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Veins and Arteries (2023 reissue)

by Briars of North America

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1.
once I had veins and arteries but now I live in a far-off sea I used to go outside and drink fresh air but now we’re inside of a big brown bear   I used to believe that I could feel This is so sad because i’m not real You like me, we are made of sand I’m not quite sure that I understand   Oh believer, in the world tonight Love me now for i think it’s quite right I used to believe that i was there Now i’m not sure if i really care Mmmm   When somebody thought that i had sighed We climbed our tree so that I might be You wonder why, oh how the orphans they cry All is all, ladila
2.
Dhalgren 05:35
Last I dreamt a dream of a dream Waves of ice brought me to the shore I saw our beginning, oh I, I saw our end   I watched as the armies of good and evil… A force of metal fills the sky Putting out any idea of peace, why   She looked at me she spoke to me She said evil will always For there is no reckoning from heaven For there is no reckoning from hell   Where’s the difference any more Has there ever been Where’s the difference any more Has there ever been Where’s the difference any more Has there ever been And the chorus sang   Where has all the grace gone to Where are we going ma’ Where has all the grace gone to Where are we going ma’   Her husband was king She wanted to do right by him An acrobat from a foreign land She leapt from his tower tumbling through the sea Fiery billows fell from the sky Fell from the sky Fell from the sky, fell
3.
Bellow 03:39
he screams into the waterfall you can’t hear his woeful call here’s a man not dead at all although he’s surely tryin’   walks into the dusty sun a hobo’s work is never done offers water to the one whose eyes are dry from cryin’   he works the mud beneath his heels with the migrants in the fields needs to know how jesus feels upon his bed of straw   now many men might scoff and say a hobo’s life is throw away but what is the price they’d pay to have his sense of awe?   singing, bellow while the wind wraps round your head no one needs to hear this song but he all your life you’ve prayed for a song to raise the dead a song to lift these shackles from your feet   never wagged his tongue in vain never played the bitter game when he prayed he shook like rain falling on the sea   laughed at men of circumstance tossed his body when he danced played his best cards at romance but he was always free   singing, bellow while the wind wraps round your head no one needs to hear this song but she all your life you’ve prayed for a song to raise the dead a song to lift these shackles from your feet   so gentlemen let’s not confuse what we believe to be the truth we got a lot left to lose yet we are surely dyin’   he swam into the open sea echoing a symphony carrying the songs of he whose eyes are dry from cryin’   singing, bellow while the wind wraps round your head no one needs to hear this song but he all your life you’ve prayed for a song to raise the dead a song to lift these shackles from your feet   singing, bellow while the wind wraps round your head no one needs to hear this song but she all your life you’ve prayed for a song to raise the dead a song to lift these shackles from your feet a song to lift these shackles from your feet
4.
Jonah 05:24
in my daily wallow
throw a window wide winter leaves are hollow their stems shall be my guide                                                             you are in-determined
yet your spinnaker's unfurled the wind blows sleet you move fleet
toward the belly of the world                                                             take heart, please concede this is all we need to be
a foreigner on a wild wind's tide this love shall be my guide this love shall be my guide                                                             jonah's in his valley
when he hears the frightful phrase
son you're bound for nineveh to preach your final days                                                             as his exit boat was shaking he knew he was not free
he told the other sailors you must         throw me to the sea                                                             take heart please concede this is all we need to be
a foreigner on a wild wind's tide                                                         this love shall be our guide   [interlude]                                                                                                 he turned his body inward his bitterness relieved
he sang a cry to abraham and his body was received                                                             and lonely on his mountain he watched the withered vine sayin' winter leaves are hollow
their stems shall be my guide                                                             take heart please concede this is all we need to be
a foreigner on a wild wind's tide         this love shall be our guide   oh take heart please concede this is all we need to be
a foreigner on a wild wind's tide         this love shall be our guide this love shall be our guide                            
5.
6.
Little Liza Jane you were ok Little Liza Jane you were ok until the day began until the day began   Little Liza Jane you were ok until the day began until the day began until the day began oh where did it go wrong   when I met you you were basked in light you were basked in light oh, you were basked in light   oh I met you on a cloudless night a cloudless night oh, I met you on a cloudless night   Little Liza Jane you were ok Little Liza Jane you were ok until the days began until the days began   Little Liza Jane you were away before the day began before the day began before the day began where did it go wrong?
7.
Oh How Wide 06:08
oh how wide your weary eyes they train your view on darkening skies   over the ridge where waters collide she's building a bridge to a long-buried time   with sunlight in her hands and dew upon her feet and the words upon her breath that i long to meet   with sunlight in her hands and dew upon her feet and the words upon her breath that i long to pardon me   oh how long have i been away? the trees have grown strong and the sea has grown gray   over the ridge where the waters collide she's building a bed where the weary can lie   with sunlight in her hands and dew upon her feet and the words upon her breath that i long to meet   with sunlight in her hands and dew upon her feet and the words upon her breath that i long to pardon me   oh how far have their weary feet roamed? bound to a dream reviled in their home   over the ridge where the waters collide she's building a pyre where the weary can rise

about

Originally released September 25, 2015

Click on each track for the stories behind each song. This is an overview...

Briars of North America’s album veins and arteries is folk music from an apocalyptic future. The songs weave together mythologies, biblical verse, and dreamscapes of temporally distant worlds. They ask questions about where we come from and where we are going.

We had envisioned this album as a collection of allegories and fables, retold by bards from an apocalyptic future, casting the present moment in a mythical light. Each character sustains a certain grim and holy virtue amidst the collapse of decency and hope. i.e. Future Boy (who lacks veins and arteries), the despondent visionary Liza Jane, the hapless prophet Jonah, the keeper of the Fire in “Oh How Wide.”

Some might be tempted to call it post-Americana. The narrators of these songs might sound like aesthetically minded doomers. But more than negating the present or the future this album embraces North America as it is, prickly briars and all.

As I re-listen, I realize that the song-myths on this album achieve what we set out to do. They carry that essential will to survive as civilization crumbles, that sense of carrying an ancient torch forward into the gray and beautiful unknown.

I wish I could say the world feels the same as it did a decade ago. In fact, it feels worse. Back then, we sang about the apocalypse. Today I sometimes wonder if we’re living through it.

— Jeremy Thal, December 15, 2023

credits

released December 21, 2023

All music and words written by Gideon Crevoshay and Jeremy Thal. We made the recordings surrounded by forest in the Hudson Valley.

Basic tracks were done at a friend’s family’s old house in Columbia County, NY. It was recorded mostly live with drummer Tommy Crane and guitarist Simon Jermyn filling out the band. For the sessions, Simon’s guitar amp was placed out on a porch where we had it both close mic’d and mic’d a few feet back to get the resonance of the valley. After recording for a few days, a neighbor came by to congratulate him on his playing.

It was then completed between two friend’s studios in Brooklyn, where the band was then based. The record feels like a well-crafted ensemble creation, and we like to think the surrounding environs were part of it.

BAND:
Jeremy Thal: guitar, voice, electric bass, organ, French horn, trumpet, trombone, synths, baritone ukelele, wine glasses
Gideon Crevoshay: voice, piano, Wurlitzer, Rhodes, Oberheim OB-X, harmonium, synths, chanter, wine glasses
Greg Chudzik: upright bass, electric bass, banjo

ADDITIONAL MUSICIANS:
Tommy Crane: drums, percussion
Simon Jermyn: electric guitar, electric bass
Nathan Koci: additional French horn and trumpet

RECORDING:
Recorded at Ancram House, The Honey Jar, Signal Corps Recording, and found sound nation

Produced by Gideon Crevoshay, Arun Pandian, and Jeremy Thal Engineered by Arun Pandian with additional engineering by Devin Greenwood

Mixed by Arun Pandian at Signal Corps Recording. "Jonah" mixed by Devin Greenwood at The Honey Jar.

Mastered by Griffin Rodriguez

Artwork by Hannah Devereux

Thank you to everyone known, and unknown, who inspired and helped us create this music.

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Briars of North America New York

We work at our own pace, with release plans guided more by equinoxes and solstices than any conventional wisdom. We are two long lost cousins Jeremy Thal and Gideon Crevoshay and a friend, Greg Chudzik. Our music exists at the crossroads of ambient, indie and so-called new music—delivered with the precision of chamber music, the emotional transparency of folk, and the weight of ritual. ... more

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