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A Picture for a Frame

by Noble Dust

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    Album art by KimThy Nguyen and Daniela Wong-Chiulli with an 8 page lyric book designed by Paul Wallen of Acousticool.

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    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. , and , .

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1.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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

credits

released August 25, 2023

Lindsey Cook - trumpet, voice
Kai Crull - cello
Emily Cunningham - guitar, voice
Dave Smith - pianos, mellotron
Evan Spetrini - bass, trombone, voice
Ryan MacDougall - drums, percussion

Engineered, mixed, mastered, and produced by Dan Cardinal at Dimension Sound Studios in Boston, MA

Album art by KimThy Nguyen and Daniela Wong-Chiulli

Graphic design and lyric book by Paul Wallen

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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.
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