Get all 7 Marc Douglas Berardo releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Letting You Blow Away, Waiting on a Brand New Day, The Hard Part, Bob Sima and Marc Douglas Berardo Live At Rams Head Onstage, Whalebone, Downhauler, and Harbor.
1. |
Ruby
03:22
|
|||
|
It's been a while since we last talked
Last time I saw you our world was in flames
we were dancing on the edge of darkness
kicking down doors and taking names
Ruby, I know your soul is battered
But giving up now is a big mistake
There’s a second chance lurking around every corner
And a beautiful morning about to break
Look at that sunrise over yonder
Look at all that hope hanging in the sky
Look at all that road laid out before you
another day has come and you find yourself alive
so Come on Ruby walk with me in this light
I can see that you've been stumbling
drifting around searching for grace
But some of that drifting is taking it's toll
I can see it in your face
You can wallow in 10 years of troubles
hide away expecting doom
But you are going to have to get yourself up tomorrow
and get out of this room
bridge
weaving around like a whiskey dancer
under the cover of the night
but darkness has got to give
With the coming of this morning light
Look at that sunrise over yonder
Look at all that hope hanging in the sky
Look at all that road laid out before you
the night has passed and you’ve survived
so Come on Ruby walk with me in this light
|
||||
2. |
||||
|
Neal got out in 96
Worked the Michigan plants on the straight, married Jenny, lived in the sticks
Just getting by the best they can
keeping a few steps ahead of where they began
At night, Neal goes out to have a smoke
out in the tiny yard under the giant oak
He takes a deep breadth and closes his eyes
And sighs
He prays: Give me something, give me something that I can feel
Give me something real
Neal says: “Jenny everyday when I walk out the door
I loose track of what it is I’m walking out the door for
When I punch my card I want to punch the wall
But I know that punch won’t do nothing at all
You see darling there is a dark fear in my heart sometimes
and voices in my head that I can’t trust
Maybe we can feel something real in starting over leaving this whole town in the dust
At night I trace my finger on a map from Cape Ann to Bimini
from Santa Cruz to Hampton Bay
Close my eyes and drop my finger down on any dot along the way and I say
Give me something Give me something that I can feel
Give me something real
Jenny says: “ Maybe something real is what you already know
whether you stay Neal or whether you go
Maybe something real is wherever we call home
and if you let me in maybe I can make you feel less alone
sure life gets hard and it’s not always fair
and there is injustice and bullshit everywhere
but inside of us there is valley with a river bountiful and true
and if you let me in Neal I will be waiting there for you
to make you feel something
Something beautiful and true
Feel something shiny and new
My love won’t let you down
Like this oak tree here I am planted on solid ground
and I am here to stay
Now Neal’s eyes were locked up in a stare
looking at Jenny and the late day sun dancing on her hair
For a moment he felt a welling up inside but he choked it back and let it slide
And as he turned to walk into the house he turned around and said:
“Jenny when you are standing right in front of me
There is nowhere else in the world I need to be”
Then he smiled and walked inside
And Jenny leaned on the giant oak tree
said a silent prayer
Took a deep breadth
Closed her eyes
And sighed
|
||||
3. |
Bottom of the Bottle
04:15
|
|||
|
Sixteen years of long lining swordfish that is my job
The rest of my life I’m only wandering on the dry land in a fog
When I’m home I’m only sitting outside parked out in the drive
Knocking back a six back working on a shotgun high
I’m going to that place again I’m going away
Little bit of liquor bottom of the deep end I’m gonna stay
At the bottom of the bottle bottom of the deep
Leave me here to wallow leave me here to sleep
Up on land I’m no damn good
I would be a better man if I could
So don’t wake me, let me be
Until it’s time to go back to sea
When I am home with my wife its fight after a fight
Talk about money and scream all night
Then I look to the door and I’m ready to bail out
feels like I’m breaking out of the jail
Sipping whiskey at the wheelhouse at the end of every day
Living in my mind and wasting away
Bottom of the bottle bottom of the deep
Leave me here to wallow leave me here to sleep
Here on land I’m no damn good
I would be a better man if I could
So don’t wake me let me be
Until It’s time to go back to sea
Well, I’m never going quit the fishing, fishing is all I know
Like my father’s father before me
when you get the call you got to go
I know I’ll never quit the drinking
I don’t think I ever will
find enough whiskey to fill
That hole down deep where the water is cold
Bottom of the ocean bottom of the deep
Pray to the lord my soul to keep
Here on land I’m no damn good
I would be a better man if I could
|
||||
4. |
Smokegun Jack Daydreams
05:10
|
|||
|
The Beachhead Lounge was closing down
The bottles were stacking up, the day was done
Smoke Gun Jack stood up and walked out of the bar
Lit up a smoke like a an old time movie star
Leaning on his hands staring at the sand the color of gold
Smoke Gun Jack was feeling old
Sixty years of living makes it harder to bend
Tired bones need time to mend
CH/
Now he man is alone in his mind
Where daydreaming is free and so is sunshine
-So these days Jack daydreams all the time
Got the handle Smoke Gun When he ran the Cuban Gold
He brought it in and the money just rolled
The very last Captain at the pirate dance
Back when the game was still adventure and romance
With his sweet lady Chloe always by his side it was good to be alive
But the wildlife is known to pass a few bad checks And Jack cashed his when his Chloe died in a boat wreck
Ch
bridge
When Waves would roll out and reach the distant shore
Sometimes I would walk old jack home and let him sleep it off on my floor
We never did say much we just let it be
It was just me and smokegun and the quiet sea
Smoke gun Jack fingers the glass of Patron.
It’s 5 o’clock and He is home
Staring out into the Matanzas Bay
Letting the warm winds blow him away
Smoke gun is gone again
|
||||
5. |
Cuba 1953
04:24
|
|||
6. |
Havana
04:01
|
|||
|
These faded pictures of those colorless streets
Only make me want to go down
Why I feel the need is a mystery to me
But I know I need to walk upon that ground
I need to walk upon that ground
I have never known poverty
I have always lived in luxury
I do not know what real freedom is
Because I have always been free
I have always been free
Havana Havana
I hear you are calling out to me
Havana I hear you calling out to me
My father walked those streets in 1954
As a young man in the Marine Corps
The locals there all called him “The Hurricane”
He blew through town like a driving rain
He blew through Havana like a driving rain
He told me stories that only filled my head
and showed me pictures that only led
me to this feeling that I need to chase
All of the ghosts of that ancient place
Havana Havana
I hear you are calling out to me
Havana I hear you calling out to me
So take me to your impenetrable town
And let me have my look around
To bring back something real
And something true
Ohh Havana just a little piece of you
Ohh Havana maybe just a piece of you
|
||||
7. |
Better Days
03:33
|
|||
|
There is a thousand ways to get yourself lost
There is a million ways to find bad luck
Some days there is no mercy for the weary
The best-laid plans only leave you stuck
There is a light out on the horizon
There is refuge the end of the day
Where the wayward and wild are not forgotten
And the 4 winds will blow your troubles away
CH
STOP! Head homeward through the haze
There you will find better days
Out beyond pain and fear and misery
There are better ways
in the land of dreams and second chances
Where salvation is found
You must surrender and lay your troubles down
And when you’re ready
You will be standing on solid ground
Katie took her first hit back in Tulsa
And it rattled that woman to her core
So she chased that dragon to the end of the earth
Until she couldn’t chase that beast no more
Last night under the Florida stars
As the shuttle left Canaveral for the deep
Katie dropped that pipe in the sand
And stood up on her own two feet
There is a mystic imagined river
Some have sung about a glory train
That will carry the beaten the trouble sinner
Rolling thunder out of the pouring rain
|
||||
8. |
Time To Go
04:07
|
|||
|
My name is Colton. I am an overland driver
Rolling while the world rolls by
Loosing a little more tread with every ride
Lost in thoughts of my wife back home
Three kids and a yard
Never thought that living the easy life
Was going to be this hard
I’m counting off these last 100 miles
That will take me home tonight
until I see that familiar door
And that shining front porch light
And as I lay me down to rest
I will dream of watching my children grow
and dancing Annie across the floor
Before it’s time for me to go
You don’t realize how fast time moves
When you’re always moving down the line
You look up and half your life is gone
And you’ve left only ghosts behind
But there is fragile beauty
In every dream
in the swirling colors and faces
of the actors in those movie scenes
|
||||
9. |
Lonely Town
04:27
|
|||
|
Out on the river the Pawcatuck River Another day ignites
Working boat slowly moving out to the ocean in the gray morning light
Billy works third shift and passes this way on his way home from the brewery
As he stares across the water he thinks back to the time that he used to feel free
Chorus
It’s morning in lonely town here in this in lonely town
You stare out without a sound every morning in lonely town
Feels like there’s no one around in this lonely town DCG
Billy got married to his lady Ramona in 1971
They used to run wild until they had their first child
And life’s pressure put them under the gun
Bills were mounting times they were rough’
Instead of the heart of the matter they fought about little stuff
So they took to their corners and started to let in the silence
Chorus
They were living in lonely town together in lonely town
Bringing each other down in the quiet of lonely town
Not enough love going around here in this lonely town DCG
|
||||
10. |
||||
11. |
Ruby Reprise
00:46
|
|||
12. |
Passing Through
04:28
|
|||
|
The afternoon of the storm I stood on sunset hill
Looking through the pouring rain as the Great Salt Pond was filled
BEYOND the point the sea was wild
And the gulls were diving down Into the churning spray Of the block island Sound
Michael was from an island family Lived here most his life
I met him in the hotel national We talked into the night
But just before twi-light faded As we watched the storm return to sea
He stopped to collect his thoughts This is what he said to me’
Ch
“The more you live the more you learn
Winds will always blow and tides will turn
But we are only temporary and like this storm
We are only passing through”
Michael had a wife and two children Ran charter boats from salt bay
After sixty years of making plans He is living for today
He said: “With the storms come the changes
This rock is only shifting sand
When I was a boy that shallow harbor Used to be dry land
Br
Waves will beat the shore Wind will blow
Time will erase all footprints When we go
the world will keep turning on and on
the world will keep turn on the sun when we are gone
Michael said
Memories are photographs
in black and in white
the shape of the world is what you know until another storm ignites
Ferry boats will keep arriving The people here will come and go
And from my point of view on the stool That is all you really need to know
Ch
“Changes that come
when the storm does blow
it is the maker’s way to let you know
We are only temporary …temporary
We are only passing through”
|
||||
13. |
||||
|
Show me something beautiful
Show me something fine
Show me a place were I can rest my mind
Take me where only angels have left their traces
Take me only to the quiet place
I have run ragged out there I have run wild
I have run the highway mile after mile after mile
To your boxed in cities and your flatland towns
Through the endless rumble, rattle and shotgun sounds
Roll me to the river Take me to the water
rock me on the sea
Take me to the quiet place inside of me
Give me peace, comfort and your silent company
Show me only the quiet places
I am wasted, I am spent
I am burned out broken up and bent
That highway music is only static in my head
And tonight I have lost the heart for it, tonight I’ve lost the thread
|
||||
14. |
Thinking It Over
04:13
|
|||
Marc Douglas Berardo Westerly, Rhode Island
Marc Douglas Berardo combines songs that mine lessons gleaned from real life situations presence that uses humor and storytelling to lead an audience into an almost spiritual experience. It’s brings to mind James Taylor, Jimmy Buffett, Guy Clark or Steely Dan with a hint of Mark Twain or Hunter S.Thompson. It’s a night of laughter and emotion that gives the audience a renewed sense of possibility. ... more
Marc Douglas Berardo recommends:
Walt Wilkins is a Texas Legend There are no bad song on this record
go to album
This is a great record.
go to albumIf you like Marc Douglas Berardo, you may also like:
For She Who Hangs The Moon
by David Luximon
Expansive music that has the gentle hush of ambient and the insistent pulse of post-rock; enveloping and absorbing.
go to album
I Used To Be Sad & Then I Forgot
by Mr. Alec Bowman_Clarke
Alec Bowman perfectly captures the dark soil under the pastoral world of British folk with this collection of melancholy originals.
go to album
Little By Little - LP
by Sodastream
Deeply-felt, folk-derived indiepop from Melbourne that balances lovely, quavering vocal melodies with twinkling acoustics.
go to album
The Edge of the Land
by Katie Spencer
Spencer's indie folk sophomore album was recorded live in the studio over the course of two days.
go to album
