Get all 8 BettySoo releases available on Bandcamp and save 15%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight, Ain't Living Long Like This, American Tune, When We're Gone, Heat Sin Water Skin, Little Tiny Secrets, Never the Pretty Girl, and Let Me Love You.
1. |
Listen
02:54
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Listen to the hum of bells waiting to ring
To the held breath of a swimmer diving
To the stars in our sky no longer shining
To the rhythm of words on a page
Listen to the crackle of a wood bridge burn
To the tires spinning out on gravel and earth
To the cry of a baby just after his birth
Slapped into life by an able nurse
Listen to the moan of a hurricane wind
Tearing through homes like kindling
Never knocking once just bursting right in
To the sounds of play of the children missing
Listen to the ocean when he ravages the cliffs
To his claim that he takes only what’s his
To the gulls that scatter, looking for lift
When he beats against the rocks again
Listen to the sigh of the patient who reads
What’s not being said but what’s plain to see
To the sun in the west looking east
You’ll hear my heart when you leave
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2. |
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It’s the brother who never writes anymore
The uncle you never heard mentioned before
The dad you didn’t know left when you were born
A mother who leaves her child behind at the store
Life don’t work out like the plans you’d drawn
Had yourself some dreams now the wishing well’s gone
Family can’t make things work on the farm
Big city living can’t keep you warm
A hundred different ways of being alone
What you thought was true love left you wanting more
A girl sits alone on her living room floor
Boy turns away before he knocks on her door
Neighbors don’t ask what he’s there for
You’d leave this town but there’s nowhere to run
Things you used to love don’t bring no fun
Sick of wishing every night you had someone
Called everyone you knew, but nobody’s home
A hundred different ways of being alone
New man in town’s got your girl on his arm
Careless thing you said caused so much harm
Nothing’s the same as where you come from
Beat you’re walking to ain’t such a different drum
Tried to be a new voice, but your song ain’t your own
Tried to make a mark, but you’re still unknown
Tried to take a chance, now that bird has flown
Left nothing here for you but rag and bone and
A hundred different ways of being alone
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3. |
Last Night
03:53
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Last night I saw you
I saw you smile, and she smiled too
She smiled at me, she smiled at you
She said something soft
Her hands locked on the crook of your arm
She looked back at me, but you never stopped walking
I called your number
I called your number all night
You were in the arms of another
The close arms of another last night
Last night
How long does it take
How many breaths in and away
Does it take for a jealous heart to break
I called your number
I called your number all night
You were in the arms of another
The close arms of another last night
Last night
Always wanted the wrong things
Always hungered for the wrong things
The greenest peach
The palest cherry
Always trusted the wrong things
Always treasured the wrong things
The tired rope swing
From a crooked tree
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4. |
Summertime
03:13
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Oh, ohh, ohh, summertime
Oh, ohh, ohh, oh summertime
Oh, ohh, ohh, oh summertime
Summertime
Swam so far it made you nervous
The push and pull pressure of the sea
Lungs collapsing, eyes stinging
Your heart was diving deep, deep, deep
Burned your feet running cross her sands
Now she’s clinging to your back, your neck, your hands
Legs browned beneath the hem of a salt stiff cotton dress
Now crumpled on the floor, a crimson mess
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5. |
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She’s got scissors on the table and a clock on the floor
Ten pointing at the mattress
Two pointing at the door
She’s got a picture in a locket of herself at fifteen
Just one key on that same chain turning her heart green
A room with a wall hung sink
A bag full of shoes
The things she left town with
An old toothbrush and booze
She’s got razors and journals all smooth and clean
Lined pages as empty as the sum of her dreams
She’s got a hoodie for cold nights and cigarettes for food
Matchbooks from restaurants
Late night tattoos
A phone with three numbers
One brother and home
An ex-husband who’s long gone
Left her high low alone
She’s got forty-two dollars
Still owes rent for this week
Needs thirty-eight more or she’s back on the street
She’s got pictures from magazines folded so neat
Tucked into a Bible so no one will see
She wears a faded black dress
Cotton barely holding on
Seams stretched and puckered
Like the inside of her arms
A fading memory of love
Barely holding on
Scarred, bruised and tattered
Like the skin on her arms
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6. |
Josephine
03:01
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Another night he'll be home late
Lipstick smear still on his face
And the morning will be hell
When she won't want him to tell
But when the lights go down on the room
And the spot shines on the bright blue plume
Tucked in a band around a delicate wrist
Floating in the dark ‘til the hand cues the pianist
And it's Skylark…Sweet falsetto rings in the air
Catch your breath while you stare
His face like an angel singing a lover's prayer
Every Tuesday after he locks the office doors
Pulls the tie over his head and onto the floorboard
Cruises out of the suburbs to the emptying city
Everyone's going home but his day's beginning
His brown cropped hair drowned by raven curls
Porcelain skin stark against a string of black pearls
Good old Joe becomes lovely Josephine
Still every eye closes when he starts to sing
And it's Skylark… The melody drawing you in with every tone
The longing that you hear feels like your own
Til you find your heart's true home
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7. |
Hold Tight
03:46
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When love shatters
Shards, fragments fly everywhere
Splintered hearts, wounded pride
Black powder shame hanging in the air
Casings fall soft on carpet
Next to the bags by the door
Every move is in slow motion
Pull the pin and hit the floor
It’s your pattern of disruption
Striking everything within your sights
I’m steeling for destruction
You’re lighting the fuse, you’re ready to fight
Waves pulsing in my bones
Bells pealing in my ears
Since when did this living room
Become a battlefield
It’s your pattern of disruption
Striking everything within your sights
I’m steeling for destruction
You’re lighting the fuse, you’re ready to fight
Pressure pressing down
Pressure pressing down
Pressure pressing down
Hold tight hold tight hold tight
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8. |
Love is Real
03:33
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Sun still melting
Ice into the ocean
Seems so slow but it’s in fast motion
Miles we moved passing by
Land that used to grow left bone dry
The west Texas sky
Midnight moon
Bedtime high noon
Sleep won’t come (upon you) anytime soon
Sweat rolls off ‘til the sheets get damp
Can’t get cool under the fan
Kick them off pull them up again
The hope for love came
And left come dawn
Left you empty handed and alone
Was it just a story
The prince who comes to rescue
Cuts through the brambles gentle kiss to wake you
Does love push through
Love is real
Time is an illusion
Hard to see them pass when you’re moving
In a burning down world
There’s still one thing that can heal
Love is real
Love is real
Love is here
Love is coming
Love is gonna stay with you even when you’re running
Doesn’t need a lie when it’s seducing
Doesn’t give a damn how it can use you
Love is gonna heal your heart’s worst bruising
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9. |
When We're Gone
03:44
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When we’re gone they’re gonna find
Yellowed letters scrawled
With promises from older days
Pictures tucked between poems
With faces they can’t name
Tokens of love in pockets and boxes
A ring you never threw away
A turquoise pin on a yellow scarf
A tarnished silver heart on a cheap brass chain
When we’re gone
They’re gonna see
All the things we’ve held onto
From our hearts’ broken histories
When I go
Let them be
Leave them behind in that house
When you come to me
When we’re gone
Black leather jacket
With a cat scratch on its shoulder
Oval mirror engraved inside with
“Let’s grow older together”
A paperback that lost its ending
When it lost its cover
But the title page read “to my sad girl”
Just under “The Good Soldier”
When we’re gone
They’re gonna see
All the things we’ve held onto
From our hearts’ broken histories
When I go
Let them be
Leave them behind in that house
When you come to me
When we’re gone
When we’re gone
When we’re gone…
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10. |
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We took your seat out of the car
After a couple of weeks
But your room is still unchanged
Yellow and lime
Jeans still crumpled in the basket
A small tear on the left knee
From a big old oak you were proud to climb
And some days I just sit on the floor and wonder
How did one I’d give my life for manage to leave
Everyone said it was a saving grace
That I came through alive and fine
And nothing heals a broken heart like time
But no amount of waiting has healed mine
Nothing heals a broken heart
Red backpack with Winnie the Pooh
Still waiting to go to school
On an August morning you didn’t wake to see
New pencils and scissors
Crayons and glue
Zipped inside and aching to breathe
And some days I feel like no one else remembers
The cartoon faced kid who set the napkins out for dinner
Everyone said you’re in a better place
And I’d learn to be fine
And nothing heals a broken heart like time
But no amount of waiting has healed mine
Nothing heals a broken heart
And some days I just sit on the floor and wonder
How did one I’d give my life for manage to leave
Everyone said you’re in a better place
And I’d learn to be fine
And nothing heals a broken heart like time
But no amount of waiting has healed mine
Nothing heals a broken heart
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11. |
Wheels
03:57
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I’ll learn to take it like a man
Brace these punches where I stand
Nothing like growing older to see
Where the fists are headed before they land
I’m gonna learn to laugh it off
Shrug my shoulders when they scoff
Keep on riding when I kick up gravel
Don’t need a big truck, two wheels are enough
The days grow shorter as the months roll by
Summer’s fading soon and the autumn sky’s
Got a cool wet sting to its evening sigh
Don’t feel ready for those winter nights
But I can’t change how fast time flies
Gotta brace these legs, lock my teeth
Push these pedals, keep spinning these wheels
And wave yesterday goodbye
I could have gone a straighter route
But they all end up headed south
No matter which way the water cuts the land
Gonna meet the ocean at the river’s mouth
Maybe I’ll reach that center line
Where the summer catches up to wintertime
The sun will work its best to loosen my skin
I’ll worry less about the cold and more about wind
Cause I can’t change how fast time flies
Gotta brace these legs, lock my teeth
Push these pedals, keep spinning these wheels
And wave yesterday goodbye
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12. |
Lullaby
03:18
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Say goodnight to the sun
Rest your eyes, your day is done
Draw the curtains on this starry night
Yielding its distant light
Say goodnight to the moon
While you sleep, she sings her tune
Lullaby through the atmosphere
So faint it almost disappears
Still and calm
Sleep till dawn
Heaven grant you slumber ‘til then
Its watchful eyes
Will see you rise
When morning has come
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BettySoo Austin, Texas
In the past ten years, BettySoo zigzagged her way across the North American and European continents dozens of times. The Austin American-Statesman says BettySoo has "exceptionally well-arranged songs, as easily equal in precision to, say, Patty Griffin or Alison Krauss…a confidence that speaks volumes,” and KUT praises her "beautiful, heart-wrenching songs that are also edgy and unwavering." ... more
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