MORE THAN JUST BONES
lyricS
ONLY THE DEAD
With an old shaking hand by a candle light flame
A secret bleeds ink into a page
In the upper Ohio in a cabin once raised
By the hands dancing shadows into the planks
The fall of Thirteen on the Canada shore
Long knives hung from the jackets we wore
Air so heavy it dripped from the limbs
Along the King’s Road, we were soaked to the skin
In the whites in the eyes in the screams in the horse
In the shattering bones in the musketball’s course
The blood and the whiskey won’t cease in its pour
Cause it’s only the dead know the end of a war
It was two years before when I’d fled to the woods
Unarmed and outnumbered and helpless I stood
They whooped and they howled and they cut my wife down
And the scalps of my children bled into the ground
I carried their memories into the charge
Through the gunsmoke hanging blue in the marsh
We choked and we chopped and we shot and we screamed
Till the Indians melted back into the trees
In the whites in the eyes in the screams in the horse
In the shattering bones in the musketball’s course
The blood and the whiskey won’t cease in its pour
Cause it’s only the dead know the end of a war
An Indian crawled and bled through the grass
And I stood there above him on the edge of the path
He sputtered his last as I severed his head
No rest for the wicked, no glory in death
I carried it back to the land that I own
To the land of his people where I built my home
Now where his skull lies, where I sit here and write
Me and that warrior still fight every night
In the whites in the eyes in the screams in the horse
In the shattering bones in the musketball’s course
The blood and the whiskey won’t cease in its pour
Cause it’s only the dead know the end of a war
So to you now reading this dying man’s pleas
Please carry this letter to the Shawnee
To the banks of the Thames, north a long Erie shore
Deliver this skull to the bones it once wore
That two old friends find the end of a war
DRIVE ME AROUND
In the mirror, I see the wrinkles on my face
And the paint on the side of this truck peelin away
I see you laughin, when I first pulled it up your drive
Screen door slammin yellin ‘baby, won’t ya give me a ride’
Drive me around, toward that bridge on the edge of town
Just you and me and some road that we ain’t been down
Drive me around, find our own little patch of ground
Where we can put in roots and spread our branches out
Drive me around
Across the bench seat, I see you holdin our baby girl
What a whirlwind we stepped into when she stepped into our world
We were clueless, we had the one and then two more
And all five of us would squeeze between these doors
Drive me around, across that bridge on the edge of town
Just you and me and some road that we ain’t been down
Drive me around, find our own little patch of ground
So we can put in roots and spread our branches out
Time rolls down the blacktop
For years, these four wheels pulled the backdrop of our lives
In the mirror, the sunset in your eyes
A whisper from the middle seat, ‘just a few more miles’
Drive me around, across that bridge on the edge of town
Just you and me and some road that we ain’t been down
Drive me around, find our own little patch of ground
Where we can put in roots and spread our branches out
Drive me around, across that bridge on the edge of town
Just you and me and some road that we ain’t been down
Drive me around, find our own little patch of ground
Where we can put in roots and spread our branches out
Just you and me and some road that we ain’t been down
Drive me around
sing along
Cady Jane is stacking blocks, some below and some on top
Sittin on her three-wheel bike, not givin a thought to the passing time
Ain’t that like a little kid, the only moment is the one we’re in
Cady Jane don’t know this song, but if she did she’d sing along
Oh, oh oh oh, oh oh oh
Old dog’s on the couch asleep, and there’s raccoons runnin through his dreams
And he must be right on their tail, cause his legs is twitchin and his teeth are bared
Ain’t that like an old dog, when he’s dreamin he’s dreamin young
My old dog don’t know this song, but if he did he’d sing along
Sing along
Oh, oh oh oh, oh oh oh
Oh, oh oh oh, oh oh oh
You’re somewhere drivin in your car, and I don’t know who you are
And you ain’t ever heard of me, or any of these songs I sing
Ain’t that just like a first, it’s tough to make it to the final verse
You don’t even know this song, but even so you’ll sing along
Sing along
Oh, oh oh oh, oh oh oh
Oh, oh oh oh, oh oh oh
I’m sittin in my living room, I might of had a beer or two
My daughter’s playin, my dog’s asleep, and somehow you’re still here with me
Ain’t that just like a writer, one more verse, I guess I’m a liar
One more verse in this song, one more chance to sing along
Sing along
Oh, oh oh oh, oh oh oh
Oh, oh oh oh, oh oh oh
Oh, oh oh oh, oh oh oh
Oh, oh oh oh, oh oh oh
Oh, oh oh oh, oh oh oh
in my arms again
With the crashin of the seas
In the salt upon the breeze
We been hidin from the morning through the night
But the sun is set to rise
And the sailor in your eyes
Made a promise to a captain for a price
My boots upon the planks
Beat a rhythm in my wake
Men shout beyond the lantern light
Pull the anchor, drop the sails
Kiss your women, say your prayers
Get right with your god if you're inclined
I'm gonna hold you in my arms again
Just as sure as the North Atlantic wind
As sure as the tide
As day is light, as dark is night
I'm gonna hold you in my arms again
You dissolve into the fog
Kerchief waves, a barkin dog
Defends a gut pile of sea gull cries
In the green and blue and gray
We pull away into the spray
On the surface of a tomb built of brine
We loaded up our hulls
Buckin breakers down the coast
Packin coffers for king and crown
I been the deck under the die
Parried the point of the knife
And felt Poseidon try to pull my ankles down
But I'm gonna hold you in my arms again
Just as sure as the North Atlantic wind
As sure as the tide
As day is light, as dark is night
I'm gonna hold you in my arms again
After eleven months or more
My boots upon the shore
Approach a home dark and cold as the night
Nailed into the boards
On the outside of our door
Fightin wind in my lantern light
I found a note, someone wrote
Of a house they call a home
To the broken and alone of the world
It read of a mother passed along
A father's whereabouts unknown
And a two-month old orphan baby girl
So it's here upon these rocks
Upwind from the docks
I tell our daughter tales of life upon the sea
My arm around her tight
I never leave her side
Cause there's a promise to her mother I must keep
I'm gonna hold you in my arms again
Just as sure as the North Atlantic wind
As sure as the tide
As day is light, as dark is night
I'm gonna hold you in my arms again
Just as sure as the North Atlantic wind
As sure as the tide
As day is light, as dark is night
I'm gonna hold you in my arms again
I'm gonna hold you in my arms again
I'm gonna hold you in my arms again
I'm gonna hold you in my arms again
before you were gone
The sky’s havin trouble lifting itself off the ground
So it’s lookin through every window surrounding the house
The fog and the cold are burrowing into my bones
Drippin down windows that used to look into a home
Before you were gone, before you were gone
Before you were gone, before you were gone
I’m havin trouble lifting myself off the couch
Under the eyes of these windows surrounding the house
Remnants in boxes and bags packed up with a home
Who wrapped us in rafters and walls that were more than just bones
Before you were gone, before you were gone
Before you were gone, before you were gone
That cold dark stove, would throw a warm orange glow
Across your darling face, and it would warm this place
With the fire you held in the pools in your eyes
In the walls and the windows that held off the nights
And echoed the laughter held in by the ceiling
With all of the life and the feeling
Before you were gone, before you were gone
Before you were gone, before you were gone
All songs written by Joe Stamm (“Wolf Man” co-written with Dave Glover)
(c) 2025 Den Tree Records, JSM Publishers (ASCAP)