Memories & Birds

by Kenny Roby

supported by
patrick begley
patrick begley thumbnail
stuart rogers
“just a great album so good to hear new music from kenny roby”
“
stuart rogers thumbnail
…
close
/
00:00
00:00

  • Digital Album

    Immediate download of 8-track album in your choice of high-quality MP3, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.

    Buy Now  $8 USD  or more

  • Memories & Birds (CD)

    Digipack packaging with 8 page booklet with lyrics and credits. Includes digital download of complete album at 12:01 am on 4/2/13.

    Includes immediate download of 8-track album in your choice of high-quality MP3, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.

    Buy Now  $11.99 USD

    ships out within 5 days
1.
03:58
lyrics
download
2.
04:31
lyrics
download
3.
04:20
lyrics
download
4.
07:55
lyrics
download
5.
04:22
lyrics
download
6.
05:00
lyrics
download
7.
05:06
lyrics
download
8.
04:46
lyrics
download

credits

released 02 April 2013

tags

tags: alternative elvis costello leonard cohen nick cave randy newman tom waits North Carolina

license

all rights reserved

feeds

feeds for this album, this artist

about

Founding member of 6 String Drag. Their 1997 album “High Hat” was released to national critical acclaim. (co-produced by Steve Earle and Ray Kennedy and released on Earle’s Warner Brothers imprint label E-Squared)
In 1998, Roby went solo and released three excellent but vastly different solo records: Mercury’s Blues, Rather Not Know, and The Mercy Filter. His new album Memories & Birds out 4/2/13. ... more

shows

contact / help

For help with downloads, click here.

For all other inquiries, including help with merch, click here.

Redeem download codes here.

Track Name: Memories & Birds
Wrote a letter to my mother that I'll never send
Wrote another to myself and tore it up again
I sat there upon a rock that wasn't very tall
And the thought of fallin' off was harder than the fall

See the sky and how they fly
Not wanting us up there
Do you think that they know why
We hold them up so dear?

If you really wanted you could crush me with a word
Then there would be only me with memories and birds
Memories and birds

When you smiled and glanced away you weren't being coy
You didn't want to dance today with me or any boy
I thought of you there in church
It wasn't in that way
I think of you all the time
Almost everyday

See the sky and how they fly
They're taunting us down here
Birds are no reason to cry and I've got my gun right here

Words come easy to a fool
After all they're just words
And only descriptive tools for memories and birds
Memories and birds
Ah memories
Memories and Birds
Track Name: The Monster
The Monster

I don’t expect much from you, Jenny
Hell, you barely even know me
Oh just come with me
You'll see the craziest thing

Well I got this key from my Uncle Pete
To a secret door by the oak tree
It will open up, It comes creepin' up when it needs to eat
But it mostly sleeps

Nobody loves it
You're wastin' your time
Even God hates it
Can’t you read the signs
There’s no space for it
There's no place or time
It was born to die
So let it die there

It lays shakin' in a rotted log
Barely breathin' for the creeping dogs
Barely bleedin' but the scent is strong
And the fear of attack is harder than the act

Nobody loves it
You're wastin' your time
Even God hates it
Can’t you read the signs
There’s no space for it
There's no place or time
It was born to die
Don't let it die here

So I will hold its hand
I will take it to walk
I will talk to it
I will hold it soft
Like the river I will smooth the rock
And sooth its tears (don't listen to what they say)

Nobody loves it
You're wastin' your time
Even God hates it
Can’t you read the signs
There’s no space for it
There's no place or time
It was born to die
Don't let it die here
Track Name: The Craziest Kid Around
When the black snake saw the sunrise
He knew that it wasn't time
While he thought the road was empty
He knew not there was something wrong

My older brother's got a toothache
That no whiskey in the world will cure
Smells the cakes my mama's bakin'
Oh he ain't gettin' none from her

Sister Dinah brought a new friend
And my mama don't like him much
I saw both them out the kiss tree
Didn't look like kissin' to me

Well I heard the preacher talkin'
To some men down in the town
And I don't quite understand it
So it ain't gonna get me down

“You don't have to go to know”
“You don't have to go to know”

There's a man down Angel Tree Road
And I bet no one knows his name
They say he used to talk at college
And all the people would listen to him

My daddy calls him “The 'Fesser”
But he says it like it's a cuss
Someone said he loved a black girl
I can't see why it matters much

We haven't seen the goat we got last year
Since the middle of this July
She disappeared right after the big storm
I told my brother I bet she died

Heard my uncle down in town one day
Say “It's just unnatural”
And I don't understand all that the people say
So I'm just gonna play it cool

“You don't have to go to know”
“You don't have to go to know”

Found a snake when Mama was bakin'
It was just about as flat as the ground
It was dead and I was shakin'
Why am I the craziest kid around?

“You don't have to go to know”
“You don't have to go to know”
Track Name: Colorado
Think I'll go to Colorado
Got no skin left in this game
You get a line and I'll get a pole
You get the car and I'll dig the hole

See I known you
'Fore I known who you are
You come back like a tack in the eye
You used to act like I was a movie star
And I used to act like I was your guy

Love is blacker than the singer sings
A disabled orphan girl
Left here scratchin' at the back door
Nobody wants her anymore

Stay down
Stay down

I ain't the worst man you've ever known
But I'd be willin' to make a bet
That every devil here ain't born full grown
And we ain't met all of 'em yet

Stay Down
Stay Down

I got a flair for fuckin' up a plan
I'll grow my hair when I get old
I never wanted to become a man
But it'll take blood to get the gold

Love is blacker than the singer sings
A disabled orphan girl
Left here scratchin' at the back door
Nobody wants her anymore

Stay Down
Stay Down
Stay Down
Track Name: Tired of Being In Love
There's a man in the other room
I thought that I knew
I've tried all that a woman can try
At least I'm pretty sure that's true

There's a ghost livin' in this house
It's right behind that door
Our baby can't even bring him back
God, I don't know what I try for

Oh I'm tired of bein' in love
It hurts too much
When the one you love ain't in love with you

I know I can be simple
Simple used to get it done (oh it used to be enough for you)
I lay alone in bed inside his head
After dinner served for one (so alone)

Oh God, it's got to be hard
To hold the last breath of a friend
But he's been home two years in March
And my heart is growin' thin

Oh I'm tired of bein' in love
It hurts too much
When the one you love ain't in love with you

Come back to the baby (come on back)
And come back to me (come back and make it make three)

I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't
Make the war fade away
But I can't, I can't, I can't ,I can't
Keep from thinkin' “run away”

Oh I'm tired of bein' in love
It hurts too much
When the one you love ain't in love with you

still in love
still in love
still in love with you
Track Name: A Short Mile
It's the cough that won't go away
Chasin' chronic ache
Itchin' skin for no reason
And fever that won't break you

It's the dog barkin' at the air
And the scent of a stranger's hair
Old gator at the fair
No tickets to see her

I know I'm breakin' you
I can see it in your smile
I'm the wrong man to ride a short mile

It's the line that you hear and feel
But never quite understand
It's birds chirpin' orders
On the shoulders of men

A flutter in your ear
Deeper than any fear
That you were not made to hear
And I can't sing that low

I know I'm breakin' up
It's the weight on the dial
I'm the long way to ride the short mile

Some men never veer
Too far away from here
Although I pretend to steer
It goes where it will

I know I'm breakin' up
I can see it in your smile
I'm a long way to ride a short mile
Track Name: Me and The Monkey
How am I supposed to live
Without you here in my mind
All this bundled up in fear
And stored in here
Takin' up my time
All these trees it seems are real but only mine
How am I supposed to live
Without you here in my mind

How am I supposed to live
With only me in my head
It was a crazy monkey slingin' shit
With his little fits
That lead to what I said
You'd have freed him but I penned him up instead
How am I supposed to live with with only him in my head

Just me and the monkey
Me and the monkey
Just me and the monkey
Me and the monkey

The trees are burnin' brighter
And the animals are fleein' from the fire
Formed by sickened flickers In the forrest
From the flint of my desire
Oh without you they just burn deeper and higher
How am I supposed to live without you here in the fire

Just me and the monkey
Me and the monkey
Monkey
And Me
Track Name: Our Fading Fighter
The picture looked so clear
The victor could almost feel the cheers
The fixer that you held so dear
Wasn't mixed just right
Now it's fading

I was talking on a long distance line
No one was here but I appeared just fine
It was spoken but broken up in time
I can picture your face in the quiet
Now it's fading
Fading

Every man's got a lot to learn
Every man's got his lot to burn
Show your muscles and your tattoos bright
No matter how you fight the sunlight
They're still fading
Fading
Fading