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The Book of Moss

by Bow Thayer

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    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Also includes a digital booklet created by Vincent Freeman that provides all of the album's lyrics and credits.
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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Comes in an eco-friendly custom jacket that is shrink-wrapped to prevent damage. No shipments outside of North America.

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Book of Moss via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Full Digital Discography

    Get all 44 Bow Thayer releases available on Bandcamp and save 50%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Cold Cold Mornings, The Shaman, Soil of '23, Let 'Em Sing, Birthday Song, Secession, The Ride, Goldfish Bowl, and 36 more. , and , .

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1.
Babel 05:04
Mercury rising silver surfing beads of flight rides on Wingtips of rose petals Floating over winding roads made golden Moses and Abraham holding down the bassline Shakin’ The guts of the new storm pouring out of old songs In the blue dawn Om... One by one will show you what two will do to you Three more tries might get it right Four by four holding up the floorboards Under a five point starry night All is lost in translation The walls did tumble down Cue to the language of one vibration And hold on Hold on… Imagine the sound of Babel coming down As the thunder cracked the bell All that was spoken was shattered and broken Forgotten as it fell Now our spirit is screaming trying to find meaning Of a story yet to tell I'm hoping that you can open up your tune and rebuild Rebuild Om… Old triple six has got its dirty fix on the luck of seven tries Wait for the eight if it's not too late The power lies in the nine All is lost in translation The walls did tumble down Cue to the language of one vibration And hold on Hold on Rebuild the tower The Tower of Babel (3x)
2.
Ogallala 05:54
The shoreline is on fire and I’m chin high in the center of the elemental law of everything This is not a rodeo the picture shows a miracle of collective souls who are braced against the wind They’re lined up on the Cannonball and standing tall and sitting tough with the whole world watching and there’s great concern Chorus: Holy Ogallala Life blood of the plains Ring around the reservoir As we evaporate Just a drop of all we lost Is that all we really need? Just a drop should be enough To ride the ripple to the headwaters back upstream The elders say the end of days is followed by a big black snake that’s venomous and poisons all the land This pipeline prophecies an act of greed that trumps all reason and the meaning with the freedom to expand They kicked them off the Cannon Ball like Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull and the whole world’s watching and there’s great concern (Chorus) Holy Ogallala La la la la…..
3.
I read the entertainment of the times Polish dirty words till the beauty is so blurred And burnt into scripture for the blind And then I laugh Cause my skin’s too thick to shed another tear And the ramparts can't hold back the waves And people moving in two different ways And the rhythm is unclear...don't ya think? There's too much information for our times I try hard not swallow all the tricks that make you follow And click and like the pissings of our lives And then I find A snippet leaked into the atmosphere With words as real as yesterday was here The coyotes of Cape Breton took her down Her name was Taylor Mitchell Or it used to be Cause she said it was And she would sing… There's too much information for our times I watch them gather misfits and cross them off the shit list Mr. Twisted Twitter is on fire I think it's time to keep a cashless strategy in range and sew into the seeds another tragedy The writing on the wall is not imagined It’s old and it's fantastic And It's saying Welcome to the new catastrophe Bouncing off the walls of sound The coyotes of Cape Breton took her down Took her down I read the entertainment of our times
4.
Cuckoo 04:52
Gonna build me a log cabin On a mountain top so high So I can see Willy As she goes walking by Well the cuckoo is a pretty bird She warbles when she flies And she never cries cuckoo Till the fourth day of July Jack of Diamonds Jack of Diamonds I remember you from days of old You rob my poor pockets Of my silver and all my gold The cuckoo she's a pretty bird She warbles when she flies She never hollers cuckoo Until the fourth day of July I gambled all through England I've gambled all the way through Spain I bet you oh ten dollars I'll beat you in this next card game Well the cuckoo she's a pretty bird She warbles when she flies And she never hollers cuckoo Till the fourth day of July
5.
Mason jar falling water Taste the spring like a morning swallow It couldn't be too soon Couldn’t be too soon She worries when the wind blows And keeps that to herself Yellow bird window pane Feathers in a fresh coat of paint Broke its little beak off and can no longer sing She healed it with her own song And keeps that to herself Spiny grove spongy ground Chanterelles popping up As much as she could carry is what she gives away But where she finds them growing She keeps that to herself Dark night hard rain Lightning strikes the tallest pine Shards of glass jars shatter Falling from the shelf Apologies and laughter She keeps that to herself
6.
Latitude 04:13
Rest my head in a rusted bucket Cover myself with hemlock pines Take a little tree sap and glue my eyes shut Gonna help me sleep through these troubled times And the wind came in with a terrible howl It must have been my darkest hour It rained and it snowed It rained and it snowed Gonna get a good start up early in the morning Make that godforsaken garden grow Almost fourteen days to bust that sod up Got a line of credit in every row Once the seeds in the ground you can't give it back It warned me in the Farmers Almanac It rained and it snowed It rained and it snowed There’s nothing left for me in this county I ain't in accord with this latitude There's something in the air around me And it makes me question everything I do I guess I'll head down the road and won't look back With the snow and the rain covering up my tracks It rained and it snowed It rained and it snowed...
7.
Fish Cop 09:40
We picked our side of the spine of the Delectables The fertile side to raise up the kids We made our fences tall to keep them in We taught ‘em how to fight and break them back down again We tore up the roads to make them better Ignoring all the warning signs of the weather And all of the wheels went out of alignment When the muddy White River came out of retirement Chorus: It don't matter where you're going It don't matter where you’re from You wouldn't notice if you weren't looking The bottleneck of the bridge falling down in the floodplains The river got hands It takes what its it wants and it pulls you in If it keeps raining and before too long It won't matter what side you're on The game of love is not for the power fool The taste of the sweetness has its place in the bitterroot She said “If you don't love me, why don't you leave?” “I've been trying for years just give me a reason” That winter surely left a mark Incarceration with icicles It was a long cold sentence just to wait in the dark Wait for the spring and the charges to get dropped (Chorus) Running down River Road Shotgun my last can It used to be that I dreamt a lot I used to be such a well-versed kid But this road soda’s tasting so good God know it's so damn hot It goes down like a target dropped in the sandlot I look up and see the lights of the fish cop Oh fuck the fish cop It's gonna be the third time I get popped Popped by the goddamn fish cop (Chorus) Tis the season of the rehab Vicious cycles revolve into relapse White trash middle class trippin the twelve step Looking for the power that hides in the hopeless It don't mean that the party is over As I search for enlightenment and playing it sober So I wear this half century around like a badge As I sort out the plastic, paper and glass (Chorus) One bright morning the topic came up Right down to the gut like a bowl of eggs This time I couldn't steer through the hot spot I've been asleep on it for days So I push play and the power goes out It must be McMurphy’s law I guess I need a Big Chief to watch over my nest And finish me off when I fall (Chorus) I heard her say Can we get back to the weekend? I thought I heard her say right back at me Baby I think we can What a weekend What a weekend, what a weekend….

about

The genesis of this project was back in 2017. Our drummer Jeff Berlin was in recovery from a stroke so I was pursuing a more acoustic sound with Alex "Al" Abraham on the upright bass. We had a weekly gig that allowed us to experiment as a duo and soon local percussionist Steve Ferraris began sitting in regularly. This album was born out of that vibe. We decided to take a day and record a demo live in my studio. Little did we know it would be our only chance at capturing these songs with Al. He took his own life on March 30, 2018. Work obviously stopped on the album. Grief had thrown all perspective out the window. But when I finally revisited the demo, I realized the trax were pretty good, and maybe even usable. I found another session on a hard drive with Al working on alternative bass lines for the songs from the demo session and I thought...Wow, we can finish this. It seemed like a perfect coping mechanism and a necessary testament to a lost friend. He was a young man when he left us. These recordings show just how much he had to give. Of course, I had to get my production partner, Justin Guip, involved. He's the only man who could have salvaged these trax. Without his skills, these songs may have never made it to your ears. By this point, Jeff was back firing on all cylinders and was brought in to bring the sound back to the time when we were all together. Drums are typically recorded first. We did it backwards. But there was nothing normal about the making of this album. and Justin was willing to go beyond normal to make it all work.

As for the songs themselves, I have to admit that they are about as “Vermont” as I can get. They sound to me like they literally grew up out of the rocky soil of the Green Mountains. They contain all the trials and tribulations you find living here, as well as some global perspective from our little weird bubble of a state. So with this I give you: "The Book of Moss."

credits

released January 21, 2022

All songs (except Cuckoo) written by Bow Thayer (Elbop Music (SESAC)) ©
Produced and arranged by Bow Thayer and Justin Guip
Mixed by Justin Guip at Milan Hill Studio, Red Hook NY
Mastered by Alex McCollough at True East Mastering, Nashville TN

Musicians:

Bow Thayer - Bojotar, acoustic guitar, baritone guitar, banjo, vocals, synthesizer, percussion, piano, organ
Alex Abraham - upright bass, backing vocals
Jeff Berlin - drums
Chazz Carney - flute ("The Coyote of Cape Breton")
JC Callahan - musical saw, backing vocals ("Latitude")
Justin Guip - synthesizer, percussion
Krishna Guthrie - backing vocals ("Babel")
Steve Ferraris - percussion
Jackson Kincheloe - harmonica ("Babel")
Patrick Ross - fiddle ("Cuckoo")

Managed by Battenkill Music (battenkillmusic@gmail.com)

For Al

Special thanks to Barbara Abraham whose generous donation made this album possible.

www.bowthayer.com

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Bow Thayer Vermont

Bow Thayer's music features his custom Bojotar and fuses experimental elements with Americana, rock, bluegrass, and folk, resulting in a singular, progressive sound that has earned descriptions ranging from “Green Mountain soul” to “modern backwoods music.” American Songwriter says this "onetime Levon Helm compatriot is the best artist to come from New England in recent years." ... more

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