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0:00/4:00
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0:00/4:02
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0:00/4:17
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Lose the Shoes 3:120:00/3:12
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Morning Light 3:440:00/3:44
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Dogs 2:390:00/2:39
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0:00/5:00
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Flowers for April 4:230:00/4:23
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The debut album for Mark's new vocal project, mark kroos and the forest floor is now available across all streaming platforms! You can also download the album on a donation basis or pick up a physical copy in the Online Store. Thanks for listening and enjoy!
mark kroos and the forest floor
Lyrics
Copyright 2023 Mark Kroos
01) Starters Tend to Fail
Your smile kept me stable when I stumbled in the kitchen
But you didn’t need to catch me when I fell
When you’re bracing for the floor
Landing with Lenoria is a grace and I could never work it off
When it gets cold in East Virginia
Our Starters tend to fail
And roads like to diverge in yellow wood
And whether these diverge for now
Or these diverge for good
The way we love
The way we lose
The way the heart knows every line
And it falls apart
Like Hearts will do
But I would choose it every time
81 will see you to the Blueridge
I never find those mountains seem to mind
Every fear and doubt I never dare to share aloud
But I’ve spent some time pretending I don’t have those anymore
No matter what they tell you you’re a fighter
Fire lights a fight in everyone
And when they say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger
Tell em if it doesn’t kill you then it best know how to run
The way we love
The way we lose
The way the heart knows every line
And it falls apart
Hearts will do that
But I would choose it every time
But I would choose it every time
64 will see you to the ocean
Let it ocean over you
Beauty is as beauty does and beauty is the notion
If you draw a bucket out, that water’s still the ocean
The way we love
The way we lose
The way the heart knows every line
And it falls apart
Like hearts will do
But I would choose it every time
The Way we love
The way we lose
The way it all falls out and there’s nothing you can do
And I wouldn’t try to speak for you
But I would choose it every time
02) The Dirt and the Pine
Sink like a ship you can sink like a stone
Run like a river and think you were sinking alone
I left the district behind
I fell in love with the dirt and the pine
Til tires and taillights beckoned me back to the road
I met a girl in the salt and the sand in a year
Boys with guitars in the bars play what they think the girls wanna hear
Just cause you put that guitar in his hand now you know that don’t make him a man
I was never the best but I’m doing the best that I can
And it winds between these words
When all those lines point back to her
And the faults and the flaws in my design
Are the same ones that brought me to her from the dirt and the pine
I was a ghost on the coast for the past seven years
I was a ghost in the gulf when I could have been here
Darlin I’ve run away from the wind and the waves over most of my time in the south
Make believing that being a man meant that I gotta run,
I gotta run without anyone else
And it winds between these words
When all those lines point back to her
And the faults and the flaws in my design
Are the same ones that brought me to her from the dirt and the pine
Foot to the floor and the tour has me leaving today
But the treads on these tires are tired of running away
All of the words I came here to say, this silence speaks better than all of them
I can stay for the sunrise but these eyes are only for you
I met a girl in the salt and the sand
Arkansas freckles come out in the Florida sun
She kissed me once
And I’m goin back for another one
03) Great Wife Shark
Oh my dear I can’t stay here no more
Never been one to stay out of the sun
But I can’t be confined to the shore
This old car’s got room
Well I’d leave this guitar before I let go of you
So let’s take a bite of those queen city sights
Maybe the stars and the moon
Wrote it in a letter but I could have said it better
If I had another couple of days
It said you are the reason for love songs
And you sure do make em easier to play
I might’ve lost all of that steam
Worried bout the money and what everybody thinks
But you bring me back to myself
And I don’t care
I don’t care if it sells
We’re gonna throw that line and hold
Do you mind if I jump in?
You taught me to love and my father taught me to swim
We’re gonna throw that line and hold
Gonna throw that line again
You taught me to love and my father taught me to swim
Oh my dear I still forget the sound
But it’s clear when I hear and it’s near and it’s dear
And it’s clearer when you’re around
And I’ve seen God in the darkest of places
In kindness in faces, in kindness with no face at all
In the bars in the subway cars
On the highways and byways and darlin he’s there in your heart
There in your heart
And we throw that line and hold
Do you mind if I jump in?
You taught me to love and my father taught me to swim
We’re gonna throw that line and hold
Gonna throw that line again
You taught me to love and my father taught me to swim
Well I was 17 and my heart first broke
Like a promise, a fall or a wave
I was 23 and it still wouldn’t start
I was beat like a heart
I said this old car’s got room
Let’s see what this engine can do
And the tour that was born to be weary and worn
Brought me back to the bay
And we throw that line and hold
Do you mind if I jump in?
You taught me to love and my father taught me to swim
We’re gonna throw that line and hold
Gonna throw that line again
You taught me to love and my father taught me to swim
04) Forgive Me, Savannah
Rain came down
Felt a loss for words at all the words that I had found
And Carolina held me like a child
And in the sunlight for the first time since the Springtime
I was back on Southern ground
95 to 26 was open with the windows
And The Wild was on the stereo and I
Cut the cords where vocal cords constrain
Us from the notes that we can never ever find
But I drove home
But I drove home
Light Came down
Between the moss and oak and broken on the ground
Humans have a wandering need as humans are a faulty breed
And I always find it’s easy ground to lose
But oh my dear Savannah if your majesty was mine
I’d never have to feel September’s chill or see its sky
Cause I’ve found a place where I can see the stars
Darlin I can see em just fine
But I drove home
And this Southern rain is soothing on my skin
Savannah get your meddling hands out of my hair
I’ll leave tonight and see you in the Spring
Cause I got highway lines to hold
Wheels left to wear
Songs I need to sing
So I drove home
05) Rustling Grass
I got a soft spot for the summers I couldn’t save
Sun on the stroll
Soft for the soul
In the Fall I always falter
Winter I couldn’t brave
But I got a soft spot for the summers I couldn’t save
I found a soft spot in the grass
In the patch there by the path
And in that rustling grass I’ll sleep
All of my worries and my fears are in its keep
Darlin I don’t want them anymore
And every path we know
Come this Fall will all turn gold
And always leave so please
Darlin walk with me now
I got a soft spot for the hearts
The ones that hope and the ones that open
The ones that bend
And the ones about to burst
The ones that break and the ones that wall
The ones that lock up tight and tell you
Ain’t no one ever gonna hurt me like that again
Cause I’ve been the breaker
And I’ve been the broken
I’ve been the liar
And I’ve been the thief
I’ve been the courage
But Lord, I’ve been the coward
You can just set em there in the Rustling Grass
Next to the summers I couldn’t save
And every path we know
Come this Fall will all turn gold
And always leave so please
Darlin walk with me now
Darlin walk with me now
Darlin walk with me now
And I’ve been the banker
And I’ve been the busted
I’ve been the sorrow
And I’ve been the shame
I know a healer
Blessed redeemer
I know a savior
That runs with the sinners
I fed the hungry I gave em my coat to keep em warm
But I am only a furnace that breaks in the heaviest part of the storm
You can just set it there in the grass
What the past would not allow
You know the past is in the past
Darlin walk with me now
06) Distance Duster
Now I don’t know a single person in Biloxi, Mississippi
But the folks down in McComb know how to grace
This Southern food, gratitude
Laughter, love and mischief do
A lot to dust the distance
From these out of state plates
And I’ve never set a foot in Baton Rouge, Louisiana
I’ve driven through a time or two and I can’t pretend to know
But I wouldn’t bat an eye if Baton Rouge, Louisiana’s
Got at least a couple folks like the ones I know in McComb
I can’t see your soul
But I danced in the rain
And I wasn’t alone
And I’m finding more and more
That love is the only thing worth doing anything for
Now when I walk through the street in uptown Charlotte, Carolina
I see strangers bringing strangers food and clothes
And if that’s passion for compassion
Or second-handing fashion
Man I don’t care if it’s second-hand
Compassion is compassion
I can’t see your soul
But I danced in the rain
And I wasn’t alone
And I’m finding more and more
That love is the only thing worth doing anything for
Now I’ve been the man who looks to find the worst in every person
And I’ve been the man who tries to see the good
There’s a little bit of ugly you can find in anybody
But I think you’re gonna find some beauty too
And the walls we build to separate me from you and you from me
Well I don’t wanna build those walls no more
Every child of the father, how bout the ones that we’ve ignored?
Cause that’s my sister, that’s my brother
I can’t see your soul
But I danced in the rain
And I wasn’t alone
And I’m finding more and more
That love is the only thing worth doing anything for
I can’t see your soul
But in facing the changes
This is the way that we grow
And I’m finding more and more
That love is the only thing worth doing anything for
07) Rental Unit
Paper walls to share
Stubborn station(a/e)ry resumes and windows
Latches never meant to move
Brick that hasn't meant a thing in years to anyone but you
Paper walls to side
Peeling paint remembers memories we never shared
And if those songs could satisfy
January's rent demands
Coffee stains and shaky hands
And darlin' it's alright, we're gonna do our best to fill this place with light
Darlin' it's alright, we're gonna do our best to fill this place with light
Paper trees please don't cut 'em down for me
They belong before my songs and long after I leave
And I would love to have the view
I would love to have the money saved
But as long as it's with you
Then it's all the same to me
Darlin' it's alright, we're gonna do our best to fill this place with light
Darlin' it's alright, we're gonna do our best to fill this place with light
And 10 years on the road can leave you broken
And 10 years on the road can go awry
And in spite of what we see
I still humbly believe
That even broken people glow
We're gonna do our best to fill this place with light
08) The Moon and You
The moon and you
Have better things to do
Than smile or shine
On Harbor Glen tonight
The lake, she froze
And so did East Monroe
It’s too dark, too cold
To stay tonight
When you and me
Moved back from Tennessee
Questions, stares and walls
Rumors, make believe
But you and I
Got our syntax right this time
Sometimes words align
The moon and me
And how they all perceived you
Was no concern of mine
The darkness doesn’t dare
Darling you shine
The Moon and You
Are fight or flight for two
The ground below
Is cold and cruel
If I could say
The thing to make you stay
Sometimes words align
Sometimes words evade
But how they all perceived you
Was no concern of mine
The darkness doesn’t dare
The darkness doesn’t dare
And every streetlight haloes
When eyes can’t seem to dry
When all the bulbs are broken
Darling you shine
The stars are brightest
On the darkest night
I watch without
The moon and you
09) Apologies and Roses
Now I always love the summer on the parkway
And the Springtime in the plains
But the way her eyes bore into mine
I guess they sound the same
I got vision indecision
Obligations on the coast
And my friends tell me to stay with her
But my heart says I should go
I had walls she couldn’t weather
I had walls she couldn’t climb
Any call would seem to drop along
That North Virginia Line
Claim the welts and claim the bruises
Over scars she couldn’t see
Somewhere underneath the tissue
I still miss the way you say
That I’m always
Runnin south
That I’m always
Runnin late
That I’m always
Runnin out
Or away
Now that river spans the mountains
All the way to Hampton Roads
And if that bay delays the backlash
It’ll be worth its weight in gold
Let apologies and roses
Mask a fear of being free
And you asked me if I miss you
Or if I miss you missin me
Cause I’m always
Runnin south
Cause I’m always
Runnin late
Cause I’m always
Runnin out
Or away
Do you believe me when I say I was tryin
To be the person that I thought I should be?
The more I try the less that I like him
Cause that ain’t me, darlin
No darlin that ain’t me
Pulled the strings off that old tele
I wrapped em round the song
I untangled them to find that I’d been stringing her along
All the time I spent explaining
All the times I couldn’t stay
How the voice of my Virginia
Keeps on calling me away
10) Some Dreams
She said I love this song
And I’d never played it for it but it sounded like my other ones
And when half the words are tailored for someone else’s page
It feels like setting fire to my own
And I think I gotta quit that game
Work and wear my worries down to where my worries drown
But the worry and the hurry and the pressure and the rent
We tried to save the money dear but the money was already spent
And I knew there was a cure for this disease
And I knew it had to do with letting go
But some dreams are going stale and comparisons pale
I felt like I was the last one to know
Some dreams die with ease
Washed up and burned out, quietly without a fight and I
Darlin I don’t want to die with these
She said I love this song
And I thought that it was Queen but I was wrong
The pressure in my side, I suspected I was sick
And it was fine til it got to my lungs
And on the nights I couldn’t breathe
I cursed myself for all the times
I’d chosen not to speak out or stand
Against the delusions of grandeur of likeness and whiteness
That we learned from other pandering men
Cause we cover up the sores, rework the metaphors
And make ourselves heroes in our history
All the trust is busted when we find our teachers lied to us
But all of their teachers had done the same
You and I are gonna have some words
If I can ever get em into my lungs
But I’m receding like a glacier, I’m receding like my hairline
Humility hits like a brick, like a sickness
Like a silence
And it leaves you feeling human as human can be
And some dreams die with ease
Others beat you bloody first and hold on to the worst
Darlin these ones would’ve been the end of me
Darlin I swear it’s the last time I need to be anything
Everything I thought that I was is beginning to fade
Darlin I swear it’s the last time I need to be anyone
All of the faces I wore are beginning to fade
And if dust is to dust
Maybe the purpose of life is just to give it away
And I saw it in that Serbian proverb
It said “Be humble for you are made of Earth
And be noble for you are made of stars”
We are a beautiful dust
And resentment is a poison and it permeates the liver
And I thought that mine would stick around forever
But the more that I pry this heart open I find
There’s only room in this ribcage for one of us
And pretty words are only pretty words
Til there’s room in this world for all of us
Darlin I can pick myself off of this floor
I will find there is strength in my knees
There is good in the world and we’re gonna do our best to make more of it
Yeah darlin those are some dreams
11) Hands are for Holding
There’s a photo taken up in East Monroe
Taken by surprise
Taken driving by
The kids, the bridge, the plans
The cars and the spray paint cans
It says “Hands are for holding in the cold”
Hands are for holding in the cold
January called for me today
She said I wish you wouldn’t waver
I wish you wouldn’t wait
And all the salt if I don’t savor favor with the storm
Darlin we got our coats for keeping warm
Take my hand, my dear
Nothing faults our focus like our focus on our fear
Take my hand, my dear
You can doubt the song but darlin
Never doubt the dawn
Or the stars or the moon or the Spring
And I can miss the iris back in June
Fall is a cloudy melody that plays against the mood
Withered / weathered all the same cause sometimes
Petals have to change
And sometimes we press pedals into the floor
Take my hand, my dear
Nothing faults our focus like our focus on our fear
Take my hand, my dear
You can hold your doubt but darlin
Doubt will sell you out
When you stand or you shout or you sing
Callouses don’t always show on palms you used to know
You know callouses don’t always have to stay
Every time you think you have to step the dance alone
Take my hand, my dear
And when circumstance says NO
no more road to go
Well I am scared but I’m prepared to try to fly
When January calls and says she'll see you when you fall
Tell her we're just finding our way home
Take my hand, my dear
Nothing faults our focus like our focus on our fear
Take my hand, my dear
And when sorry shocks and salty roads
Are all we have to share
Hands are for holding in the cold