Echo

okay I’ll be quiet I won’t say a word

anyway anything I say is something you’ve already heard

alright I’ll be quiet I’ll be a good little boy

there’s a bare branch wants my leaf and thread so you don’t want my joy

I won’t share my joy

he who dies last dies with the most stories to tell

you die with your boots on you can get away fast at the final bell

all around my window the dark calls so clearly

gonna keep my little light gonna keep it here with me

I won’t share my joy

I won’t share my joy with any flickering candle wick

I won’t beg you to listen that won’t make this beauty stick

I said I would be quiet now here’s where this path has led

you wanna feel the sunlight step in to my garden bed

kind of a resolute calm kind of a stickman grin

I kind of know what’s going on I’m sorry ‘bout your broken wing

you say apples and oranges I say delicious tangerine

I see you haven’t got the time for all the things my hands have seen

I won’t share my joy

though my mouth may fill with bees my heart be a knot of asps

I will not speak a single one I only speak when I am asked

I said I would be quiet I mean what I say

credo of the echo is live to sing another day

okay I’ll be… I won’t say…

music and lyrics © Noah Zacharin

Feel Like a Jukebox

(with the Record Scratched)

I sometimes think my luck should change 'cause I stand up here on stage

boot-heels tapping the rhythm of the sad and the sweet love songs I play

I sometimes wish my heart could ring clearer than the guitar string

'cause I'm not common' through 'cause I know when I go I'll be going home alone again

and I feel like a jukebox with the record scratched

singing' th', singing' th' singing' the same damn lines

won't someone take me home

won't someone hold me warm

won't someone lie to me and whisper tonight they're mine

I always watch the lovely faces planted like seeds in the dark

and wonder which one will grow a flower of love to place in my heart

but I always catch the wilting of smiles the fading of interested eyes

as soon as I'm done with all of my songs and they turn the house-lights up bright

and I feel like a jukebox…

now I try to figure the reason why I get silence for a lullaby

and hands of the deepest darkness to hold me and rock me into the night

I try to whistle and believe a change comes like a wave to sweep me away

but the tide ebbs faster than the speed of sound and the moo begins to flicker and fade

and I feel like a jukebox…

Noah Zacharin

Find My Baby

the clock is ticking but I got no time

the hook is sinking but I got no line

to find my baby

got to find out where she’s gone

I got to find my baby

got to find out where she’s gone

looked in windows and I’ve peeped in doors

searched in places I ain’t been before

to find my baby…

well you live a moment live a life

no difference ‘tween the two

and it’s all too long and all too fast

when no one’s next to you

birds are singing as if nothing’s changed

bees are buzzing like she’ll come again

got to find my baby…

words and music Noah Zacharin

Gonna Drown

something ‘bout the mood I’m in

see the sun sinking down

something ‘bout some place I wanna go

on the dark side of town

washed up here all thirsting

got some splinters got some nails

I got a message in a bottle

only love can fix the hull and fill the sails

I’m gonna drown my sorrows in whiskey

gonna drown that whiskey in beer

gonna drown my aching head for an hour or two

in anyone who is near

like an ancient zen brass bell

the sodden heart does ring

and all the secrets you can’t bear to tell

are so easy to song

gonna drown…

sipping on kerosene

chewing on coal

I’m gonna slow dance with all the wrong I’ve done

I’m gonna grind it into gold

gonna drown…

words and music Noah Zacharin

In Love Again

look at the stars up above

they are no one else’s stars

they watch us making love

and the birds will sing

when it’s morning again

and they think that we’re in love again

you know the way the pale heart sings

so mournfully ‘til suddenly

it finds its wings

flies from branch to branch

to celebrate a second chance

thinks that we’re in love again

what a little mystery you’ve become

your canvas is a dozen shades of blue

and where sweet mystery did you come from

where do you go when you slip from view

on this cool night come lie with me

where shadow and moonlight

weave in harmony

and remember back when

it was all before remembering

and think that we’re in love again

don’t you think that we’re in love again

music and lyrics © Noah Zacharin

In the Heather

I used to walk in the heather

counting the crows on the line

counting back days when I first met her

and wishing that she were still mine

keep on walking and don’t look back

to where the city’s in flames

believe there’s water just over the hill

and flowers that bloom from her name

roll me over and rock me to sleep

I pray my mind my memories keep

if I should lie about any heartbeat

you sing at the speed of sound

you see at the speed of light

you can step as slow as you’re bound to

you still pass through the night

roll me over…

I used to walk in the heather

combing out my long hair

hoping one day I’d forgive her

now I’m just glad she’s there

music and lyrics © Noah Zacharin

Lester Brown

bowler and a tie

silk and satin guy

fine italian shoes it's lester brown

you hear the ladies sigh

you know the reason why

word is out lester's back in town

and when he walks by

twirls a stick and winks an eye

the ladies blush like springtime on the rose

steaming apple pie

evening drawing nigh

won't be long before the sunset hour glows

instr.

there’s a sweet magnolia breeze

catbirds in the trees

a little sugar with your lemonade

you can curtsey if you please

hear the cornet melody

lester's back on the basin street parade

and when he walks past

it happens all so fast

he lights ‘em up like match to gasoline

and the setting sun's outclassed

at how that lester lasts

dusk to dawn he shines on New Orleans

Words and Music © 2016 Noah Zacharin

Moon On My Side

in my hollow moments when everything's gone still

the room it's like a sea-shell dry of the ocean's swell

and in these hollow moments when everything seems gone

touching your name like a warm wind brings 'em back again

won't you tell me why

anytime of night

standing by the window I got the moon on my side

won't you tell me when

anytime before the dawn

I lay me down with your warm name feel like nothing's gone

the air is dark with night-time ground is hard with snow

ain't nothing in between them ain't nowhere that I can go

in that barren landscape when everything seems gone

breathing your name like a quiet psalm brings 'em back again

won't you tell me why…

don't you worry 'bout time it blows away like any cloud

and it flows like every river clear as crystal merging then and now

and in that crystal stream I see everything will be returned

when I'll give your name to the silence that watches lovers burn

now I can tell you why

anytime of night

standing in the window I got the moon on my side

I can tell you when

any time before the dawn

I lay me down with your warm name know that nothing's gone

know that nothing's gone

know that nothing's gone

words and music by Noah Zacharin

Nothing I Can Do

you love your mama and your papa

you love your sister too

you used to love me like the stars above

now there’s nothing that says you still do

and all of the snow and all of the sun

and all the wild places we haven’t been to

still blow and burn shiver and mourn

they tell me there’s nothing I can do

you love piano the old time hymns

I can see it in the grace of your hands

you love big dogs you love big oak trees

and every little gift that each new day sends

and all of the snow…

my love grew up where roses grow

where roses grow tangled in the hedge

my love she go to another heart

and thorns are all that are left

and all of the snow…

music and lyrics © Noah Zacharin

Ready to Fly

when you hear the trumpets blowing

angels fill the sky

you know the hour’s approaching

you’re off to the sweet by and by

the Lord Who lives in heaven

is waiting for you to fly

are you ready to fly

did you drink your time like water

flowing beneath a tree

and the sun that shone upon you

did it give the branch its leaf

or did you grow bare and rootless

live under a pale blue sigh

are you ready to fly

when you hear the trumpets…

sometimes your prayers go unanswered

your days go rushing by

your back is bent your heart is sure

there is nothing left to try

just go a little deeper

to reach the One Who lives on high

are you ready to fly

when you hear the trumpets…

I know my feet may stumble

and stones are in my way

His hand will reach to guide me

and I all I have to say

is Lord won’t you help me

I’m coming now cause You say it’s time

and are you ready to fly

when you hear the trumpets…

words and music: Noah Zacharin

Red Red Bird

oh my darling sometimes you feel so far away

I got the stumble of an infant child

the embrace of a man of clay

and you work to find sweet water

a place where you can pray

oh my darling sometimes you feel so far away

but my heart is a red red bird

soars above the dust and dirt

sings a song you never heard

my heart is a red red bird

nothing we can count on to face the rising flood

best we get might be to hold each other

slip together in the mud

taste the racing water feel the cooling of the blood

nothing we can count on to face the rising flood

my heart ...

nothing in the word can put the leaf back on the tree

or colour the ghostly outline of those

who hover just out of reach

teach me how to find this better hour that you see

nothing in the word can put the leaf back on the tree

my heart ...

let your heart ...

make your heart ...

may your heart ...

words and music © Noah Zacharin

Sick At The Heart

sick at the heart

and I don’t know what to do about it

ferris wheel got pretty lights

I got rusted quarters in my pocket

and she stands at my right hand

like cotton candy

sick at the heart

I can’t look at the roses

I see them torn from the earth and bleeding

locust in the wheat field knows

from birth we are starved for bread and blessing

when the lights grow dim

we begin to learn our lesson

sick at the heart

nothing adds to one hundred

they should have used ray charles’ piano for his casket

all the drunken masters

smear sienna ochre and umber on canvas

the jug is cracked

the light is jagged and refracted

sick at the heart

sick at the heart

I said it once it was so easy I say it once again now

bang the pipes at midnight

why won’t the gods just let us sleep ah just keep the noise down

I write these words to cross them out

and forget ‘em

music and lyrics © Noah Zacharin

Ten Tons of Road

there's a blue cloth on the table

a pint or two to hold it down

you know how the wind blows wild

in the dim light of this town

there's a pair of hands I've held

a pair of eyes in which I've drowned

where's the paradise I've been shaken in

when love made the sirens sound

ten tons of road beneath my wheels

a million miles of skies above

cannot take me far enough

to ever forget our love

I keep a couple of pieces of gravel

in the heel of my left shoe

they remind me as I travel

of each step I took away from you

there's a carving in an old oak tree

my sweet edge pen-knife made

where are you my darling

it's cold here in the shade

ten tons…

now the tulips they are opening

as the daffodil begins to wilt

the crocus it's just history

see this house I've built

I wanna know everything

I wanna love everyone

and when you come to me and my money's gone

I'll buy you drinks with gold of the sun

ten tons…

Noah Zacharin

Waiting On Your Love

I wake at the crack and the creak and the least of sounds

hammer my heart shut and hope the dark will take us down

it’s not that I’m alone

I am not alone

only sometimes I think I was made to wear that crown

cause I’m a broken nail and a tale of treachery

a stroke of lightning and a kite caught in a tree

a fine knife edge a madman on the ledge

the lover looking for the lover looking for me

still waiting on

waiting on your love

I’m still waiting on

waiting on your love

I’m a Calder junkyard sculpture draped in skin

totaled sum of all the people I have been

and if I forget a night a name

the noises she made when she came

I’ll remember in the right light right wind

won’t you lead me won’t you lead me to your door

see I’ve been there so many times before

with a loosened belt a shining emerald ring

raven round my neck with a radiant wing

still waiting on…

those birds that you sent singing: let me in

they tap on the glass sing: let me tell you where I been

past rooms where the nearly-buried howl the newly-coupled moan

we’re all just looking for a home on the head of a pin

it’s been so long so very long

been so long so very very very long

now I'm a half an ounce of habit from your doorstep

a fool as I paper-cut my heart on song

still waiting…

Words and Music © Noah Zacharin