And Then She Said (2024)

Track Listing:

The Piper’s Salary

Postage Due

Bridges

Fast Train

The Outstretched Arm

Borrowed Wings (2024)

Mod Robert:

Vocals, Background Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, 

Keyboards , Backing violin on Outstretched Arm

Sam Arnold:

Bass on Piper’s Salary, Postage Due, Bridges

Milo Fultz:

Bass on On Borrowed Wings (2024) (uses 2019 backing track) 

Eddie Ness

Bass on Fast Train

Don Latarski:

Electric Guitar, Nashville Guitar and Acoustic Solos on Bridges, 

Mandolin on Piper’s Salary

 

Leif Karlstom: 5 string violin on On Borrowed Wings (2024),
(uses 2019 backing track) 

Jason Palmer: Drums

Recorded mostly at Ebutass Studios, Oregon/California/Colorado

between April 2021 and September  2024. 

Mixing: Jon Wyman

LYRICS:

The Piper’s Salary

(4/25/21)

She said, you can laugh, but there is a day we all meet our maker

We locked eyes as her glass touched down

It's really a thought that only a blind man ignores

You might not realize,…you just met yours

She pushed her chair back, threw a five down on the table

She said, don’t get up, just drink up and enjoy the view

So I drained my beer, let go my smile and watched her wheels spin away

I don’t like to lose, but I never thought I’d win, anyway

I spent hours at that empty table

I drank in search of loopholes and discarded clues

By closing time I had my comeback line, but she was gone

So I walked out that door and faced the breaking dawn

I couldn’t shake her words, maybe silence is my perjury

May this blind man’s running, keep his heart from mutiny

Where my truth lives, I can’t tell

‘Cause he wears his tailored shadows well

Three weeks past and there you walked on by

I’m not sure, but did you roll your eyes?

On my faults there’s much on which we would agree

But don’t mistake my silence, for a guilty plea

You hold that ace when you are able

And you fly when you are finally free

You can skip the work, but you can’t skip the fee

‘Cause we all pay the Piper’s salary

Postage Due

5/20/21

You’re at my door, but not much was said

‘Cause some words reveal, most are misread

You took the couch, and I picked the chair

You laid out your heart, with rain in your hair

And you explained your point of view

Like a picture postcard, with postage due

When all was said, we’d walked for miles

But when I brought your coat, out went your smile

When I got your call with the latest news

Of your good fortune in pastel hues

You pitched the meal with mom and child

To heal the past and talk a while

But some thoughts are best unknown

'Cause even thoughts can turn to stone

So I wished my best, skipped the rendezvous

Just sent a card — with postage due

Bridges

10/6/21

I thought I was grown

It seems I’m still in school

It’s not my first try

As your first class fool

I went to bed

When all the anger was gone

And I closed that door

But left the porch light on

The bridges we make, are the lessons we learn

There are the ones that you cross

And the ones that you burn

And then when we think we’re through

It all comes around again

The slings and arrows

Are just the ego we defend

And so we learn

What it means to be free

Not to fight with you

But just to fight for me

The bridges we make, are the lessons we learn

There are the ones that you cross

And the ones that you burn

And then we face

Another twenty four

And find another foe

And invent another war

How long

’Til our soul gets it right

To lay down the blade

And cede the fight

The bridges we make, are the lessons we learn

There are the ones that you cross

And the ones that you burn

Fast Train

I can’t say I was surprised

But it hit me just the same

Like it or not

We all have to play that game 

Sons and friends and lovers

They take that ride

They ride those rails

To the other side 

Refrain: 

Some will go out fighting

Some won’t wear their coats in the rain

Some are so much more

than careful

Some have to take that fast train, take that fast train

Some want to be surrounded

Others off and alone

Some will leave their baggage

Some will take it home 

We all have our dreams

We have our time

We have our love

And our place in line

Refrain 

Refrain ext:

Walk with me today

Stay with me tonight

Hold my hand through the darkness

Until the morning light

Some will count their mistakes

And some will count their gold

Some will live their dreams

Some will just get old 

Was there someone watching

Or someone keeping score

Did we get all we needed

Or was there something more

Refrain and Extension

The Outstretched Arm

The man in blue tapped on my window, in his bullet proof vest

You can’t stay here, you can’t sleep here, so I pulled the wheel and headed west

There in the weak winter sun, the miles passed in monotone

With a thousand miles to go, a thousand miles from my home  

          

I’m so far from that outstretched arm

Back in the past, or in the days to come 

Does it hold a promise or does it hold a gun?

So I rode that rail ’til I had to stop by an open field, an electric fence for company

The stars stayed quiet in their empty veil, I fell asleep, and the earth swallowed me

In the morning the sun looked so tired, a spent parent of its wayward only child

So I kicked the tires and hit the road, toward the mountains of indifference, and the untamed wild

I just can’t see the outstretched arm 

It’s nowhere near, it’s out of sight 

Does it hold the promise, or a pound of kryptonite?

And yeah, the architect or the pipe bomb, you never know 

The luck of the draw or your own making?

So long as the tank is not on empty, and the way is relatively clear

Just pack your lunch and hit the road, even though your heart is aching

Can you find the outstretched arm? 

Is it somewhere near, or is it out of sight

Does it hold a promise, or does it hold the light?

On Borrowed Wings (2024)

Hey babe

Do you still have the map I gave you

With our routes and dreams all sketched in blue

Oh babe, do you?

Hey babe

And in that diary that you wrote

Did I rate a chapter, a verse, or just an anecdote

Oh babe

Refrain:

You can’t fly too far on borrowed wings

Even if the sky is clear and blue

There’s the cost, the truth and the reckoning

It’s best to walk your road, than to fly a fantasy

Oh babe

And if you ask I must confess

It’s always to your dreams I’ve acquiesced

Oh babe, and if you saw my diary book

I know you’d roll your eyes after just one look

Oh babe

Refrain

And so I thought I flew on wings

But I was a kite and you held my string

In the end, you leave with what you bring

Hey babe

Well I hope we had some laughs

But I’ll leave to you to write our epitaph

Refrain