1. |
Citronella
02:50
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I keep my feet outta trouble
and my head in the flowers
she let me cook her dinner
and take her out for whiskey sours
We dance all night long
until our losin blues is gone
That big lake can wash
our troubles away
we jump on in
the gichi gami way
she holds me close enough
for that big moon to rise bright as the sun
We went to the swamp
Bugs were hard to handle
A bugspray kiss on the lips
I lit up like a citronella roman candle
She can turn the biting black flies
into lightning bugs and light up the night
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2. |
Red Willow
03:49
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She can roll in my arms all day
She don't need no words to say
We ain't scared of big bad rain
Drippin droppin all the same
Summer's comin
Hoop red red willow
She likes when I shuck n jive
Lap my soggy eyes in wine
I got leather she sinew
Let's catch dreams, oh, honey dew
Summer's comin
Hoop red red willow
Springtime can be nice
As long as we both break the ice
Trade stories about knockin out teeth
In the lake and on the ice rick
I don't think twice
It's alright
She can roll in my arms all day
She don't need no words to say
Summer's comin
Hoop red red willow
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3. |
Ten High
03:52
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It's been a long week
working in a new school
this job still feels a bit strange
After two months unemployed
I don't mind rising with the sun
On the weekends I grab my guitar and spange
At the local market indoors
I echo basement corridors
Then the bible folks shut me up and kick me out
Lucky for me it's a warm January day
After busking all I wanna do is get lost
So I pocket a pint of ten high
Call my dog and we start walking
To the edge of town where old town used to be
We search to find no one, nowhere, and nothing
But we're chased by the hounds of society
Between the brap brap, shotguns, the barbed wire fence
The woods 'round this town ain't felt wild since
Open pit mines hemorrhaged Mother Earth
I find rabbits with their hearts cut out
Bury carcasses 100 years deep
All this poor man wants is a quiet hike and some peace
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4. |
Mayflies
02:36
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Goslings trade their honey feathers
For midnight under street lamps
Where the million mayflies face south
In casino parking lot
A wheat penny to scratch my lotto
No luck, I had no words
If it wasn't for that full moon
I'd be living free as the birds
But all the grubs were nibbled from my hooks
Rock bass ate up my bait
I should have scratched with the full moon
Hookee the penny in the lake
On the brim of my old ball cap
Now I keep a florescent fly
With copper wings and forked tail
Oh, the goslings know better than I
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5. |
Tar Snake
03:37
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Syringe of black tar under bridge
A black snake plows graves
Sheds it's skin in great lakes
Soon the ribcage will break
Spill thick tar sands
If we don't decapitate
We are killing that old snake
Too many years threatening Mackinac straights
5 mile suspension bridge guillotine
Anishinaabe sharpen the blade
Eagle talon turn crude oil knob
Strangle serpent
It's last breath our first releif
Waabigami ganaandawiish
Mino bimaadezewin
Gogam giigo
Binese nagaas
We are killing that old snake
Too many years threatening Mackinac straights
5 mile suspension bridge guillotine
Anishinaabe sharpen the blade
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6. |
Good Earth
04:20
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Wasese nimi aki
Wasese nimi aki
Debwe animki minokami
Lightning dances to the earth
Lightning dances to the earth
True thunder is good earth
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7. |
Pumpkin Bright
03:35
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He said laughing don't come easy
When grinning is so hard
She told him you cry a lot
When you give up wiping tears
He kept on huffin whiskey
Stuff he hadn't touched in years
Every dish cooked up was spicy hot
Since measured joy in cheers
It was the autumn pickin pumpkins
With the two kiddo nephews
At the farm with double llamas, chickens,
Goats, and squealin pigs
When the sky lit up pumpkin bright
A western storm had ceased
They ratchet-necked and double took
Blues and blacks bled to red and orange heats
Led to something complete
Vines draped down bookshelf sides
But the purple one died
He convinced he just to keep a bit
He tried he tried he tried
He was always sick with aphids
Like a dirty gardener might
She gave that purple plant another chance
He washes up and the the plants thrived
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8. |
No See Em Creek
03:50
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My pa’s got roots buried so deep
Red delirium couldn't creep him out
No that swamp wouldn't kick him out
Riverbeds thick drown sandhill cranes
Sky so wide only tamarack change
Pine needle stew'll make yer mind real strange
Somewhere in the woods past the tracks and the railroad ties
You'll find me kickin logs searching for my father's pride
Pickin blueberries for Ma under the new powerlines
I'm not losing sleep, I'm just passing time
The edge of that big bad swamp swatting flies
Sippin honey dew off a fiddlehead fern blade
Coyotes yip when the moon hit when the moon hits the tracks
Cross that swamp you ain't never comin back
Cattail roots strangled all Pa's pride
He tried to eat em up but he lost his knife
Yeah, sittin on a log my pa lost his knife
Somewhere in the woods past the tracks and the railroad ties
You'll find me kickin logs searching for my father's pride
Pickin blueberries for Ma under the new powerlines
I'm not losing sleep, I'm just passing time
The edge of that big bad swamp swatting flies
I've never seen a moose and never fought a bear
but No See Em Creek is meaner than both
The bugs on that creek think it's a joke
I tried it all from DEET to Sweetgrass
But them bugs persistent I don't stand a chance
They got me doin the no see em dance
Somewhere in the woods past the tracks and the railroad ties
You'll find me kickin logs searching for my father's pride
Pickin blueberries for Ma under the new powerlines
I'm not losing sleep, I'm just passing time
The edge of that big bad swamp swatting flies
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9. |
Thunder Burnt
03:12
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Oh baby please tell me
That you won't let me change my way
Oh baby please tell me I want you all my days
In the thunder burnt sweetgrass
The helpless red root cinnamon
Behind the purple house
There's a spectacle
The ghost rices dances minomiin
And I swallow my tongue
Oh baby please tell me that you'll leave behind amphetamine
Oh baby please hear me Bawating Gnoozikaaning
In the thunder burnt sweetgrass
The helpless red root cinnamon
Behind the purple house
There's a spectacle
The ghost rices dances minomiin
And I swallow my tongue
Oh baby please tell me that you want me to change my ways
Oh baby please hear me that I want you all my days
In the thunder burnt sweetgrass
The helpless red root cinnamon
Behind the purple house
There's a spectacle
The ghost rices dances minomiin
And I swallow my tongue
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10. |
Cedar
02:23
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After the fall and the first snow
After December has frozen our boughs
There's still a sign of life in the woods
And it charms me and heals the best
You got the heat
The kind that make the windigo weep
You can carry strong medicine we all need so
We thank you cedar, arbor vitae
Miigwech giizhik bimaadezewin
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11. |
Nickel & Dimed
04:46
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I'm a folk singer I'm one helluva mess so
Excuse me while I clear my chest
I got a beef with that mine off 510
In the land called the Yellow Dog
Let's not pretend that we honor sacred land
That feeds the great lake
They're breakin up the Eagle Rock
I'm mad enough to blow my top
(I'm stealing summertime, they stole mine)
Can't you taste, can't you taste
Heavy metals in the streams?
I know you fear, I know you fear
Losing jobs but we're gettin robbed here
So your daddy worked and his daddy worked hard
Mining underground we are so proud proud proud
You claim that's heritage, claim that heritage
I call that pride before the collapse of the mine
Pride before the collapse of the mine
You can have your nickel
Better save your dimes
Because the way you treat the earth
Making the grandbabies hurt
(They'll sing)
I live on the living half of a half dead mining town
You can throw a rock from here or there and you'll hit condemned ground
I've seen trees grow right through concrete
Foundations and structures where ol miners used to weep
After long days workin for penny pay
Now crows eat the apples that have fallen on their graves
Teal lake still laps the shore the fish bite my hook
Maybe that mine was all folklore but I see all the land they took
One thing I'm damn sure it won't happen again
So if you get your check from Lundin Mine
Quit your job and sing with me just one refrain, my friend
I drink water everyday
It brings me life
Hip hip hooray
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12. |
Dynamite Honey
02:26
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At the railroad is where I got my start
The railroad where I lost my heart
Where I lost my heart
My crooked spine will not unwind
My broken ladder to heaven
Will not lead to my stolen heart
Well it hit me like a freight train I felt no pain
Smoke chuggin belchin black tobacco teeth drift and stain
All them cool nights laying out under the stars
Well it's subtle like a bunny, strong as dynamite honey
Walking down the tracks I'm not lookin back
I finally stilled my rumblin heart
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13. |
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April 15, 2020 spring
Lansing, Michigan streets
Crowd despite everything
There's monsters between great lakes
Bad bad spirits haunt these streets
Stars and bars, horns blare from their cars
They gridlocked us boy
Each one sucks like a leech
They claim they're for freedom
They'll cost thousands of lives every week
Governor Whitmer ordered stay home stay safe
But these monsters threaten my state
We feel for the nurses and doctors, too
It's been about a month now, they've been there through and through
But on Gridlock Day patients had to wait
Because monsters in the streets
Spat on caretakers that day
There's monsters between great lakes
Bad bad spirits haunt these streets
Stars and bars, horns blare from their cars
They gridlocked us boy
Each one sucks like a leech
They claim they're for freedom
They'll cost thousands of lives every week
Governor Whitmer ordered stay home stay safe
But these monsters threaten my state
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Tyler Dettloff Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan
Musician and poet from the swampy Delirium Wilderness of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Tyler performs and records with Lost Dog Records.
Tyler Dettloff recommends:
Raymond Little
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Gut Bomb Sessions
by Kiddywompus
Kiddywompus
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String Theory
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featured on Bandcamp Radio Nov 8, 2016
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