Get all 17 Ryan McMahon releases available on Bandcamp and save 50%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of LIVE NOW, Sometimes Life's Amazing SINGLE, Lost & Found - SINGLE, One More Fire - SINGLE, Pandemos, Trucker Speed - SINGLE, I Still Want You / Middle of History EP, Let My Love Open the Door ~ SINGLE, and 9 more.
1. |
In Line For a Smile
04:04
|
|||
|
Oh how in the world are you
keeping up with the Jones' on the morning news
taking pictures of some kind of brand new boots
tell us how you gonna use 'em?
There is a way you say you love me
so terrifying, temporarily
we used each other like two turn keys
now we want out of the room
Well this is the stuff of legend
to wake up everyday pretending
because
i don't understand my friends
i know nothing more than them
maybe this can wait for a while
i'll go through the motions then
hanging on to mostly threads
maybe i'm in line for a smile
this is a good start so keep me on
you know how i go when the song is done
optimism abounds when i'm on the run
tell me more about my life (please)
carpet burns on Velvet Underground
drink as much as i can when i like the sound
don't want to explain where it comes from now
it hits me right between the eyes
don't forget me when I'm hiding in plain sight
i'm only disguised as what you don't like
well i'm just a drop of rain
in the Great Northwest on an October day
never know what i might do or say
i'm not always so black & white
so put on a song that i understand
calm me down with your gentle hand
tell me stories of war in a far off land
and tuck me in and say good night
|
||||
2. |
||||
|
1964
a little old lady in a doorway
maybe the World Series on the radio
I'll be home later
a rotary phonecall away, dear
hi-ball in hand with the neighbours, nowhere to go
Keep it all here
leave it this way forever
nobody's gonna love this land in a better way
Keep it all here
make me eight years old forever
when somebody comes along to buy us, you tell 'em this house is not for sale
Chevrolet parked out front
cigarette, pompadour haircut
roses in the garden and the kid is throwing harder ever year
Saturday up the mountain
Silver Lake, we got lost
when we get home we'll have dinner for the whole damn town
Strawberries bleeding out of the buckets
cases of beer in the backyard every summer
his limericks last long if I take the batteries out of the clocks
and we can stay black & white
for just a little while longer
|
||||
3. |
Takes Me Away
02:54
|
|||
|
Last night is in the books I'm sure it was great
I can conjure the joy if I try
That singer-songwriter with the baby face
reminded me of who, what & why
This could be the Carleton on February snow
This could be the Ironwood Stage
This might be a flight on the ground 'til tomorrow
another night that takes me away
Sometimes my thirst it gets the best of me
sometimes I don't know what to do
So many lovers hanging above my psyche
I hope they're happy too
This could be the Phoenix where rock & roll can rise
This could be the Hotel Cafe
This might be a flight on the ground 'til tomorrow
another night that takes me away
I've been living in a shadow
comparing everything
from the skin down to my marrow
of every move I make
I used to listen to the fuzz in the background
I put it at the top of a list
The less approval means to me now
the more I seem to get
|
||||
4. |
Too Tired For Love
03:00
|
|||
|
I woke up to church bells which woke up the guns
started days with fires deep inside my blood
I told my friends to get away, get away for good
because I'm tired, oh I'm tired, too tired for love
I went down to water to make my living will
I didn't have what they wanted so they buried me with my fill
of all these things that own me that are the downfall of me still
I find they raise me, oh how they make me too tired for love
I had a home before ya
I've been along before ya
So today we start over because the time keeps rolling and this life only gives right now
I'm just a river but I started to slow
no water in the garden put a stop to the grow
and I was carrying things that I didn't know or trust
I was an ocean made of salty tears
following the steps of drunk pioneers
I forgot who I thought I was
I woke up to changes that I did not want
but still I had to face them and everything I'm not
Come back to this old place
come back to what we are
come back to everything that's gonna be different from before
|
||||
5. |
Self-Help Book
02:03
|
|||
|
I want to finish what I started for once
I want to love something more than a month
I want to bask in the common sense that common sense isn't what I've got
I want a memory that I can re-do
I want an enemy that trusts me too
I wanna good old day today that fades into night just like the good days do
I'll be leaving room
looking back less at the blues
what a selfish thing to do
but a self-help book
it told me to
move along
nothing to see if it's already done
while we're young
get on with it, whatever 'it' is, son
I want a comeback I can use like a knife
I want a friendship that is hard to define
I want a machine to fly through time
give me a Christmas list of an only child
I want to stop biting my nails
don't want to pay full price the day before the sale
I want to know where my energy goes and that my time is mine
to find what I will
|
||||
6. |
Save Me For Later
03:13
|
|||
|
Bad times are gonna come
I'll be there when they're done
Some day our big ideas go beyond us
So if your eyes are on a roll
if it's a song that you don't know
we can walk the long way until you get the chorus
Keep me close wherever you go
keep me on your arm, and
Save me for later for I will live long
It's taken me forever to know what I want
When it's old and we must go
When is then & will we know
I would rather live a nothing life than to hurt you
You see these nights are ours to keep
until the world kicks out our knees
may we pick up the pieces quicker than we used to
Bad times are gonna come
just say that you won't run
some day is so promising from my vantage
So if you hear what is your truth
and if you see myself in you
let's buy a house on a hilltop and practice our habits
Keep me close wherever you go
keep me on your arm, and
down the alleys and up the roads
wherever you are
|
||||
7. |
Father & Son
02:38
|
|||
|
Come a little closer look in my eyes
this is what they call the end of the line
didn't know how it'd feel or realize
how fast the days would pass me by
Growing up strong in this old town
believing in the feeling that we'd get out
getting married in the summer of love
a lifetime in front of us
Now son
the stage light is on
you know we're running out of time
we're all running out of time
So go
you can carry on
because we're running out of time
it's your turn to live your life
I remember trips to the Oregon Coast
Grade three, Holland Creek and San Francisco
You'll go where young lions go
now you will find that your mind will know
I can still smell the salt in the air
your mother's smile and the colour of her hair
it's been such a beautiful ride
this amazing life of mine.
|
||||
8. |
Mortality
03:26
|
|||
|
I used to live among the young & the roses
I saw the gold in the eyes of my friends
I want it back
I want to taste it again
So many days burned up on the thought
my yellow brick road might be a parking lot
try not to tell me the end
'Cause I've been spending my time on mortality
spending my time on mortality I've been
spending my time on mortality
I'll be dead before I'm gone
It's a funny time in human history
to be playing your song if no one's listening
maybe I made a mistake
but I find most of this life is worth writing down
there's a light that catches up with the sound
it puts a smile on my face
All the while I'm spending my time on mortality
spending my time on mortality I've been
spending my time on mortality
I'll be dead before I'm gone
Look around
sun comes out
nobody stops a raging sea
I figured out
that you won't give up on me
|
||||
9. |
Beautiful, Delusional
03:00
|
|||
|
Beautiful, delusional nothing of the norm
standing in a circus where everybody's bored
Beautiful, delusional nothing of the sort
laughing as disaster is knocking at her door
She's a 12-step
apologetic
a counterfeit
she ain't even real
I can't believe it
she's a lemon I need to taste
Beautiful, delusional something from my past
dodging every question that I have the balls to ask
Beautiful, delusional presiding over me
order in the court, fucking lies up to my knees
She's a copyright
a trophy wife
a mid-life crisis
and I can't even deal
I can't believe it
she's a lemon I need to taste
I saw the writing on the wall behind the wall
My eyes have eyes so they saw it all
never knew better so I ignored the calls
to run away, run away, run away, run away, run away
Beautiful, delusional
barking up my tree
looking like a lady that nobody ever sees
Beautiful, delusional
the mother of us all
sending me a message, she says we need to talk
She's a 12-step
apologetic
a counterfeit
she ain't even real
She's a copyright
a trophy wife
a mid-life crisis
and I can't even deal
I can't believe it
she's a lemon I need to taste
I saw the writing on the wall behind the wall
My eyes have eyes so they saw it all
never knew better so I ignored the calls
to run away, run away, run away, run away, run away
|
||||
10. |
Alone
03:59
|
|||
|
You're everywhere here
from raw material on the day you were born
to the final fall of sun beg for one minute more
you were wrong
you were unsung and mine
standing on pedestals from up on high
now you're gone
I don't know what to do it's so hard to talk
in beyond
the silence I hear in the spaces where
we used to live
alone
You're the road I'm on
from a poetic with a D-lister star
to a leather wristband that I wear on my arm
you're the sun
you're leading me on
songbook to stage and then safely back home
You're a lifetime pass
for a rollercoaster ride that you can't wait to end
or an encore of a day so you can do it again
you belong
on a page in this book
somebody reads
everywhere they're looking
|
||||
Ryan McMahon Ladysmith, British Columbia
Ryan McMahon has performed for over 20+ years as a Canadian songwriter and founding member of Lion Bear
Fox.
Veteran Canadian broadcaster Terry David Mulligan may have said it best: the complete package. Singer Songwriter. Performer. Troublemaker. Passionate human being. For me… priceless!!”
... more
If you like Ryan McMahon, you may also like:
Margo Price's latest album tackles loss, failure, and freedom over lush pop, psychedelic country, and rock arrangements.
go to album
New Album Out Now: Spirals
by Kate Ellis
Kate Ellis uses melancholy Americana to conduct fearless soul searching.
go to album
When Carolina Comes Home Again
by Jim Lauderdale
The latest from Jim Lauderdale is exclusive to Bandcamp, its songs drawing on bluegrass, country, and classic American music.
go to album
Listening To The Music
by Zephaniah OHora
Irresistible classic country music abounds on “Listening To The Music,” full of lap steel, walking bass, and heartwarming melodies.
go to album
The latest from Jim Lauderdale is a showcase for his heavily-detailed songwriting and soaring country melodies.
go to album
Nobody's Peach
by Nobody's Peach
Nobody’s Peach, from Seattle, serve up nine gorgeous songs informed by bluegrass and Americana, gentle as a fall breeze.
go to album
Lubbock (on everything)
by Terry Allen
This country classic is like Bob Dylan recording “Blonde on Blonde” in Lubbock with a crack roadhouse band.
go to album
