Each Song is a Seed
Barry Oreck & Rob Meador

Each song I play is a seed, cast on a summer wind. It settles and nestles and burrows in
‘til it’s time to bloom again.
Each song I play is a sound
Of souls that warp and bend
And all of the people who love and care
We meet along the way.

Chorus
For the happiest, the saddest
The highest, the lowest
The newest, the oldest
The tattered, the trivial
All these moments we never (3-just might) forget
We sing for our supper and sing for our lives,
Just trying to survive.

Where fear and suspicion do reign,
I can stand there and sing you a sweet old refrain Sneak past defenses, start healing the pain
On the wings of a simple song.
Faint footprints in sandy ground
I can’t change the world but I can’t just back down Gotta trust in the music to touch the beyond
And tell our history.
Chorus

Bridge
One voice alone is power.
Two voices together give hope.
When all of us blend our voices,
Entwined like strands in a rope,
Try to fix this old world that is broke.
If you say you can’t sing, that’s just fine,
You can whisper or wail it or speak it in sign
Let the rhythms and feelings and spirit combine
And give the world your song.

Chorus / Bridge

Once Around
Barry Oreck

Once around is all you get
You can’t predict the ending yet
It’s all new the first time through
No instructions came with you
You do your best but make mistakes
Can’t find love without heartache
To live a life with no regrets
You best be able to forget
Move on and just forget

Chorus
Step by step, mile by mile
Walk with me a little while
Wrap your loving arms around me tighter One chance to get it right
No shortcuts to paradise
Love the life you live, or rearrange it
(2) or try to change it
(3) you’ve got to change it.

No better angel came today
No flash of lightning showed the way Took the path that came up first
Just skippin’ through the universe

There’s no perfect me or perfect you No perfect love to live up to
The best that I can ever be
Won’t live up to your fantasy
That’s all that I can be

Chorus

From birth to now is all I know
Like someone else’s picture show Staring at the stormy sea
Just killing time till time kills me
It certainly will kill me

Chorus

Wounded
Barry Oreck

All my life I’ve spent believing
That my troubles have a reason
My mama’s hurt my daddy’s leaving
Set me on a path of grief and pain

It’s my story now, I know
No one else can make me walk along
This dark and crooked road
We all are wounded
As we journey out among the scars

Became a father without thinking
Just like mine I started drinking
Choices few and prospects sinking
I was trapped in a web of fate and blood

Hurts, offenses, indignations
Passed along through generations
There’s no statute of limitations
On our family’s sense of pride and shame

Hiding my heart
Protect what’s left because it was
So broken from the start
I hear old voices
Wondering how to change the course
Make some different choices

Quit with all the old excuses
Put my time to better uses
Build some bridges, make some truces
Turn around and come in from the cold

It’s my story now, I know
No one else can lead me out
Into some bright and perfect world
We all are wounded
As we journey out beyond the scars

Makes No Sense
Barry Oreck

If there is a heaven I’ll be dying to know
Which rules to follow, which ones to forgo
Everyone is telling me the rules of the road
The path to true salvation.
But if the rules came straight from God
I can’t help but think it’s a little bit odd
That we’d kill each other and the planet we’re on
In senseless conflagration.

Chorus

Makes no sense to me,
Closing doors (2) minds (3) hearts
Won’t make you free
It’s one planet you can see
We’re all in this together (2) in this all together (3) got to work together (4) desperate for redemption

My parents taught me our history
How we settled this great country
Took all we could; it’s the land of the free
Our manifest destination.
Started thinking for myself and I quickly surmised They didn’t have the answers, just myths and lies Using God as an excuse to terrorize
Extend their domination.

Chorus

I went to church to learn right from wrong
Who’s on our side who doesn’t belong
Give pity to the weak but the spoils to the strong
In our denomination.
Why would an all-seeing lord above
Care about who we choose to love?
And why does push always come to shove
In our angry splintered nation?

Chorus

Bridge

Take a little / Give a lot /
Share a bit of what you’ve got (x2)
Can’t take it when you go, the future’s only hope.
But what if the rules were made to insure
That life on this planet could thrive and endure?
We carry the disease but also the cure
To waste and blind consumption.
And we know that our children
Have to face the facts
That we’ve started down the road
And we can’t go back
We’ve got to love each other, get off the attack
To save our civilization.

Chorus

Bridge/Jam

Home in Mind
Barry Oreck & Rob Meador

You can keep the old home place
You can have your little cabin home
And those rolling hills you came from
And regret you ever roamed.
For the hills are full of mines,
The cabin cramped and raw,
And no one in the old home town
Remembers you at all…oh, oh, oh

Chorus

Take me back to a place that never was,
And never could be real
Where the air is sweet, the folks are kind,
The money’s easy, and love is blind.
Take me back to that home in my mind.

The fields have not turned brown,
The grass has not grown tall,
For the old homeplace is somewhere
Underneath the county mall.
And that silver-haired Daddy,
And sweet Mother dear
Are closing on a condo down in Florida this year…so

Chorus

Bridge

I can see the windows glowing
I can smell the Sunday ham
I can hear the children laughing
Lord I know where I am..
I'm in the home that never was
In a town I never knew
In a state of mind I can find
Whenever I want to…..so

Chorus

I only want to go home in my mind

In the Moment Barry
Oreck & Rob Meador

Taking the long way,
I’m taking the long way home
Turning on the side roads
Seeing where my heart goes today

Sitting under a tree reading poetry
17 years old, nothing bothering me
All my time is still ahead
Got nothing to sweat
Living in the moment
Just living in the moment

Taking the old way,
Taking the old way home
Funny how love goes
Only the heart knows the way

Past our favorite spot
The air was so hot
Just starting out
All our time was still ahead
We had nothing to sweat
Living in love’s glow
Just living in love’s glow

Taking the wrong way,
This is the wrong way home
Following a cold road
Seeing where my life used to be

Past the old house
Where the fire burned out
Long time ago
Dead flowers in the street
Broken lives at our feet
Living in sorrow
Just living in sorrow

Taking a new way,
Taking a new way home
Step out of the shadows
Deep breath and blow the past away

New flowers in spring
My voice can sing
Not dead yet
All my days are still ahead
Got nothing to sweat
Living in the moment

Just living in the moment

I Can’t Believe It's True
Barry Oreck & Larry Stallman

I once met a man said the world was round,
As round as round can be.
He said the world was like a peach
In its three dimensionality.
But I can't believe it's really true
There’s the proof in front of you
Look at the line of brown and blue
It looks so flat to me.

Chorus

I just can't believe what I just can't believe
I can only believe what I see
And I'll never believe that silly old lie
That the truth will set me free.

I saw a tiger at the zoo, Blake's brilliant blazing beast A sign proclaimed that beautiful cat
Was soon to be extinct.
But I can't believe it's really true
He seems so happy in the zoo
For this creature so distinct,
Stared at me and blinked.

Chorus

I read it in the papers that the planet's getting hot Hotter every day
The storms will twist and the seas will rise
And the bees will fly away.
But I can't believe it's really true
Don’t you see the things I do
All the facts must be askew,
'cause it snowed the other day.

Chorus 2

I just can't believe what I just can't believe
I can only see what I believe,
And I'll never believe that silly old lie,
That the truth will set me free.

I trust my gut and my two eyes,
not some scientific lie
And the way to salvation is a leap of faith
With my people by my side.
Can’t trust the press or FBI
The courts are rigged, the schools comply
They want my guns -- just let them try,
This land is yours but mostly mine.

Hey, you just can't believe
what you just can't believe
You can only see what you believe
And don't ever believe that dirty old lie,
That the truth will set you
The truth will upset you
Yes, the truth will set you free.

Ride
Barry Oreck
I climbed to this peak
Not knowing what I was looking for
But digging down deep for all of my strength
I stepped over the ridge, stared into the abyss
I knew I had found it and jumped in like this, I went,

Chorus

Ride, ride, ride, ride, ride, ride
Down the steeper side
(2) Push your fears aside
(3) On the great divide
With mountains to climb and rivers to run Ride, ride, ride, slide, slide, slide
Feel the world rush by
With weightless abandon, free as the wind
Giving up to gravity, on the edge of insanity
The land rolling under, my body in flight
Connected but free, the best version of me
At peace with my trajectory, coming to rest

Chorus

Whenever I’m here in high mountain places
The rat race below is far, far away
The patterns of sky and rock, snow, and water
Are my roadmap for wandering
And finding my home

Chorus

Grab the wind for a dance
Be bold, take a chance
Now you’re flying while still on the ground.

Life in the Bubble
Barry Oreck & Larry Stallman

I spent too much time on a river of trouble
Afloat in the confines of my tiny bubble
My space is awash in waves of rubble
As I gasp for a breath of fresh air.
I drifted downstream while baking my bread, Brushing my teeth, scratching my head
Playing my music, gluing a chair
Checking my temperature, swallowing fear.

Chorus

I see you my friends, through the gray window pane And recall our embraces, our laughter profane
As we scream through our nightmares,
Hyenas, insane,
And long to return to sweet strolls down the lane.

“How are you doing?” I asked through the glass While filling a kettle and lighting the gas
“It’s lonely,” he said,
“But at least were not dead.
Not yet,”
And we laughed and then silence and then…
I thought of a neighbor whose brother succumbed And the depths of despair
That so many had plumbed
And all of the others
Whose hearts have been numbed
In this incomprehensible year.

Chorus

I know this will pass and the river will calm
We’ll walk through the valley
Like souls through a psalm
And the bubbles will pop, and we’ll all blink our eyes And we’ll notice each other, remove our disguise
And we’ll hug and we’ll cry, then revisit the plot Perhaps we’ll learn something
Perhaps, we will not.

Like the timeless river, so relentless and bold
We journey in circles, and hope to grow old
We transform into mist, and then into rain
And then, before long, we are rivers again.
We are rivers again.