1. |
Right Side of the River
03:20
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RIGHT SIDE OF THE RIVER
Lisa Bastoni & Sean Staples
For every bleeding heart on the bank there is a sinking stone
For every little flat rock skipped, somebody’s feeling alone
And it’s so easy to get lost in the undertow
When you’re pulled down deeper than you ever meant to go
And I’ve been worn down by the water and the wind
I swore I’d never go that way again
I’m on the right side of
The right side of
The right side of the river
I won’t drown for love
Don’t the water look good shining like diamonds and gold
Can’t you lose yourself, looking for a hand to hold
And didn’t I give all of my good years to the dread and the doubt
Sometimes it takes a while to figure it out
I’m on the right side of
The right side of
The right side of the river
I won’t drown for love
and so one day you just get tired of fighting for air
and you realize that the current just don’t care
I’ve been worn down by the water and the wind
I’m coming up and breathing again
I’m on the right side of
The right side of
The right side of the river
I won’t drown for love
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2. |
Starlight
03:11
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Starlight
Lisa Bastoni & Sean Staples
It’s another morning
Your head’s all in a spin
You hear the night birds warning
You never learned to let them in
So you close your eyes
And you lie there feeling small
Thinking everything you’ve got
Is just a blind luck blessing after all
You’ve been waiting too long for the starlight
You won’t get far thinking that the bar might
Be everything that’s gonna make it alright
I’ve been down that road
Yeah, we all spend time grieving
‘Cause someone’s always leaving
But there’s still something to believe in
This much I know
A lover’s breath
Whispered on your cheek
A song you heard
With the line that made you weak
The late night drive
That had you laughing like a kid
They all helped you find the floor
Now they’re not working like they did
Ah, the world’s so goddamned big
When did you learn to stop crying
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3. |
Cheap Wine
04:14
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CHEAP WINE
Lisa Bastoni & Sean Staples
There’s a funny old half moon
Sitting on top of the pine tree
There’s a flood light backlight
When you sit down beside me
The stars are dancing on the waves
of the neighbor’s brand new pool
You tell me, “look on the bright side
we got a waterfront view”
We’re still drinking the cheap wine after all this time
And it makes me wonder if I’ve done something wrong
Always for the love, never for the money
Just making it up as we go along, as we go along
The way the market is
It was the best that we could find
The kids share a room
For now they don’t seem to mind
There’s chickens in the backyard
And casting spells with the girl next door
When I mention maybe moving
They look at me and ask what for
It’s the middle of September
The thermostat's still broken from last year
Sometimes I need you to remind me
We got lucky landing here
Some people live to work
You and I, we work to live
And if you don’t draw a line
They’ll take all you have to give
Counting dirty subway dollars
That wasn’t wasted time
Just because there’s a ladder
doesn’t mean you have to climb
Chorus
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4. |
Hometown
03:17
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HOMETOWN
Lisa Bastoni
Your living room is Kelly green
Watching Days of Our Lives on the TV screen
Flowers on the couch and the window shades
I have to stay for dinner
Cause my mom is running late
Waiting by the window
There’s a fence outside
And a burned out house
Covered in vines
And I don’t know if they ever tore it down
Cause I never went back to my hometown
I never went back to my hometown
Your sister comes home from the soccer game
She never stops talking ‘bout what’s-his-name
Your father opens up a second can of beer
And there’s a hole in the wall and it’s always been there
Your mother wipes the table
She’s stacking the plates
And if you ask about the wall
She’ll just look away
Cause some things you don’t say out loud
And I never like to talk about my hometown
Yeah, I don’t want to talk about my hometown
Jewelweeds growing in your backyard
We could stay out there until the sky got dark
Playing flashlight tag and kick the can
You were a boy
But you were my best friend
I can still remember when you moved away
How the grass grew through the gravel
In your old driveway
I wonder how you’re doing now
If you ever made it back to our hometown
If you ever made it back to our hometown
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5. |
Honeymoon in Disneyland
03:29
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HONEYMOON IN DISNEYLAND
Lisa Bastoni
She was standing on the front porch of his parents’ house
He was leaning on the horn out in the driveway
She wore a golden cross on a chain around her neck
His mother said “You’re not a Christian but you need all the help that you can get”
She spent half a year in Boston but she got married last week
She went from dropping out of school to dropping acid on Calf Pasture Beach
They were just babies having a baby
Salty as the water, smooth as sand
On the way down, on the long way down
Honeymoon in Disneyland
The radio played I Got You Babe
And though she couldn’t hold a tune she sang along
When they stopped for gas, he bought her a Twinkie
Got himself a six pack of Jax for later on
His eyes were on the road, she was looking at the floor
Wondering why he hardly said a word between New York and Baltimore
They were sleeping in a pink motel with an outside entrance
Standing in line with ice cream cones
Calling home collect from a payphone in the dark
Speeding down on unfamiliar roads
You could fill a house with all the things they didn’t know
Or just a tiny apartment above a funeral home
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6. |
Only Goodbye
03:57
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ONLY GOODBYE
Lisa Bastoni
I wish I could stay here
And see you tomorrow
I wish I didn’t feel this
September sorrow
I look out your window
It’s all sidewalks and rain
And too many days
Til I see you again
I wish I didn’t cry
It’s not too long a drive
Nobody died
I just had a good time
So I don’t know why
I’ve got tears in my eyes
It’s nothing, only goodbye
I wish you could hold me
Til I feel all right
Turn back the clock
And turn off the light
Cause the hours drag on babe
And it’s only Monday
And the years seem to fly by
Like leaves in the doorway
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7. |
Let's Look at Houses
03:04
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LET'S LOOK AT HOUSES
Lisa Bastoni & Willi Carlisle
Half the paint is peeling off the back porch stairs
The grass has grown so high it looks like no one’s living here
Somewhere in the weeds is a busted garden hose
Does it even matter if the garden never grows
I’d do anything for you except get a divorce
Let’s get it on all morning like the teenagers we were
Let’s hold each other’s hands as if we’ll never get bored
Let’s look at houses we know we can't afford
All I want to do is work, but it’s been raining all week
Why come to you for love when Old Milwaukee tastes so sweet
They say sinners never prosper, I guess we ain’t prospered yet
If we send our bills to heaven, will Jesus pay the rent
I’d do anything for you except get a divorce
Let’s get it on all morning like the teenagers we were
Let’s hold each other’s hands as if we’ll never get bored
Let’s look at houses we know we can't afford
If you preach the prosperity gospel
You’ll think you’re awesome
Until the market falls
Can you pass through the eye of a needle
Are you good to people
We’re not living wrong
It’s the third pass of a rag over old linoleum
It’s the dishes piled so high that the water cannot run
And it’s the way you look at me that I know you’re still the one
And when you lay down beside me when all the work is done
I’d do anything for you except get a divorce
Let’s get it on all morning like the teenagers we were
Let’s hold each other’s hands as if we’ll never get bored
Let’s look at houses we know we can't afford
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8. |
Waxwing
02:41
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WAXWING
Lisa Bastoni
A cedar waxwing landed on my doorstep
Last night, last night
Picked her up with a heavy shovel
So light, so light
Muddy gray with a flash of yellow in the
Blue sky, blue sky
Lying in the ivy but her soul flies
So high, so high
You can stand in the doorway and listen for her call
You can wait there all day but you won’t hear
Anything at all
Too many berries and her heart stopped
Drunk on fruit, drunk on fruit
I can’t sleep, I’m waiting on the sunrise
Thinking of you, thinking of you
Oooh, oooh
You can stand in the doorway and listen for her call
You can wait there all day but you won’t hear
Anything at all
I can’t sleep, I’m waiting on the sunrise
I can’t sleep, I’m waiting on the sunrise
Oooh, oooh
Oooh, oooh
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9. |
Wish It Would Last
02:51
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WISH IT WOULD LAST
Lisa Bastoni
I’m lying next to you in the small twin bed
Of your childhood home
Cold sun shining through dirty glass
I wish it would last
Two cups of tea on your bedside table
Two orange peels in perfect spirals
Your face is so close to mine
I wish it would last
I wish it would last
Outside we walk through the woods by your house
Yellow leaves on the ground
Somebody’s playing piano inside
The summer is over
I wish it would last
I ask about school you tell me it’s fine
You tell me I should come up there
And visit sometime
You find an old deer skull just off the path
I wish it would last
I wish it would last
I wish it would last
I wish it would last
I moved away, I never went back
If you looked for me now
How would you find me
Cold sun shining through dirty glass
I wish it would last
I wish it would last
I wish it would last
I wish it would last
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10. |
Nora's Guitar
03:31
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NORA'S GUITAR
Lisa Bastoni & Sean Staples
The night I met Nora, she was sitting in the corner
A firefly in a jar
Thirteen years old, she’s got her mother’s eyes
She was playing her father’s guitar
She started to strum, the strings came unbound
And without the strings you can’t make a sound
It’s Nora’s guitar now
A screen door swung open, the sound of strangers laughing
Barefoot children running through
And I said know you don’t know me but I knew your dad and
I know how much he loved you
There was no more to say, but I hoped she would sing
So we sat on the floor and changed all the strings
It’s Nora’s guitar now
It’s a bridge and a boat
For the young and the wise
It’s black and white
And it’s three quarter size
And it’s Nora’s guitar now
So what do we do with these unfinished gifts
May they keep you and carry you, too
You’ve got your mother and your little brother
And all of the stars above you
And you’ll never be lonely, you’ll always belong
With a couple of chords and a handful of songs
It’s Nora’s guitar
It’s Nora’s guitar now
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11. |
Bluebonnets
03:20
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BLUEBONNETS
Lisa Bastoni
About a mile up the road you can stop for gas
By the graveyard under the overpass
Tried living in Austin for a year and a half
Now you’re nine hours east with the sun at your back
And the humming of the highway shaking you loose
You got caught in a rut, stuck in a groove
Pack it all up and get lost in the move
And look at those bluebonnets so pretty in the rearview
You found a temporary job to pay the rent
Those hot sidewalks and all your money spent
Feeling small trying to make it big
Sweating through your dress at the ice house gig
To the fiddle player singing by the pool
And the tattooed mother smoking in the laundry room
And the all night beer can hockey games play on
Play on, so long
You were always down and in your mind
There was nothing you couldn’t leave behind
You couldn’t see it then ‘cause you were still so green
Nothing you couldn’t fix with a change of scene
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12. |
Out at Sea
05:42
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OUT AT SEA
Lisa Bastoni
When you are on the water
You never feel any pain
So you turned your house into a boat
And you floated clear away
You are at home
When you are out at sea
You can be gone a hundred years
And still sail back to me
When you were gone I was drifting
Though I never left the shore
Searching the sky for an answer
That I find I don't need anymore
You are at home
When you are out at sea
You can be gone a hundred years
And still sail back to me
I’m watching you in the captain’s seat
Untangling some old fishing line
Maybe someday you’ll tell me
I’m glad you rolled in with the tide
You are at home
When you are out at sea
You can be gone a hundred years
And still sail back to me
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Lisa Bastoni Northampton, Massachusetts
Lisa Bastoni is a 2019 and 2020 Boston Music Award nominee (Folk) , and winner of the 2019 Kerrville New Folk Contest. "Americana of the highest order...along the lines of Gretchen Peters or Patty Griffin." (Maverick-UK). She lives in Northampton, MA.
Lisa Bastoni recommends:
Timeless folk/rock/Americana from a Boston gem (and I got to sing/co-write on a couple of the songs, too!).
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