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The Beloved Country

by Kevin Brown

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Tri-fold CD digipak complete with lyrics and original artwork by Katherine Nelson (www.katherinenelsonart.com).

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1.
I'm going to the country, where the wild breezes blow like whispers through the cottonwood groves. I'll be taking off my shoes where the ripplin' waters flow; beloved is the country I know. Chorus: Where the names of the rivers run like music, and the names of the mountains roll like stones, and the name that I hear such a sweet voice calling is my own, is my own. I'm going to the country, the harvest has begun, the golden fields are shining in the sun. The land of milk and honey is in the cow and the 'comb; beloved is the country, my home. (Chorus) There's thunder in the distance, there's a hunger on the wind, the storm clouds are gathering. They're going to spill the banks of heaven's joy upon the earth below; beloved is the country, I know. (Chorus) I'm going to the country on a feather and a prayer, and there's no freeway from here to there. I have heard the whispers on the early morning breeze: "Beloved is the country". (Chorus)
2.
There's a summer rain approaching from over in the west, it hangs out in the valley like a soft, silk dress. I can smell it like a perfume carried on the wind. How big is this world we're living in? It was a silver summer midnight such a long time ago, I was lit up by that desert moon in New Mexico, and the fire in her eyes, and the freight train in my chest... lord, I can still taste that kiss! Chorus: All this world will pass away I know, but I will take it with me when I go. Five nickel strings and nice steady roll, a river from the fiddler tumbles and falls. It flows like whiskey, it sings like the skies; that's what I hear when I close my eyes. Will you dance with me darling in a soft summer rain? Can I tell you my heart, can I give you my name? Can I lie down beside you inside your embrace and drink the wine of your sweet face? (Chorus) When I go like a sparrow, when I go like a kite, When I go like a last breath into the night, I'll carry all my treasures onto that angel train and I'll ride off into the approaching summer rain. (Chorus)
3.
Desert Wind 03:41
Desert wind, I'm blown away like a desert wind. Been to Zion and back again, wandering, sifting sand. High and dry, tossing caution to a thirsty sky. The bottle's empty now and so am I. I'm capsized, bleary-eyed. Chorus: I'm just too far down a Utah highway to ever gain control again, I'll just keep blowing like a desert wind. Ceiling fan, I'm wired up like a ceiling fan, hot and bothered like a poker hand in the Promised Land, I'll be damned. Spins my head, the Book of Mormon by the motel bed, looking lonesome like it ain't been read. Go ahead... (Chorus) Mandolins, Spanish guitars inside my head. Let's skip the town and paint the desert red, Sunsets, silhouettes... ...Thunderclouds. Such a sky for crying out loud. Hard tears on the barren ground, falling down, they just keep falling down. (Chorus)
4.
Ocean 04:09
There's an ocean in your eyes, deep and true and royal blue, a mariner's delight. The color sure becomes you, it's where I will abide. I will row my little boat across the ocean wide. I set my course towards your love. I feel the way the moon is pulling at you from above. When I take my leisure it's in the pleasures of my life upon the ocean of your love. Oh my ocean... On the horizons of your smile, I always like to linger there for a little while, swirling in the eddies, drifting with the tide, and when the warm breezes blow you take me for a ride. Upon the currents of your laugh, wild and free it buoys me upon my wayward craft. If I drown, you can take this for my epitaph: "He found his way to heaven on her laugh" Oh my ocean... There's an ocean in your eyes, and I have been swept away by the ocean's rise. Until my journey's over this will be my paradise, sailing on the ocean in your eyes. Oh my ocean... Oh my ocean...
5.
I Wonder 03:32
Ships set sail, oceans swell. The planet spins like a wound-up carousel. Parrots talk, pirates plunder, and I wonder, I wonder, I wonder. The henhouse wakes, the garden glistens, the Aspens quake, the Quaker listens. The wind blows 'round, above and through and under. And I wonder, I wonder, I wonder. Money talks, good feet stumble, opportunity knocks, cookies crumble. How much cake does it take to feed the hunger? I wonder, I wonder, I wonder. Christmas comes, children light their candles. Empty tombs spew out their Advent Scandals. Love reigns, the skies thunder. And I wonder, I wonder, I wonder
6.
When I go out at night, I don't mean to do no wrong. But the nightlife it just calls to me and I've got to go along. I slowly close the door, try not to wake my wife, they're all asleep and no one knows when I go out at night. When I go out at night, it's a kind o' restlessness. Something still within me from those wilder days I guess. And she's waiting for me in the shadows past the back porch light... My old dog just runs around when I go out at night. When I go out at night, I'm a dancing drunken fool. I'm wearing my old cowboy hat, I must look pretty cool, alone there in my backyard, no one to see the sight, just drinking up that midnight sky when I go out at night. They say the night life ain't no good life for a home-lovin' man. But I guess that that just depends on where it is you stand. When I go out at night and I stand beneath the stars, there ain't no jukebox playing and there ain't no broken hearts, but there's wood smoke on the wind tonight and that moon is such a sight all wrapped up in that midnight sky when I go out at night. Yeah there's wood smoke on the wind tonight and that moon is such a sight... Excuse me while I kiss the sky, when I go out at night.
7.
I like the slow ones, the languid days of June. Walk out past the fence line on a lazy afternoon. The tall grass moves like water when the wind says something wild. I am a child, I am a child. I like the slow ones, those sad old country songs. Steel guitars and midnight bars and someone done you wrong. There's just something about the harmony, something about the moon. I'm in tune, I'm in tune. Chorus: I've been running at full throttle for so long! I'm gonna park my El Dorado out behind the barn, and sit there ëtil the dawn, and watch the day become one of the slow ones. I like the slow ones, yeah, those ones are the best. Curled up like two old love birds in our empty nest. You know me like a heartbeat, You warm me like a fire when I'm tired, and I'm so tired. (Chorus)
8.
St. Valentine's Day (free) 03:57
There's a braided old rope on the Cape of Good Hope, and a small wooden boat tied up tight. Joseph and Laura climbed down to the shore and eloped off into the night. They bore their devotion into a confluence of oceans, their faces showing no fear. Innocent as feathers they sailed off together. The weather looked rather unclear. In the wild frozen north on an Icelandic fjord a courtship was sweetly begun when Stefanson's daughter jumped into the water with Olafur Vigfus' son. As the sky exploded in tulips and roses they burned like torches ablaze. Beneath the Borealis in a cozy ice palace they swore they'd love each other for always. Chorus: Well, hey, it's St Valentine's Day. Who knows what a rose might suppose on Valentine's Day? Sometimes love gets carried away, but it's only St Valentine's Day. Mildred and Bill drove up the hill in an old Coup de Ville in the rain. The tired engine sputtered, Bill quietly muttered "Aw, this old girl is showing her age. Hold on my dear! Soon we'll be there, the doctor will know what to say." But as they passed by the park she clutched her sweet heart, and softly and tenderly faded away. (Chorus)
9.
All the pretty girls are growing older.  I don’t know why they always want to call me “sir”.  The tattooed ponies prance across their shoulders.  The years gallop past us in a blur. All the old boys are down at the casino With the Rock and Roll Legends from a long time ago.  The Mustangs, Corvettes and El Caminos Are lined up like stallions in a row. Hold on tight to the tender hands of time. Buddy, it’s an uphill climb.  When I told you I would love you forever,  I did not know the distance — does that mean I lied?  But you held me close in my hour of darkness, a And you loved me like forever when I cried. Hold on tight with your tender hands of time. Darlin’, it’s an uphill climb.  When this tired world comes to some conclusion,  And beauty falls like manna from skies so sublime,  We will wonder how we suffered our illusions  When we let go of the tender hands of time. Hold on tight to the tender hands of time. Man, it’s an uphill climb.
10.
On the leeward side of wintertime, the world puts on her weary boots and wanders through the sad, sodden snow. No longer the girl in the wedding gown, from not too long ago. Tethered to a memory, a picture postcard virgin world of freshly fallen snow, I stumble through the freezing rain to hunker down by my fire's glow. Chorus: Northeast of Eden, where February doesn't want to go, hearts are growing heavy trying to bear the weight of fallen snow. There's an old dodge in the ditch, and a dead horse down on Dunn Road -- the blood covers the snow. welcome to the Wild West in the wintertime, please drive slow. (Chorus) Today I heard the news about your break up, and it caught me unaware, such a sad state of affairs, you never know... Seems like no one ever stays together any more. (Chorus)
11.
Comfort (free) 05:24
It's as if you've always known that it was coming, like an echo from the hour when you were born. Your mother spoke strange new words of comfort in answer to a question that you could not form. There was a steady hand holding things together just when it seemed it all might come undone. When the shadow of your doubt stretched out before you, the light right behind you was the rising sun. Chorus: All I'm saying is I hear the sound of thunder like a locomotive rolling through the rain. In the darkness of the night I often wonder if comfort is not too far away. Comfort is not too far away. All the rocks that you've been throwing thru the windows of the old abandoned mansion on the hill, trying to raise the ghost behind the curtain, but you're not quite certain if he's real. Throw one for the castles that have crumbled, throw one for the weight of the world. Do these prayers wind up in the dust amongst the floorboards, or are they are gathered up like a string of luminescent pearls? (Chorus) "Rise up, Lazarus my brother, and wipe away that dead look in your eyes! The morning light is dancing on the water, so rise and shine!"

about

"...a subtle blend of perfect melodies, understated powerful storytelling songs delivered with warm as honey vocals"
- FolkWords

"Brown's thoughtful lyrics, too smart and expansive for country's limited vocabulary, call up the natural landscape as the setting for often unexpected stories and reflections. Along the way, his words work wonders... These are original songs (in two definitions of 'original'), and they are good ones. They invite repeated listening. In his middle age and thus done with the foolishness of youth, Brown has endured on this Earth long enough to have figured out what matters. Thus, unlike many singer-songwriters who spring to mind, he has something to say.
One experiences the keenly pleasant sensation that one is in the company of a personable, intelligent man who knows how to tell a story. The harrowing Northeast of Eden (Fallen Snow) is simply astounding in this regard. So is the song that follows it, the album's closer, Comfort, a compelling but bracingly unsentimental anthem of survival in a harsh world. I have never heard a song like When I Go Out at Night, whose title stirs expectations of the familiar and confounds them at every turn, meanwhile charming and touching the listener with its surprises and sincerity... One knows one is hearing somebody with a distinctive personal vision, an artist who knows where he comes from and who will take listeners to places they will want to go."
- Jerome Clark, Rambles.net

"I don't know where Kevin Brown found his songwriting mojo, but it runs in him like the mighty rivers he sings about. From beginning to end, Kevin's sophomore recording, The Beloved Country, is chock full of rich poetry and entertaining storytelling. As the title suggests, many of the songs are rooted in place - he is clearly a keen observer and a man of the earth. Beyond the words, the cd also presents everything I like to hear musically - compelling vocals, tasty arrangements and inventive instrumentation. 'The storm clouds are gathering, they're gonna spill the banks of heaven's joy, upon the earth below' - wow!"
- Singer/Songwriter/Producer Ben Winship

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released June 9, 2012

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Kevin Brown Spokane, Washington

Singer-songwriter Kevin Brown makes his home in rural Northeastern Washington state, not too far from the farms where two sets of great-grandparents settled a century ago. The rich natural surroundings serve as a metaphor for exploring the landscapes of the heart and soul -- faith, family, love, the passage of time, and the interwoven fabric of earth and humanity. ... more

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