Robin Red

by Paul Otteson

Robin Red cover art
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  • Digital Album

    Immediate download of 10-track album in your choice of MP3 320, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.

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  • Compact Disc

    Comes in a high quality single disc wallet from Sooper Dooper of Madison, WI; with layout, design, and illustration by Luke Bassuener.
    Also includes immediate download of 10-track album in your choice of 320k mp3, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.

    Includes immediate download of 10-track album in your choice of MP3 320, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.

    Buy Now  $12 USD

    shipping on or around 30 May 2012

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about

ROBIN RED, Paul Otteson’s follow-up to 2011’s February Fables, is a collection of songs inspired by the unsung failures of our past. With cautious hope, a mix of darkened characters search for redemption in a world bound against them; unconvinced their time has run out. Blurring the line between chamber-folk and Americana, Robin Red challenges this frozen landscape with soaring melodies, tortured love songs, and the promise of spring.

credits

released 30 May 2012
All songs written and recorded by Paul Otteson

All songs mixed and mastered by Nathan Edwards

Layout, design, and illustration by Luke Bassuener

Paul Otteson - Vocals, Guitar, Piano
Jeremiah Nelson - Electric Guitar
Tom McCarty - Upright Bass
Luke Bassuener - Drums
Whitney Mann - Vocals on 1. 9
Ryan Casey - Vocals on 10

Recorded at SHS Studio

Special thanks to Ryan Casey, Andrew Hartman, and Nathan Edwards

tags

tags: alt-folk americana chamber-folk folk Wisconsin

license

all rights reserved

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about

Maybe a coffee addict. Usually a distance runner. Sometimes a songwriter. Recently a Father. Always a teacher. Used to be a stegosaurus.

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Track Name: Oh Destiny
You’ll understand when I go
I was broken by the first laugh
City lights and booze on floor of my hotel room
And no, I won’t dance anymore
Not for money or for lust
This train is bound for land of rust

Oh Destiny, I know we’re short on time
But would you sing for me
A song to make it feel like you’re mine
A song to make this less of a lie
A song..

It never fades from the screen
With a weight beyond my burdens
Kid off the street grabbed my hand, said he really wanted to be like me
But no I’m pulling back, like a tide gone far enough
Chase the wind if it lets me toward the tower of sinless love

Oh Destiny, I know we’re short on time
But would you sing for me
A song to make it feel like you’re mine
A song to make this less of a lie
A song..

So when you see an old shade of me
Just remember it’s another story
All those Saturday nights are now laid to rest
Don’t smile like a number, keep on your dress
I need a mystery and a dove
To keep me on the path of lettin’ up

Oh Destiny, I know we’re short on time
But would you sing for me
A song to make it feel like you’re mine
A song to make this less of a lie
A song..
Track Name: Sarasota's House
When you took the reins
Dealt the pain
Followed fire, and
Never walked away
I knew the ropes might tear
I knew my palms might wear
But I’d hold as long as you would stay

Lion with the matted down hair
Broken now, and beyond repair
Still your roar does keep the crowd at bay

How you stake this park and make these hearts
Penny up for all the maddening sounds
Load the tracks and don’t look back
There are skies yet to see the banner you found

May the summer pass for this strength won’t last
All the while the branches empty sway
Let us journey south, Sarasota’s House
Is a dream I can’t begin to shake

How you stake this park and make these hearts
Penny up for all the maddening sounds
Load the tracks and don’t look back
There are skies yet to see the banner you found

How you stake this park and make these hearts
Penny up for all the maddening sounds
Load the tracks and don’t look back
There are skies yet to see the banner you found

When you took the reins
Dealt the pain
Followed fire, and
Never walked away
I knew the ropes might tear
I knew my palms might wear
But I’d hold as long as you would stay
Track Name: Cold
It’s cold
And the dogs are hungry, hurting
Hexed now as they roam
And how they tip the scale
Knowing not the way back home
Bloody eyes of torment fixed upon the silent road

I’m told
That snow is death’s bed calling
For a body to untoe
And his blankets burn
Hotter than the victor’s shore
Heavy-handed is the knock upon my weary door

How hard the wind doth blow
How far I’ve yet to go

He’s near
The bells are ringing cross the sadness of the sky
How he pushes on
Careless of the lonely ride
Teeth grinding for the chance to bring this to a fight

I fear
That what I’m taking will be painful when it’s mine
Until my heart it thaws
And the limbs of time unwind
Hold steady for the victory I will always ride

How calm my pack does fly
No fall could break their stride
Push on with all your might
Our bounds are not in sight
Track Name: My Darling Adeline
I knew her well
She was sixteen, I was twelve
Through heaven’s breeze and lilac trees
I met her glance
As she pursed her lips at the drinking well
Oh I could tell
She’d always be
The song, the sky, the vision of my heart

I’ll not forget the day
October of thirty-eight
I turned the dial and faded smile
When I heard the news
Of the martians plan to seal our fate
With heat rays
And tripods strange
Still my fear of death
Could not remove her image from mind

I ran at once to find
My darling Adeline
To speak her name without restraint
Confess my love
Warn her family of the threat above

On peering in I saw her undergown
On barest feet she danced the crickets proud
My presence sensed the doorway soon defined
With questioned look my darling Adeline

Oh when she asked my name
I stood in silent shame
But seeing clear the danger near
I spoke at once
But when I cried “the end of days”
She didn’t faze
Nor find it strange
Then with kindest eyes
She kissed me on the cheek and ever smiled
Track Name: Taliesin
The flames, the flames
Always free me from this town and from this life
And old affections, they are scattered, pale, and numb to pleasure

The sand, the sea
For a beacon, won’t you steal into the night?
Your emerald eyes, my treasure
Leave the bonds of love behind you

I will form this rock
With cold steel as the lock
Though lost is my soul
I will make this whole

The road it knows
Lacking shape and order withers where it goes
And on its final turn, I pray to failing gods I’ll find you

My home, my home
Now licked by tired blaze is nature to the bone
And all around me measures of my life alone in leasure

I will carve this land
Of charred oak with restless hands
Though lost is my soul
I will make this whole

I will carve this land
Of charred oak with restless hands
Though lost is my soul
I will make this whole
Though lost is my soul
I will make this whole
Track Name: All I Had In Doug County
He was all I had in Doug County
Saved my skin like family
When trouble came, came with a fight
He threw his fists with Clemens’ might
Threw his fists with Clemens’ might

So, when he stretched his golden wings
I had to follow, had to bring
The coin I took from father’s drawer
The hope to finally leave this shore
Hope to finally leave this shore

How I loved him, how I hated to let my arrow go
Through the clouds and over mountains
A high and lonesome home

Well, I couldn’t part, nor turn the page
They had my number, knew my age
But I saw his lightning, felt his fire
Wish I could be who I admire
Wish I could be who I admire

When I heard the news my hands did shake
The bomb went off, mistakes were made
With no one to accept the blame
I looked above and cursed god’s name
Looked above and cursed god’s name
Looked above and cursed god’s name

How I loved him, how I hated to let my arrow go
Through the clouds and over mountains
A high and lonesome home

How I loved him, how I hated to let my arrow go
Through the clouds and over mountains
A high and lonesome home
Track Name: Impossible Blue
Let the hands strike away
To another time, to another day
Where she’s the letter carved inside my
Worried mind, faded smile
No evidence, no sharp denial
Your voice it calls the soul and sings

Oh, pull me
Down deep
Til soft blue
Becomes a truly impossible hue

Before my eyes, before my years
The vision of a heart appears
And how it beats beyond its measure
Still in vain, or though I feel
As if it’s pulse was born to heal
From sorrows tale and lady fair

Oh, pull me
Down deep
Til soft blue
Becomes a truly impossible hue

I was before and will again
Be the voice of a broken man
Who lost his dove through no fault but his
Reckless style, budding heart
Many fails from many starts
A tribute to what always could have been and what will never be

Pull me
Down deep
Til soft blue
Becomes a truly impossible hue
Pull me
Down deep
Til soft blue
Becomes a truly
Becomes a truly
Becomes a truly impossible hue
Track Name: Predicament Escape
Chains that were made to last
Bind my strength hard to the past
Keep my breath for a second more
I’ve not yet found the secret door

Hold, hold, hold, hold
Hold your story
I don’t know when this will weather my heart
Face the crowd and smile
My darling
My your hand on the hammer never use it’s spark

Funny how the lies you tread
Find their way into my bed
Cherry-toothed with knuckles white
Hard to tell if you’re one to fight

Hold, hold, hold, hold

I’ll never fail, it’s not my card
All my locks picked in the dark
And when your science thinks me dead
I promise not to rest head

Hold, hold, hold, hold
Hold your story
I don’t know when this will weather my heart
Face the crowd and smile
My darling
My your hand on the hammer never use it’s spark
Track Name: Empty Refrain
How ‘bout a word of advice
You were always one to give
I’ve managed plenty of times
But I’ve forgotten how to live

And I can’t sleep for days and days and days

You offered plenty of views
You told me that I’m covered in doubt
You said trust it is a lesson of time
It seems yours will never run out

And I can’t sleep for days and days and days
I try so hard but I just can’t see your face
And what I’d give just to hear your voice call my name
You’re my empty refrain

And so, many miles from our home
I’m stuck with nothing but the regret
That I content in pushing stones
Forgot just why you left

And I can’t sleep for days and days and days
I try so hard but I just can’t see your face
And what I’d give just to hear your voice call my name
You’re my empty refrain
Track Name: One Heart To Prove
How can I connect the strings
That bind the errs my fortune brings
Like a ruby small beneath the stone
Can I bleed beyond this heavy home

Yeah we all need a clue
How to make our peace and our souls to soothe

Give me one heart to prove
All my wrongs have been construed
To relive those days, you know what I would do
Just give me one more heart to prove

I was raised on timeless stains
A hidden sun, the sugarcane
And what led me out the door to find you
It wasn’t pure or even kind, you need to know

But I’m gonna change my tone
Settle all the debts of a man who spent his life all alone

Give me one heart to prove
All my wrongs have been construed
To relive those days, you know what I would do
Just give me one more heart to prove

If it came down to a single thing
What would it take, what could I sing?
Don’t tell me it’s beyond my time
I need a hope, I need a holy sign

Give me one heart to prove
All my wrongs have been construed
To relive those days, you know what I would do
Just give me one more heart to prove
Just give me one more heart to prove
Just give me one more heart to prove