Get all 8 Nick Zaino releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of In A Daydream, Hardcover Fiction, Tangential (Podcast Theme Song), I Can't Wait 'Til This Year Is Last Year, Habitual Salvation, Blue Skies and Broken Arrows, I Know It's Christmas, and Here's A Moon EP.
1. |
Pour Me A River
03:10
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Pour Me A River
Come along, if just for the ride
And I’ll stay with you all night
Leave these gods and goddesses on their worn-out shores
We’ve got nothing but ourselves to live for
And if we drown, so be it
I’m not afraid of what comes next
So pour me a river, I’ll drink it all
And never miss a drop of you
Pour me a river, I’ll swim it all
‘Till I’ve got the last of you
We walk among the righteous proclaimers
The sin-namers and the autocrats
They come with their hooks and I brush them off our backs
You should know, you should trust
We are ocean enough to dissolve the dust
So pour me a river, I’ll drink it all
And never miss a drop of you
Pour me a river, I’ll swim it all
‘Till I’ve got the last of you
Come along, if just for the ride
Let me convince you it’ll be all right
Man makes a tablet of stone
But we make our love our own
And if we die, so be it
I’m not afraid of what comes next
So pour me a river, I’ll drink it all
And never miss a drop of you
Pour me a river, I’ll swim it all
‘Till I’ve got the last of you
Pour me a river, I’ll drink it all
And never miss a drop of you
Pour me a river, I’ll swim it all
‘Till I’ve got the last of you
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2. |
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Better When You’re Strange
I like you better when you’re strange
Your eyes flash and the colors change
Feels like when you’re with me
You’re someone no one else can see
I like you better when you’re strange
You give me something I can taste
But when you hang around those boys
Your charm goes to waste
I don’t just want you for the things they do
But hell, I want you for those things, too
I just want to help you fit into
To a shape that feels like you
You like Picasso and old man bars
I like my comic books and cheap guitars
I’m not saying that we’re writ in the stars
But we fit in all my favorite parts
I like you better when you’re strange
When you’re breaking down the gates
When you’re dancing on their front lawn
In your suspenders and a cape
Don’t keep me waiting
Come out and play
I like you better when you’re strange
Oh, when you’re something short of sane
Whatever’s twirling in your brain
Makes me want to know your name
I don’t just want you for the things they do
Unless you want me for those things, too
And I could love every part of you
And never have to stop and think it through
You like turtle wax and shaving scars
I like jelly from a mason jar
Nothing about you is too bizarre
To ever keep us apart
I like you better when you’re strange
Your eyes flash and the colors change
Feels like when you’re with me
You’re someone no one else can see
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3. |
Doorstep Lullaby
03:03
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Doorstep Lullaby
Phil sat out on his doorstep
A light snow coming down
Stared down at the tracks on the sidewalk
Leading away from his house
He coughed up from the cold
But he didn’t want to go back inside
Laid his head on his concrete pillow
Ink running down the paper at his side
And there’s a light in the house behind him
And there’s a warmth he cannot face
He thinks there might be comfort
In any other place
Around three in the morning
The street came very still
Phill was wide awake
Steam rising from his breath
The street lights were switching off
No expression on his face
Thoughts fighting for a way out
Head frozen in place
And there’s a light in the house behind him
And there’s a warmth he cannot face
He thinks there might be comfort
In any other place
If anyone had seen him
They might have tried to talk sense
He won’t listen anyhow
He’s got his own music now
Doorstep lullaby
Doorstep lullaby
Doorstep lullaby
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4. |
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First Broken Heart In the World
Every heart before this heart
Has beat in perfect rhythm
And no heart before this heart
Has every truly been broken
You can’t tell me that anyone
Has ever felt just like this
The world would have stopped, shaken, and died in a heaving fit
‘Cause I’ve got the first broken heart in the world
I’ve got the first broken heart in history
I’ve got the first broken heart in the world
I’ve got the first broken heart in history
I see these people walking around
And everyone’s in love
And every one will last forever
And everyone’s got enough
You can’t tell me their happiness
Will disappear just like that
No one knows this woe is me
Or what it’s like to get squashed flat
‘Cause I’ve got the first broken heart in the world
I’ve got the first broken heart in history
I’ve got the first broken heart in the world
I’ve got the first broken heart in history
Don’t try to tell me anything
There’s nothing left to tell
A million hearts, a million years
No one’s ever faced this hell
Every heart before this heart
Has beat in perfect rhythm
And no heart before this heart
Has every truly been broken
You can’t tell me that anyone
Has ever felt just like this
The world would have stopped, shaken, and died, no one would have survived it
‘Cause I’ve got the first broken heart in the world
I’ve got the first broken heart in history
I’ve got the first broken heart in the world
I’ve got the first broken heart in history
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5. |
Habitual Salvation
03:42
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Habitual Salvation
There’s a difference between believing and being faithful
There’s a difference between knowledge and trust
There’s a difference between leading yourself through the fire
And knowing that somehow you must
He walked through the shadow of the steeple
But did not feel the weight
Pharisee did not see the world he passed by
To get to his heavenly gate
Forsaking this world for the next
With no burden on his chest
Just habitual salvation, no rest
He cast aside the seekers
For a solitary truth
Never thinking he might need a bigger love than he could see
He held on to his corner of the proof
Forsaking this world for the next
With no burden on his chest
Just habitual salvation, no rest
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6. |
Fall In Love With Losing
04:57
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Fall In Love With Losing
The city went to sleep early
Came in from the rain and called it a day
You’re still up wondering how it all got spent
You wasted so much time
And now you won’t even let yourself close your eyes
You take trouble that’s twice your size
You fall in love with losing
Now it’s all that you do
Why, oh why did you wait so long
To do all the things once ahead of you
Now they’ve got behind you
Nothing left but bad decisions
So ready the fences and bolt down the doors
No one’s coming anymore
You fall in love with losing
It’s what you’re used to
You fall in love with losing
Now it’s all that you do
You fall in love with losing
You fall asleep on the floor
You fall in love with losing
Now it’s all you’re good for
You beat the bricks each morning
You give up by noon and find your way home
You beg the sun for the moon, please send her here soon
You were young and strong
It wasn’t too long ago, it gets fixed in your mind
But it’s all moving pictures and it feels like lies
You fall in love with losing
It’s all that you
You fall in love with losing
Losing loves you, too
You fall in love with losing
You fall asleep on the floor
You fall in love with losing
Now it’s all you’re good for
You fall in love with losing
Now it’s all you’re good for
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7. |
Brittle
03:38
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Brittle
I don’t worry about my body,
I’m not concerned with my soul
Beyond a certain point they are beyond my control
And I don’t worry about you,
because I don’t know where you are
And I’m never going to know
I’m never gonna know
I don’t look for consolation, it’s not for me to find
It’s happenstance at best, if it shows
I still have your address,
And I used to love your doorway
Somewhere I’ll never go again
Someplace I’ll never know again
Living without you
I’m just a house without a roof
The wind and rain, they blow right through me
And the midday sun comes and dries me out again
And leaves me that much more brittle to the touch every time
Every time
I finally let my heart break, now the tissue’s covered over
Feels a little funny when it moves
My favorite place in my living room
Is a dark square on the wall where our picture used to hang
That never faded in sun
And I might paint over it in a month or two
In a week or two
Maybe soon
Living without you, I’m just a house without a roof
The wind and rain, they blow right through me
And the midday sun comes and dries me out again
And leaves me that much more brittle to the touch every time
Every time
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8. |
In This World
03:19
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In This World
I just want to give you a reason to say, “I miss you, baby, please come home.”
And I need for you to give me a reason to say, “I miss you, baby, please come home.”
We won’t always be side by side in this world,
In this world.
And there’s a lot of open space to get between us in this world,
But this world is our home.
I wish that I could stand the heights it takes for us to see all the beauty in the world all at once
And I wish that I could go back and meet you again, but that’s all we get, just once
There are days when we forget we’re in this world,
In this world.
But the blue skies and sand and the touch of your hand,
Are part of this world.
I just want to give you a reason to say, “I love you, baby, please stay home.”
And I need for you to give me a reason to say, “I love you, baby, please stay home.”
We won’t always be side by side in this world,
In this world.
But the blue skies and sand and the touch of your hand,
Are part of this world.
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9. |
Time To Go South
03:16
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Time To Go South
Sitting counting stitches running down my chest
I’ve lost a lot of blood but I’m not finished yet
Could really use a laugh but I might fall apart
But trying to hold it in has gotten just too hard
Well they tell me that I’m fading, it just seems funny
If this is how it ends then I never saw it coming
Lying in the waiting room I can feel it running out
So ready or not,
It’s time to go south
Someone else’s family in a picture frame
I’m thinking I won’t make it but the doctor thinks he’s famous
If this is the punchline then god’s a lazy comic
So if I get to come back I’ll put a better spin on it
Everybody’s talking with their voices down low
Just what’s killing me, no one seems to know
Everything they’re telling me seems like a joke
And my blood continues to flow
Yeah, my blood continues to flow
Well they tell me that I’m fading, it just seems funny
If this is how it ends then I never saw it coming
Lying in the waiting room I can feel it running out
So ready or not,
It’s time to go south
Sitting counting stitches running down my chest
I’ve lost a lot of blood but I’m not finished yet
Could really use a laugh but I might fall apart
But trying to hold it in has gotten just too hard
So ready or not,
Ready or not,
Ready or not,
It’s time to go south
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10. |
Who Wants To Die Happy?
03:02
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Who Wants To Die Happy?
I’m not as bad as I was
Not as good as I could be
At least that’s what I keep telling me
Just to try to stay sane
If I want to die happy/ But who wants to die happy?
It’s not as good as it sounds.
Don’t forget that you’re dead
All my old bad habits
They used to keep me alive
Now I don’t know what happened
I’ve got to put them aside
Someone threw a switch, and I threw a fit
And now I gotta be a new man
Just to keep the old one from dying
I’m not as bad as I was
Not as good as I could be
At least that’s what I keep telling me
Just to try to stay sane
If I want to die happy/ But who wants to die happy?
It’s not as good as it sounds.
Don’t forget that you’re dead
Which do I like better?
Hungry and alive?
Or dead and satisfied?
I’ve been wasting time/Thinking ‘bout the time I’ve wasted
If I can’t kill me, maybe no one else can, too
I keep it on my mind/All the things that I’ve tasted
All the luck that I’ve misread/Whatever lies up ahead
The best of it was time with you
I’m not as bad as I was
Not as good as I could be
At least that’s what I keep telling me
Just to try to stay sane
If I want to die happy/ But who wants to die happy?
It’s not as good as it sounds.
Don’t forget that you’re dead
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Nick Zaino Boston, Massachusetts
Nick Zaino is a Boston-based Americana musician, podcaster, and journalist. He has released two full-length albums, Blue Skies and Broken Arrows and Habitual Salvation, two EPs, and is working on a few singles to release soon.
Nick Zaino recommends:
The Problem With Living In The Moment
by The Grownup Noise
I have known these guys for years, and the songwriting and musicianship on this album is fantastic. You will be hearing more from them.
go to album
Joe's got a great imagination as a songwriter. Check out the band.
go to album
Thank God for the Night
by Parlour Bells
Great writing, great performers.
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An Evening at Macri Park
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