Taking Solace

by Matt Tansey

Taking Solace cover art
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02:39

credits

released 01 November 2011

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about

Matt Tansey hails from Albany, NY and has spent the majority of his life gallivanting up and down the East Coast of the ... more continental United States. Hard times, heartbreak, punk rock, folk, and other pretentious influences show through in all of his musical contrivances. Matt Tansey's music offers a sober look at reality with nuances of optimism and loyalty as the solution to the drudgeries of life. less

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Track Name: Toothless Grins
Loyalties for sale and sympathies for granted
I wanna take home your toothless grins
Creek bed consolation and 4 walls of my own
It's in that nature worship sin

And it's shining on the banks of the Swannanoa
Shining on the banks of the River Thames

To Friends
and to folks I don't know
I'm taking stock of what I owe
From birth to hurse
And forgiveness first
Written in the ledger of my soul

Friends of old and friends in glory
Wanting more than these photographs
With longer lines drawn on these maps that we all hold
And all your names in my epitaph
Track Name: Threadbare
It's as threadbare and brutal
as matters of the heart can be
I'm lowering my gaze now to start with
We're all fretting and faultless
when there's comfort in certainty
For the lonely and the present of mind

And there's plenty left to learn from
kinfolk and failure
So I'm playing this one close to the chest
My heart is wide open but I'm not saying nothing
For myself I'm saving my best

Make this as blunt as you can possibly make it
Cause I'm well versed at severing ties
And I'll be alright with my friends and some time
In hindsight it was well worth the try

(Chorus)

It's as threadbare and brutal as matters of the heart can be
I'm lowering my gaze once again
Track Name: Lock Step
There's drudgery in the the day to day playing of my part
While mapping out the stutter step rhythms of my heart
And worries of a dying kind
And a fear of what's to come

It's not today
This is a planning phase

I'm in lock step
with the devil
And it means that
If not today, we're only holding it at bay.

There's intent behind the night to night cycle of regret
While trying hard to fend off those mornings to forget
Based on worries of a living kind
But no fear for whats to come

It's not today
This is a plannign phase

I'm in lock step
with the devil
And it means that
We'll never know, but for the seeds that we sow
Track Name: Arrest Warrants
Arrest warrants and forays in the night
Until you love someone, it's only a joy ride
Stock confines and women by your side
If you know her name, you should probably say goodbye

And I'll count from 7 billion down to one.
Only to find that Hollywood's still having all the fun

That could be my life
If I wanted
I tried on glamor but I found it haunted
I fell in love with the way that it was
I'm I'm not giving up
No I'm not giving up

Fortified and carved into our minds
In brightly colored packages not to come across unkind
Are weight-loss and fitness fads, celebrity solutions
In super market checkouts, where we stand like lemmings all in line
So lets pull up every survey stake and cut down every billboard
Till we've calmed our weary heads
Till it's got us feeling fine
Track Name: House in the Valley
There's a house in the valley, where my friends get carried away
There's a picture on the wall that my mother recalls from her best days
There's a girl that I fear has the power to keep me here to stay
And this life that I'm building, that I'm willing to be, is all thanks to the grace of the willing and the lovely

There's a car in the driveway with out of state plates, that I used to drive
The tank's been on empty for 17 months since I figured that engine had died
There's a ring on my finger and feelings that linger from better days
And this life....

There's a house in the valley where my friends get carried away
There's a picture of my mother, hung up on the wall and these debts that I've paid
There's a woman I will widow in a cowardly attempt to stay sane
And this life....
Track Name: Rock n' Roll
I'm an angel through and through
Reading scripture cause there ain't nothing better to do
Not superstitious, just don't wanna miss this boat
I'm an angel through and through

Got the devil deep inside of me
Onj account of things I barely need
Half way Hank Williams, the other half to forget
Got the devil deep inside of me

I drive a BMW with leather seats
Top dog who's got all the minions beat
You've got to admit that it's getting better, now is the time to invest
I drive a BMW with leather seats

But me, I play that rock n roll
Waiting to die but for now I sing from my soul
Ain't got much figured out, but that's alright by me
Yeah me, I play that rock n roll
Track Name: White Knights
It could be so cold
We could be in dire straits here
Evil untold
It's a catastrophic rally cheer

We could be so old
Time wasted on these compromises
Life bought and sold
Kept efficient, we're all fools for guidance

And I'm so damn happy to see you
Let it be known, I've got this friendship fever
White knights and trench coat slights
Cocaine charismatic nights
I'm taking solace in the way that we live

Labor and gold
Butting heads unceremoniously
Kept in the fold
All ensnared in complacency
Now that we own it for a moment
A joy so pure as to serenade
Track Name: Luck and Unsettled Scores
There's not a lot of glamor left in the career paths of our fathers
It's not like we can say much after the fact if we didn't even bother
To survey all our options, lord, we could have so much more
If we didn't chock it all up to luck and unsettled scores

We can sing songs for the end of days
When we're dying
And for now we can count the ways
In which we pray, in which we celebrate our stay

Not a lot of hope built up at the coping skill corale
And not a lot more acquired in the bonds that I have now
There's nobility in service surely and sympathy to go around
But it's not selfless, nor is it glory bound
Track Name: Boxseat
I made my own family one Thanksgiving day, though we weren't related by blood
It was years that had bound us, so we'd come to say and we lied cause we knew that we could
Raised glass rotations, in rounds we were taken away from the choices we'd lived
And rich men we were not, though all wealth was forgotten along with the thanks that we give

Boxseat revisions and first class provisions, don't add up to much in my mind
Next to sunsets and trail heads and cold nights in warm beds and all the forgiveness I've found
I'm beginning to find it

I own my own fortune and live my own days with a presence of mind or without
I was forged well but frayed, and I'm forgiving my forbears for roles in reflection based doubts
And these markings don't matter much, except as reminders of kinship and sincerity
With no expiration, just like that gospel of taking root while taking in breeze
Track Name: Bully Pulpit
We're all knelt down at the bully pulpit
For fear of not having anything to do
Where drunk becomes the new sober
And formulaic nights they start anew

Never wanted for much, but tonight
and to occupy my hands with what was right
These bones have been picked and proud and my will is shaking
But at least it's there still, at least it's there

I've got an over/under on my time to die
From a family that never spent a weeknight dry
It could be a non-existent grace, an attempt at saving face, or a narrow minded view of seizing the day