Get all 8 Them Badgers releases available on Bandcamp and save 30%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Songs for Sad Queers and Fake Cowboys, By the Grace of Dodge, Traveling Song, Devil I Know, Bruises, Plotting Lines, Trigger Warning: Suicide, and Bunkers.
1. |
Dead Reckoning
03:53
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Counting fenceposts out my window
In the miles it takes to get to you
Counting fenceposts out my window
In the miles it takes to get to you
I watch my smile in the mirror
So my trembling won’t show
Every station, we grow nearer
Can’t you hear that whistle blow
I ran away
I hid my eyes
And now I’m coming back to you
I can’t wait
To make it right
So I can give it back to you
Every Sunday I forgive you
but at night I can’t forget
I’ll help the angel find you
If they haven’t found you yet
Polished nickel in brown leather
Count my brass a hundred times
If I couldn’t make you listen
Then at least I’ll make you mine
I ran away
I hid my eyes
And now I’m coming back to you
I can’t wait
To make it right
So I can give it back to you
The hours bring us on like needle pulling thread
I move on tracks of steel and your future’s paved with lead
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH (bees!)
As the trains rolls to the station
The conductor calls the stop
I step onto the platform
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2. |
Devil I Know
05:01
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I was born at 25 and I’ve been searching high and low
For family, for a place to call my home
I got hands in empty pockets and a head full of worries
I’ve been walking since the day I found my name
The doctor placed the baby in my mother’s open arms
A daughter on the record, pink and bubblegum cigars
My father for his firstborn what he wanted was a son
But he don’t like the man that I become
There’s been days I was almost hurried
To see the dark side of the ground
But I found
A thousand more long roads to travel over
A thousand miles of me, unbound
So despite my trepidation I came out
To see what living free was all about
My mother told me I would spend eternity in hell
Living life with folks like that it’s just as well
When I told my father who I was, who I was
Sitting on the corner of a motel bed
I spoke crying down the phone and the only thing he told me
Was I wouldn’t see a cent when he was dead
All the fears about what’s coming (let it go)
All the weight of expectation (let it go)
All the shame somebody gave you (let it go)
All that broken-hearted wishing (let it go)
Let her go, let her go, God bless her
Wherever she may be
You can search for her the wide world over
You’re only gonna find the man that’s me
For every outstretched right hand found the left one in a fist
For every shot I land there’s a dozen that I miss
I never found a door that gave way to open arms
Still they say the world can’t do you any harm
If they ever met me halfway I’d have stayed
And I never would have learned to let it go
Because the trouble that I find still beats the
devil that I know
So let that devil chase the name
Let that devil chase the name
Let that devil chase the name I left behind
Let that devil chase the name
Let that devil chase the name
Let that devil chase the name I left behind
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3. |
A Damn Shame
03:31
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It’s so hard to lose the things I knew that I could never keep
But even billion year old stars will fade away
Awake thinking about you I am only losing sleep
It’s a damn shame that you never meant to stay
Every time that song comes on I think about you
And I feel my eyes go hot with unshed tears
You’ve got your pack and saw, you’re driving up to that snow line
Running from someone who ain’t loved you in years
That feeling that you left me with is one that I can’t shake
And it don’t make any sense no not a lick
A lot of things got left unsaid in the brief time that we shared
But we seemed to know what made the other tick
When I climb behind the wheel I think about you
Floating gears just ain’t the same now that you’re gone
There’s a longing that I get with the crunchy, fragrant leaves
And the jacket that you gave me keeps me warm
And I’ll probably never hold you in my arms
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4. |
Oh My Home
04:21
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Oh my home, oh my home
Is a place I cannot go
Now the stars, the night sky
Lights my way
For my home, for my home
Attic bare, furnace cold
And a bullet for my trouble if I stay
In my life, I’ve been wrong
I’ve held hands with disappointment
Found no rule which says the morning
Brings what midnight took away
So I know I belong
To come what may not come and gone
All for leaving after she had left herself
I’ll walk between the raindrops
As the footfalls turn to miles
Asking nighttime won’t you hide me from
the dark
I’ll cross the setting moon path
Cast in gold from out the shore
Try to find you on the next side
If we don’t meet anymore
Lemon moon, velvet sky
Cross my heart, hope to die
When the world, when the hour
Turns my way
When I’m called, if I’m weighed
Would I find the breath to answer
Does my story have a meaning
When I’ve left behind my name
The Earth may crack, the oceans dry
Our work soon fade away but I
Keep traveling on to meet the sun and
wait for us to rise
I used to think tomorrow
meant the past was left behind
I still hear her singing to me
New Year’s Day
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5. |
The Morning Light
03:07
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Evening comes like evenings do, But morning left along with you
For all the dark before the dawn, I found it darkest once you’d gone
Where is a soul who can number all the stars
Can you show me a love that can mend a broken heart
The nighttime never knows (Nighttime never knows)
The morning light (The morning light)
The morning light (The morning light)
The morning light
What can I do, what more to say, You saw my heart and turned away
How can I love what you would leave, I knew a truth you couldn’t see
Where is a soul who can number all the stars
Can you show me a love that can mend a broken heart
The nighttime never knows (Nighttime never knows)
The morning light (The morning light)
The morning light (The morning light)
The morning light
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6. |
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I never had much use for things that didn’t have much use
But a life lived short on sentiment has left me with hard truths
My hands got empty fingers; walls got empty picture frames
I got so many things to hold the things that never came
In the metropolitan museum of art, they keep them under lock and key
The finest looking pistols that the world has ever seen
And I stood before them weeping, wearing my one pair of jeans
Surrounded by grand, gilded frames and New York limousines
I want a Tiffany Smith & Wesson right above my door
It’s the only thing that’s missing Lord, I wouldn’t ask for more
It doesn’t have much purpose but to me it’s worth the greatest price
Just think we all should get the chance to pick one thing that’s nice
The end’s the end for you and me but beauty feels forever
And if I’m wrong then let me be at least I’ll have my Tiffany
So on my wall I keep a spot to hang one thing that life forgot
To make me feel my day’s complete and sing me into sleep
So I want a Tiffany Smith & Wesson
Right above my door
So all the things I’m missing
Wouldn’t miss me anymore
It’s only got one purpose but to me it’s worth the greatest price
Just think we all should get the chance to pick one thing that’s nice
Never had much use for things that didn’t have much use
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7. |
Santa Fe Waltz
03:19
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My friends say I should write a song
But they’re all wrong, I know it can be done
And I don’t feel like writin’
I just feel like cryin’
This cloud keeps finding ways to block the sun
I heard there was a secret chord
You’d play to send the blues off at a run
No matter what key I play in
The trees may start to swayin’
And I still sit here staring at this gun
Now when’s a feller s’posed to quit
When the hits keep landing squarely on his chin
I’ve shoveled all the coal in
Burned candles at both ends
Charged bravely into fights I couldn’t win
The only thing that’s left to do
Is start anew somewhere I won’t be chased
I could hop a train to Santa Fe
Fall asleep along the way
And wake up to the sunshine on my face
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8. |
Poor Wayfaring Stranger
05:09
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I am a poor wayfaring stranger
Traveling through this world of woe
There’s no sickness, toil, or danger
In that bright land to which I go
I’m going there to see my Mother
She said she’d meet me when I come
I’m only going over Jordan
I’m only going over home
I know dark clouds will gather round me
I know my way’ll be rough and steep
But beautiful fields lie just before me
Where God’s redeemed their vigils keep
I’m going there to see my loved ones
Gone on before me one by one
I’m only going over Jordan
I’m only going over home
I’ll soon be free of earthly trials
My body rest in the old church yard
I’ll drop this cross of self-denial
And go singing home to God
I’m going home to see my savior
To worship him forever more
I’m only going over Jordan
I’m only going over home
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9. |
Heidi's Song
02:02
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I’m getting on a plane, I guess I could have took the train
Just get me where you are, get me where I need to be
I said I liked your face and there’s nothing in the world that could replace
The way I feel when you’re close to me
I’m along for the ride and I just want you by my side
And there’s nothing at all I would hide from you
I love you with all my heart and I think I knew it from the start
I want you now
I want you always
I want you now, I want you always
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Them Badgers Olympia, Washington
Part country and part punk, Them Badgers come from Olympia's traditions of American folk music and irrepressible queer
activism. They've lived these songs, in all of their exuberance and sorrow, misadventure and hilarity, and have laughed twice as hard as they've cried.
They want you to know that there is no authority but yourself.
... more
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