Say it’s here where our pieces fall in place

Any rain softly kisses us on the face

Any wind means we’re running

We can sleep and see them coming

Where we drift and call it dreaming

We can weep and call it singing

Where we break when our hearts are strong enough

We can bow ‘cause our music’s warmer than blood

Where we see enough to follow

We can hear when we are hollow

Where we keep the light we’re given

We can lose and call it living

Where the sun isn’t only sinking fast

Every night knows how long it’s supposed to last

Where time of our lives is all we have

And we get a chance to say, before we ease away

For all the love you’ve left behind,

You can have mine

Say it’s here where our pieces fall in place

We can fear ‘cause a feelings fine to betray

Where our water isn’t hidden

We can burn and be forgiven

Where our hands hurt from healing

We can laugh without a reason

‘Cause the sun isn’t only sinking fast

Every moon and our bodies make shining glass

Where the time of our lives is all we have

And we get a chance to say, before we ease away

For all the love you’ve left behind

You can have mine

*Music by Iron & Wine arranged for choir by Brady Lanier

I was a quick wet boy diving too deep for coins,

All of your street light eyes wide on my plastic toys.

Then when the cops closed the fair,

I cut my long baby hair and stole me a dog eared map

And called for you everywhere.

Have I found you, flightless bird?

Jealous, weeping.

Or lost you, American mouth?

Big pill, looming.

Now I'm a fat house cat nursing my sore blunt tongue

Watching the warm poison rats curl through the wide fence cracks.

Pissing on magazine photos, those fishing lures,

Thrown in the cold and clean blood of Christ mountain stream.

Have I found you, flightless bird?

Grounded, bleeding.

Or lost you, American mouth?

Big pill stuck going down.

*Music by Iron & Wine arranged for choir by Brady Lanier

Yeah, I’ve become a glad man singing a song

‘bout a soldier want a boot and a fallen angel

Naked as a fish at night

‘Bout a sad man climbed up a willow bough

And the cops are on the fence ‘round the dog in the manger

And the mouth of the river is wide

Yeah, I’ve become a glad man singing a song

‘Bout the bushes by the gas pump gone to flower

And a constant star collides

‘Bout a sad man sayin’ “They’ve forgotten how”

And a baby quit sucking when the milk went sour

And the mouth of the river is wide

‘Bout a sad man lost in the hammock sway

When the bridal gown come mama spit out the window

And a cop said, “The dog won’t bite”

And the sad man sayin’, “They’ve forgotten when”

And the blood running black in the valley shadow

The river running all the while

Yeah, I’ve become a man singing a song

About a lover rolled over said, “You must be tired”

And the truth coming toward the light

‘Bout a sad man knocking on a chapel door

And a burned out boat called Tried by Fire

And the mouth of the river is wide.

*Music by Iron & Wine arranged for choir by Brady Lanier

God made the automobile

To pass all the pretty girls

That smoke by the side of the road

The blues loving boys in tow

To drive until the end of the day

And bow to a borrowed flag

Beside all the brave and the blind

And men without men in mind

To pass all the things he made

But then never bothered to name

And no one will tell the truth

And no one will hide it from you

Like birds around the grave

God made the automobile

And I made a little boy

To pass on the blissfully young

The snake with a forked tongue

That preys on the wanting for time

And makes in the sleepless waves

The fear of the Black and the Jew

And blood for the camera crew

And pass all the things he made

But then never bothered to name

And no one will tell the truth

And no one will hide it from you

Like birds around the grave.

*Music by Iron & Wine arranged for choir by Brady Lanier

Who’s seen Jezebel?

She was born to be the woman I would know

and hold like the breeze half as tight as both our eyes closed.

Who’s seen Jezebel?

She went walking where the cedars line the road,

Her blouse on the ground where the dogs were hungry,

Roaming, saying,

“Wait, we swear we’ll love you more and wholly.

Jezebel, it's we, we that you are for only.”

Who’s seen Jezebel?

She was born to be the woman we could blame.

Make me a beast, half as brave, I’d be the same.

Who’s seen Jezebel?

She was gone before I ever got to say,

“Lay here my love;

you’re the only shape I’ll pray to, Jezebel.”

Who’s seen Jezebel?

Will the mountain last as long as I can wait?

Wait like the dawn

how it aches to meet the day.

Who’s seen Jezebel?

She was certainly the spark for all I’ve done.

The window was wide; she could see the dogs come running

Saying, “Wait, we swear we’ll love you more and wholly.

Jezebel it’s we, we that you are for only.”

*Music by Iron & Wine arranged for choir by Brady Lanier

Deep inside the heart of this troubled man

There’s an itty bitty tugging hard at your hand

Born bitter as a lemon but you must understand

That you’ve been bringing me joy

And I’ll only lie when you don’t want the truth

I’m only frightened cause you fin’ly gave me something to lose

And it’s as loud as a thunderclap and you hear it too

But you’ve been bringing me joy

Deep inside the heart of this crazy mess

I’m only calm when I get lost within your wilderness

Born crooked as a creek bed and come to confess

That you’ve been bringing me joy

And when I’m alive, I’m living for you

Another bluebird dying but for singing the blues

And it’s a heartfelt silly sort of bumbling tune

‘Bout how you’re bringing me joy.

*Music by Iron & Wine arranged for choir by Brady Lanier

She says “Wake up, it’s no use pretending.”

I’ll keep stealing, breathing her

Birds are leaving over autumn’s ending.

One of us will die inside these arms.

Eyes wide open, naked as we came.

One will spread our ashes ‘round the yard.

She says “If I leave before you darling,

Don’t you waste me in the ground.”

I lay smiling like our sleeping children.

One of us will die inside these arms.

Eyes wide open, naked as we came.

One will spread our ashes ‘round the yard.

*Music by Iron & Wine arranged for choir by Brady Lanier

Please, remember me happily

By the rosebush laughing

With bruises on my chin, the time

When we counted every black car passing

Your house beneath the hill

And up until someone caught us in the kitchen

with maps, a mountain range, a piggy bank

A vision too removed to mention.

But please remember me fondly;

I heard from someone you’re still pretty.

And then they went on to say

That the Pearly Gates had some eloquent graffiti

Like “We’ll meet again” and “F*** the man”

And “Tell my mother not to worry”

And angels with their great handshakes,

but always done in such a hurry.

And please remember me on Halloween,

Making fools of all the neighbors.

Our faces painted white,

By midnight, we’d forgotten one another

And when the morning came, I was ashamed

Only now it seems so silly.

That season left the world and then returned,

But now you’re lit up by the city.

So, please remember me mistakenly

In the window of the tallest tower,

Calling passers-by but much too high

To see the empty road at happy hour

Gleam and resonate, just like the gates

Around the holy kingdom

With words like “Lost and found” and “Don’t look down”

And “Someone save temptation”

And please remember me as in the dream

We had as rug-burned babies

Among the fallen trees and fast asleep

Beside the lions and ladies

That called you what you like and even might

Give a gift for you behavior,

A fleeting chance to see a trapeze swinger

High as any savior.

But please remember me, my misery

And how it lost me all I wanted.

Those dogs that love the rain and chasing trains

The colored birds above, they’re running

In circles ‘round the well, and where it spells

On the wall behind St. Peters

So bright on cinder gray in spray paint,

“Who the hell can see forever?”

And please remember me seldomly

In the car behind the carnival

My hand between your knees, you turned from me

And said the trapeze act was wonderful

but never meant to last, the clowns that passed

Saw me just come up with anger.

When it filled with circus dogs, the parking lot

Had an element of danger.

So please, remember me finally

And all my uphill clawing, my dear.

But if I make the Pearly Gates,

I’ll do my best to make a drawing

Of God and Lucifer, a boy and girl,

An angel kissing on a sinner

A monkey and a man, a marching band

All around a frightened trapeze swinger.

*Music by Iron & Wine arranged for choir by Brady Lanier

Sometimes the mist overhangs my path,

And blackening clouds about me cling;

But, oh, I have a magic way

To turn the gloom to cheerful day -

I softly sing

And if the way grows darker still,

Shadowed by Sorrow’s somber wing,

With glad defiance in my throat,

I pierce the darkness with a note,

And sing, and sing.

I brood not over the broken past,

Nor dread whatever time may bring;

No nights are dark, no days are long,

While in my heart there swells a song,

And I can sing.

*Text by James Weldon Johnson

Planted deep in my soul,

I could feel the roots take hold.

Through the years I watched it grow

from the earth I dug and the seed I sowed.

Let the heavens fall and fire rain down

I swear that I will hold my ground.

Let the oceans try and wash me out

I swear that I will hold my ground.

Before I saw the light of day

I was buried deeper than a grave,

But I broke my way through rock and clay

To feel the sunlight on my face.

Let the heavens fall and fire rain down

I swear that I will hold my ground.

Let the oceans try and wash me out

I swear that I will hold my ground.

Risin’ up into the blue

I thought my heart would break in two.

When the thunder rolled and the storm came through

Yeah, I was swayed but my roots stayed true

To the earth I dug and the seed I grew.

Let the heavens fall and fire rain down

I swear that I will hold my ground.

Let the ocean try and wash me out

I swear that I will hold my ground.

*Text by Avi Kaplan

Three little words

Waiting on the window sill

Longing for the land to touch the sky

How lucky the birds

Sheltered in the shadows before

Soaring up to sapphire highs

Watch them as they fly.

Fading away

I trace you as you track their path

Wishing for a way out of the blue

With nothing to say

I wrap the earth around us,

Try to keep it close and ground us,

For a time embraced

As the mirror to your face and

Reflect your stardust smile

(just for a little while)

With fractals of your laugh

That split my world in half

If you could only feel that warmth

Like cinnamon so sweet and soft

Over freshly fallen snow

You’d never let go.

Could the answer be found

In dappled light,

To grant the grace of sweet simplicity?

Right all the wayward ways

If you could look at you

The way you look at me?

Maybe then you’d see -

A chance to stand above the gathering clouds

Feel your spirit dancing in the air!

And if you hesitate

Wings trapped beneath the weight

Remember: you’re the light

That makes my worlds ignite

If you could only feel that warmth,

Like cinnamon so sweet and soft

Over freshly fallen snow

You’d never let go.

*Lyrics by Stephanie and Rob Dietz