Golden
Music by Heather Stevenson and Robinson Eikenberry
Lyrics by Heather Stevenson

How could you be so fragile
That you’d rather set me up
To be the problem child
The chosen one no more
Are you willing to avoid
Learning how to love
In order to avoid
Learning how to feel

Chorus
The legacy lives on old habits hard to break
One more abandoned child
Just one more step removed
My heart cannot believe it could be that easy
To wring out all those years
And hang me out to dry

Golden until now
Now it feels too late
To follow all the rules again
To your ancient game
Now I know first hand
That helpless lonely feeling
There’s nothing I can do
It’s always up to you

Chorus

What to do speak my mind
Break our family rule
Or should I be the golden child
And say I’m wrong I’m wrong
I’m wrong

Chorus

Heather Stevenson: piano, vocals
Bruce Winter: bass
Tom Lackner: drums
Robinson Eikenberry: acoustic guitar
Tom Flowers: electric guitar

The Chosen One
By Heather Stevenson and Robinson Eikenberry

Gold chain cross at your throat
A constant reminder to you
Beyond faith it’s destiny’s call
Sometimes you wish it weren’t true

Chorus
Immune to surprise
You keep watch until sunrise
Caught in the void
Between duty and choice

At midnight alone on the street
Your weapon held close in the dark
Poised without fear as you wait for your chance
The chosen one seeking her mark

Chorus

Betrayal is part of the life that you’ve earned
You’ve reined in your trust so you won’t get burned
Your role you sometimes regret
But really it’s something you need
Your power unspent will destroy you
In battle for a moment you’re free

Chorus

Heather Stevenson: piano, vocal
Glen Phillips: background vocals
Bruce Winter: bass
Tom Lackner: drums
Robinson Eikenberry: acoustic guitar
Tom Flowers: electric guitar

Look Away
By Heather Stevenson

You look away every time
Every time your eyes meet mine
Afraid I’ll see more than you want
But with just a glance I can see
Love and fear in a grisly dance
Hoping love will finally take the lead

Chorus
Holding on to you is like holding on to water
I can touch it I can feel it still
The tighter I grip
The more it slips away

You shift like wind I can’t predict
Moving toward me and then away
I never know just where I stand
Your mind takes hold of your heart
A civil war that sometimes rends
The ties that bind our separate lives

Chorus

The more you slip away

Heather Stevenson: piano, vocal
Bruce Winter: bass
Tom Lackner: drums
Robinson Eikenberry: acoustic guitar
Tom Flowers: electric guitar
Luke Maurer: viola

Long Way Out
By Heather Stevenson

These questions still hound me
Pinning me down
Crushing me down to the ground
What do you want me for?
Who do you think you are?
Why does it have to be me?

Chorus
It’s a long way out
It’s a long way out
It’s a long way out

This endless invasion
These thoughts in my head
I try to resist them but fail
My hands are tied
I can’t reach for help
I can’t let it go let me go

Chorus

The fear is too real
To speak it aloud
Like a knife to my throat it makes me mute
My life has me paralyzed
Bound by my own lies
I’m fine I’m okay I’m okay

Chorus

Heather Stevenson: vocal
Antara Blasius: background vocal
Delilah Poupore: background vocal
Bruce Winter: bass
Tom Lackner: drums
John Mooy: acoustic guitar, electric guitar
Danny Briere: electric guitar
Tom Flowers: electric guitar

Home
By Heather Stevenson

I'm lying on my back
Looking through the haze
I was thrown here by a careless hand
Left to drift below the waves
Am I as helpless as they said
Can I rise up if I try
When my will has sunk beneath the sand
And my inspiration's dry

Chorus
Can I rise above this
Ocean of sorrow
Before I'm this and nothing else
Can I rise above this
Ocean of hopelessness
Or will I just fade until I'm gone
Will I just fade until I'm gone

I remember to a time
Before the water came
I lived in air and earth and fire
And my sorrow had a name
The instruments of faith
Were at my fingertips
My spirit lived inside me then and
Grace spilled from my lips

Chorus

A ray of light
Has broken through
To lead me home again
Home
Heather Stevenson: piano, vocals
Bruce Winter: bass, recorder
Tom Lackner: drums
Daniel Zimmerman: electric guitar

The Rope
By Heather Stevenson

You reach for the light at a quarter to one
How long will this night go on?
One more time you turn out the light
Hoping to make it 'till dawn
Under your skin there's something alive
Telling you this lie must end
The illusions around are beginning to fade
There's no way now to pretend

Chorus
So hand over hand you pull yourself out
Of the dark, though you’re tired from the rope
You see there's a light at the end of your climb
A place that may offer some hope
You make up your mind you get out of bed
The night is over at last
The time has come it's perfectly clear
To open the door to your past
The monsters and demons it turns out they're real
You almost turn back but you stay
Armed only with hope that some good will come
From slowly chipping away

Chorus

The only place to go from here
Is up and up and out
For in is only more of what you’ve felt before
And down is no place you’d want to be again

Chorus

Heather Stevenson: piano, vocals
Bruce Winter: bass
Tom Lackner: drums
Daniel Zimmerman: electric guitar

Fly
By Heather Stevenson

Looking back I realize I was different
From the time that I could say my name
I never felt in synch with the machine
Never knew the rules of the game
I was looking for something that wasn’t offered
In mid-flight born a bird without my wings
The longing deep inside me gone unnoticed
Locked inside a voice that could not sing

Chorus
And I didn’t even try to fly
From the flame but somehow I got free
I didn’t ever know where to go
But somehow I ended up me

The monsters I was fighting they were real
Not under my bed but on my TV screen
Telling me that I’d always be pushing
Against the tide my life swimming up stream
I tried to fit into neat little boxes
I played with dolls and wore a dress to church
But all my life there was something missing
And I did not know how to start my search

Chorus

Without really trying my feelings came out
Opening slowly on the vine
And I was young and didn’t know
Why it hurt so much to grow
But now I love and now I know and now I feel
And now I love and now I know and now I feel
Even though

Chorus

Heather Stevenson: piano, vocal
Antara Blasius: background vocals
Delilah Poupore: background vocals
Bruce Winter: bass
Tom Lackner: drums
Robinson Eikenberry: acoustic guitar
Tom Flowers: electric guitar

Black and White
By Heather Stevenson

What do you believe in
I’ve asked you this before
What truths have you been keeping
Locked behind that door
The absolutes I hold so dear
Are meaningless to you
The waves that crash inside my head
Just melted snow in June to you

Chorus
Can you tell me what you’re thinking
Is there anything inside
I can’t relate for me it’s clear
For me it’s black and white

Debate will rage around you
How can you be immune
The silence you hold onto
Can’t be your only tune
Inside your eyes there’s something
It’s flickered there before
It’s not just staring back at me
I know there’s something more

Chorus

I wonder why I care
As I just sit and wait
My pen is poised mid-air
For words you’ll never say

Chorus

Heather Stevenson: acoustic guitar, vocals
Bruce Winter: bass
Tom Lackner: drums
Danny Briere: electric guitar

This Old House
By Heather Stevenson and Robinson Eikenberry

This old house feels like a stranger
It’s falling down and I’m in danger
How can this be when I am strong
I belong to life to love
am I wrong

Chorus
Take my hand
Stay with me
Take my hand
Just for today since tomorrow
Feels too far away

I woke up before I had to
All on my own for a moment I was glad to
The sun full up as I woke from my sleep
When I remembered why I prefer to dream

Chorus

This old house feels like a stranger
It’s falling down and I’m in danger

Heather Stevenson: piano, vocals
Robinson Eikenberry: acoustic guitar, mountain dulcimer
Bruce Winter: bass

Begin
By Heather Stevenson

Begin again and see pattern emerge
Begin to be yourself to see your true self
Below the dark wrapped tight ‘round your soul
Underneath it’s shiny and gold
Feel the light creeping seeping
Sneaking through you out every pore
Don’t wait, stop, or hesitate
Don’t let the shadows overtake

Chorus
The signs all around are letting you know
You already know the way to where you want to go
It’s just time you started listening in
Take the first step and begin

Inside there’s something telling you to
Uplift your arms and take in the sun
Before you let yourself change your mind
Open up to what you’ve left behind
You wonder where they went the silly rhymes
That came to mind the games that you played
It’s all there inside of you
If you only let it through

Chorus

All you need to do is open the door
And walk through
If you find it locked
Remember that the key belongs to you

Chorus

Heather Stevenson: piano, vocal
Antara Blasius: background vocals
Delilah Poupore: background vocals
Bruce Winter: bass
Tom Lackner: drums
Marianna Hetric: piano