Get all 5 Noble Dust releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of A Picture for a Frame, Last Dance at the Grove, A Picture for a Frame, And The Tide Rises, and Noble Dust.
1. |
A Picture for a Frame
02:42
|
|||
Long rolling waves of time
Bring all fragile things to light
And plunge them down again
Into the dark
I’ve toiled all my life
That I might lay beside you in the yard
Wild oak
Felled before her time
To mend a hearth
To start a fire
To keep us sheltered from the wolves outside
Bright balloon
Mourning dove
My gracious fingers unfurled
I let it fall up
Never you mind
Long rolling waves of time
Carry all fragile things to light
And plunge them down again
Into the dark
But for now
At the crest of the arc
Never you mind
|
||||
2. |
At Last, At Home
03:05
|
|||
I’m an old woman now
Bereft of my home
Seen the freeway give rise
And the neighborhood go
Now that there’s nothing
But hours untold
Why does the time move so god damn slow?
Clutched to a promise
A cross and a chain
Round a cruel carousel
Like a mad man in rain
Anointed with water from happier days
While my sweet Jesus works his mysterious ways
A velveteen novel’s penultimate page
Nowhere to turn
Nothing to say
We’re both fit for the fire
Be that as it may
We’re both fit for the fire
At the end of the day
My Saint Thomas awaits so I won’t pass alone
Why does the time move so god damn slow?
|
||||
3. |
In Fields
03:16
|
|||
In light, in truth
I passed my youth
Entranced of idle flowers
If their silence were
The stuff of sleep
I’d fill my waking hours
My sailor waits
On holiday
Held tight and fast to some refrain
Seraphim, cellophane
Picket fences, pearly gates
We’re not growing any fairer
The world turns crueler still
The time has come
To fight or flee
And I suppose I never will
In fields, in fields
Where crosses grow
All sprung from planted, sacred bones
All flowers in the bitter snow
All quiet, all quiet
I worshiped once
I bargain still
In God or man
Or be what will
Mercy on an empty till
I call upon you now
Oh forgive me father
I know not what I’ve done
There’s no recompense
For this loneliness
Tell me where is love?
A grey sky dawned
And smiled upon
The field of frozen seed
My daughter born
Of flesh and bone
Take what you may need
|
||||
4. |
Abbey
03:12
|
|||
When I was a girl
And the hour called
I’d sing through the gates at the abbey wall
Watch the sinners come with their steady arms
Carve up the oak in the old church yard
All of their names and their crooked hearts
Outlast their love and outlive their bodies
When all of the apples fall to the gravel
I’ll be the one you take to the chapel
Lace in my hair
Rouge on my lips
Blue blood running through my fingertips
When all of the apples fall to the gravel
I’ll be the one you take to chapel
Oh how the time goes
And it never stops
And it never slows
They say a drowning man will clutch at a straw
Mister, I’ve got a friend on the Sangamon
I used to see his face
When the world got dark
Now I’d settle for your picture
Of the craft he’s on
Safe in the steel that my sisters wrought
To outlast their love and outlive their bodies
When all of the apples fall to the gravel
I’ll be the one you take to the chapel
Lace in my hair
Rouge on my lips
Blue blood running through my fingertips
When all of the apples fall to the gravel
I’ll be the one you take to chapel
Oh how the time goes
And it never stops
And it never slows
|
||||
5. |
A New King
02:38
|
|||
Mama made home in the quiet hours
Of the warm twilight
Bread on the fire
How it broke with the force of a rising tide
In the heat of the sun
Oh, we die young
Like a cape
Sea-shaken by a distant drum
And the battle hymn fall
From a velvet tongue
When we to war
Oh we’d stick to our guns
We died younger then
Salt of the earth in our lungs
Fore the year of our lord
Oh my Jesus Christ
Syncopated violence
In the automatic ides
So every great reign must succumb in his time
But I ain’t yet done
Oh we die young
Like a cape
Sea shaken by a distant drum
And the battle hymn fall
From a velvet tongue
When we to war
Oh we’d stick to our guns
We died younger then
Salt of the earth in our lungs
And I pine for the constants
They come and they go
And my children grow soft on the bounty I sewed
When the mark of a man
Was the strength of his hand
And the queen on his arm
Like a cape
Sea shaken by a distant drum
And the battle hymn fall
From a velvet tongue
When we to war
Oh we’d stick to our guns
We died younger then
Salt of the earth in our lungs
We die young
Faster than the fleeting flower
We walk slow
High above the signal tower
Normandy waits
For our brothers in arms
We died younger then
Salt of the earth in our lungs
|
||||
6. |
At Sea
01:41
|
|||
And I didn’t storm the shoreline
Of a blood soaked beach
Just to meet a hero’s welcome
In the waves beneath
We were only party
To the sacking of the sea
Wasting islands in our memory
On my liberty
I caught the picture
Dear Diane - where are you now?
The radio, it warps and whispers
In the static of the bow
My ship rests in a lonely current
I was never meant for sea
All the violence
Only pining
Wanting for the love of thee
When the sweet perfume of autumn lifts
The threadbare splinters mourn their keep
A forest floor of servants faithful
Laid in color, all to sleep
But Ironsides or iron filings
I’ll still work the factory
Though the monster changes masters
Oh my country ‘tis of thee
|
||||
7. |
87
03:24
|
|||
Home
Oh the shore in sight!
And the war is won
Far as I’m concerned
The day you’ll be my wedded bride
Oh an olive branch for to kiss the land!
All my kingdom for the flood!
Hand in hand we’ll start over
As any yeoman does
For to sanctify
The ones we’ve left behind
The love we’ll learn in time
Pray for the better
Suffer the worse
My God
The paper
The cotton
The unborn tide
But now the light grows shy
While I await on your reply
I pray the angels take you at eighty-seven
Hold you close and straight to heaven
Angels take you at eighty-seven
So
To the days gone by
And to all the boys
I have loved before
May this be your lullaby
Oh it sounds to me
In the quiet hours
When all is right
And nothing’s still
I think of you seldom
And I always will
Tell your jealous wife
To ease her lonesome mind
We share no earthly ties
Save for the sweater
I always intend to return
The letter you’re never going to write
I hold your unwrit verse
To where it hurts
And pray the angels take you at eighty-seven
Hold you close and straight to Heaven
Angels take you at eighty-seven
Still I’ve kept my vows
In lonely rooms and empty hours
Wept for new beginnings
In the night there comes a temptress singing
Rise up my darling, my beautiful one
The winter is past; the rain is over and gone.
Day breaks and the shadows flee away
And they say
Ah -
And they say
Ah -
|
||||
8. |
The House of Our Fathers
03:01
|
|||
No I don’t feel like singing
In the morning anymore
For the blackbird sings sweeter
And wiser and sure
When I’m laid in the earth
He’ll sing just as before
No I don’t feel like singing
In the morning anymore
Don’t leave me rest in
The shelter of the lord
He’s forgotten his son
He’s forsaken his word
Live by the light just to
Die by the sword
Don’t leave me rest in
The shelter of the lord
When come the clouds down
From their city on a hill
Each day the same, still
Each day the same
Dwelling all on the rain
And the rain
Dwelling all on the ground
No I don’t want to sing
And I can’t fall asleep
Salvation is won
For the mild and the meek
Though our father’s house quakes
From these thin walls and beams
Sweet lady lay in the shelter of me
When come the clouds down
From their city on a hill
Each day the same, still
Each day the same
Dwelling all on the rain
And the rain
Dwelling all on the ground
Don’t leave me rest
Don’t leave me resting
Don’t leave me rest
Don’t leave me resting
Don’t leave me rest in
The shelter of the lord
|
||||
9. |
Last Dance at the Grove
02:39
|
|||
It’s the new year my missus
How it’s got me wishing
For bygone Decembers
For the infinite cold
To steal my last breath and I’d
Watch it ascend someplace
I don’t know yet
But I sure hope to go
Have you at last
A ring for your finger?
A home for your mother?
A hope for the coast?
Or are you contented
To wither your wiles away
Waiting on me, mama
Down at the grove?
Save the last dance for me
Down at the grove
What the neighbors don’t need to
The neighbors don’t know
Many the questions
Mighty the lack
That our maker can’t answer
The angels don’t ask
Some dark November
They’ll sell these walls for timber
And everyone we’ve known
Will give up the ghost
We’ll throw up our arms
Lay down our defenses
And take back our time darling
Down at the grove
Save the last dance for me
Down at the grove
What the neighbors don’t need to
The neighbors don’t know
Many the questions
Mighty the lack
That our maker can’t answer
The angels don’t ask
We’ll leave not a trace
They won’t speak of our memory
As the tenements rise
Like the river below
But that ain’t no reason
To leave me here lonesome
So save me the last dance
Down at the grove
Save the last dance for me
Down at the grove
What the neighbors don’t need to
The neighbors don’t know
Many the questions
Mighty the lack
That our maker can’t answer
The angels don’t ask
|
||||
10. |
The Architect
02:28
|
|||
Hail, oh hail the architect
His silken billows, minarets
Know not the weight of iron wrought
On battered shoulders buckled broad
Worn by the wasted time
They don't build them like they used to
Thy son is in a foreign clime
Where Ida tends a nameless flock, they
Know not of the pastures greener
Keep us in our woolen stock
How far the mighty fall
Hail, oh hail the architect
His sunken ships by friendly fire, they
Suffer without ceremony
Silent in their testimony
When the curtain calls, my god
How far the mighty fall
And if I go
Oh, if I go
Well I
Wonder if you’d look down on me
Wonder if the sky is falling
Wonder where I’ll get to
If I go
And with that the architect
Stepped into never waking sleep, but
Better this than dare to linger
Where it’s no longer built for me
Suffer the little children
Carry them unto me, my darling
Suffer the little children
Carry them unto me
|
||||
11. |
April
03:23
|
|||
So it comes to this
So it winds and it aches and it tries
And it comes to this
The fire before the flower
The storm before the flood
The jealous violet hour
Oh, April is the cruelest month
Oh, May - what you got going on?
Breathe out the trouble you breathed in
All bathed in the light of original sin
Loose the dust from the clutch of the fearsomest fist
Breathe out the trouble now
Hold me
Oh me
Oh my
Only
Son of man or a trick of the light?
Cast the nets and I wept for the old gulls’ cry
And the deep sea swell
And the thin white line
Where the sea and the sky should meet
Hold me
Oh me
Oh my
Only
Oh hyacinth girl born to blush unseen
How the desert air trembled in sweet relief
And the cricket rejoiced to an empty sea
And we weren’t left wanting
Hold me
Oh me
Oh my
Only
The violet hour come and gone
These fragments all ashore
Tears of things I’ve left undone
Oh, April is the cruelest month
And you my love, the cruelest one
|
||||
12. |
Red Letters
04:36
|
|||
Welcome home cried the land
To the cavalryman
Across the valley of cedar and pine
Until from white scattered houses
The lamplight grew dim
Sleep my butchers, my bakers, drunkards and lovers
Then before you awake
With the dawn of the day
To your loaves and your fishes and wine
All the ghosts of our kin ride the tails of the wind
Like so many wild horses
Keep watch in the night
Oh I vowed to the isle I’d know her and keep her
Said the captain, you’ve put in your time
Now we’ll make you a maker of soldiers so bold as to
Raise up an army of Babylon’s ire
And he shifted the weight of the burden he carried
From his sunken shoulders to mine
Boxes stacked to the brim with bright red letters
Each
A brother
A dreamer
A killer
A child
I walked on where they tred
To the fields in the morning
Saw the fruits of their labors divide
In the grains of the earth
In the laughter and mirth
I learned of July
And their troubles and daughters
Then the dance hall went dark
Like the dressmaker’s cloth
As the August fruit fell from the vine
Under cover of night
One by one with their letters
Until only the maker remained in the light
They came back in boxes
Or never at all
Bones for the scavengers rest
I wove tales of the glories of their final hours
On fragile red letters
Watched the light leave their mothers
The end it came soft
All is ash
All is lost
Said the captain, you’ve put in your time
Lay me down with your boxes of red letters
War is over -
Cast them off into the fire
The sun it still rises for drunkards and lovers
Like no one remembers the night
But I don’t feel at home in a storm anymore
Oh my brothers -
Wild horses -
Or was it a lie?
The baker still bakes
And the old town awakes
As the coroner checks on the time
But still I sit thumbing
Red letters
White knuckled
The last welcome home on my mind
|
Noble Dust Boston, Massachusetts
"Sweeping instrumentals and profound lyrics" - WBUR / NPR
Falcon Ridge Folk Festival 2023
Emerging Arist
Noble Dust creates dynamic, lyrically-driven progressive folk pop, blending ethereal vocal harmonies with intricate horn and string melodies.
... more
Streaming and Download help
Noble Dust recommends:
If you like Noble Dust, you may also like:
Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp