Here’s my space-cowboy diddy about traveling the vast plains within the small spaces we’ve been confined to and the ambiguous future we’re waiting for.

Up In The Air

I done my time in cell upstairs
I didn’t do the crime but nobody cares
We all made the mistake of lookin the other way
We shoulda learned by now but we’re still unprepared
And now it’s all up in the air

I’ve been ramblin round way out in west
Travelin day and night across my little nest
I’m countin the numbers under house arrest
Someday I’m gonna fly and kiss this mask goodbye
For now it’s all up in the air

I got a job herdin cattle all day
Ropin docs in my inbox across the superhighway
Ya gotta route those doggies before they go astray
At night I play solitaire before I send my evening prayers
Under my breath up in the air

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View lyrics w chords at https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/j-molin/up-in-the-air-chords-3863126.

This song comes from hearing stories from frontline workers and minimum wage workers, being astounded at the trials they face, their generosity, and their resilience.

One thing I’ll say it’s been a day
I think I finally lost my faith
I try to give whatever I can
Only to have it slapped out of my hand
I spend all day caring for folks
that treat me like some kind of joke
I’m always doin for someone else
When do I get to do for myself?

Sugarcoat my love
Let me be with my sweet girl
Sugarcoat my love
Take away the bitter taste of this world

I’ve got a beat-up Chevrolet
I’ve got a payment I can’t barely pay
I’m driving deliveries and cleaning homes
Getting treated like some robot ghost
And now my heart feels like a fist
Getting tighter every-time I’m dismissed
I’m feelin crazy and bad tonight
I’m ragin in my cage ready to fight

Sugarcoat my love
Let me be with my sweet girl
Sugarcoat my love
Take away the bitter taste of this world

The bitter taste
of endless days
a nothing wage
of bills unpaid
of time apart
an aching heart
and for my pain
I get disdain

I’m doing better than before
I’m sorry that I walked out the door
I needed some time alone
But now I need to come back home
Please forgive my wild ways
I do what I do to make it through the day
What would I do without you
And your sweet love to pull me through

I’m gonna sugarcoat my love
Show you how I love my girl
Sugarcoat my love
And take away the bitter taste of this world

Here’s an experimental ode to the deep of night, when the world stops and I can be alone in the luxurious late-night obscurity of the studio to howl into the dark and follow the echoes.

This one gets a little trippy as I play with layers of vocal delay and feedback on the minimalist poetry over vocal Aaaahs. I tried to follow those echoes into an extended late-night feeling. I also try something here that I don’t often do: make the chorus out of an instrumental guitar line. It’s got a good beat, so if you’re inclined, dance along like everyone else is asleep.

Listen to Dead of Night on YouTube.

Dead of Night

Out of mind
Out of sight
Nothing wrong
Nothing right
Catch a vibe
Catch a flight
Dead calm
Dead of night

Take a dive
Take a bite
After hours
Gravesite
Deconstruct
Candlelight
Walking with
Dead of night

Misanthrope
Socialite
Prison break
Searchlight
Smuggle out
Extradite
Running from
Dead of night

Twitchy tongue
Sit tight
Barely there
Or upright
Making way
By flashlight
Deep into
Dead of night

I wrote a song last week about some of the big, confusing, often exasperating mysteries of life, personal and global. Am feeling even more so after this week’s exposed vulnerabilities here in Austin where we spent three freezing days without power and are now waiting for safe drinking water to return.

What Do I Know?

Where do we come from and where do we go?
What am I doing here? What do I know?
When will I become who I want to be?
I can’t ignore all the shit I see.

Why cannot humans cooperate?
To kill the cancers of war and hate?
Why do we think ourselves as separate?
We’re killing ourselves with the planet.

What do I know?
No guarantees
What can I say?
It’s a mystery to me

Is it wrong that I touch myself?
Is it wrong that I think of you?
Locked inside a wooden box up in the tower
Over the falls, overwhelmed and overpowered

We come together then we shoot apart
We call it love then we make it art
Every day is just another wave
A shadow on the wall inside the cave

What do I know?
Boredom and ecstasy
What can I say?
It’s a mystery to me

What do I know?
Boredom and ecstasy
What can I say?
It’s a mystery to me

First they appeal to our identity
And make the other a nonentity
Then you ignore their humanity
And get real angry like Sean Hannity

Where do you go if you got no home?
What do you do if you get real sick?
Which of these Christians watches out for you
When you’re a refugee?

What do I know?
Sorry, I disagree
What can I say?
It’s a mystery to me

What do I know?
People not property
What can I say?
It’s a mystery to me
a fuckin mystery

Begin Again

(recorded on my phone)

when,  at the end of a crazy day
I’ve got the nightmare on replay
god, what did I say?
forgive my sins
I need a gin
and to begin again

when, at the end of a disastrous  year
we all see the thing we fear
loud and clear
can I extend a hand?
manage to mend
and begin again

when, at the end of a life cut short
and I’m trying to protect my heart
and then a song come on
reminds me who’s gone
and I cannot comprehend
how to begin again

why’s it so hard to let go? (I’ll never forget)
how can I ever un-know? (what they’ve done to my head)
how can I move past the pain?
I am afraid
to begin again

when, at the end of a life so long
I’ve written my thousand songs
and they put me in the ground
still diggin my sounds
amen
I’m zen
begin again