Ship in a Bottle, a concept album split into four parts, tells the story of twelve co-conspirators who steal a ship to escape life on shore. (Read more about the entire concept.)
Part I: Any Port begins the journey with three different archetypes taking a turn at the helm:
Explorer (“Low Road”)
Guardian (“Between Storms”)
Everyman (“Tracing Nobodies”)
Part I closes with the 1st Passageway: “Attic Bracken” leading us to Part II.
LYRICS
The Low Road (Explorer)
Twelve, they cut loose a ship
And slip the noose from their fate
Twelve different reasons they have for flying
For wanting escape
And they who claim this helm, they seek new realms
They veer t’ward map’s end
So if you’ve got the spark, climb aboard this barque
Journey’s ’bout to begin
When you take hold o’ that wind and you give it a spin
Now you begin to take back what you sold
When you taste that the mist in the air so rare
Now you’re there, welcome to the low road
Helm’s-a-lee by land or sea
We won’t be slowed
Won’t cry ‘avast’, ’til we have past
The last known of this road
When you’ve shook wake the morn to cheer up the storm
Look at you now, higher than nest of the crow, shouting: “Land ho!”
When you’ve smelled the sun at each day’s done
The horizons reach for you, take you into the fold
When you’re drunk upon the stars and you know what’s yours is thars
Now you’re far ‘pon the low road
Helm’s-a-lee by land or sea
We won’t be slowed
Won’t cry ‘avast’, ’til we have past
The last known of this road
And so when you got the wind in tow
Go ahead break the oars
Who says you can’t plant roots in the sea?
When the die you’ve finally cast
You have outrun your past at last
And you’re bound to roam ceaselessly
Sailing, oh, sailing… o’er the bounding main
Sailing, oh, sailing… we shan’t return again
See when we hung our hats, laid our heads and called it home
It felt no more than a crypt holding our bones
Sailing, still sailing… shackled to the bounding main
Sailing, oh, flailing… never knew when to say when
And years of ten stack quicker than you can count
And the days only churn faster and faster around
And you drown in the sound of your own breath
As you realize your best has been left
Behind at Youth’s behest
Who says an ol’ sea man can’t plant roots in the ground
When he’s found there was nothing out there to find
Nine lives, they say the cat has
And like a cat how you did bat yours about, like a ball of twine
Now watch… watch as it all unwinds
Twelve, a ship cut loose
The noose’s now ’round their neck
Whatever their reasons for flying
Now they’re crying: “All hands on deck!”
They took the helm and sought new realms
Now they’re off map’s end
All hands lost such is the cost
When time with scorn is blent
And your straight answers spew out bent
And your whims, oh, how you do coddle
You become trapped… ‘pon a ship in a bottle
Between Storms (Guardian)
Shade tree
Sunday morning
Church bells
Don’t stir me
Shore side
Divan of sand
Halo of gulls
Wave song lulls me
Storms there’ve been, storms there’ll be
But the calm now’s, got it’s arms ’round
Just as the bite of scythe’ll make that hay
The scythe will come and cut me down someday
But for now I’m just reaping the quiet of…
Dirt road
Cricket hum
Think I’ll just bum this day away
Branch expanse
Braided ceiling
Backrest
Thank you, old stone for this throne
Storms there’ve been, storms there’ll be
But the calm now’s, got it’s arms ’round
The scythe’s bite, it makes that hay
The scythe will come for me someday
But not now
No, not now
The clock hands scissor and cut
The clock hands have carved me up
And I’m falling, in pieces, confetti in ol’ Father Time’s parade
Let the wind come and gather me up and sweep me someplace above
My mind’s…designs
I’ll see you there, my friend
See you there, if you want to
If you see me there, just wave and let me be
If I see you there, my friend
…And I want to
If I see you there, I’ll just wave and let you be
Let you be…
And let me be…
Tracing Nobodies (Everyman)
Cracked sidewalk, cocktail of smog and wind
Vacant lot grins at what might have been
With nubs of chalk, here I am again
Tracing nobodies
Holes in clocks, days are slipping through
Dreams in lock, still got a few
With nubs of chalk, I see you here too
Tracing nobodies
Everywhere you go footprints are there
Every boat you row is upstream
Every line you toe’s to a race already run, what fun for somebody
Never gonna go to the rainbow’s end
Never in a row to which you were not sent
Never going toe-to-toe with those you think are… somebody
Empty talk spilled upon the floor
Furtive knocks on open doors
Hands with chalk, here we are once more
Tracing nobodies
Sagging box on a frowzy lawn
Dreams to hock, I’ll see you at the pawn
With nubs of chalk and tired arms, here we are
Still tracing nobodies
Everywhere you go footprints are there
Every boat you row is upstream
Every line you toe’s to a race already run, what fun for somebody
Never gonna go to the rainbow’s end
Never in a row to which you were not sent
Never going toe-to-toe with those you think are… somebody
Empty…is the park in the rain
And we…scratch poems out in a drain
Where the names are lost
They never knew the cost of
Empty…aspirations chosen from the wall
And we…dance alone in this crowded hall
No gall to call a different tune
We just keep doin’ what we’re doin’
Tracing nobodies
Chasing nobodies
Tracing nobody
Attic Bracken (1st Passageway)
It so happens, I’m not lackin’ in ports I could call
It so happens, I’m not slackin’, I’m just caught in free fall
And on my wall is your picture and though it’s in a frame
The bracken in my attic has me forgetting your name
And it so happens, one-eyed jacks and the suicide king’s in my hand
It so happens, I’ve lost track of all my demands
And my plan all along was to sing you a song as I rolled the dice
But the bracken in my attic only allowed luck for a price
And I paid it with my youth
Does this truth sound familiar?
Now these pillars are all that remain
Of the castle I once knew
The ceiling’s now stars to blue
And it so happens, this little extract’s from the book of my mind
And it so happens, if you flip to the back you’ll just be wasting your time
‘Cause I’m miming every word that really should be heard
Yeah, this bracken in my attic has me caught spinnin’ verse
And it so happens, there’s a crack in my rear-view mirror
And it just so happens, the fracture’s getting worse every year
And as I peer back at the ways that I got lost in the maze…
Of the bracken in my attic, it leaves me asking you to
Size me up with your pain
And this refrain may sound familiar
Now these pillars are all that remain
Of the castle we once knew
Ceiling’s now stars to blue
And it so happens, there’s a map inked ‘cross the floor
And it so happens, all the crap I believed it orbits ’round the core
Of a door to press my ear to listen as I steer…
Through the bracken in my attic to face what I’ve feared
Through the bracken in my attic to welcome in all my fears
Through the bracken in my attic