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Small Stars

by Doug Davis

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bosstime Wow! Your mastery of language and the way you mix your words with the music just take the listener deep into your heart and soul! What a beautiful piece of artwork ! Thank you for sharing this with us! I can't wait to hear/see the love performance. 💖 Love it
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1.
I stood and watched my house burn down The life that we built, all gone to ground The clues, the hints I failed to catch And I'm the one who struck the match Is there a trace of what you sold For moments of grace, this poor fool's gold I never knew how much you meant Until I smelled that sulfur scent And if you've been considering The wages of desire Baby, it's the ashes, not the fire The flash and the spark, don't ask me why I thought that we'd seen the worst gone by But now, these bonds all repossessed The years ahead, the lonesomeness And if you've been considering The wages of desire Baby, it's the ashes, not the fire
2.
Once, long ago I set my sights on distant lights Oh, the miles I’d go maps and charts and seasick hearts kept singing you a sunrise song dreaming you could sing along can’t imagine how my whole life long just want to say I’ve seen your face it’s a real nice day up, I gave you up a fairytale I lost the trail star, behind a star I searched so far and here you are kept singing you a sunrise song dreaming you could sing along can’t imagine how my whole life long just want to say I’ve seen your face it’s a real nice day
3.
sometimes our house gets so loud sometimes I stand ‘neath the blackest of clouds love's when the walls all come down times I forget just how much I can hurt you the clock ticks slow I’ve got miles to go it’s hard being gone for so long I’ve got a history of holding you wrong don’t know what happens to me I can’t find the notes in our sweet harmony but I’ll drive all night
 trade this fight for flight close your eyes let the silence wash over you now nothing can hurt you tonight the hours before daybreak the stars sweep the sky under the moon’s cleansing light may you find peace Taking for granted the trials sometimes I have to drive hundreds of miles to find it all falling in place plain as the nose on the end of my face between love and peace sometimes wonders cease please don’t forget what I said specially the parts that I left in my head everything I’m all about sometimes gets lost in the screams and the shouts let the highway flow feel my heart beat slow close your eyes let the silence wash over you now nothing can hurt you tonight the hours before daybreak the stars sweep the sky under the moon’s cleansing light
4.
couldn't call it tragedy they always had a laugh she’d flash a devil’s grin when they'd call her his better half
 she told him she was sorry that she'd never had more school and he'd squeeze her tight and say goodnight said he loved to kiss a fool & they'd go round, & they'd go round don't know how they stayed aground never seemed to bother her they had no scratch to spare they'd share a beer and do without and no one seemed to care 
back before he got his first promotion and a pin somehow something clicked when he acquired a taste for gin but you can't hold back, you can't hold back when you're on that inside track tell me what you wouldn't do to keep your love from harm dancing in the wrong somebody's arms strangest thing, they never fought wouldn't see them in a funk she'd fly around the room a bit he'd go out, get some drunk but most the time you'd have to guess they were heading down the path wasn't hard to see the days ahead to do the math but you never know you never know when your tomorrow's long ago don't go crying wolf again don't sound that false alarm dancing in the wrong somebody's arms he'd been gone near half a year don't think he ever knew she went down to County did the thing she had to do don't suppose we'll ever hear a word from them again they've disappeared into the night just like they'd never been what might have been what might have been such an unoriginal sin and there's a part inside me wonders where you are dancing in the wrong somebody's arms
5.
I remember how we listened to the rhythm of the August night I never wanted anything the way I wanted you to hold me tight with the windows all rolled down ocean of the wind was the only sound I remember every riot of the summer's dying light when you were young you didn't think you'd know you'd grow up to sing the same sad songs if I could spend another minute with you I wish I could tell you what you meant to me what you mean to me when I looked up into the sailor's sky I started losing you forever it was easier than looking in your eyes trying to say something clever I wish I'd heard the race of your heart so restless for the world to start young enough to think I was old enough to never say never when you were young you didn't think you'd know you'd grow up to sing the same sad songs if I could spend another minute with you I wish I could tell you what you meant to me what you mean to me
6.
Sweet Calico 03:32
do you remember where we met that little luncheonette? here's a photograph of you just a mess at 22 I won't forget do you remember when we kissed I would trade my life for this the sky was full of stars One moment, only ours and I won’t forget I was holding your hand and you were holding my heart you were scared it would end and I was scared to start scared to speak my heart and now I look in your eyes and you look just the same you’re every bit as surprised that you don’t know my name and now I’ve got to let you go sweet calico do you remember our first place? I was such a hopeless case When we signed the bottom line all I saw were dollar signs but you saw a home and now they're saying I should go have I said my last hello? let me sit with you awhile remember how you smile once more for me I was holding your hand and you were holding my heart you were scared it would end and I was scared to start scared to speak my heart and now I look in your eyes and you look just the same you’re every bit as surprised that you don’t know my name and now I’ve got to let you go sweet calico
7.
once upon a time I had a dream  I sank without a sound beneath the stream  and just before the waters sealed me in you appeared and gave me breath again like roots that grow together after time  the tendrils on the bower intertwine  without you here I falter in the dark I’m just a wildfire kindling from your spark everything that’s left of me, the pull upon my tide  reflecting pale the flashing of your light  and I don’t know what I would do  without you by my side  my skies are full, the stars are yours tonight  you give me hell when I stop making sense  you lay me down when you’re my last defense  and to think I once could manage on my own  if I should lose you, I’d turn myself to stone  I know what it means to lose your trust  I know how it feels to fade to dust  and I don’t ever want to feel that way again  it pulls me under to think what might have been  everything that’s left of me, the pull upon my tide  reflecting pale the flashing of your light  and I don’t know what I would do  without you by my side  my skies are full, the stars are yours tonight
8.
In a Moment (Sung For Me) you can only go so far
 before your race is run 
you can wish on shooting stars 
brighter than the sun

 thought I’d seen the heaven’s jewels 
the back side of the moon 
I had not heard anything 
until your lonesome tune 

and in a moment
 it all changed for me
 the song your eyes sent 
this melody 
sung for me you can run as far as oceans 
a league or more tonight 
I will burn a heat not measured 
in grades of Fahrenheit

 we can try to solve the clues 
plumb the fevers deep 
or we can sing in harmony 
and rock ourselves to sleep and in a moment 
it all changed for me 
the song your eyes sent 
this melody 
sung for me there’s a love that strikes like lightning burns a man inside
 there’s a heat keeps you fighting 
past the point of pride and in a moment
 it all changed for me 
the song your eyes sent
 this melody 
sung for me
9.
I've seen a man at Union Station stands with his face towards the wall screams in disgust at the top of his lungs "when did these bastards get so small?" some days I'll sit and watch the trains come some days I'll go and have a drink 'cause I've never felt so lost before some days my blood's as black as ink I have come so far for this I've fought hell's own war escaped the rotten hearts of men only finding more once, as a child, I read the story of Job and his plagues and miseries but I'd trade the wrath of the god of Job for all these powers crushing me all of these mountains and vast oceans the greatest walls, without, within none can separate our love like the the hate of such small men they can't take my love from me they can't stop my heart I have waited for so long for my life to start but I will fight and bring you to my shores for I will not give in, this love I swore all for you all for you all for you I still remember your black ribbons to hold your hair behind your ear I saw the skies lit, hellfire-red the old world disappeared and now, all these promises of freedom sords, just a hollowed-out amen 
all that I held as simple and true gone, by the order of his pen they can't take my love from me they can't stop my heart I have waited for so long for my life to start but I will fight and bring you to my shores for I will not give in, this love I swore all for you all for you all for you
10.
Ride It Out 05:17
Well I met a man on boundary row
 with dust caked on his tongue 
and the bone and sinew ground to 
ash and marrow
 and they gave him hero’s ribbons and 
the homecome least he sought And they sang the songs of grace of vesper sparrows She met a weary widow with his ghosts arrayed like wares
 on his prayer rug to be sold to the highest bidder She asked him when he’d fold At the point of last confusion Never crossed his clouded mind 
to consider If the dark fails the light I’ll send you flares to find me And if there’s nowhere to fall we’ll stand and face the storm And as the last stars of night 
give way to dawn’s redemption We’ll ride it out What else can we do but ride it out She says “I’ve given up the luxury Of fortune-telling dreams We can only see the shadows
 'til we’re blinded and you can pin the tag of hero’s curse 
on the ever-fading badge 
In the space between despair 
and bloody-minded And in my mind I’ll always be
 a thousand miles away But in my heart I’m standing as your neighbor And if I could control the winds
 command the tides to pull me
 what kind of man would shy from such a labor? If the dark fails the light I’ll send you flares to find me And if there’s nowhere to fall we’ll stand and face the storm And as the last stars of night 
give way to dawn’s redemption We’ll ride it out What else can we do but ride it out I’d ask you now to sing no more 
the songs of grace and mercy 
or shine your torch upon 
the fields left fallow 
for I can only battle with the 
weapons I’ve been given what choice have I been granted 
in this hour? If the dark fails the light I’ll send you flares to find me And if there’s nowhere to fall we’ll stand and face the storm And as the last stars of night 
give way to dawn’s redemption We’ll ride it out What else can we do but ride it out

about

I've been quietly working throughout 2020 on a solo album called "Small Stars." It's a collection of what I like to call "small songs": intimate, fairly simple, mostly acoustic songs. The songs are unusually personal songs for me, with a lot more deep emotional connection than the more abstract storytelling I've been largely trading on for a while now. Some of my favorite local musicians make cameos on the album, but much of it is just me. Three of the ten songs were mixed (and had additional musical pixie-dust sprinkled on them) by the wonderful Chris Stamey. All were mastered by Anand Gan.

Much like my colleagues, Beyonce and T-Swift, I've decided to drop it, as the kids say, with little hype or fanfare. Here's the deal: I'm going to release one song per week on my Bandcamp page, and I'll be making a whole lot of little homemade videos, as well.

credits

released January 8, 2021

Produced and engineered by Doug Davis
Mixed by Doug Davis, except *Chris Stamey
Mastered by Anand Gan

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Doug Davis Winston Salem, North Carolina

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