Get all 29 Walter Ehresman releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of That's How A Fable Starts (single), Cassandra, Cursed, My Back Pages, Revisited (With No Blonde), Songs From the Crux, Global Search Party, South of the Wall, The Best of.....Songs of Possibilities, The Best of..........the Weird Ones, and 21 more.
1. |
Champions of Imagination
02:31
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Champions of Imagination
(© 2008 Walter Ehresman)
They drive out of the suburbs with a shoulder and a chip;
They beat each other with the Miracle Whip;
They know the lion always eats the straggler from the herd,
so they do the tortoise shuffle and they scoff at the absurd.
[chorus] They're champions of imagination;
Oh lord, driving in a white car.
They got a shriveled finger from the checkin' of the breeze;
They got a sore patella from the bending of the knees;
They got some dirty secrets that the neighbors never see
and a front row at the Baptist church for hatin' you and me.
There's Hootie, Idol, Brittany and others from the mold;
We saw it back in '63, when all the rights were sold;
So ride your Navigator just as far as it will go,
and breed some little children who might maybe have some soul.
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2. |
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When You Turn (One Foot in the Elephant Dung)
(© 2011 Walter Ehresman)
I didn’t see the coming of the train;
I didn’t see the filter in your brain;
You put me on the outs–
with the scowl, the frowns, the pouts–
and I’ll never see your brighter side again.
It’s like there is a switch inside your head
that breaks off when you go from green to red;
I was too transfixed to go,
so I stayed and watched the show,
now I’m dented by the cruelty you said.
[chorus]
When you turn
–Everything I say is wrong;
When you turn
–You won’t listen to my song;
You done put me in the box,
with no chance to pick the locks;
Ripped my heart up with the hammer and the tongs.
I didn’t see the changing of the guard;
I didn’t know the girl could be so hard;
Must have been there from the start–
just another fickle heart–
the X-ray specs you sat on, now in shards.
Now I sit here, ruminatin’ on the day
when your bucketful of love just went away;
And I wouldn’t want it back–
now I’ve climbed down off your rack–
and there really isn’t fuck-all more to say.
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3. |
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The Anthem of the Ladonian Secretary of State
(© 2003 Walter Ehresman)
For Ladonia they sail
(some arrive using feet);
Land where night does not fall;
Peregrine for to eat!
We recruit through the day,
with our fingers and eyes
(not so much with our ears);
Smell tasty falcon we fry!
[chorus]
Secretary of State!
Secretary of State!
From Pamplona to Crete;
Argentina, Ukraine--
our legions spread like kudzu,
from speech we will not refrain!
[chorus]
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4. |
Lager All That's Left?
04:43
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Lager All That’s Left?
(© 2008 Walter Ehresman)
When.........
hypnotic bread and circuses deliver dopamine;
When the spleen and the medulla trump the fore-parts of your brain;
When the gentry and the nobles boldly sink all thoughts of shame,
and there is no club left in the bag when power is the game.
When we only accept rulers with no higher tier of smarts,
and we celebrate the venal and there is no place for heart;
When even selfish motives in the rank and in the file
cannot see the bigger picture and won’t reach that Golden Mile.
When altruism has no chance to even make the list;
When empathy is spat on, and when kindness counts for shit;
When the psychopathic checklist has become a voting guide
and all the commerce lions paint it proudly on their hides.
When trying to shine truth beyond the lazy mental fog
is like algebra to stingrays......is like telling jokes to dogs;
When nations say our people earn the leaders that they get--
I haven’t quite determined how to answer that one yet.
When pondering these questions causes an onslaught of thirst,
and depression points to Ouzo ‘cause you know it tastes the worst;
But you hike your sagging pride and order foamy, cold and wet,
and you scream unto the heavens “is this lager all that’s left?”
Like Richard Pryor said: who you gonna believe, me or your lyin’ eyes?
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5. |
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I Must Be Doing Something Wrong (Or Something Right Backwards)
(© 2000 Walter Ehresman)
Communication’s lacking;
This planet doesn’t feel right to me
(or maybe it’s just the people--I like the animals just fine).
My brain it won’t stop racking (I hear some people sleep);
I must be doing something wrong, or something right backwards.
Is it moral evolution?
Or an act of self-delusion?
Or am I cruisin’ for contusion?
Time-travel posse retribution?
Some people say you gotta be Downtown to play this shit;
Hell, I’ve never even been there!
I’m rooted in this backwards place;
Is it “splendid isolation,”
or just some guy with no friends?
I must be doing something wrong,
or something right backwards.
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6. |
Ranger Jim
09:10
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Ranger Jim
(© 2004 Walter Ehresman)
Ranger Jim sat in the bar, and they brought his usual,
and he sipped his rum at the table that he likes;
And the jungle air was tangible; mosquitos thick as thieves;
The anemic fans, they offered no respite.
When the village people saw him, they’d all great him with a nod
‘cause they’d seen enough to know his word was true;
And the wild men of the Highlands would appear from time to time
when he journeyed to the edge of what he knew.
Out past the last horizons, where the ad men didn’t go,
Jim climbed up where they still have giant trees.
And he’d help them raise the longhouse and he’d sit with the old men,
and they’d talk about the things you couldn’t see.
And he’d join in with their dances and he’d smoke a pipe or two,
and he’d live among the wild men and try not to think of you.
He was not a member of their tribe, and he didn’t want to be–
Jim never was a joiner, but he liked good company.
Jim found a better voice inside his somewhat later years,
and it helped him calm the rages in his soul.
He’d spent a lifetime fighting downward spiralings of fear,
but the weight of time now graced him with control.
And it’s not romantic notion, and it’s not that New Age crap
and it’s not a lack of caution, ‘cause Jim’s way too smart for that;
But it’s something close to stillness in a moment past all time
when that quiet understanding lets us leave our words behind.
Way back on the veranda, in the shadow of the leaves–
flesh and life now slowly ebb away.
They keep the chair there for him, and they check once in a while
to see if Jim might want to eat today.
But they don’t mistake the silence for a softening of the mind
and they don’t mistake the smile for dwelling on those left behind;
And the old men from the Highlands one day came to get their friend,
and they placed him with their ancestors–their tribesman, Ranger Jim.
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7. |
The Lion Sleeps......
02:28
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The Lion Sleeps (traditional; arranged by Walter Ehresman, 1989).
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8. |
Trench Sitar
16:13
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Trench Sitar
(© 2007 Walter Ehresman)
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9. |
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I Have No Blood--Ghost Mix
(© 2015 Walter Ehresman)
[verse #1]
I’ve moved to your country, where blood is the mortar,
the weave in the fabric of social cohesion,
the glue that replaces what government never
was good at providing for people in need.
[verse #2]
I stand on the outside of centuries’ system—
a man with no family (though some still draw breath);
A story that’s too long for telling to strangers…..
much easier to say that my blood is all dead.
[chorus #1]
For I have no blood, but I walk the earth still;
To you, I’m a ghost who is haunting your town;
An alien notion, a troubling conception;
A fate that you’d rather not think of at all.
[verse #3]
Lineage is something I never selected;
A thing that I won’t let define who I am.
The family I love is the one I’ve selected;
The blood that we share is the blood we would spill
for each other—so know that I’m swimming in blood.
[chorus #2]
For I have no blood, but I walk the earth still;
To you, I’m a ghost who is haunting your town;
An alien notion, a troubling conception;
A fate that you’d rather not think of at all. But
the blood that we share is the blood we would spill
for each other—so know that I’m swimming in blood.
The blood that we share is the blood we would spill
for each other—so know that I’m swimming in blood.
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10. |
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Wayne's Lengthy Ablutions
(©2014 Walter Ehresman)
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11. |
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Snipe Hunt Sonata No. 43 in E flat
(© 1999 Walter Ehresman)
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12. |
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She Rises From Nimis–The Queen’s Anthem (A Symphony for Orchestra, Stone Cat, Fjord Pygmy Elephant, and Barnyard Animals)
(© 2003 Walter Ehresman)
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13. |
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Waking Up Punxsutawney Phil
(© 1989 Walter Ehresman)
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Walter Ehresman San Miguel De Allende, Mexico
Called "the quintessential Austin DIY artist" by famed local disc jockey Charlie Martin , Walter Ehresman was an eccentric presence in the Austin music scene from the '80s until his 2015 move to Mexico. A prolific songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and recording artist...and a restless musical spirit, always looking for something new, expressed with fearlessly honest, socially-conscious lyrics. ... more
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