Kristin Andreassen 'Gondolier' credits and lyrics

KRISTIN ANDREASSEN

GONDOLIER
Liner Notes & Lyrics

Appearing on Gondolier:

Kristin Andreassen / lead vocal, guitar, piano, organ, body percussion, harmonica

Tom Ayres / guitar, bass

Stephanie Coleman / fiddle

Erik Deutsch / piano, Hammond organ

Rushad Eggleston / cello

Chris Eldridge / guitar

Nico Georis / accordion

Jefferson Hamer / harmony vocals

Lyndon Hardy / harmony vocals

Cassandra Jenkins / harmony vocals

Paul Kowert / bass

Frank Locrasto / piano, organ

Tony Maimone / banjo bass

Robin MacMillan / drums

Ruth Merenda / harmony vocals

Aoife O’Donovan / harmony vocals

Mike Riddleberger / drums

Ryan Scott / guitar 

Jacob Silver / bass

Alec Spiegelman / bass clarinet, clarinet, flute

Lawson White / drums, percussion

Chris Eldridge & Paul Kowert appear courtesy of Nonesuch.

Aoife O’Donovan appears courtesy of Yep Roc Records.

1. THE FISH & THE SEA

If I was a fish in the sea

How could I see the sea

How could I see the sea

If I was a fish in the sea

If I was the wind in the leaves

How would I feel the breeze

How would I feel the breeze

If I was the wind in the leaves

If I was a note in a song

I could feel short or long

Short or long

And what I feel could be wrong

You were never lost so you couldn't be found

We were never stopped so we couldn’t be wound

Just a kernel of corn in a big corn maze

Doesn’t see no puzzle, doesn’t need to know the way

I was never nothing if not your friend

At the start and the middle of a world without end

If I was a fish in a tree

I would feel the breeze

Dry as autumn leaves

If I was a fish in a tree

When we get caught up in the air

That’s when we see the water down there

Now I know, I know I need it on my skin

I know I need it on my skin oh would you throw me

Would you throw me back in

Throw me back in

Throw me back in

Throw me back in

Kristin: electric guitar / Cassandra: harmony vocals /

Robin: drums / Chris: electric & acoustic guitar /

Jacob: bass / Alec: clarinet, bass clarinet & flute

2. LOOKOUT

One if by land, two if by sea

Three if by time, and that I would believe

The future’s camped out there like a sleeping army

Three if by time, four if by air

I’ll climb up in the steeple with a feather in my hair

And light the lamps that tell you what I see out there

I was always looking out for you

Would you let me be your lookout

I was always looking out for you

Will you be my lookout now?

A bird in the wind flies steady like a weathervane

A bird in a storm is a marionette on strings of rain

So you got pulled around by the hurricane

And with every revolution, it’s crawling up the coast

I got a flashlight and a flask, but I need a friend the most

You been up and down, tell me what you know

Chorus

Looking out for the right time

Holding on for the good time

One if by land, two if by sea

Three if by time, and that you should believe

The future’s marching on a sleeping army

Chorus

Looking out for the right time

Holding on for the good time

Waiting up for the right time

Looking out for the good time

Kristin: harmonica / Jefferson: harmony vocals /

Robin: drums, percussion & bass / Ryan: electric guitar /

Chris: acoustic & electric guitar

3. ‘SIMMON

You get a line, honey, and I’ll get a pole

Together we’ll go down to that old crawdad hole

Where we set down our blanket on the green  grassy ground

Catching catfish by the dozen and crawdads by the pound

I’ve got a memory, so strong

Of Indian summer and a corny old song, babe

August was hot, and the lake has gone dry

We’ll just stand on the banks and watch the old crawdads die

Raccoon chased the possum, oh look what they found

A black tree with bright fruit and the branches bowed down

I’ve got a camera, so new

It makes color pictures like only paints used to do, babe

You climb on up, honey, and I’ll stay right here

I’ll catch what you throw me, I can see it so clear

The fruit was exactly the color of the sun

As seen through closed eyes when the afternoon’s humming, babe

You ride the grey mare, and I’ll ride the roan

You ride the G Train, and I’ll just walk home

I’ve got a camera, so old

It takes old timey pictures where silver stands in for gold

You ate a fruit, it was perfectly round

And the color of the sun when it’s close to the ground

Don’t you remember it, when we were kids

The color of sunshine as seen through closed eyelids, babe

Kristin: guitar / Jefferson: harmony vocal / Stephanie: fiddle /

Chris: guitar / Paul: bass / Mike: drums / Lawson: triangle /

Erik: piano & Hammond organ / Alec: clarinet

4. HOW THE WATER WALKS

I hear, I hear, footsteps on the rocks

Oh not, that’s just the water, that’s how it walks

Down in the bunker, with the night watch on the shore

We try to sleep until we don’t try anymore

Dawn has barely broken when they call us up above

I’m thinking only of my life, sorry my love

Our guns are big as boats and their boats are small as birds

We are the hunter and the prey awaiting the word

As the cannons find the silence, you know I fear the worst

That someone will live to tell how I fired first

I feel, I feel the wind is pushing me around

But the wind is just the air when it’s falling down

Oh the wind is just the air falling down

Kristin: body percussion & piano / Rushad: cello /

Alec: bass clarinet, clarinet & flute

5. THE NEW GROUND

Here on the new ground, oh what will we grow

Here on the new ground, what seeds will we sow

I know, I know, I know

You know I loved the trees, it pained me to take them down

I traded them for sunlight and the bright new ground

Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go

Oh, the stones were heavy. It muscled up my back

A fence, a field and a house we made, the firewood neatly stacked

Hard row, hard row, hard row

Kneel down to the buzzard and bow to the crow

The earth is black as a bird’s wing and braided in corn rows

Just so, just so, just so

Kristin: baritone ukulele / Jefferson: guitar & background

vocals / Tony: banjo bass / Paul: acoustic bass /

Lawson: percussion / Alec: flute

6. AZALEA

It can get cold in Louisiana.

Colder than northerners know.

We can plug in the heat in the kitchen

But cold air finds the holes in the floor.

It can get cold in Louisiana.

Rice fields fields drawn in brown and grey ink.

But right there in winter, I’ll show you a flower

A cornet cast in purplish pink.

Azalea, I won’t fail ya.

After our party last weekend

When the band and the dancers had gone.

The rain and the flames and the mud and the boots

Together had conquered the lawn.

I thought on how everything transforms.

Fire to smoke, smoke to air, air to breathing.

I thought on how everything’s transforming me

But I’ll change like a tree, slow and even.

Azalea, I won’t fail ya.

Kristin: guitar / Ruth & Lyn: harmony vocals / Robin: drums / Tom: electric guitar & electric baritone guitar / Jacob: bass / Alec: clarinet, bass clarinet & flute

7. THE BOAT SONG

When I was a girl, I wished I was a boy

I had a dog, I wished it was a horse

We lived by the freeway, I thought it was the ocean,

Sounded like a seashell in my sleep in the night

I would go riding and I would go sailing

All the while bouncing a ball at the wall

And I was a gondolier, pushing through Venice

I was a tour guide of my own heart’s desires

Over there I’m a painter, over there I’m a builder,

Over there I’m a cab driver who knows every street

But I can’t find the bridge, or is it a ferry

Some way to cross over, some way to connect

No man is an island, but most of us choose one

There are islands for bakers and bankers

 and thieves.

And you row & row & row your boat on down the baby river

Row it oh so gently, as though life were but a dream

For some reason my dreams are all about water

It replaces the concrete, I can breathe it like air

Perhaps in a past life, I was a great swimmer

Or maybe in this life, I’m destined to drown

I’m destined to choose. So it’s been foretold

Sure enough, as I’ve chosen, my destiny is unfolding

Row & row & row your boat on down the baby river

Row it oh so gently, as though life were but a dream                   

But oh, I know, that dreaming is not living

So many lives there are to land upon,

The dreams just flow between

When I am an old man, I’ll wish I was a girl

I’ll wish I had parents. I’m sure that it’s true

I will want a tour then of my own heart’s desires

So many, so varied, all softened with time

No man is an island, but most of us choose one

There are islands for hustlers and mothers and kings

But the fearless explorers, they find secret passageways

Through melting obstacles. They move up

 and downstream

Saying look out for the rocks. Lean into the wind.

Look into your heart. Look out for your friends.

Hold fast to the oars. Maybe wait for the full moon.

Look up at the sky. Look down at your hands.

And row & row & row your boat on down the baby river

Row it oh so gently as though life were but a dream

But you and I know that dreaming is not living

So many dreams each night to lie upon,

And one life between the dreams

Kristin: organ, Wurlitzer & background vocals / Aoife: background vocals / Alec: clarinet, bass clarinet & flute / Robin: drums & percussion / Tom: bass

8. SUNNY ABOVE THE CLOUDS

Go on, would you tell me just a little bit more about that place

Go on, you’d rather be there even now, I can see it in your face

Go on, you took your hand from mine, you think  I’d hold you here

But don’t think I don’t remember what you whispered in my ear

It was sunny above the clouds

Sunny till the plane came down

If I don’t keep on moving I fall like rain on the ground

Sunny above the clouds,

Sunny till the plane came down

I fell without a warning, I didn’t make a sound

Go on, you’re not the only one gets jealous of the birds when they fly south

Go on, you’re not the only one who’s tried the taste of metal in your mouth

Go on, you heard me right, I’m enough like you to know you’ve mapped the entrances and the exits but the courage, it comes and goes

Chorus

Go on, at home we watch the sky and you say there’s sunshine way up there

So go, you’d take one look and then you’d fall

What would you hold onto but air

You’re right, with us down here there is no true and constant sun

We just have time, and we have weather

And some have faith

Don’t come undone

Kristin : guitar / Ruth: banjo & harmony vocal / Aoife: harmony vocal / Robin: drums / Chris: electric & acoustic guitar / Jacob: bass

9. THE APPLE SONG

 (ONE MORE TIME)

If there was an apple, it’s all gone now

Even the stem and the seeds, she don’t remember how

Once her skin was golden but she stayed till it burned

Fell asleep in the sunshine, you would think she’d learn

If you gave her sweet lemon pie, she’d ask for lime

If you gave her eight days a week, she’d hold out for nine

Now she says she wants to fall in love

One more time

If there was a garden, they’ve closed the gate

Our friend she is knocking, she knows that she’s late

Empty with hunger, she whispers with thirst

I know you don’t trust her, you saw her at her worst

When she begged for a nickel and you gave her a dime

And she still showed up on Sunday to drink the free wine

Now she says she wants to fall in love one more time

If you gave her an apple, she’d plant the seed

Kneel in the garden, get dirt on her knees

There would be sweet trees and shade if she had her way

Somehow I believe her when I hear her say

That she could be true, she could even be kind

Could see it through, finish the line

She could be true, she could even be kind

Do you think you could spare her one more rhyme?

Would you let her fall in love

She only wants to fall in love

Asking please to fall in love

Begging please to fall in love

Would you let her fall in love

One more time?

Kristin: guitar / Ruth, Lyn & Aoife: harmony vocals / Robin: drums / Tom Ayres: electric guitar & bass

10. SOME DO

Not every oyster hides a pearl

Some questions don’t want an answer

If you’re counting all the raindrops, some never find the thirsty grass

But some do

How bout me and you?

Not many horses run the Derby

Some clocks just don’t keep good time

If you’re counting every snowflake, not many find an outstretched hand

But some do

How bout me and you?

How many hearts go untested?

How many loves go untasted?

How many listened when they said

Only a love saved is wasted?

Not every river finds the ocean

Not all the oceans grow with time

If you’re counting every kindness, some never find a grateful heart

But some do

How bout me and you?

I have got a heart that’s untested.

I’ve got a little bit of love left untasted.

The wiser ones, I once heard they said

Only a love saved is wasted.

Only a love unspent is wasted.

Not every song becomes a favorite

Not all good books get read again

If you’re counting every raindrop, some never find the thirsty grass

But some do

How bout me and you?

Kristin: tenor guitar & harmonica / Chris: guitar / Lawson: tambourine

Produced, Recorded & Mixed by Robin MacMillan

Except Tracks 3, 5 & 10 Produced, Recorded & Mixed by Lawson White

Track 2 vocals recorded by Jefferson Hamer

Track 7 mixed by Adam Armstrong

Mastered at Engine Room Audio by Dan Millice

Woodwinds arranged by Alec Spiegelman

Body percussion on “How the Water Walks” choreographed by Sandy Silva

Executive Producer Chris Eldridge

Cover art Doug Chayka

Photographs Laura Crosta

Album layout Claire Taylor Hansen

All songs by Kristin Andreassen / Yellowcar Music, ASCAP

All rights controlled & administered by Yellowcar Music, ASCAP

Most of these songs were either started or finished in a cabin on Three Mile Island in Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire. For the past few years, I’ve carefully guarded a week in June for a trip to this island where I write with a group of friends known as the Sub Rosa Collective. Thanks to all the musicians in that crew, and to the Passim Iguana Music Fund for supporting our work.

Thank you to all the artists who contributed to this project. I’m in awe of you

talents. Sincere thanks also to Molly Driessen, Brad Paul, Nick Loss-Eaton,

Paul Loren, Tom Krueger, Alex Marvar, Launa Schweizer, Buck McAllister,

Rob Rock, Amy Helfand, Lucas Miller, everyone who backed the album on

Pledge Music, my Miles of Music Camp “family” and my real life family,

especially Mom and Dad. Special double thanks to Aoife, Critter and Michelle.

Thanks above all to Robin MacMillan, whose suggestion that I make a record was

just the first of his many tireless and soulful contributions to this project.