Get all 15 Tom Alter releases available on Bandcamp and save 50%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Dispatch from the Lesser Middle, Last Season in the Lesser Middle, Love and All That Comes With It, Chaos in the USA, Poetry and Protest, One Year in the Lesser Middle, Songs For An American Hero, Wading in the Lesser Middle, and 7 more.
1. |
2020 Part I
03:35
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I'm singing in the backyard
The birds are joining in
The normal traffic's absent
Leaving a vacuum to be filled
Now there are clowns off to the left
And there are jokers to the right
And I wake up in the morning
Looking forward to sleep at night.
Someone said it's fifteen
And soon to be just none
Now we're racing to a number
Could be two hundred K or more
It's too damn hard to see a light
And if this never will conclude
I'll stay here in the back room
Until the end with you.
If this is the reason that we ever met
If these are the moments we were meant to live
Then let this be the why
We close ranks and we thrive
Even as we cry
Even as we cry.
The year's not yet half over
And the first wave's not yet done
There's talk there'll be a second
Or has the first one just begun?
It's so damn hard to see a light
Through injustice and disease
But we'll ride these waves together
'Til we're in open sea.
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2. |
I Miss Mondays
03:40
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I felt a tear in my eye as I left the church
Knowing that I wouldn't be back for awhile
And the job that I had and didn't think I could hack
Is now a thing to look back on and just smile
I never thought I'd miss Mondays.
But I've got my God and He will see me through
And I'm blessed for every minute spent with you
Even on Mondays.
I've heard if I have my health, then I've all the wealth
And I'm starting now to believe that it's real
And the things that I thought mattered so much
And even could aggravate me, now I see
They were only like Mondays.
Yes I've got my faith and it will see me through
And I'm blessed for every word I get from you
Especially on Mondays
I miss my Mondays.
I'm thankful for each day like it's the weekend.
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3. |
Hypnagogia
04:28
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I oscillate from dark to light
And day to night
Missing all the stops
Missing all the starts
I dream of days absent of pain
And many come
Not all, but some.
For now I'm in my hypnagogia.
I'm living in my hypnagogia.
I recognize
The signs display for me
I'm disinclined
To follow them to see
What's coming next
On the horizon line
Maybe I'll move, maybe I'll move
When the time is right.
But now I'm in my hypnagogia.
I'm staying in my hypnagogia.
Floating between
Waking and dreams
Life passing by
Is it March or July?
For now I'm in my hypnagogia
I'm living in my hypnagogia
But now I'm in my hypnagogia
I'm staying in my hypnagogia.
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4. |
Rivers' Lament
03:54
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I just keep on loving you
My hand over my heart
When I see the colors flow
My hand's over my heart.
I just keep on trying to be
As you want I swim upstream
In your river's waters flow
As you want I swim upstream.
I have been much too quick
Gullible, I take your crumbs
You scatter them along the road
So gullible, I take them home.
So many times you've said to me
I'm welcome in the band
I reach for the hand you extend to me
And again you pull it back
You pull it back.
Yes I keep on loving you
I'm trying and dying as the colors flow
I still go on loving you
Do my part, pay the price, to death's door.
So many times you've said to me
I'm welcome in the band
I reach for the hand you extend to me
And again you pull it back
You pull it back.
I fought battles at your side
And even if I take a knee
I'll still love when our colors flow
Even if I'm on my knees
I'm on my knees.
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5. |
I Want a Country
04:16
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I want a country
I want a place that reflects the promises and ideal
Where common cause is real
I want a country.
I want to be united
But we are so divided
On lines that never change
Weren't we to be a beacon?
That's what we've been saying
Was it all a lie?
What is all a fake?
I want a country
Not a nation that's come unraveled to blue and red
Where common welfare lives
I want a country.
Weren't we to be united?
Were we once inspired to be like family?
Weren't we to be a beacon?
That's what we've been saying
Was it all a lie?
Is it just a fake?
I want a country.
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6. |
Rogue Waves
04:06
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The boy lost his self-idea before his thirteenth year
And though the one who brought the fear would soon become a friend
The boy lost his confidence and taking two steps back
He could never feel so sure again.
The boy heard his father cry he never will return
In an hour the door was cracked he whispered all was good
But then that thought would reoccur, he could disappear
He would never feel so sure again.
You might live for years and years
Think there's nothing that you lack
Safe and sound one moment here
Then not so much the next
When you stop to pause awhile
To try to get on track
You may find you've gone too far
And there ain't no turning back
There ain't no turning back.
No shelf load of self-help books can keep this truth contained
A house built on solid rock can still be swept away
Keep one eye out trouble can shake all your better days
Listen for the rumble of rogue ways.
You might live for years and years
Think there's nothing that you lack
Safe and sound one moment here
Then not so much the next
When you stop to pause awhile
To try to get on track
You may find you've gone too far
And there ain't no turning back
There ain't no turning back.
I thought I was going fine, I thought that you were too.
But trying to talk just one more time
It's impossible, impossible, impossible, impossible to do.
You might live for years and years
Think there's nothing that you lack
Safe and sound one moment here
Then not so much the next
When you stop to pause awhile
To try to get on track
You may find you've gone too far
And there ain't no turning back
There ain't no turning back.
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7. |
2020 Part II
04:24
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Jenny works on the food line
Feeding the unemployed since early in May
And Ronnie works at her table
Putting care packages together for dozens of friends
Many are hungry and still those who can't breathe
In our streets and on machines
So many are restless and some sadly reckless
As we live in the hope of vaccines.
Two decades in this millennia
It's been a year of long, long nights
We sit at home and watch serials on the TV
And in this year of long, long nights
If we can keep it together
Next year will be better, it will surely be better
Just believe.
With hospitals filling up and politics failing us
It's become so easy to tell
The system is overwhelmed
We need to heal ourselves
Let's not us fast forget, or simply grow weary of
The lessons we learned in the spring
We all feel this restlessness, celebrate selflessness
And live in the hope of vaccines.
Two decades in this millennia
It's been a year of long, long nights
We sit at home and watch serials on the TV
And in this year of long, long nights
If we can keep it together, next year will be better
It will surely be better
Just believe.
Keep it together for the doctors and nurses
Keep it together for the grocery store workers
Keep it together for therapists and maintenance
Keep it together for the nursing home residents
Keep it together for the truckers and shippers
Keep it together for the students and teachers
Keep it together.
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8. |
The Pendulum
05:34
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There's a cemetery in the yard
A sure reminder of what's been lost
But it's okay anyway
'Cause the neighbors aren't ever bothersome at all.
I was in the room to see you cry
On the day that your mother died
The whole way through I think you knew I had no clue
How to take your grief away.
Eight hours later laughing in the car
Riding away from some forgotten bar
We had a drink then tried to sing and not to think
To try to suffocate the pain.
So smart, then so dull
So sharp, then so numb
Hoping to never feel this way again.
In the evening heartbeats slowing down
The commotion settles in a cloud
Floating away we hope to stay in a safe place
For at least an hour or two.
Then something punctures through the sleep
Then wide awake for an hour or three
In waking dream it starts to seem
All is going wrong.
Rise up, then fall
Go mad (rise up), then calm (rise up)
And we'll probably feel this way again.
In the end this is what life is
Riding on a pendulum
Here's the thing, life will bring another swing of the pendulum again
Swing the pendulum again.
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Tom Alter Detroit, Michigan
Tom Alter is a singer-songwriter based in Detroit. The influences of jazz, folk, pop, and Latin genres are found in his
original compositions. Tom's lyrics mix world events with the affect on his personal ideals. He has released 3 EPs and 2 albums since 2019. His work can be found on digital and streaming music platforms. He is also a member of the duo After Blue.
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