the softest white sand, how long will we wait In the stream there’s an open space Where its’ deep enough to touch my waist Where the clear blue is all it takes To bring me back to life again. To bring me back to life again To bring me back to life again
4.
You Won't 03:38
You Won’t Sunshine turning everything pasty white Melting even the coldest ice Skin brown as a bruise Tick time hopscotch-ing from day to night Turning my hair white Saying “you’re gonna lose” I’ve been up for nights and I can’t tell what’s wrong Turning all the lights off and on You’re sure that you will feel it but you wont Who am I trying hard to live a life that kills half the time Or turn me into a fool It’s high time we drink up our surprise and stare into blind eyes Shake the fear of the new ‘Cause I’ve been up and down this road and I want more Waiting for the world to let me know You’re sure that you will feel it but you won’t Forced in fear to tag along But when hope is near you drag me to the sea and shove me off ‘Cause I’ve been up and down that road and I want more Waiting for the world to just let me go You’re sure that you will feel it but you wont Sunshine turning everything pasty white Melting even the coldest ice Skin brown as a bruise
5.
Prescription Snow We cannot live like we’re pretending with certain things we both should know But each scene always seemed so perfect under the cover of a prescription snow So give your veins all that they can handle until some beauty comes along But if it’s an ending that you’re seeking then it’s a coffin sized to the soil’s hole I can live like a fish in a fountain I can find some walls to roam But if each kiss is burning more than I am growing I cannot tell, then I can’t tell you, I cannot tell you what you want to know It’s an addiction of the worst kind, trying to love what will grow old And fade away just like the sunshine to shed it’s light on other worlds So don’t tell me sugar ain’t my birthright, I wanna taste the candied soul And go back to when we sang till dawn’s light swinging youth’s side of that double-edged sword But what if I blink and I light the candle at both ends Would you be the first to go And if each kiss is burning more than I am growing I cannot tell, then I can’t tell you, I cannot tell you what you want to know
6.
The Hangman 04:20
The Hangman I have some reasons for you to count your cash, pull out the last few threads and watch it all collapse Beside a fire burning my own thatch, I stand frozen So I put flames to trees and open land just hoping for a little warmth for these heavy hands I first saw him dangling from a brand-new strand, the hangman But he grew too tall until he could not stand in the aftermath And the curse won’t lift until you end all plans and let the current splash Well here’s a band-new star for your brand-new map The sun is setting as the clouds collapse As I chew my words and sing the staff, ooh ooh but they’re stolen So now my missing chords and slow left hand will be my saving grace and my kickstand The shoes and sidewalk skid till they reach the sand and the moment slips So I drew and drew until my mind went black and my pen bent But it’s you who fights the things you cannot stand and expects to win.
7.
The Game 03:34
The Game It’s a concept that you lay in and it will not stop until it rolls along The affirmations you keep saying they wake you up at night But you can’t help it The game is different than they taught And the weight’s hated It will not lift until you love The complements they throw are bruising and they will not stop until you fade away To long for something that’s worth losing the game is long as life But you can’t help it The years just rise again and fall And nothing’s waiting It’ll kill you if you want Rolls and rolls of canvas wake you up and beg for more The muddy puddles that you stand in are deeper than they’ve ever been before So go on try and get your hands in to the life you waver from I don’t think they understand yet there’s boredom when California falls
8.
Holding Your Head Up I will waste away these walls till the rain don’t come Pacing and writing on the floor I hate to hear the thoughtful words didn’t help at all I’m holding your head up Holding your head up Cartoons of the recent wars hang on my walls While this town is evidently talking tall Now and then the feeling comes and it breaks my fall Holding your head up Holding your head up Through snow that leaves the faces blurred I have feared it all She’s taking a break from taking my thoughts But mindless salvation is what just gets me off Holding your head up Holding your head up If this is an end all, then where are my eyes Where did my arms go, there’s pain in my sides If this is a close-up, then where are the pores If this is my anger, I want more Through snow that leaves the faces blurred I have feared it all She’s taking a break from taking my thoughts But mindless salvation is what just gets me off Holding your head up Holding your head up Holding your head up Holding your head up
9.
Helpless Son 02:59
Helpless Son I am all but absent from the brand-new static waves, hung in treetops that tremble in my thoughts But I can still see day from the caverns of my cave so I ain’t got any reason to be cross And I’m hoping that I’ll never find a way to swallow all the things that I have taken But to see it you need an open hand and an open heart for every moment that it stays The darkness fools old habits but I cannot call this day And the crimson pools are waiting patient inside my veins Helpless veins, helpless son I have slipped from often to chasing almost everyday my eyelid’s fading memory of the bright light And the dream’s sound from in my poison cage is so much sweeter than the one that I once loved And I’m hoping that I will find a way to follow all the things for which I’ve waited But to see it you need an open hand and an open heart for every moment that she stays The darkness fools old habits but I cannot call this day And the crimson pools are waiting patient inside my veins Helpless veins, helpless son Helpless veins, helpless son Helpless veins, helpless son Helpless veins, helpless son
10.
Home 05:31
Home Brother there are none but happy sendings for the life you have chosen for your son But it is his path now to pray for no dead endings It is his path alone which he must run And all the people that are waiting in my doorway I cannot turn my fire will go black I’ve waited long enough to know the wrong way I’ve waited long enough and I’m going back Back home back where I call home Back home that’s what I call home The currents that keep this river rolling are the same ones that will hold you till you drown And as you build your bridge to climb up and over, you shed your skin and cringe as you look down But can you bear to see your lover as you’re lowered Will you catch her tears and strip her of her black You can spend your life trying to stay sober but the devil ain’t ashamed to take you back Back home back where he calls home Back home that’s what he calls home Home Home It’s a common wish to want it back but all that he offers is all you lack The only hard part is to make it stop But try as you might something stalls, until you can walk there you will crawl Until that day you will roll You roll Back home back where you call home Back home that’s what you call home Home Home
11.
Movie Love 03:39
Movie Love Stranded on the shore of the last isle Sure that all these thoughts will sail me home I am easily convinced these days that these tears are not my own Given what you’ve wasted I am thankful to look and see the bounty that I hold I am easily let down now but don’t easily let go Like you and your movie love where the lights shine from above The cure without the cancer And through the dusk towards the fading sun on a horse that will not canter But you keep acting like forgiveness is a game that we both play And while I’m waiting for your next roll (role) your face slowly slips away So can you try ‘n give me one thing Just something warm inside my hands Cause time is not all that is wasted and you cannot wait for me to stand Not up for your movie love where the lights shine from above You want the cure without the cancer And through the dusk towards the fading sun on a horse that will not canter

credits

released April 22, 2014

All music and lyrics written by Matt Buetow
Matt Buetow - Vocals, Guitar (Acoustic, Electric, Classical), Harmonica
Bryan Daste - Pedal Steel (All except 5,8,11), Banjo (9)
Milo Fultz - Upright Bass (2-7,9,10)
Derick Thomas - Drums (2-9)
Nathan Alef - Piano (5), Fender Rhodes (2-4,7)
Michael Steinkirchner - Electric Bass (1, 8)
Merlin Showalter - Drums (1,10)
Matt Greco - Piano (8), Organ (7,10)
Lexi Tucker - Vocal Harmonies (7,8)
Josh Segal - Violin (3,9), Mandolin (9)
Ian Rinehart - Cello (11)

Produced by Matt Buetow and Matt Greco
Engineered by Matt Greco and Nathan Alef
Mixed by Matt Greco - MGRecords
Mastered by Nick Moon - Tone Proper Mastering
Album artwork by Grace K. Stopher

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Matt Buetow Portland, Oregon

Drawing from country legends like Waylon Jennings, Townes Van Zandt, and Willie Nelson, Matt Buetow’s songs are honest and true. Every song comes straight from experience and his smooth tenor vocals give each carefully crafted lyric a classic feel.

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