Joel P West

Joel P West : vocals, acoustic guitars
Darla Hawn : drums, bgvs
Daniel Rhine : bass
Jon Titterington : keys
Madison Cunningham : electric guitars
Stephen Musselman : acoustic guitars
Connor Gallaher : pedal steel
Daneen Wilburn, Joanna Broussard and Toni Holmes : choir

Recorded, Mixed, and Mastered by Chris Hobson
Additional Recording by Aaron Stern
Recorded at Kingsize Soundlabs and Rarefied Recording

THREE OF CUPS

Down
My heart is facing down
I’m waiting for the moss and clover
To take it over

Found
My tail up in my mouth
I felt the sound of oaks growing
And it broke me open

Hang a candle in the window
Save some water by the door
The weight is more than I remember
And I took a long way back home

Out
My hands are facing out
I’m feeling for the understory
That’s been right with me

It all will wait
If it takes a million years to break towards it
All the love we forget

Dazed, I wandered toward a clearing
Waiting like it was somewhere else
I had the right idea
But I couldn’t get the feeling

So hang some flowers for the elders
Frame my shadows on the wall
Save a seat for every hour
I guess I needed them all to get back home

GOLDEN HOUR

Golden hour
Orange flowers
Hung all around us
On warm afternoons
We held our hands under the flowing water
Never knowing what the river could move

Washed the breath out
Behind some dusk clouds
Before it burned down
I grieved in a dream
I spotted something deep under the current
I don’t know but I could swear it was me

Yellow roses
On the way back out
Slowly opened
Like a parting bow
All those seasons trying to find where we’d been
But in the darkest hour
We could see it again

January
The sun comes early
Down on these warm streets
My friends in the wings
I pushed my hands down deep into the ashes
Somehow knowing they would reach back for me

Rhododendrons
On the way back in
All suspended
Like an amulet
It always felt like we were chasing a tide 
But in the wasted hours
We were building a fire

The wild ocean
Holding all our time
Slowly motioned
When the wind was right
I almost crumbled waiting for this to bloom
But in the morning hours
We will see it through
In the golden hour
We will see this through

ALL MORNING

They
Hum down the staircase
Right before daybreak
Into my room

And shake
The dust from my windows
These colors I don’t know
Fade into view

They go all morning
All morning
They go all morning
Dancing around

Some days
The dreams fade through waking
And I lay my hands down in between
The waves that wash up from the rest of me

They go all morning
All morning
They go all morning
Flashing around
And breaking me out

I SEE YOU

In the morning rain
Chamomile and grapefruit
Soaking in this change
And trying to reach you
Been dying to reach you

My stones are in their place
Quartz, granite, K2
An orchid in the vase
In rooms too tired to wade through
And so shy of a breakthrough

I see you
I see you
I see all your faces rippling out
Lost my chase
On dark days
And highways
I see you
I see through walls of laurel leaves that calmed me down
When all my hiding places slipped away

Another morning moon
Out the kitchen window
The cherry tree in bloom
And so much we don’t know
Just ferns in the old growth

I see you
I see you
I see all our sages walking us out
Found your face
In wood grain
And hallways
I see you
I see to every fire tender calling me down
To find my place before it slips away

LIKE A WAVE

Storm clouds fluttered like a zoetrope
Where an ocean’s ghost
Hovers low

And broke so suddenly to shake me down
From the inside out
The desert in my mouth

Rolling over, you were like a wave
You and I the same
You and I

Holding echoes to the light
Like a mirror on both sides
Stretching deeper than my sense of time

If you don't let the water reach you
If you don’t let the water reach you
If you don't let the water reach you
You’ll go blind
If you don’t let the body teach you
If you don’t let the body teach you
You’ll get lost inside your mind

For my ancestors who did not dance
I hold out my hands
Let’s go dance

And float like feathers in the kelp
Watch them settle in ourselves
And break the tether for the rest of them

If you don't let the water reach you
If you don’t let the water reach you
If you don't let the water reach you
You’ll dry out inside
If you don’t let your body free you
If you don’t let your body free you
You’ll get locked inside in your time

KALEIDOSCOPE

Like a waterfall
That flows down from the sea
I forgot it all
Encircled underneath

Looking the wrong way
Through a kaleidoscope
Stuck in a long day
Asleep like a bee

Slow down
Blow out the fear
Watch me fall back into everything
That can be
That can be

Stone and feather
Snake and cloud
Call, familiar
From below ground

We find the old ways
Without a sound
Behind a sunray
Moving so fast it calms us down

 
THIS TOO

For my lost ones tonight
On the longest pendulums
Waiting heavy
To return

There are stars on the sea
There are dark currents underneath
And this too

When all the lights go down
And widen the room
The smallest sounds come out
And pull us back in to an edgeless view

My whole life
And this too

For the young parts of me
That are still out wandering
When the ghosts get too hungry
Just let go, trust the deep

The waves lay down low
And the acorn becomes the oak
They cannot be hurried
Only slowed

Does the river need to grieve
When it becomes the sea?
Maybe we’re bigger than we think
Billowing out in the shape of the roots

So much love
And this too

LAKES

Down
In the water
She is calling
My name again
Her hair is down
She’s looking out
Into the deepest well on the sound

Out
In the timbers
I went walking
Away from them
The sun came down
She led me out
Into a circle drawn on the ground

The daylight’s coming to wake me
From my place out of time
The weight is gone from the breakthroughs
But you’re on my mind

High
In the alpine
Where the sky
Meets the treeline
I heard a voice
That I didn’t know
And I followed it slowly til I wasn’t alone

The daylight started to shake me
I was a little nervous to find
I’d been caught in a moonbeam
And I’d lost some time

The waves are breaking within me
And I’d been wanting a sign
And then she walked me down gently
Into the deepest lakes I could find