Ode to an American Urn

by The Reverend John DeLore

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  • Digital Album

    Immediate download of 13-track album in your choice of high-quality MP3, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.

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  • Compact Disc (CD) - Ode to an American Urn

    Yes! Music can STILL be an artifact that you touch, see, and smell! This lovely, full-length CD comes in a 6-panel digipak featuring artwork by the one and only Peter Nevins.

    The layout--like the rest of the album--was independently produced & designed by John DeLore. If you're serious about supporting music, then know that the proceeds of each CD you purchase go straight into an account used by the good Reverend to produce his next album. No lie!

    Purchase of CD also includes immediate download of all 13 tracks on "American Urn" in your choice of 320k mp3, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.

    Buy Now  $9.99 USD

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about

The debut album from the Reverend John DeLore...

"FOUR STARS!" says the altcountry.nl...
www.altcountry.nl/blog/2009/10/the-reverend-john-delore/#more-693

"...the epitome of Americana," says the Guilt Free Pleasures music blog...
guiltfreepleasure.blogspot.com/2009/08/reverend-john-delore.html

"...some of the catchiest hooks and lead riffs this side of Ryan Adams," says Drew Citron of jezebelmusic.com,
www.jezebelmusic.com/2930/the-reverend-john-delore/

"...a landscape is vivid with rattlesnake percussion, abandoned minor keys, and tumbleweed vocals."

"...the Reverend John DeLore finds heavenly intervention on his inspired first effort," says the Freetime Magazine,
freetime.com?q=content/columns/reverend-john-delore-ode-american-urn

"...an artful and entertaining batch of songs that grab you with gritty hooks and rocking tempos (“Art of War”) or swirling and sweet introspection (“Everybody Loves You Just The Same”) or bluesy soul..."

"... ”Everybody Loves You Just The Same” is a song that is steeped in Americana, is full of guitars that jingle jangle, and carries a hook that won’t leave you for days. Quite honestly its one of the best songs I’ve heard this year," says Tony Van Hart of blondeonblog...
blondeonblog.wordpress.com/2009/03/30/nice-to-meet-you-reverend-sure-ive-got-the-time/

credits

released 22 April 2009
Independently Produced & Released in Brooklyn, NY, USA. The Reverend John DeLore is an unsigned artist.

The album was Produced by:
John DeLore, Bryan Pugh, and Steve Lewis

The album was Performed by:
John DeLore (rhythm guitar, vocals)
and the Rolling Bombers:
Steve Lewis (lead guitar, vocals),
John Bettencourt (bass),
Jay Frederick (drums & percussion),
Kevin Blackler (keys & organs),

With some extra love from:
Kara Suzanne (backing vocals),
David Cieri (piano, accordion),
Bryan Pugh (accordion, vocals),
Kenny Cambre (tambourine, vocals)

Long live art. Long live music.

tags

tags: americana brooklyn, new york, usa folk honesty indie reverend john delore rock rock & roll alt-country poetry Brooklyn

license

all rights reserved

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Track Name: Art of War
The bedsheets were dirty, so we just rolled on the floor.
Rested my chin on her chest and confessed I’m afraid of the war.
She said, Baby, it’s okay if you ain’t never fired your gun before,
because mama’s gonna teach you all about the art of war.

I took off my clothes, and I blushed when she let out a laugh.
She said, “With a body like that you’d be exempt from the government draft.
She said, Baby it’s okay if you ain’t never killed another man,
because mama’s gonna teach you and help you to understand.

When you’re out in the desert eye-to-eye with your enemy,
don’t you kill him for your god or your country.
Shoot him down so you can hurry home to me,
because Mama wants to see you hang a star upon the Christmas tree.

When the warfare was over the clover she sent was still pressed
between the pages of a letter she wrote that I kept in my vest.
It said, Baby, it’s okay if you dream about me night and day.
You’ll be home in December. Just remember what your mama said.

When you’re out in the desert eye-to-eye with your enemy,
don’t you kill him for your god or your country.
Shoot him down so you can hurry home to me,
because Mama wants to see you hang a star upon the Christmas...
Mama wants to kiss you underneath the Christmas mistle...
Mama wants to feel you wrap your tinsel ‘round her Christmas tree.


[Words & Music by John DeLore]
Track Name: Everybody Loves You Just the Same
They don’t light the lanterns down on Main Street anymore.
It costs too much these days and no one lives behind the doors anyway.

With the windshield cracked like it is there’s a line we never cross.
It runs from the top to the bottom of a bleeding, Western sky.

Everybody knows your name.
Everybody knows the games you play.
Everybody loves you just the same.

In the morning you take the wheel with your eager eyes,
And follow the broken line to where your beauty lies.
Your beauty lies.

Everybody knows your name.
Everybody knows the games you play.
Everybody loves you just the same.

When the light comes up behind you and the shadow forms a wall,
And there’s no room there for goodbyes.
You say you’re sorry but there’s no one here to hear you apologize.

Everybody knows your name.
Everybody knows the games you play.
Everybody knows love you just the same.
Just the same.


[Words & Music by John DeLore / Matt Kubacki]
Track Name: Baby Teeth (All She Wrote)
Sorrow is just another pain in the body, like the breaking of a bone,
But none of us would cuss half as much if we were dying in a room alone.
The streets remain crowded with a throng of a million rich men’s wives,
And the poor man must keep living in his hole just to save these women’s lives.

Where were you in my hour of need?
Grow up girl take out your baby teeth.

Well the fire on the TV screen, it says to me that this game it always lost.
And the angels of old don’t play their harps anymore
Because they’ve all got their fingers crossed.
Now she’s dressed in rags and holding bags of smoke.
She leans out her window and says, “Son bless your soul.”
And for all the world’s ink and all the time she had to think,
This little prayer is all she wrote.

Where were you in my hour of need?
Grow up girl take out your baby teeth for me.

Now you’re up on that shelf just like one of those horses
that’s made out of carnival glass
And your hair is fine and your legs shine but they ain’t never met a blade of grass.
Now you’re dressed in rags and holding bags of smoke.
you run across the street and hand me a note.
And for all the world’s ink and all the time you had to think,
This little prayer is all she wrote.

Where were you in my hour of need?
Grow up girl take out your baby, take out your baby, take out your baby...
Where were you in my hour of need?
Grow up girl take out your baby teeth for me.

[Words & Music by John DeLore / Steve Lewis]
Track Name: Jerusalem
Every morning I turn the bedsheets down
Swing my legs over the edge till my feet meet the ground.
I don’t make a sound.

I just sit there so confused
Because I don’t know just who I am.
Oh, Jerusalem, leave me alone.

Every afternoon we lay side by side in your bed
And I beg you once again let me be your good friend
I won’t make a sound.

I’ll just sit there so confused
Because I don’t know just who I am.
Oh, Jerusalem, leave me alone.

Every evening I look for the moon and there’s two of them.
One for me and one for Jerusalem.

Every evening I look for the moon and there’s two of them.
One for me and one for Jerusalem.

There’s not one moon there are two of them
One for me and one for Jerusalem...


[Words & Music by John DeLore]
Track Name: Take a Ride
Listen everybody won’t you come and gather round
See this swaddled child in the lost and found.
Down on my luck but high upon my pride.
I’m so down baby won’t you take a ride.

I been up and down the country with a suitcase in my hand.
Through the fields and factories, but my baby doesn’t understand.
I’m down on my luck but high upon my pride.
I’m so down baby won’t you take a ride.

Take a ride, take a ride.
I’m so down, baby won’t you take a ride.

I seen the world a-crying, walking in double-time.
I hear the captain singing, he speaks in nursery rhyme.
He says, “Hand me down my walking cane, hand me down my slide.
Hand me down my old guitar and then we gonna take a ride.”

Take a ride, take a ride.
I’m so down, baby won’t you take a ride.
Take a ride, take a ride.
Come on down, baby won’t you take a ride.

I seen you walking down on the strand,
Hand-in-hand, hand-in-hand, walking with another man.
Down on my luck but high upon my pride.
I’m so down, baby won’t you take a ride.
Come on down, baby won’t you take a ride.
Come on down, baby won’t you take a ride.

[un-intelligible, dirty-talking oldmanspeak]



[Words & Music by John DeLore / Steve Lewis]
Track Name: Iodine
I needed you I knew I was in danger
Of losing what I used to think was mine
But you let me love you till I was a failure
Your beauty on my bruise like iodine.

I asked you if a man could be forgiven
And though I failed at love was this a crime.
You said, “Don’t worry. Don’t worry my darling.
There are many ways for a man to serve his time.
There are many ways for a man to serve his time.”

You covered up that place I could not master.
It wasn’t dark enough to shut my eyes.
So I was with you, oh, sweet compassion.
I was with you...compassion with the sting of iodine.
Your saintly kisses reeking of iodine.
Your fragrance, the fume of iodine.
And pity in the room like iodine.
Track Name: New Song for the Crossroads
The Saints they gather in the shadows.
And the Widows they mill around the field.
While one Saint kneels down to sharpen up his sword,
One Widow kneels and hammers at a shield.

And they know throughout all their loving
That they’ll never get out of this world alive.
If the flood waters rise they would calmly close their eyes
And sleep at the bottom of the sea.

And you can tell your daddy I still love you
And there’s nothing in the world would ever change my mind
But if it’s honor that he wants, well then it’s honor he shall have
And I will meet him at the crossroads at dawn.

As we walk between the fields and the shadows
Arm-in-arm and making up a song,
We hear a baby cry in a window far away
And you say he’s only trying to sing along.

Oh, sweet Anne of San Francisco
Let me tell you all about the scene of the crime.
I was just a young man in a foreign room
And it was either his blood or mine.

And you can tell your daddy I still love you
And there’s nothing in the world would ever change my mind
But if it’s honor that he wants, well then it’s honor he shall have
And I will meet him at the crossroads at dawn.

And he will come from the west all dressed in black
With a pistol bleeding in the palm of his hand
And I will rise from the east like a newborn son
And I’ll be leading a ragtime band.

And we will sing a new song for the crossroads
We will play it to the fields and the shadows everywhere
And when the time comes along I will lay down my song
And I will fire all my pistols in the air.
Track Name: Wounded Knee
You were the boy who grew bored with his mission,
Praise to the Lord and pass the ammunition.
Now you’re the man with a five dollar vision,
Drunk on honeymoon and seeking permission

To lay your head in the valley
To sing a song for all the world to see
That poor John Doe’s got his birds in a row
But he can’t dance on a wounded knee.

You tried to explain why curiosity killed the cat
And the children all cried when the rabbit got stuck in your hat.
You smile like the devil when you tell me that
A man can’t cut his teeth if he’s always chewing the fat.

Now I wanna lay my head in the valley
I wanna sing for all the world to see
That poor John Doe’s got his birds in a row
But he can’t dance on a wounded knee.

Self-medicated man with an arrow in his back
Throwing out the baby before you even filled the bath
You got stars in your eyes and stripes on your back
You sing for St. Sebastian but he ain’t never coming back.

You wanna lay your head in the valley
You wanna sing a song for all the world to see
That poor John Doe’s got his birds in a row
But he can’t dance on a wounded knee.

Why won’t you believe me when I tell you I was there
When the vines of the angels came crawling down the stairs
You had moon in your eyes and nightshade in your hair
I was trying to take you home but you didn’t even care

Now I wanna lay my head in the valley
I wanna sing for all the world to see
That poor John Doe’s got his birds in a row
But he can’t dance on a wounded knee.
That poor John Doe’s got his birds in a row
But he can’t dance on a wounded knee.
Track Name: In'Shallah
I cut my sweet tooth in a city where there is no orchard on a hill.
Where the undertaker kicks a stone down the street,
I guess even death has lost its thrill

And the boys grow up to be Marlboro men
If they live by the sword but they die by the pen
And the girls grow up to be billboard bitches
They leave home in silk but come back in stitches

Hello American Midwest Jesus on the crosswalk
Stop drop and rock and roll.
Good evening London calling in sick
You think your slick with your Picadilly circus.

Now you’re standing in the prairie with your local dignitary
And he’s shaking his verbal fist.
It seems he made it to a ripe old age
Without ever having been kissed.

In’shallah / God willing this is killing us.
Hey Judy come and give us a kiss.
In’shallah / Broken hearted the waters parted
And the sea received my eucharist.

Hello American Midwest Jesus on the crosswalk
Stop drop and rock and roll.
Good evening London calling in sick
You think your slick with your Picadilly circus.
Track Name: Don't Fall Asleep at the Wheel Tonight
Don’t fall asleep at the wheel tonight
Get yourself home safe and go to bed.
I’ll be along when the morning light
Lays a little kiss upon your head.

Ooh the sound of a train at evening
Leaving one station behind.
Now you will know what was on my mind
By reading all the words that I wrote up in the sky
With a smokestack way back when I was in love with you.

Don’t fall asleep at the wheel tonight
Turn up your radio.
Sing along to whatever comes on.
Make up the words if you don’t know them.

Ooh the sound of a signal fading
Leaving one station behind.
Now you will know what was on my mind
By reading all the words that I wrote up in the sky
With a smokestack way back when I was in love with you.

All alone on a late night highway
Headlights thrown upon the pavement and the pain.
You cross the great divide with your heavy feelings
And hurry home to these arms of mine...

Oh, don’t fall asleep at the wheel tonight
Get yourself home safe and go to bed.
I’ll be along when the morning light
Lays a little kiss upon your head.
Track Name: Slow Down
I remember when you were just nineteen, smiling up from a magazine.
Oh, we were younger then. Everything was an accident. To be sure.

I remember out on the watershed, when you held me and we made our bed.
Oh, we were so hungry then. Our appetites were a happy accident. To be sure.

Oh one day, when the hours have found a way to bite the hand that feeds us now.
We’ll slow down. We’ll slow down to a crawl.
We’ll go down. We’ll go down and listen to all.
We’ll slow down. We’ll slow down to a crawl.
Track Name: Swing Low, Ex Patriat
To get back to the middle is a long and winding road
When your hallowed grounds have all been trampled down.
And the trees you used to climb were set aside for a freeway lined
With hands and signs that reach across to take the toll

Roll that road, roll it home,
To find the fields have all gone grey and the river’s running low.
You might wear a thousand sweaters but you’re still gonna feel the cold.

Now it’s midnight down on Main
Where our Lady of the Rain is Praying for a stay of ex-communication.
Singing please don’t forsake me yet.
Swing low, ex patriat.
There’s a great sleep in my breast that waits for you.

Roll that road, roll it home,
To find the fields have all gone grey and the river’s running low.
A thousand jewels around your neck only makes your head hang low.

Roll that road, roll it home,
To find the fields have all gone grey and the river’s running low.
You might wear a thousand sweaters but you’re still gonna feel the cold.
Track Name: Love Among the Thorns
Yesterday I had a daydream,
The eyes of all the ones I love were turned away.
I played my music loud.
That’s just the way I am.
I refuse to let a daydream bring me down.

Yesterday I was a much different man
I tore my jacket on a thorn.
The trees all seem to me like women swaying to and fro.
And laughing at the man with the tear in his coat.

Mama won’t you rock the cradle of my soul?
Time has broke my father’s back, dragged his heart across the coals.
All I can do, from the day that I was born,
Is to look for love among the thorns.