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A Living Dichotomy

by Run the Willow

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Comes in a bi-fold digipak, album art by Courtney Billow.

    Includes unlimited streaming of A Living Dichotomy via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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      $15 USD or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $10 USD  or more

     

1.
Open Country 04:27
OPEN COUNTRY I long for younger days, when the mountains had no names, where the trees could move in waves and those hills could swallow whole. I can still feel the light in the corners of my mind, it’s a strange and distant cry, a deep and ancient longing for home. Let us walk through desert storms, through the darkness comes the morn, in its light we’ll be reborn like our fathers were before us. Prone to leave the God I love, to forget where I come, from Desert Father take me home. Find your life, where the open country lies.
2.
GREAT & SMALL I climbed to the top of your spine and stood upon your shoulders. I thought I could see for miles and feel the whole earth turning. The ground it ebbs and ebbs and flows always moving. All things great and small, they’re all shaking. I came to rely upon the strength in your veins. My body seemed so small, safe in your embrace. The storms they ebb and ebb and flow but you remain. All my fears so small seemed but a moment. All things revolve, great and small. I walked back to the place where you stood so tall and all I found that remained had returned back to the ground. The years they ebb and ebb and flow, no escaping. All things great and small, they’re all fading. All things will fade. no matter how great. All things will fall, great and small.
3.
Summer Hymns 05:16
SUMMER HYMNS Summer heat, the concrete, its all getting to me, and I’ve made my bed but can’t rest in it. I know, roots grow, steady as a new day, and I love my roots, but roots are a weighty thing. What a home is, Oh my God, its all coming back to me, I loved that home, but home is a fickle beast. Summer hymns, on a whim, we’re singing in the garden, was it once like this, is this how it used to be. Have I ever known such cold regret when I hid my face in the cool of the day. Now its broken, this love that once felt so strong rings hollow now, it only echoes. If I caught your eye in the garden light, would it be alright. Is it roots that I want to grow is it a home that I’m looking for. If I caught your eye in the garden light, would it be alright.
4.
Iron Heart 04:38
IRON HEART Here, oh its clear, this is where I’ve been for years and all of my lovely lies and sweet alibies haven’t got me far but an iron heart. Was it this way before, was I always this same man, it’s the simple things I never could understand. Was it a swift defeat, was there a shattered hope, or a day that I finally just let go. This was a simple path, this was a solid road, no more spinning lies just to keep it from myself. Now it’s a crooked line, now it’s a winding trail, I’m looking back wondering how the hell I got so alone. One step further from you, I’ve built an iron heart in my chest. One step, one beat will do, don’t let it slip away. Here, oh it’s clear, this is where you’ve been for years and your loving eyes and patient smiles bring this iron heart back into your arms.
5.
Wooden Man 04:06
WOODEN MAN I can remember as a boy, climbing the tree in the backyard, scraping my knees on the rugged bark, it’s such a ways from where we are now. Brother remember how we swore things would never change and how this iron world could not break our wooden ways. Though I was only just a child I was a thoughtful soul, I wished I could be a wooden man in this iron world. So let my hands turn to limbs and my hair to leaves, carry them off on autumn winds, leave me to turn with the seasons, drench me down in springtime rains, dry me up in the warm light and when the winter comes again, I’ll be strong with new life. Was I better off back then, did those longings fade, when I tried to push ahead, did I lose my way. Cause now those iron arms have got such a hold on me and that wooden heart I sought is pulling further away. It’s a long, long way, I know it It’s a long, long way, but I’m going.
6.
RESTLESS CHILD There’s a freedom found in wandering, content to come and go with the wind. I’m a restless child but I’ve come to see a beauty in the strength of the son who decides to stay home. We’ve felt them come and watched them leave, we spent our hearts away in reveries and we’re tired of life without a call, without a single song to sing oh its deafening the silence was making such noise. We found our love, in deliberate choice, we heard a call cutting through the noise. We sought it out and came to see the beauty in a man who loves not carelessly. If you call, would we come back home, if you call, could we walk that road, if you call, could we come back home. We saw the life at the end of the road, the glorious life at the end of the road, oh I know there is life at the end of the road.
7.
LONELY PLACES There’s a distant shore I know of, an island in the sea, and every time I glimpse it there’s an ocean in between. If only I could reach out and feel those waves wash over me. My heart lies in the sunset, my head in the night sky, they’re fighting some great battle, neither will subside. The sun it gives us meaning, the night gives the courage to see. When will we see? Throughout all our wandering was a plain and simple truth. If only we had seen it, we would not depart from you, but our life lies in the struggle, our joy in discovering beauty in the lonely places. Oh my friends, when will this tension ever end, did we give our hearts away? All my love, could it ever be enough, could I give it all away? We ran out to that shore and laughed like younger men, every word was spoken as if it had never been, our hearts were never lighter, our love was never purer than then.
8.
THE WORLD AS IT WAS I saw the world as a tiny little glimpse of what it was. I saw the world spinning circles, much smaller than we’d all made it up. I drank the seven seas from a child’s cup, let the icebergs melt on the tip of my tongue. I saw the world as it was. I saw each life as a tiny little seed in the ground and felt them sending roots and breaking up through all around. From each lonely tree spread a forest deep, we’re not half alone as we make out to be. I saw the world as it was. I saw this love as the sweetest melody of them all. I heard it twist and fall with the deepest harmony I’d ever known. From the dawn of the day, to the midnight calm, I knew a steady hand through the midst of it all. I saw the world as it was. I saw each life and for a second they were all intertwined. I felt each moment in time as one single line, I could see, It’s the smallest things that mean the world to me, the softest notes I hold so dearly. I saw the world as it was.
9.
Ghosts 04:56
GHOSTS We could live like ghosts, hide our hearts in the floorboards, haunt the halls of our homes, quickly forgotten, never quite there, love is a memory that creaks with the stairs. We could live like wolves, I can see myself howling at the moon and forget my own name and all that I cared for, it’s easier that way, live for a moment in my animal state. We could drift like the sea, what a meaningless life that would be, come and go with the tide, live on a rogue wave drifting for miles. But I say, let love grow over all I am, over all I say let love root me. We could easily begin to fade away, so I say let love grow.
10.
Roots 03:23
ROOTS I’m a man torn between two lives, two eyes, two hearts, and two minds to compromise. I’m a living dichotomy of kinds, where my body goes my mind stays far behind. So leave my roots to grow and not my heart to roam. I chose to build my home among familiar sights, landscapes draw me near but their love won’t satisfy, I have a million paths tugging at my sleeves, I chose the one that leads home when the others leave. So leave my roots to grow and not my heart to roam. Let me love right where I am, let my roots grow deep and find the peace that holds where the tensions stands. Let me live right where I stand, let me make my home, there’s no need to roam, I’m held in familiar hands.

credits

released April 14, 2018

Recorded by Tyler and Taylor Behnke
Mixed by Tyler Behnke
Album Art by Courtney Billow
Songs written by Vincent Bruinsma

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Run the Willow Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

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