Geoff McKenzie writes songs that are about something. Love and its malfunctions, candied moonlight, at least one murder ballad and the plot of a drugstore novel set to rhyme.
It’s hard to tell if he’s a disgraced poet who got good at guitar or verse vice-a, but somewhere along the line he raised a brood of restless folk songs that will jump in your lap and seize hold of your feelings. The little bastards.
Press Kit
Drugstore Novel
Geoff spent his youth learning guitar, half a lifetime learning to write and nearly five decades getting around to a record. Maybe he just hadn’t seen enough yet.
Finally, he guesses, he’s peered into enough darkened windows. Pressed his ear to the hearts of lovers and strangers, listening for off-kilter rhythms that haven’t been trapped by a microphone yet.
Here they are, those songs he cornered in the field. Skinned and salted and slung into bedtime stories that are easy to fall into and hard as hangmen to forget. You’ll meet lost souls wandering crumpled landscapes, coloured by every shade of regret. You’ll try—and fail—to outrun hellbent lovers haunted by a vengeful moon. You’ll lose yourself in the weave of love songs spun with a lyrical thread too fine and luminous for any dark night ever to unwind.
Songs to wreck you and songs to mend you.
Turn now, if you would, to chapter 1.
80 Word Biography
Geoff McKenzie writes songs that are about something. Love and its malfunctions, candied moonlight, at least one murder ballad and the plot of a drugstore novel set to rhyme.
It’s hard to tell if he’s a disgraced poet who got good at guitar or verse vice-a, but somewhere along the line he raised a brood of restless folk songs that will jump in your lap and seize hold of your feelings. The little bastards.
220 Word Biography
Geoff McKenzie always wanted to be a novelist. The problem is, all his stories sound so much better over music.
He’d love to tell you about a childhood spent at kitchen parties, learning fiddle tunes at the knee of the family string band while he sang ballads into a wooden spoon. But Geoff is not that guy.
He’s this other guy, raised on Shel Silverstein, John Steinbeck and Leonard Cohen. (Did you know Cohen also wrote songs?) And it’s true that he also stumbled on Ian & Sylvia and Gordon Lightfoot records in the family collection—and what all these scribblers have in common is, they had something they just really needed to tell you.
McKenzie writes songs that are about something. Love and its malfunctions, candied moonlight, at least one murder ballad and the plot of a drugstore novel set to rhyme. He’s a deceitful sort of folksinger who will melt your heart in one song and pawn it for scrap in the next. So maybe his current predicament is only fair: he has on his hands a brood of restless folk songs that will jump in your lap and seize hold of your feelings. The little bastards.
Drugstore Novel, Geoff’s first album, will debut on October 13, 2013.
Did you know Shel Silverstein also wrote songs?
Hi-Res Photos
Lyrics
Salton Sea
Friday comes with eyes ablaze
Burns a hole through Saturday
Sunday comes and goes so fast
Monday crawls on broken glass
I don’t know why, but I can’t leave
This shallow hole that was dug for me
This reservoir of dried out dreams
This town beside the Salton Sea
I kissed you under April stars
You loved me with a heart on fire
A young man’s heart beats just as fast
And runs as quick as candle wax
I think sometimes on how we met
How love came, and how it went
I left you with a life caved in
Then you left me in the poison wind
She found me in the Bombay Bar
Didn’t have to seach too far
Told me I’m some kind of father
The Salton Sea’s some kind of water
I asked her to sit with me
She crossed her legs and sipped her tea
Looked around with your brown eyes
Nodded once and said goodbye
Friday comes with eyes ablaze
Burns a hole through Saturday
All around me things recede
Reminds me who I used to be
All around me things recede
In this town beside the Salton sea
†
Signs of Spring
My father walks
Out on the hillside
My father oft
To the mountain goes
Soon he’ll spy
Some sign of springtime
A crocus bent
In a field of snow
My mother looks
Out of the window
My mother sees
The cherry tree
She calls her sisters
One bright morning
For George the robin
She has seen
My daughters too
They’ll quit their bedrooms
Their hearts like streams
Overflown
Soon they’ll go
Down to the fairground
And come back home
Sweethearts in tow
And the crocus knows
(And the crocus knows)
Oh the crocus knows
(The crocus knows)
What the robin brings
(What the robin brings)
Why the robin sings
(Why the robin sings)
His swelling hopes
Overflow
Our waxing hearts
With signs of spring
And my daughters too
They’ve met the robin
Hear him sing
Touched his wing
And they sun their cheeks
Sweet as cherries
And they lift our hearts
With signs of spring
Signs of spring
Signs of spring
.
Alibi
I
Never put by silver
I never put by silver
For the boatman’s fare
And I
Am a wayward sailor
I’m a wayward sailor
With a guilty stare
I've been looking for an alibi
I've been keeping you in mind
I've failed at gold and guile
And bibles never stood a chance in hell
But in your eyes I see the light this time
You
Are a pool of lamplight
A kiss at midnight
On a gated lawn
Your voice
Is candied moonlight
A sparrow’s first flight
In the early dawn
I've been looking for an alibi
I've been keeping you in mind
I've failed at gold and guile
And bibles never stood a chance in hell
But in your eyes I see the light this time
I
Am a drug store novel
The plot’s just awful
But the heart is true
I will kill every monster
And the evil wizard
To stand next to you
I've been looking for an alibi
I've been keeping you in mind
I've failed at gold and guile
But when they see me standing by your side
I swear they’ll find me innocent this time
I
I never put by silver
never put by silver
But I’ll come with pearls
Desdemona
Seems like time is running backwards
Holding on to these haphazard
Dreams that come around so rare
Desdemona are you lonely?
I wouldn’t ask it’s only
I find I’m running out of air
Seems like time is busy elsewhere
Mending someone else’s threadbare
Heart, left out in the snow
Desdemona, do you remember
Barcelona? Forever
My mind looks for you back there
Pale moon in your eyes
Spanish starlight in your hair
Soft, upon your lips, my name
Did it ever touch your lips again?
Dessie, I was 21 then
Measured time in sixteenth rhythm
Half of you went missing in the blur
But time refunds the missing pieces
I can see the deeper spaces
Now, I danced around before
Memory rewinds so slow
The moment that you go
Again, is looping like a crime
Both our lives, trapped in amber
Nothing changes, still I wonder
How it is I’m running out of time?
Pale moon in your eyes
Spanish starlight in your hair
Soft, upon your lips, my name.
Did it ever touch your lips again?
Seems the wine is almost empty
Swallowed up like the twenty
Years that seeped beneath my floor
Do you ever search the pages?
Eight billion aging faces
Only one is yours
I see you now like we’re under water
Diving after dreams I thought were
Sunk too deep to ever rise back here
Desdemona are you lonely?
If I’ve never asked, it’s only
Because I’m running out of air
.
Sylvie
Sylvie,
Her eyes are steely
Her eyes are steely
But her heart is wool
When she
When she comes to see me
When she comes to see me
My heart is full
When you
Wrap your arms around me
I’m glad you found me
In the morning light
When my
When my words confound me
Your arms surround me
Everything’s alright
Sylvie
My hands go greedy
My mind grows filthy
And my poor heart pines
But love comes
The love comes easy
My Sylvie’s squeezy
And her blue eyes shine
And when you
Wrap your arms around me
I’m glad you found me
In the morning light
When my
When my words confound me
Your arms surround me
Everything’s alright
Sylvie
She calls me Geoffrey
She calls me Geoffrey
And I fall in line
But if she
If she makes me brekkie
If she makes me brekkie
Everything’s just fine
And when you
Wrap your arms around me
I’m glad you found me
In the morning light
And when my
When my words confound me
Your arms surround me
Everything’s alright
Jealous Moon Waltz
Lucy was harvest day queen
And she danced through everyone’s dreams
The moon in creation
Was herself overtaken
And from above
Cast her love
For all to see
Jacob was a man about town
A lover of faithless renown
Though his heart was another’s
He swore he would love her
They wed one night
In the sight
Of the moon
Shine, moon, show me a scene
Lord knows the sorrow she’s seen
The lovers paddle soft in the night
A stolen heart and a bottle of wine
The sky pulls a blanket
Over their banquet
But the moon she finds
A parted blind
In the clouds
Lucy tracks their trail through the trees
Hunting after heartache is she
Through the crack in the covers
She soon spies the lovers
For there they lie
Undisguised
By the moon
Now Lucy, bewildered by grief
Gives herself up to the deep
There in the water
The lake takes a daughter
And hides her face
From the gaze
Of the moon
Shine, moon, show me a scene
Lord knows the sorrow she’s seen
Jacob steals home in the dark
In the hallway he hangs up his heart
He climbs up the stair
And awaiting him there
Where his wife had been
A silver beam
Fills their bed
Jacob flees deep in the pines
And wherever he tarries, she shines
A light in the heavens
Seeking her vengeance
And Jake remains
Wide awake
To his shame
Shine, moon, show me a scene
Lord knows the sorrow she’s seen
A lifetime of vagabond dread
Shortened by demons she fed
Driven to madness
He seeks out the blackness
Which he finds
In a mine
Made of coal
Surrounded by darkness at last
He hastens the end with a match
In the coal dust explosion
A narrow shaft opens
For evermore,
A ghostly glow
Lights his bones
Shine, moon, show me a scene
Lord knows the sorrow she’s seen
A lake and a mine, seen at night
Some say gleam unusually bright
One pale and pretty
The other one grisly:
For there they lie
Haunted by
That jealous moon
Stray Hearts
Oh, us castaways
Hold fast to what remains
We guard our hearts
Under lock and key
Don’t let them go
Don’t ever set them free
But like runaways
They sigh for their escape
They seek their kind
They weep and pine
One day they slip their chains
Defeat us every time
But stray hearts
Don’t know their names
They lose themselves, they misbehave
A stray heart, if it comes to you
It’ll take yours too
Then like birds of prey
They beat against their cage
They find a way
They fly away
Won’t ever come back home
Until they’re broken
Stray hearts
They follow you
They’ll bite your hand. They always do
A stray heart,
When it comes for you
It’ll take yours too
Stray hearts
They follow you
They’ll bite your hand. They always do
A stray heart,
When it comes for you
It’ll break yours too
Jade Eyes
Hiding your jade eyes
Underneath my gaze
Every Friday night
I watch you from this stage
I watch you turn away
But your sweet jaded eyes
Have seen this smile
A hundred times
In a hundred places
Thin hair and thin disguise
I bullet point my life
Sing it to the wind
And hope you’re passing by
I hope you read my file,
But your sweet jaded eyes
Can spot a lie
From a hundred miles
A hundred times
It’s making
Me crazy
Chasing you around inside my mind
Maybe
One day
You’ll grace me with the whites of your jade eyes
I watch you from a crowd
Your lips have hypnotized
Pinned beneath your stare
Every person here
I am this unwise:
Hoping that your sweet jaded eyes
Will fall on mine
Just this time
The Sad Ones Are True
My mother’s sad smile came and went like a Las Vegas streak
A flash at the table, now fading, now chilly and weak
And she watched her life anted away, a tip at a time
The gamblers tapped out the rhythm and the band made it rhyme
In the dirtiest dive bars, my daddy’s old six string rang pure
It soothed every hard-hearted waitress that had to endure
The truckers and hipsters and drifters all groping for beers
Where any soft eyes like my father’s could move you to tears
Mother said follow your heart if you’d follow a fool
Every sweet face in the dark is a portrait of ruin
Faith in a love song is faith that falters too soon
Every singer is a liar, but believe me, the sad ones are true
Silver words shine, the deeper you dive in a hole
He sang of forever and beauty and rapture and soul
Every word rang in her heart, and maybe his too
But a singer, believe me, will leave you in time for the blues
Mother said follow your heart if you’d follow a fool
Every sweet face in the dark is a portrait of ruin
Faith in a love song is faith that falters too soon
Every singer is a liar, but believe me, the sad ones are true
Somewhere my father still sings her sad songs in the dark
Every hurt word closing in on the truth in her heart
Love’s a stray arrow, but sorrow flies steady to you
Give your love to a singer and your life to a sad country tune
Mother said follow your heart if you’d follow a fool
Every sweet face in the dark is a portrait of ruin
Faith in a love song is faith that falters too soon
Every singer is a liar, but believe me, the sad ones are true
Every singer is a liar, but believe me, the sad ones are true
Sighs
Flowers after frost don’t know they’re dying
Gilded for an hour, they keep shining
Stay with me my darling in this moment
Accept this fleeting gift of perfect glory
You, who’ve scaled the palace tower
I, who’ve searched for a trap door
Somehow we’re parted in the silence of this night
I still love your morning sighs
The moth, she quit her toil of endless spinning
To chance the lantern light on silver wings
How I wish to find you in that darkness
And hold you just outside the siren flame
You, who’ve scaled the palace tower
I, who’ve searched for a trap door
Somehow we’re parted in the silence of this night
I still love your morning sighs
Now our hearts grow wooly in their chambers
Wearing thin, the years would make them strangers
Let us knit their fraying ends between us
And mend the broken spaces in the stillness
You, who’ve scaled the palace tower
I, who’ve searched for a trap door
No longer parted in the silence of this night
I still love your morning sighs
Blues Run The Game
By Jackson C. Frank
Catch a boat to England baby
Maybe to Spain
Wherever I have gone
Wherever I've been and gone
Wherever I have gone
The blues are all the same
Send out for whiskey baby
Send out for gin
Me and room service honey
Me and room service babe
Me and room service
Well we're living a life of sin
When I'm not drinkin' honey
You are on my mind
When I'm not sleepin' honey
I ain't sleepin' babe
When ain’t sleepin'
You know you'll find me crying
Try another city baby
Another town
Wherever I have gone
Wherever I've been and gone
Wherever I have gone
The blues come followin' down
Livin' is a gamble baby
Lovin's much the same
Wherever I have played
Whenever I've thrown them dice
Wherever I have played
The blues have run the game
Maybe tomorrow baby
Some place down the line
I'll wake up older honey
So much older babe
I'll wake up older
And I'll just stop all my trying
Catch a boat to England baby
Maybe to Spain
Wherever I have gone
Wherever I've been and gone
Wherever I have gone
The blues are all the same
.
Made in the Morning
You were made in the morning
From sunlight on dew
From leftover moonlight
From the twinkling of jewels
You were made in the morning
From lambswool and down
Some yarn they were saving
Some rubies they found
Should the darkness come calling
Should you wake in the night
Let the shadows down gently
You belong to the light
Your mother was painting
The stars in her mind
Your young father humming
Some glad little rhyme
Fresh from some sweet dream
Golden and prime
The whole mystery before them
The whole sky in their eyes
Should the darkness come calling
Should you wake in the night
Let the shadows down gently
You belong to the light
You were called forth in longing
Summoned in song
A spark brought to burning
A flame coaxed along
You were made from a melody
In three quarter time
You were made in the morning
One wish at a time
Should the darkness come calling
Should you wake in the night
Let the shadows down gently
You belong to the light
Thicker Still
Lift your head in the morning time
By the river, take my hand
Oh take my hand
Leave your little ledge behind
Float here in my arms awhile
In my arms awhile
The water is wide
But blood is thicker still
Kick your boat away from shore
Paddle far out as you dare
Oh as you dare
Slip inside the still lagoon
Gravity won’t find you soon
Find you soon
When the water wears you down
Let the current call you home
The water is wide
But blood is thicker still
If your boat fills up with rain
Find me on the banks again
On the banks again
And when the the rising waters crest
Lay your sorrows on my breast
On my breast
When the water wears you down
Let the current call you home
The water is wide
But blood is thicker still
When the evening glitter fades
Drift into the rising shade
The rising shade
Lie beside the silent stream
Listen to the rainbows dream
The rainbows dream
Rest your head when the moon is high
Close your eyes and breathe starlight
Breathe starlight