Get all 15 Reece Sullivan releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Live in the City of Gold, Losing Ground, The World Is Cruel (Gethsemane Cut), Gethsemane, The Riverband (Dockside), Arkansas, Middle Sea, Lamentations, and 7 more.
1. |
Highway Diner Plates
05:43
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When I ran into you after many years, unseen, in another state
When I ran into you after many years, unseen, in another state
In a parking lot; we talked for hours over highway diner plates
Life played games on me when I demanded more of it than it would give
Life played games on me when I demanded more of it than it would give
I thought it cruel and mean, but my life became a life that I could live
Of all the times I've seen, I miss those days the most if you know what I mean
Of all the times I've seen, I miss those days the most if you know what I mean
For many years I'd cling, but as good days do, they slipped away, it seems
With all our other friends: though I love them, they've been brainwashed to the max
With all our other friends: though I love them, they've been brainwashed to the max
I might would try to bend, but I cannot bend the truth or change the facts
I'll be moving on, but to where I cannot say for it's still unknown
I'll be moving on, but to where I cannot say for it's still unknown
Till some road ahead might open up before me and way is shown
I'll let it find me babe, for when I tried to find it my trying was in vain
I'll let it find me babe, for when I tried to find it my trying was in vain
But I hope it finds me soon, for I'm 48 and at the end of my chain
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2. |
All The While I Was Away
04:41
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All the while I was away
I was slaving through the night
While my neighbors were asleep
In my window was a light
All the while I was away
I was seldom understood
But my debts are fully paid
And I've done all I said I would
Try and catch me if you can
Come on, give it all you've got
I am just a mortal man
But I'm headed for the top
All the while I was away
I was groping searching, blind
But my faith had grown in ways
I didn't ask for any signs
All the while I was away
I stayed focused and worked fast
And the promises I made
I've delivered on, at last
Try and catch me if you can
Come on, give it all you've got
I am just a mortal man
But I'm headed for the top
There ain't that much to understand
But that my will will not be stopped
Try and catch me if you can
But I'm headed for the top
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3. |
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I lost my life somehow
To an ugly wife, a sow
To life behind the plow
For to buy her plates of chow
And the thing that'll get me most
Is how I moved here from the coast
To this dump to take my post
Where my dreams burnt up like toast
For to live here in this space
An ugly wasteland of a place
Where druggies like zombies pace
Where your kids can't show their face
Yes, my life went in a ditch
When I got tangled up with that ol' witch
Since the evening when we got hitched
A ten year scratch that I can't itch
Now I work down at this store
As a salesman on the floor
Where we sell cheap junk and more
For a boss we do deplore
What I do I do despise
For not much pay I compromised
Far too late before I realized
That on this treadmill I'd live and die
If I could I would explain
How I crashed into this lane
How I lost such an easy game
Yes, if I could I would explain
But I can't, so what I'll do
Is I'll offer you a word or two
Some advice if you can hear me through
That's if you know what's good for you
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4. |
Don't Fail Me Now
06:45
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Love don't fail me now
For the way is dark and deep
And as much as is allowed
Shine the light of truth on me
For with these shadows all around
I struggle to believe
How I wish I could expound
How it all now looks to me
With all the war I waged
And the years of life I lost
And despite my body's pain
I've found it worth the cost
But perhaps you find that strange
That war's gains outweighs the loss
Which is hard to put to page
Yes, it's hard to get across
I've struggled with addiction long; longer than you've even been alive
I tried to turn it into song; I moved to folk from gin and half arrived
With all the debt I owed
Well, it's paid back long ago
And the lines I wouldn't toe
Caused more grief than you can know
I don't know if I have grown
Or how such a thing is shown
I don't care if I am known
For my work stands on it's own
Half my life, I guess, is gone, but I feel I could begin having survived
Perhaps if you would tag along, you'd see, my little hen, I took the dive
My heart's felt like a stone
That I've carried around inside
While across the range I roam
Till in new place did arrive
That I just might make my home
While I've health and am alive
From the hills I emerged, alone
Clearly God walked by my side
Love don't fail me now
For the way is high and steep
From this point I don't look down
For if fear would enter me
I might plummet to the ground
And leave my work here incomplete
Love don't fail me now
For the way is high and steep
Half my life, I guess, is gone, but I feel I could begin having survived
Perhaps if you would tag along, you'd see, my little hen, I took the dive
Yes, into you again age: 45
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5. |
Lazy Babe
03:36
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Come on, lazy babe, I've a hungry soul
And I need some room to change and some space to grow
I've been living in my head
So I feel like I am dead
Come on, lazy babe, do what you're told
Come on, lazy babe; we're moving up
Come on, lazy babe; with a little luck
The world is dying soon
But we live like lovers do
Come on, lazy babe; with a little luck
Fly with me, lazy babe, above the Philistines
And all their petty ways; we're above those things
I see all the things I've done
Turn to dust beneath the sun
Fly with me, lazy babe, above everything
Come on, lazy babe, in a little while
We walk upon the stage and off in style
We were born to play these roles
Long writ on the cosmic scroll
Come on, lazy babe, in a little while
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6. |
The Olive Tree
01:56
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It wasn't I
Who made it so
A field of weeds
You chose to grow
The hows and whys
I do not know
It wasn't I
Who made it so
Out in my barn
My dairy maid
A vat of cream
With churn hath made
I treat her well
Not like a slave
If the truth I tell
My health she saved
The olive tree
Out in the grove
Down by the sea
Is decades old
It's fruit is green
It's taste is bold
Much wealth it brings
By the thousand sold
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7. |
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I've encountered many struggles
I've kicked against the flow
And I've raised my fists to heaven
With rebellion in my soul
As though those hidden ways
Were something I might know
Too young to understand
That it ain't me who's in control
In the middle of a daydream
On a cool, midsummer's morn
With a red haired girl beside me
Something new in me was born
Though it took more than a decade
For the words to fully form
Yes, it took a very long time
And so oft I was forlorn
In the middle of emotion
I recall my long lost friends
They're gone into the woodwork
They're lost around the bend
And my heart is filled with trouble
And sorrows without end
As I think back on these lost souls
That I'll never see again
In reflections on the mirror
I hear ancestors speak
As though they didn't finish
With all they had to say to me
And I feel I've been pretending
And I'm almost moved to weep
But I see the road's unending
And I feel too much awe to speak
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8. |
The Isle of Hy-Brasil
01:59
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I have broken bread
In a place unseen
Between where one might find the dead
And our hills of green
A place that most would not believe
For no one there grows old
And still I took my leave
Before my time was told
Many maps I scour
Many visions held
Well into the witching hour
Many seas I sailed
But still the isle I cannot find
Though I was there before
Or was it in my mind?
For I cannot find it's shore
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Reece Sullivan Lafayette, Louisiana
Originally from Arkansas, and now in Lafayette, LA, I play the surrounding areas regularly. Over the course of the years, I've reinvented myself musically many times: piano to guitar, classical to art rock, art rock to folk, flat picking to finger-picking, solely songwriting to performing. My latest incarnation has me playing out often, sometimes touring, and writing and recording consistently. ... more
Reece Sullivan recommends:
Burning Midnight
by Michael O'Connor
I played with Michael at the 2022 Dripping Springs Songwriter Festival and he's one of the good ones . . . if you get the chance to hear him live, do.
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Queen City Blues
by Clay Parker
Excellent album!
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Excellent songwriter!
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Phototherapy EP
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A collection of twinkling bedroom folk-pop demos from Fahim Rahman that arcs from hushed intimacy to sweeping cinematic emotionality.
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The Creature That I Call Myself
by Julie Arsenault
featured on Bandcamp Radio Apr 21, 2015
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A new record from Danish outfit SUNDAYS is replete with melodic hooks and punchy vocals.
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