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1. |
581
03:27
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Lost on some old bike trail
In the long-ago summer
Convenience store candy and Mountain Dew
Taking turns on your dad's four wheeler
The girl down your road we thought was pretty
Though I reckon fourth grade boys have better things to do
The Floodwood Plain in February
Cold and clear in frigid moonlight
Racing snow machines on the frozen lake
Box potato chips and pizza
Musty camp stove pipe nostalgia
Cedar sauna stoked for warmness' sake
Old VHS tapes worn over the years
Shooting BB guns at empty cans of beer
That river stole my father's first cell phone
Out among the woods in which we roamed
I heard that place burned down a few years back
Nothing left but trees and two-rut tracks
And you passed on so long before your time
Before you blink a decade passes by
Oh, maybe some humid June afternoon
I'll take a drive back down that road
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2. |
Midsummer, Michigamme
02:25
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Family friends' cabin
Today they're having
My family and friends at the lake
A tube and rope behind the Rinker
Your dad was the skipper
I believe we best fill up the tank
Coppertone water
The sun beating hotter
Dry off and jump in again
We drank Shasta Cream Soda
Mountain Dew and Arizona
Must've been summer 2010
Oh this weather is all-too uncommon 'round here
You know the summer only lasts a few months of the year
We smelled of cut grass, fish water, and campfire smoke
It's hard to believe a day could get any better, I know
Your walleye was a keeper
The mosquitoes and peepers
Were humming in the drone of the dusk
Musty, damp matches
Marshmallow ashes
Made a welcoming fire for us
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3. |
On Ruth, Facing West
03:02
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May the west wind always wave a banner of sunlight
Sparkling out before that lonely stretch of waterfront my family owns
Where white pines tower over cedar swamps and scattered birch stands
And the pavement converges in on dirt and weeds and brush and lichen rock formations
Out where you and I joined hands and ambled down
That winding stretch of road, Memorial Day, that led us to the trailhead
It was still too early for mosquitoes, though
The vegetation buzzing 'neath the winter whitewashed trees was brilliant green
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4. |
Isoisäni Mökki
03:47
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Up from the ground where it still stands
He built that place with his own hands
With lumber from the mill he worked
An old pine cabin 'neath stands of birch
North of town up on the banks
Where the Big Dead's dammed up like a lake
There a granite shelf extends its reach
As a child I played down on that beach
Lord knows he didn't have much but this much he had
A loving wife and children, good friends
And a little piece of land
Three and four generations now hold a wealth of memories, and
It's been years since he's been gone
But it still stands
I wonder what it was like back in '52
Was it the same amazing view
When the sun sank low across the water
Muggy air when the days got longer
Is happiness all that hard to find
A piece of land and peace of mind
Someday I hope to do the same
An old cabin and a family name
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5. |
Helen in the August Fade
03:23
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The next morning I woke amazed
When the thermometer read 38
In ten short years I'd not noticed
Those disappearing days
But much to my relief
We wound up lost among the fun
With her water at its warmest
Beneath the sacred August sun
There must have been mosquitoes
But I don't seem to remember
Perhaps their drone lay dormant
In the muck beneath the weather
Come to think, that was the last time
I visited that place
Now it's lost among the alders
As they hide its ghostly face
Ten years gone; no, fifteen now
Watching old home videos from my parents' couch
Parting paths down through the ferns
Tossing time like empty pop cans
Here I've had my turn
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6. |
Little Presque
01:30
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Ever-so vivid, we'll always remember
Twenty fourteen, the 20th of September
Babycakes coffee and more than a drive
I know we were both anxious to finally arrive
At some point we stopped at a place on the sand
I knelt down before you and I asked for your hand
One last kiss of summer, it truly was strange
Seventy and sun when there should've been rain
Ever-so vivid, we'll always remember
Twenty fourteen, the 20th of September
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7. |
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The downtown Christmas lights are still the same
The city's hung them every year since '93
But they still brighten barren sidewalks
Even though they're worn and frayed
And I hope that's how it always will be
Pamida Christmas clearance mini lights
By six o'clock all the stores are closed
Candlelight church service and then it's off to Grandma's place
Pack the Windstar full of presents and casseroles
The Congress is packed with regulars and visitors tonight
Outside, smokers have a drag, breathing ghosts
And through the hazy amber glow of Miller, Coors, and Christmas light
Stand Old Ish and the nativity amidst the snow
Well it's Christmas Even on Pine Street once again
White lights on the tree with red and gold
Presents from the attic wrapped up tightly since September
Oh, this time and place will never grow old
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8. |
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Swampland, bitter cold and crackling
Snow and headlights, endless rambling
28 is so rough for traveling
Heavy eyes, mind's unraveling
Darting deer daring my driving
Holiday coffee, my means for surviving
Munising means I soon will be arriving
While Superior looms in the darkness, abiding
Lake-effect snow, temp falling steadily
Black ice is ever-so deadly
Knowing my limits and pushing them readily
To get back to a home so warm and friendly
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9. |
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We knew that fires weren't allowed on the beach
But amidst the lingering snow I guess we disregarded those signs
I remember how we took a drive
Talking and planning at the taco shop downtown that Tuesday night
It was cold for most of May
I didn't exactly mind, though I'd hoped we'd see the summer before you and I moved away
I guess each new season comes with its own price to pay
We ended up out at Lake Michigamme
Twenty miles west of town, no lights of town for miles around but a few neighboring cabins
Together, both old friends and new
Over KBC and Founders, a blazing bonfire, and a barbecue
We scooped up ice from the lake
And its form so pristine, frozen facets crystalline and so easily shattered
In the end, my friend, it's the company you keep that really matters
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10. |
Big Presque
00:42
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Looks like they finally opened the gate
Spring once again came in tired and late
Passing by wooded trails where we used to walk
Hold your breath, brace the cold, jumping in at Black Rocks
I can't wait until we come back and visit again
This time truly together, so here's until then
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11. |
Summer '97
06:22
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Twenty feet of ice blue water
Twenty thousand tons of rust red iron ore
Superior sings a thousand untold stories
Ghosts and glories washed up on her shore
Have you ever seen Presque Isle in the summer
Or the bow of a big freighter standing tall
Or the dock at Lower Harbor with its defunct tracks that lead nowhere
Or the view from the top of Sugarloaf in the fall
And as we pulled onto 41
After countless miles in our minivan
Surrounded by expanses of forest and water
I remember the lights of the harbor
And the ore boats glowing like ocean liners
Like those of a distant city many times larger
Summer '97, married student apartments
There was a fenced-in playground with a slide and a swing set
I was just five at the time but a couple years later
We moved back to Ishpeming among familiar strangers
And then high school flew by with hardly a warning
I didn't know where to go so I started college at Northern
Where I met my first love in freshman Chemistry
On the shores near Little Presque I asked her to marry me
And most of our friends still live nearby
We visit monthly, though it's a long drive
And someday I hope we'll return to that same place
Where the north wind conjures up ghosts on the Big Lake
In November, but wait until June or July
When the forests burst green and the fireworks fly
Summer is lovely, autumn is gold
The beauty of winter here outweighs the cold
Spring's so often a liar but I tend to believe her
When the frost is lifted from the white pines and cedars at last
Black Rocks and ore docks tower over the water
Waves lapping on the agate beach
An ever-changing tapestry of memories
Never lying too far out of reach
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12. |
Blue Moon & Superman
03:49
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With storage shed gas I mow the grass
And she gave me seven dollars
Ornamental monarch butterflies
Senior center bingo callers
Somewhere north on 510 where the Big Boy graveyard stood
Paddle boats on Arfelin and the spiders in the woods
In the parking lot of the Italian deli
We count our quarters in the shade
Dusty jars of gardenia mix
Candy bars in paper bags
Cotton candy and the cudighi stand at the Al Quaal Fourth of July
Picnics packed with cousins beneath the oaks at Lake Antoine
Parting trees down by the horse barn, we played cops and robbers
Like an old Western we'd never seen
Two VHS tapes, three hour runtime
Was far too long for me
Fudgesicles and frozen pizza from the old Joseph's grocery store
I watched them play the PS1 and Nintendo 64
Back in 2002 when we took a canoe
Up some mosquito-infested creek
Grandpa's conversion van had a VCR
So we quoted lines from Shrek all week
The smell inside the pasty shop and the ketchup packet stain
Singing along with Da Yoopers songs on a white cassette tape
When did they fade, I guess I'm fairly unsure
Maybe ten or fifteen years
And that's fine by me, be it '97 or '03
And all the fun we had right here
All these long-ago summers melt together like a dream
Bright colors run and blur and fade like Blue Moon and Superman ice cream
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Under This Cold Sky Marquette, Michigan
Genre-spanning songwriting shaped by the Upper Peninsula wilderness.
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