lyrics.html

Here's the story behind this record: Lij said: "well, the other thing we could do is record live to two track analog. We mix it as you go and you leave with a record."

It kinda felt like a dare. I was suddenly intrigued. I was scared. It made me curious to find out what kind of singer I am, and if I could do it.

Then on the way home I called Will K. He was totally game to record live, suggested records to reference, and he said "have you ever listened to Richard and Linda Thompson's Shooting Out the Lights?" It was literally in my CD player in the car, playing as we were chatting. I had just bought it like a week prior. That to me was a big thunderous sign.

We loaded into Brian Carter's vibey house on the first day of the summer, worked without headphones, and made our way through every song.

This record is presented to you as we played it those three summer days. No edits, no fixes, as is.

I really had fun.I learned a lot about being objective and just doing your work by recording live. These days there are a lot of incredible ways to make records, and because of technology, and there are so few limitations. I was interested in working improvisationally within limitations.

That's the story. I hope you like the record. It's called Better to reflect the process. Not so much arriving as traveling, not so much being good as being better.

Good vibes,

Amy

Recorded live to analog on June 22, 23, and 24, 2006
at Paradox Studios in Murfreesboro, TN
produced by Will Kimbrough and Lij
engineered by Lij
assistant engineer: Brian Carter

mastered by Jim DeMain at Yes Master, Nashville, TN
Dave Jacques: bass
Will Kimbrough: guitars, vocals
Amy Loftus: acoustic guitar, vocals
John Deaderick: keyboards
Marc Pisapia: drums
Matt Rowland: keyboards (tracks 4,6,8)
Joy Shaw: back up vocals
photography: Nancy Lee Andrews
graphics/website: Marc Pisapia

This record is dedicated to all the people who come to my shows.

all songs written by Amy Loftus

c. p. Appletree 2007

Freeway

from a memory of sadly leaving LA i wrote a poem one night. i didn't know it was a song until i come across it at a later date.

oh the time it takes to leave LA when the stubborn desert turns to clay

and the clay gets tired of bein mean and gives way to everything green

on the freeway leaving LA on the freeway leaving LA

oh the time it takes to change my mind my heart can see but i am blind

i’m naive as a wounded child and fear of cages keeps me wild

on the freeway leaving LA on the freeway leaving LA

oh the time it takes to lose your life like becoming the wrong man’s wife

and the landscape loses all its green and you go from bein kind to mean

on the freeway leaving LA on the freeway leaving LA

i don’t know why i don’t know why i don’t know why try and try

all those years just to keep us alive

i saw an angel on the side of the road i saw an angel taking somebody home

and then they left through my car radio

oh the time it takes to leave this world when you see a wreck makes your tummy whirl

there’s chances here to pierce the veil but we stay alive let hope prevail

oh the time it takes to leave LA where the city lights stole the stars away

where ambition makes some of em mean and accomplishment just turns to green

on the freeway leaving LA on the freeway leaving LA

i don’t know why i don’t know why i don’t know why try and try high and dry

just to keep us alive

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No Matter What

i wanted to paint a picture of all the places you can go in LA, and the idea of compassion for loneliness in a huge place full of activity, places and people. i used to drive up to mulholland and pull over and find a place to just sit and look out.

up in malibu quiet apartment building i pass a window someone playing solitaire

there was a time i might’ve pitied him not tonight cuz i’m right there

kinda strange walkin around not really knowing what will happen next

it would be nice if life came with a guidebook a map and a reference text

something good is on its way believe it no matter what believe it every day

the lights of hollywood lonely as a teenage girl all dressed up for a no show

there was a time i might’ve laughed but now tonight any pain is a pain i know

kinda strange walkin around wonderin what it matters to give your love away

when the one you thought you knew so well might just pack it up pack it in his suitcase and

take it with someday

shake it off, shake it off shake it off shake it off cuz

something good is on its way believe it no matter what believe it every day

something good is on its way believe it no matter what believe it every day

up on mulholland river of cars below on the 405 slowin down one by one

there was a time i took comfort in a big city but now i know in the end we’re all alone

kinda strange wonderin where else my heart belongs besides inside my chest

he wants me to give it back to him again but what’s familiar ain’t necessarily best

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Rearview:

i got the idea for the chorus in the parking lot of calypso cafe, and felt kind smug and satisfied about the idea of 'boy you look so good back there in my past'. every time i went to calypso cafe i’d hear the chorus again, til finally i went home and wrote it.

i’m not gonna cry no tears earned somethin down inside has just turned

just cuz i feel fire i’m not burned boy you’re just a lesson that i’ve already learned

lesson that i’ve already learned

i passed by the place where we met rainin pretty hard i got wet

i could see it in your eyes like a bet but i got in my car outta debt

boy you look so good in my rearview mirror

i look up ahead things are so much clearer

cuz down a dead end road with you’s the only way to go

and that’s a road a girl like me don’t need to know

and maybe i’ll drive by a little slow

but if i look at you it’s through my rearview

i can see you’re sellin romance like i said i have done this dance

before i knew i did take a chance and you are just the same man in a new

pair of pants

same man in a new pair of pants

and bein lonely brought you close to me

and lonely isn’t how i want to be

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Pirate

emotional vampires, thieves, pirates....we're all afraid of getting robbed, house or heart.

i had an appointment, put my coat on, saw i was early, put the guitar in an odd tuning and wrote the whole thing in ten minutes with my coat on. i can't explain these moments.

you might be a pirate looking safe from far away

making me believe you’re my man been out to sea

my man finally coming home to stay

you might come so close you could steal all that i have saved

donning your disguise waving underneath the skies

my man finally coming home to stay

maybe i’m a gypsy who has changed her name

maybe you’re as cautious of a wild traveling dame

but i’ve got no surprises babe i’ve nothing up my sleeve

just a longing from the shoreline for a sailor that won’t leave

you might be a pirate tying up inside my bay

creative and kind and here to rob me blind

leaving without a trace the next day

you might come up my front walk footprints on what i have paved

charming and amusing any woman of your choosing

leaving without a trace the next day

maybe i’m a gypsy reading you real name

maybe you can tell i’ve been a pirate all the same

but i’ve got no surprises babe i’ve nothing up my sleeve

just a longing from the shoreline for a sailor that won’t leave

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Driving:

i was in need of the intensive care unit of silence after a tour, and unsure why i kept putting myself through struggle. sometimes a song can be like a long letter from some invisible source reassuring me.

if you ask me right now i might tell you there’s no there’s no reason why things end up the way they do

if you ask me right now why i’m here in this room i might tell you that i don’t really have a clue

so i’m driving again passin by like a train and the truth is any answers only cause me pain

driving driving driving

if you ask me right now why i’m here in a heap well the truth is it’s love i want and freedom i keep

if you ask me right now why i do what i do well the truth is i don’t know i just follow the blue

so i’m driving again lookin into the wind i’d say i’m okay but i feel like i must’ve sinned

cuz my heart’s soakin wet and my life is like a bet and i haven’t no i haven’t known love yet

and i’m prayin the joke doesn’t end up on me cuz i got a lotta love in here needin to get free

driving driving

wipers keep time time with my mind wipe away all this blue

wipers keep time time with my mind revealing the path toward you

if you ask me right now what i really live for well the truth is i’ll pick myself up off this floor

and i’ll look you in the eye and i’ll look out up above and i’ll tell you what i live for i live for

LOVE

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Fall for you:

my sister had given me a valentine's card that said "it's easy to fall in love. The hard part is finding someone to catch you".

your touch hot as sand cools with the daylight a stranger’s hand

your love so unplanned you don’t know where you stand

and i am gonna fall for you isn’t it rich the things i do

look at me fallin plain to see and you won’t ever catch me

your words i understand here in the moonlight your magic hand

your heart uncharted land all i can see is a broken man

CH

didja think i’m made of steel boy that i would just walk away

didja think that i was just a game you could play

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My imagination:

this song is dear to my heart. i wrote it around 4am on the floor by the light of the full moon on a winter solstice, and it was recorded the night of the summer solstice six months later. it's really about soul-mating, knowing you knew someone before.

do you think about me at four in the morning cuz baby i think about you

and maybe it’s just my imagination but i can’t sleep without you

there’s a mile in between us a few country roads and i got an automobile

and maybe it’s just my imagination but i think you look for my front wheel

there’s a look in your eye space between your words says you got time for me

and lots of the things you love bout the world you tell me and i agree

there’s a cafe in paris a german train car and a plane that you fixed up and flew

and maybe it’s just my imagination but i think i’ve been there with you

do you think mystery is running the show do you think your soul knows more than you

cuz maybe it’s just my imagination but i think mine’s lost without you

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Cruise Control:

came running out of the car for the guitar one grey March morning, the sky was SO grey. i hate grey skies!!!

i was shout-singing the first line while i looked for my guitar. luckily, the lyrics and the music as tom petty says, "came in on the same bus."

tell me that you love me even if you’re lyin maybe this town won’t look so grey

tell me that you love me even if you’re lyin even a lie would do today

tell me that you love me even if you’re lyin aw hell i know when you lie anyway

it’s called cruise control it takes it’s toll leavin town leaves a certain glare

cruise control it takes its toll leavin town looks like you don’t care

cruise control takes its toll

tell me was i ever ever in the running did i ever get a second look

tell me was i ever ever in the running was i ever one that you would hook

tell me was i ever ever in the running did iever make it into your little black book

ch

is there something i’ve forgotten? if the love is organic will it go rotten?

is there something i’ve forgotten? if the love is all natural, will it go rotten?

y’tell me that you miss me and you’re not lyin i wish you would just go away

tell me that you miss me and you’re not lyin i’d rather be wanted any day

tell me that you miss me and you’re not lyin aw hell i know when you lie anyway

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Better:

i was just feeling and singing and knowing this: i don't know anything. it was an in-the-door song. at the window, by the time i was done writing it i realized i was still in my coat and scarf. i cherish the memory of writing this song.

you see right through me and pretend you don’t you know you love me but you won’t

i can see through this life like a cat in the night life keeps sending me word so i’ll get it right

i could stand and demand i could put up a fight but life just sent another letter

it says a wounded warrior knows better

i met a woman in a picture of herself it was sitting very high upon a shelf

she said “this is my husband’s favorite picture of me i hated it til he told me what he could see

he can’t say it but he wrote it so eloquently in a love letter”

i go the wounded warrior knows better

you call my home the lamp is on cigarettes and pencils rolling into dawn

you raised me up just like a thief in the night but we never talk about it for fear we would fight

you’re an old man now and unsure if you were right and my love for you floats like a soldier’s letter

that says a wounded warrior knows better

i took a walk through another season change it’s not sad to be alone but it is strange

i look back through the years different stage every night the only thing i have is what i’ve worked to get right

he said “lovin someone’s just what you fight” he wrote that to me in a letter

i go the wounded warrior..........

oh yeah

slow to approach the sight of a coach rounding the dirt road toward her porch

well when you sew your own petticoat and still chop wood

and you’ve figured out not everyone in life is good

you may not love just like you could.....

the sun’s in my eyes but i see a smile floating toward me with a letter

it says maybe you don’t know better

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All I Have

this is the quiet one, being diligent and knowing somebody else may see a seedling while you see the lush garden and that's alright.

your laugh still echoes sometimes rainy days are the worst

this path so jagged this time don’t know what comes first

still five and flying a kite so high i thought my heart would burst

through tears she said you’re an artist it was a blessing and a curse

you say you’ll believe it when you see it

well i will see it because i believe it

it’s all i have it’s all i have i know you see nothing but i see all i have

what’s love i need a dictionary didn’t study failed the test

who knew i’d get to this age and have the ocean know me best

i don’t care what you see when you look at me

i see all i have i see all i have