Nesting EP

by Anna Vogelzang

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  • Digital Album

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1.
04:14
lyrics
2.
06:04
lyrics
3.
04:05
lyrics
4.
04:32
lyrics
5.
04:31
lyrics
6.
05:58
lyrics

about

written between autumn 2007 & autumn 2008. love & thanks to all the people who talked with me on the phone on the many drives up & down I90.

credits

released 15 January 2009
all songs copyright 2009 anna vogelzang/cant d'ocell music (ASCAP). all songs written by anna vogelzang except for track 3 (vogelzang/young). recorded in anna's laundry room (madison, WI) & guy's attic (portsmouth, NH). mixed & mastered by eric boulanger in ojai, CA. produced by anna vogelzang. artwork by birdie watts. www.theanna.com.

performed by anna vogelzang with loving help from andrew young (3), guy capecelatro (1 & 5), emilyn brodsky (5) & emily hope price (5).

tags

tags: folk wisconsin feelings folk-pop lady-folk singer-songwriter Madison

license

all rights reserved

feeds

feeds for this album, this artist
Track Name: Imaginary Babies
i’ve been walking through chicago thunderstorms
i’ve been wearing other peoples’ ill fitting clothes
i’ve been having imaginary babies with you
i’ve been hearing paul revere yelling, “they’re comin, you fools”

but we could start again / you could move to texas
we could start again / i could always go back to school
we could start again / if these plans don’t pan out for us, baby
we can always start again

iv’e been filling bird cages one by one
i’ve been thinking some asshole made up forever just for fun
i’ve been taking polaroids of all the trees in bloom
& i’ve been drinking at this bar where i'm always the youngest in the room

but i could start again / you can wipe the slate clean
i could start again / i could always find another job
i could start again / & baby i would lose my best friend
but i could always start again

i’ve been scaling mountains in my mind
when actually it’s only one hundred & forty-two miles
i’ve been mourning my own reckless tendencies
but i’m still gripping tight to these early twenties

& you are who i want / i swear to god we’re it babe
you are who i want / to make dinner every night with
you are who i want / i promise i won’t fuck it up this time
cause you are what i want

so let me be your carla bley
let me be your monterey
let me be your carole king
let me be your wedding ring

cause i have pushed my luck / i’ve seen what it can hold
i sent out battalions you countered orange tea roses

let me be your everyday
i will put fresh flowers round the house while you’re at work
let me be your everyday
i will do my best to be the woman you deserve

but how many times over / will we apologize
for being poor wives or poor daughters poor sisters poor mothers to the men in our lives

let me be your everything
let me be your everything
i think this city has stitched me to its sky
but i will be your everything
listen to the meter of the rain against the night
Track Name: Family Trees
rachel got married before she turned 27
moved up to new hampshire with her mother's old furniture
she was the oldest, four sisters behind her
one dad & two moms, and one god they all learned to fear
but she & her new love built their house's foundation
on a language that neither one knew how to hear well
& so slowly but surely life began to unravel
from the ribbon of their living room

there amidst the framed pictures & recipie boxes
the oldest got told she was too hard to love
just like history predicted in patterns, in bloodlines
in books & in bibles, in diary punchlines
her love called her posessed, filled with unholy spirit
while she praised her god with a bird in her throat
her love could not see her goodness, said you're crazy like your mother
& then he wept when she left him alone
yes he wept when she left him alone

well chemicals burn up & hearts can just give up
but you've got to believe that you are something stronger
& you say it feels like you're trapped in some building
but fires were burning before we were born
far before you were born

her parents had met while they sang in a choir
got married with jaws locked in southern michigan
& they had this daughter, named her after a fighter
but it also meant sheep in some other man's bible
then her parents had another, then lost track of each other
and the family of four turned to three & one
two & two girls who grew stronger in the eyes of her sister
and tattooed family trees in their arms

& their mother got haunted & their father bought houses
& they grew up in churches and backyards and stages
& they both joined the circus, and it got complicated
now it's 20 years later & the world is still tilted
rachel's love flew away on her half sister's birthday
came back three months later as if he had fought some war
& yes, he had crawled over 10 thousand dark miles
& he walked into their house like a ghost through a screen door
she said baby i'm sorry, it's so nice to see you but you've got so much farther to go
you've got so much farther to go

chemicals burn up & hearts can just give up
but you've got to believe that you've got something stronger
& you say it feels like you're trapped in some building
but fires were burning before we were born
far before you were born

the sky has turned pink tonight here in the midwest
i wonder how things have turned there
& how long's it been raining down in brazil
does he miss the cold miracle of new england's air
& sister maybe we are crazy, maybe we cry too easy
but i'd say that's just one way that we've been called out
and if you keep sending boxes of music to heaven
i'm sure things will start to work out
oh you know, things just have to work out
Track Name: Weekend Love
spend an hour daily standing crushed on the train
when I get to work I try to stay awake, but my brain
it just can't forget you

nothing good to watch even on cable TV
wonder if it would be different if you were here with me
top model marathons

sit around get paid oh, boy,
what else should we do?
we'll stay up sleep late
quit this shit & run away

we'll start a restaurant
the stock exchange
we'll settle in vermont & balloon race
this weekend love is making me tired

write you songs make you feel like you're in bed
safe from snowstorms & the work that's piling up on your desk
down at the office

will we get by, will we get by, will we get by
we won't know until the map lets us try
bodies in motion

sit around get paid oh, boy,
what else should we do?
we'll stay up sleep late
quit this shit & run away

I'll learn to fly a plane
make birthday cakes
live off of warm champagne & cheese plates
this weekend love is making me tired

I love you more than lions roar & oceans need salt
than the internet is vital to the digital arts
& getting famous

more than sugarplums are known for their dance
more than ella's good at scatting or the people in france
all put together

sit around get paid oh, boy,
what else should we do?
we'll stay up sleep late
quit this shit & run away

we'll join a circus show
arrange bouquets
we'll watch all our babies grow up & old
this weekend love is making me tired

bring back the lite-brite trend
modern ballet
be our generation's bonnie & clyde
this weekend love is making me tired
Track Name: Cowboy Mountain
some trips build you up while others slowly break you down
i planted our green love in california in the ground
i miss your stories of dead scorpions in jars
how your grandpa saved his cowboy life inside his car

i thought i heard you say, "may the sun vibrate hope"
but what you meant was, "you'll be just fine on your own"
i can stitch a home up with a needle & a pen
but back on highway 1 is our mountain
i hope you understand these bourbon baubles that i send

there's an ache in the midwestern bigsky grey
it gets caught between your ribs & coughs for days
on greyhound bus seats and stale underneath quilts
it smells like lilacs, snow, cement, and baby's milk

but movement suits me like the water and her fish
the city breeds exhausted loud relationships
i promise to behave and build our family
i hope you'll promise to keep up eventually
i hope youll try to learn to love the road with me

i take 10 steps towards the border
& then 2 back towards michigan
i've lost track of new england
i want to live like water
i've drawn maps out of my veins
& built a home on moving ground
i've stripped the compass from my shoes
i plan to move like water

i think about new york, why everybody stays
chicago will be better, tall windows, golden days
i hope the distance won't shut down our liquored hearts
i hope we push through all the things that will be hard
i plan on forgiveness, lonesome nights, and postcards
Track Name: Judy Garland
i'm a good woman, you're a good man
the night just got caught between heartbeats and bare hands
i'm selfish & sad  & you're a bad liar
the green curtained snowstorm sang songs: ohia

there are boys who wear beer shirts & boys who wear band shirts
the one who like cats, the ones who like children
i am bearing the bruises, blood vessels of guilt 
high above the zoo, the car, the quilts
johnny cat, ms simone, the hunger of this

cause we're already halfway to judy garland
trainwrecks, cheaters, singers, drunk for days
throw me out with the skeletons that sleep in your garden
let me go
cause you know
i've been sleeping throughout these days

i'm a bad woman and you're a young man
those songs were about me before we even made plans
i'm a good singer but you're a good talker
we have everything but i still miss my water

i burn holes in my heart with coffee and mint
how dare you see me as perfect as this
i will dig my way out of these 5000 miles
february, the ice storm, the women with child
afterglow, eyelashes, tiny fires gone wild

cause we're already halfway to judy garland
trainwrecks cheaters singers hell to pay
throw me out with the skeletons that sleep in your garden
let me go
cause you know
i've been dreaming throughout these days

i've taken these hearts in my fists & jumped ship
but they'll get out alive, we'll all get out alive
i'll keep above water, i'll stop being selfish
i will get out alive i will get out alive
i will get out alive i will get out alive

i'm a small woman & you're a soft man
so there was no future there for us to stand on
you're a good mover but i'm a good faker
i cut you the moon of my hips out of paper

i wish all of the whispers & glances were tied
to machines that made choices i could justify
i will take it all back, you will write it all down
high school girls, ginger rogers, the fever of sounds
the 2/3, moonshine tailors, all the shit i allowed

cause we're already halfway to judy garland
trainwrecks cheaters singers underpaid
throw me out with the skeletons that sleep in your garden
let me go
cause you know
i'm sorry about these days
Track Name: Lake Michigan
am i truly ready to quit these arms
i've grown to trust so hard
or am i truly lying to myself,
known it's been you all along

well today feels like autumn;
people are moving, currents are shifting
& my eyes are adjusting to the sun
my feet to the sand, my face to the wind

& i will learn this life
i will learn this life
i will say goodbye to you
i will learn this life
i will learn this life
i will build my own empire
without you

so you look me sternly in the face
& say i've done you wrong
but i think that living through these greys
might just be a roadmap to grace & new songs

& i tried to be better; i tried to work harder
i tried not to panic or flirt
but i've trudged through this love like an obstacle course
& if you'd just buy one more drink, then baby i could be yours
& i could learn this life
i would learn this life
i would say goodbye to you
i will learn this life
i will learn this life
i will climb the highest spire
with no parachute

i like the way i look in blurry photos
like a ghost who knows what was right
but i've silenced that spirit; i've questioned my judgement
set the city on fire bar to bar through the night

and now the seagulls they follow these secret lines
that pull them across the sky
and the buildings perforate the clouds
& the ferris wheel spins, & the waves keep on waving

& now on the horizon these sailboats are staggered
like paintings on porcelain plates
& i want to stay here, i want to be with you
but all we learn to adapt, we all learn to escape

i just came here to tell you i love you.