The Avett Brothers - Closer Than Together Album Lyrics

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Bleeding White

I'm bleeding white through my clothes
But I'm lying in the snow
So nobody knows I'm dying
If I stand on my feet, will the plan be complete?
Or is the plan me not trying?

I left you behind
But you can find me if I don't wander too far away

Perhaps in another life I would be more like you
Or you more like me, let's just disagree
Don't say you know my type, I'm one of a kind
Let's thank God for merciful variety

I left you behind
But you can find me if I don't wander too far away

It's too far along to feign ignorance
Too far along to play it down
And you're far too smart to fall for
The part that I've been playing

I'm bleeding gold in the streets
But there's no one to see
Because the kingdom is empty
They all left in the night, spirits broken in spite
Of all the promise of morning

Ya'll left me behind
But I can find you
If you don't wander too far away
Yeah, you don't wander too far away
Yeah, you don't wander too far away
Yeah, you don't wander too far away
Yeah, you don't wander too far away

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Tell The Truth

Tell the truth to yourself and the rest will fall in place
Tell the truth to yourself and the rest will fall in place

I lied to the doctor
I lied to my lover
I wanna make amends but where do I start
Tell the truth to yourself, and the rest will fall in place
Tell the truth to yourself, and the rest will fall in place

Tell the truth to yourself...
I could make my mother, my father, my sister, my brother, my lover, my neighbor, my friends all happy...
Give of myself whatever they ask
But without this single truth, it is only emptiness that I cast, a happiness that will not last, but I'm not here for that, for what does happiness help without this simple truth given to thyself

I was the coward, I that strangled your heart
I wanna make a amends but where do I start
Tell the truth to yourself and the rest will fall in place
Tell the truth to yourself and the rest will fall in place

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We Americans

I grew up with reverence for the red white and blue
Spoke of God and liberty, reciting the pledge of allegiance
Learned love of country from my own family
Some shivered and prayed approaching the beaches of normandy
The flag waves high and that's how it should be
So many lives given and taken in the name of freedom
But the story's complicated and hard to read
Pages of the book obscured or torn out completely

I am a son of Uncle Sam
And I struggle to understand the good and evil
But I'm doing the best I can
In a place built on stolen land with stolen people

Blood in the soil with the cotton and tobacco
Blood in the soil with the cotton and tobacco
Blood in the soil with the cotton and tobacco

A misnamed people and a kidnapped race
Laws may change but we can't erase the scars of a nation
Of children devalued and disavowed
Displaced by greed and the arrogance of manifest destiny
Short-sighted to say it was a long time ago
Not even two lifetimes have past since the days of Lincoln
The sins of Andrew Jackson, the shame of Jim Crow
And time moves slow when the tragedies are beyond description

I am a son of Uncle Sam
And I struggle to understand the good and evil
But I'm doing the best I can
In a place built on stolen land with stolen people

We are more than the sum of our parts
All these broken homes and broken hearts
God will you keep us wherever we go
Will you forgive us for where we've been
We Americans

Blood on the table with the coffee and the sugar
Blood on the table with the coffee and the sugar
Blood on the table with the coffee and the sugar

I've been to every state, seen shore to shore
The still open wounds of the civil war
Watched blind hatred bounce back and forth
Seen vile prejudice both in the south and the north
And accountability is hard to impose
On ghosts of ancestors haunting the halls of our conscience
But the path of grace and goodwill is still here,
For those of us who may be considered among the living

I am a son of God and man
And I may never understand the good and evil
But I dearly love this land
Because of, and in spite of we the people

We are more than the sum of our parts
All these broken bones and broken hearts
God will you keep us wherever we go
Can you forgive us for where we've been
We Americans
We Americans

Love in our hearts with the pain and the memory
Love in our hearts with the pain and the memory
Love in our hearts with the pain and the memory

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Long Story Short

Here I am standing, ten feet between us
Beside me the door that I just came through
Where I walk past an overweight cop in an alley
With a beer gut bursting from a bullet-proof jacket
Who thinks to himself I've got to get back to the man that I was when I was a dreamer
With a partner in crime named Brandi McGill
A girl with a love of life bigger than normal
Who still wonders when her life will begin
Her best friend Maria who seems to have everything
Tells her she probably just needs a vacation
Away from the stress of her husbands vocation
While Maria is talking Brandi is drifting
Staring at John who just got the job busing tables to pay for community college
An associates degree in x-ray technology
John is too old to still be in college
He doesn't like class and sometimes doesn't go
Long story short his family was broken
He was freed from a past life as a kid on skid Row
He notices Brandi but stares at Maria
Her beauty well practiced and casting a spell
Imagining her naked he spills dirty dishes
On the lap of an elderly woman named Belle
A lady who won't live to see her next birthday
But shares a warm smile regardless of that
The mess that unfolds completely surrounds her
Not one bit of urgency enters her soul
She reaches for Roy, her husband forever
In love and connection her small hand he holds
And nothing comes of it but a manager's anger
Not for the mess but her father's remark
About a bad grade that she had as a child
So she takes her revenge out by firing John
Who now wonders when his life will begin
Ain't it confusing to search for the will and learn when you find it that you've lost your way
Long story short he saw a commercial that said that the 20's are the prime of your life
But that doesn't seem to be true at this moment
As he cleans out his locker and calls his best friend
Who's too busy to talk cause he's prepping with lawyers
To keep money from his ex-wife the mother of their only son
Who's naturally drawn to guns and sharp objects who now has no father
Except for on weekends two times a month
No need to worry I'm told were protected by the men passing laws in the house and the senate
From people who mix up the truth and reality with movies and games and ridiculous scenarios
Long story short, best I can tell, children can't be left to raise themselves

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C Sections and Railway Trestles

You're long and strong like a railway trestle
Dad just a muscle and mama just a vessel
Meant to call, fawn over, nuzzle and nestle
But Dad's just a bear you can tackle down and wrestle
Son, give me time, I'm a bona fide mess'll
If Mama says no, maybe Dad'll say yes'll
Did you do wrong? well, go ahead confess'll
Dad just a muscle and mama just a vessel

You all blue and your mama like a rattle
Came out looking like a Smurf in a battle
Me in the nosebleeds, Mama in the saddle
Brave like a Sioux Brave going into battle
Emotion going like a stampede of cattle
Real like rain and coffee in Seattle
Anesthesiologist fiddle and faddle
You all blue and your mama like a rattle

Oh, life so clear like a Rivera mural
Lucifer's teeth introduce the epidural
Dr. Jones, do you need a heaven referral?
God sent ya down to me and my girl
She's long and tall and healthy as hell
But the plan went to hell when the little fella fell
Boy went headfirst into her pelvis
1956 shaking like Elvis

Oh, yesterday born and already thinking
Body like a Ford and a mind like Lincoln
Mama and Papa in love and sinking
Into a brand new situation, drinking
Up coffee like a fish on second and third shift
Lovin' every single ever-loving minute of this
Standing ovation for the O/R specialist
Let me get close wanna give my son one kiss on his head

Planning for the future, health and dental
Picking up my baby boy, easy and gentle
Soup for the family, sausage and lentil
Beans and greens, arugula and fentel
Don't never sleep I'm about to go mental
But nothing so far has been accidental
Can't keep my life, so it's got to be a rental
Picking up my baby boy, easy and gentle

Oh, you're long and strong like a railway trestle
Dad just a muscle and mama just a vessel
Meant to call, fawn over cuddle and nestle
But Dad's just a bear you can tackle down and wrestle
You can have a pop-tent or you can have a castle
Try to change people but it's gonna be a hassle
Don't have to be an astronaut for NASA
But it's always good to get a gown and a tassel

Son, have fun with your life, it's a drama
Just one period and all kinds of commas
Now you got a onesie but then you get pajamas
You know you got me and you know ya got your mama

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When You Learn

There is no mountain you can climb
High enough to see past
The fact you climbed it all alone

There is no city filled with lights
So bright that you forget
You have never had a home

I gave the world my best
Brought back to you the rest
And in return you loved me more

How do I return
All that I took from you
And all the life you gave to me

When you learn you can't earn
The love you're waiting for
Its already yours

There is no reason we should doubt
The broken hearts will rise again
The mending touch of something grand

Isn't that what its about
The blinded charging through the night
Guided by the steady hand

I gave the world my best
Brought back to you the rest
And in return you loved me more

How do I return
All that I took from you
And all the life you gave to me

When you learn you can't earn
The love you're waiting for
Its already yours

When you learn you can't earn
The love you're waiting for
When you learn you can't earn
The love you're waiting for

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Better Here

What can I drink tonight
To make it easier on me
What can I think about
To get it off my mind
What can I say if I can't tell the truth
The only thing that'll make it better here
Is you
Is you

Where can I go
That I won't end up lost again
What do I tell them when they ask
Do I pretend and act confused
When the only thing that'll make it better here
Is you
Is you

Who's leading here
What are they thinking
All heart no brains
That's me
That's me
Who's left to love
When everyone is leaving
All heart no brains
That's me
That's me

How can I laugh when I don't think its funny
My happiness is not your toy
I won't sit around becoming what I lose
But the only thing that'll make it better here
Is you
Is you
Is you
Is you
Is you

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New Woman's World

It used to be a man's world but we didn't treat it right
It used to be a man's world but all we did was fight
I'm glad it's finally in the hands of the women and the girls
I can't wait to see what they do with what's left of the world

Ladies I'm sorry but we couldn't seem to learn
How to live in peace, so Rome had to burn
And we cared about clean air but there was money to be made
And breathing's nice but it don't compare with getting paid

It used to be a man's world but we didn't treat it right
It used to be a man's world but all we did was fight
I'm glad it's finally in the hands of the women and the girls
I can't wait to see what they do with what's left of the world

Please I beg your pardon but we got a bit confused
Some of our brothers thought our sisters were born for getting used
Then we made the assumption that's how it should be done
Then tried to excuse ourselves in the name of fun

Don't get me wrong, hope ain't fully gone
Scores of decent men built the road I'm standing on
But a lot of it has crumbled through prideful mistakes
And ashes cover much of what the flooding didn't take

I know that we are giving you a lot to straighten out
The silver lining broke away from the thundercloud
And it took us a few thousand years to make a mess so fine
I bet y'all sort it out in less than half the time

It used to be a man's world, excess in the extreme
It used to be a man's world but we ran out of steam
We couldn't seem to reach the grace that's born in every girl
Still I hope that can lend a hand in this new woman's world

Let me know if I can help out in this new woman's world

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Who Will I Hold

You slipped through my hands like I did through my dads
Like a river that passes the rocks that its on
I'm bracing for loneliness, I know its coming
Who will I hold when your gone
Now, who will I hold when your gone

Now happiness comes, and it seems much like money
People gather around it
When its gone they go running
I'm trying to be here, lift up to the now
But the past that's to come pulls me back down

You slipped through my hands like I did through my lovers
Like a river that passes the bed that its on
I'm bracing for loneliness, I know its coming
Who will I hold when your gone
Now, who will I hold when your gone

Now the victims of love, the most hopeless of all
Fortunate prisoners in an infinite war
They turn on themselves, its pure sabotage
Silver spoon babies with tupperware hearts
Silver spoon babies with tupperware hearts

You slipped through my hands like I did through my mama's
Like a river that passes the rocks that its on
I'm bracing for loneliness, I know its coming
Who will I hold when your gone
Now, who will I hold when your gone
Who will I hold when your gone
Now, who will I hold when your gone

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Locked Up

I can't take the criticism
I'm eaten up with cynicism
All the colors in the prism entering my eyes
Still can't change my mind

I'm a stubborn goat getting older
A cube of ice getting colder
Frozen heart and frozen shoulders
That is what I've got
A sweetheart I am not

Now I'll soften when it pays the bills
I'll love you in exchange for thrills
I'll surface 'cause withdrawal kills
I can smell fresh blood from miles away

I can't be locked up this way
I can't be locked up this way
I can't be locked up like this
I can't be locked up this way

I have been their slave but I'm tired of working
I'm a jackhammer tired of jerking
I'm a booty shaker tired of twerking
You can laugh all you want
Soon enough though I'll be gone

I'm a dying fly on the wall
I'm a teenage girl who just won't call
I'm a deflated basketball
No needle to be found
And I just want to be round

So I can roll, so I can bounce
So I can roll out of this town

I can't be locked up like this
I can't be locked up like this
I can't be locked up this way
I can't be locked up like this

Now I'm the worst ship that was ever built
Started sinking soon as the champagne spilt
All the dirty secrets in my quilt
They won't come out in the wash
Somebody help my gosh

I'm a beating heart off the beating path
The God of shame, feel my wrath
Can my filthy soul take a bath
In the light of you, in the light of truth
In the light of you

No I can't be locked up like this
I can't be locked up like this
I can't be locked up this way
Oh, no, I can't be locked up like this

I can't be locked up like this
I can't be locked up like this
I can't be locked up like this
I can't be locked up like this

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It's Raining To

Its raining today, let's stay in our room
Be patient babe, the clouds will break sooon
But I must confess I'm glad if they stay
I don't want to leave
Its raining today
Here and then gone
Invisible dawn
All of the edges are frayed
No warmth on my shoulders
No breeze to carry these old worries away
My hat's on the porch, its heavy and soaked
I'm on the steps and I don't have a coat
What do I do, what can I say
Its raining today
The house framing crew all can sleep in
The brick masons too
The boss wants it done but he'll have to wait
I can't go to work
Its raining today
Its raining today
What does it mean
Probably not much of anything
Still I can't resist to let my thoughts stray
What harm will it do
Its raining today
Here and then gone
Invisible dawn
All of the edges are frayed
No warmth on my shoulders
No breeze to carry these old worries away
My hat's on the porch, its heavy and soaked
I'm on the steps and I don't have a coat
What do I do, what can I say
Its raining