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O Bronder, Donder Yonder?

by Forrest VanTuyl

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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    12" Vinyl release of "O Bronder, Donder Yonder?", featuring original artwork by Roark Griffin and Silje Solskinn, as well as annotated lyric sheets, all made in Oregon.

    Includes unlimited streaming of O Bronder, Donder Yonder? via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 21 days

      $25 USD

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Includes unlimited streaming of O Bronder, Donder Yonder? via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 7 days

      $10 USD or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

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

    Downloads come with a pdf booklet that includes liner notes, annotated lyrics, and more artwork by Roark Griffin and Silje Solskinn.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $20 USD  or more

     

1.
Sam's House 03:51
Sam’s House was empty, except for Sam & the whiskey and we talked about horses we’d rode & we waited for the dawn I’d run a few times before and she’d always come to get me Sam’s house is just down the road, but she don’t know how far Winter was over. We got by but we had to scrape & those Lilacs were bloomin in the canyon & I was afraid. When good horses die, we hang up their hides to scrape1 and someday I will sing your name... Constance. Is there justice on this earth? Is the country of my birth still a burden? If the love that I was given was more than I was worth Will I ever be forgiven - did I get what I deserved? Constance. We were warm once- when it was 20 below and we burned each other’s brands in our backs and we rode as high as those Sonorans I was standin’ by the round pen gate, where I’d stood before where I stood when I heard your voice and the whole damn world was darkenin’ This whole wicked world gets darker yet Constance. Is there justice on this earth? Is the country of my birth still a burden? If the love that I was given was more than I was worth Will I ever be forgiven - did I get what I deserved? Constance.

2.
Rawhide 03:00
Say you want a man who was made like rawhide Honey, I was soakin’ ass wet for the first 18 years of my life but I found a country far from the rain, I stretched out my soul to dry, turned my face to the far-flung sun, didn’t learn to coil rope til I was nearly hung, smelled every rose til my nose got stung I made my share of mistakes & darlin’ you weren’t one I was as green as April down in the canyon but the finest of the fadin’ light don’t come til just before night 90 percent of love is reckless abandon the other half is learnin’ not to run keepin’ enough air to say “I love you” in our lungs findin’ forgiveness for the wrongs we ain’t yet done & I made my share of mistakes and darlin’ you weren’t one So call me anything your tongue could ever think to twist towards Houlihan me in that hip shot honey and drag me to your fire burn yr brand on my 12th rib, it was yours for the taking & the least I could give and Love is as wild as it felt when we were young it’s twice as dangerous as mama bears and guns but we need it more than the mornin’ needs the sun I made my share of mistakes and darlin’ you weren’t one
3.
Are you off ridin’ some unfenced horizon? Are your stars yet unsung? Are your days of exile over, Is your love yet to come? Yonder my love comes on country untrammelled, conjured from blood and from dust barefoot and halfbroke, we rode before we wrote we’re wild as our own wilderness Is this not where she had known she would find me, Weathered & forever unkown? Worn down on rawhide and fresh off a good ride and singin’ praise to a country called home God is a mountain & I am a falcon & I am a storm & a song & Hannah meant nothin’ & I was not runnin & it wasn’t the first I been wrong. Are you off ridin’ some unfenced horizon? Are your stars yet unsung? Are your days of exile over, Is your love yet to come?
4.
I wasn’t sure I’d adore you but I stayed all night to find out I stole your daydreams and workboots before the mornin’ came to town Winter came & I was young again Winter comes to make me young This is a love song it ain’t meant to be a riddle show me a middle I can meet you in. & Honey I know not if I deserve to be forgiven show me a river I can learn to swim This is a love song. Maybe I got a couple years on ya Maybe it ain’t the years that count Maybe I was mishearin’ ya Maybe I never shoulda opened my mouth This is a pretty good divide Love is a horse I still can’t ride Love was the last thing on my mind Love... Love; may your orchard stay forever wyld This is a love song it ain’t meant to be a riddle show me a middle I can meet you in. & Honey I know not if I deserve to be forgiven show me a river I can learn to swim This is a love song.
5.
It never rains in Oregon & I never feared the dark and I never found no better place than here to hang my heart I come confessin’, outta love & outta questions heavy on transgression, hungry for the light In the darkness, there’s a golden band of sunset My horse is shod & showerin’ sparks across the granite I’m too young to forget that I’ve yet to work my damndest Gimme a land a lord a love that ain’t been tamed yet I belong to yonder mountain as a falcon to its wing but do I know yet where I wander do I know yet what I sing?
 Sinner, save your blessin’ where’s those prayers I keep forgettin?
 did I burn my best possession? I was hungry for the light. And all that balm in gilead & all that soldier’s joy Annie Oakley, Ezra Brooks & Helen Of Troy All that’s gold & gorgeous I spent years tryin’ to avoid apples fall in autumn I’ll be raisin’ up my voice In the darkness, there’s a golden band of sunset My horse is shod & showerin’ sparks across the granite I’m too young too forget that I’ve yet to work my damndest Gimme a land a lord a love that ain’t been tamed yet
6.
I been dreamin' of a lakeshore & a Pendleton overcoat, snow settlin' on Douglas Fir while I follow you up the road, I been thinkin' bout a fireplace and a chimbley whistlin' smoke & the way you curl up next to me when you read the stories I wrote I been ponderin' the Ponderosas in the evenin monochrome with her hazy grays & lazy days of eatin' what we've grown & I've had the luck of a larkspur whose seeds have just been sown by the well-worn hand of a half-broke man and the only love that he's known If I could see the evergreen shine in your Inland Empire eyes each night & spend my mornin’s alongside you with a loaf of bread & a sunrise, there's no dollar I'd need again, no fortune could buy, the feelin' of your freewheelin' fingers intertwined in mine.
7.
It’s a quarter til tomorrow, boys we’re burnin’ starlight that nighthawk breakfast special we got milky way coffee & moon pie I’m dreamin’ of my bedroll with my cigarette pointed north I’m a short tailed bear a-spinnin’ round a short-lived pole If there’s bison in the Minam, we ain’t seein’ em tonight This ol’ Canyon’s blacker than cast iron It’s dark as a cow’s insides I’m dreamin’ of Alberta with her apron full of gold I’m a lonely sage in winter with nothin’ for my roots to hold I’m young enough to think I’m tough I ain’t old to die I’ve seen the sun run westward from the terrors of the night Now the finest of the fadin’ light the dawn has swallowed whole but if it’s darkness that we shine from is there darkness in these souls? It’s a quarter til tomorrow my pony knows the way back home my faith in God & Mules is strong & my horse is almost broke I will go where I am pointed where I’m paid what I am owed where my remuda’s fit for workin’ & my saddle’s never cold
8.
Yonder Mountain - Yonder Mountain - Yonder Mountain I will be In the mornin’ - River Yawnin’ - Long time dawnin’ I will be Ya work a horse in that mornin’ light like it’s a form of prayer and God is the country & I have been there Yonder Mountain Communion is Copenhagen & lukewarm beer & yr body gets lean and your mind gets clear Yonder Mountain - Yonder Mountain - Yonder Mountain I will be In the mornin’ - River Yawnin’ - Long time dawnin’ I will be My savior was a carpenter but he quit buildin’ walls I got a hammer, lord, but I’m just keepin’ my pony shod Yonder Mountain All of my sorrows are here for the taking I’m broke as mornin’ and forever awakenin’ Yonder Mountain - Yonder Mountain - Yonder Mountain I will be In the mornin’ - River Yawnin’ - Long time dawnin’ I will be YONDER MOUNTAIN
9.
Timberbind 03:33
Timberbind In a tree is an evil, hard thing for me to understand I take a walk in the woods wonderin’ if I could be a better man Ride a rainbow into town, make a wish on a cloud O, my achin’ back! You walk into the room & I come unglued I want to thank you for bein’ my friend Ride a rainbow into town, make a wish on a cloud O, my achin’ back! You walk into the room I jump over the moon I want to thank you for bein’ my friend Timberbind In a tree is an evil, hard thing for me to understand *A timberbind is a 19th-century term for getting one’s crosscut saw or “misery whip” bound in the tree it’s cutting. An evil thing indeed.

10.
Lady Godiva 05:42
Lady Godiva, your horses are hungry I will be there in the mornin’, those hills are sweet as honey Flowers are fallin’, my faith’s in a tangle our horses call to one another & they get a little harder to handle Lady Godiva, ride me higher, I’m as steady as steady can be slick in the hide I spent my whole life free the past comes creepin’ in - was I born just to be born again when will I cease repeating this cycle I was a wheel within a wheel on fire Lady Godiva, your head’s on fire I will meet you at the river I will be there for your baptizin’ I promised a plain song, I sang you a river I won’t be wearin’ this fear for too long I stand at the bank ‘neath the moon & I shiver & I Holler Hallelujah - Whisper my amen claim I never knew ya & only raise my voice to scream Goddamn. Well, Good goddamn. Lady Godiva, this ain’t where I come from but I been here for a while, I could turn my dust to your dust Ponderosas & Hemlocks, Wildflowers and fetlocks the trail twists like a sheep’s guts I lose your sign in the rimrock I holler Hallelujah, whisper my amen claim I never knew ya & only raise my voice to scream goddamn well Good God Damn
11.
Dark To Dark 03:42
I hung coyote’s tail from my front cinch for good fortune I stitched my boots with rawhide, blew my smoke rings around the stars That Barb-y Mustang did her best to buck her packs this mornin ain’t she just as green as I was, bed & board, dark to dark Yonder come my love upon a horse as light as mornin the silver swirlin’ shallows splash her spurs so cold and sharp we turn our backs on the Tamaracks a-heeding winter’s warnin aint they just as green as I was, bed and board dark to dark they turn golden & gorgeous all unfolded before us we left our hoofprints from the Imnaha to the East Fork, Love was just as green as I was, bed & board, dark to dark Then a different kind of darkness came, as dark as the storm we’re born in I could not hold it all alone, I was hollow, hard at heart The Imnaha was half frozen I was half alone then love was just as broke as I was bed & board, dark to dark I could claim I never knew ya too much dust in my throat to sing those hallelujahs I was wayfared, I held my witness mark love was just as broke as I was bed n board, dark to dark I hung coyote’s tail from my front cinch for good fortune I stitched my boots with rawhide, blew my smoke rings around the stars That Barb-y Mustang did her best to buck her packs this mornin ain’t she just as green as I was, bed & board, dark to dark

credits

released May 10, 2019

Ben Walden - Lead Guitar

Barry Alan Walker, Jr. - Pedal Steel
Joseph Hein - Piano, Bass on Timberbind
Cooper Trail - Drums, Producer

Mike Coykendall - Electric Bass, Engineer
Jonny Wade - Upright and Electric Bass
Forrest VanTuyl - Guitar, Vocals, Producer
Maria Maita-Keppeler - Vocals on “Lady Godiva”

Matthew Zeltzer - Vocals on “Ain’t Been Tamed,” “Lady Godiva,” and “Sam’s House” Jeremy Ferrara - Vocals on “Yonder, My Love”

Silje Solskinn’s work adorns the lyric sheets.
The cover painting is “Thunderbird” by Roark Griffin of Rowe, NM


All songs by Forrest VanTuyl, except...

Mike Midlo wrote the song “Timberbind”

Recorded by Mike Coykendall, Dec. 28-30, 2017, at Blue Room Studios, Portland, Oregon.

Mastered by Adam at Telegraph Mastering.

This album brought to you by OK Records, Enterprise, Oregon; a division of the OK Artists’ Group.

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Forrest VanTuyl Goldendale, Washington

Forrest VanTuyl is a Western songwriter, poet, and working cowboy based in the Inland Northwest. His work has been featured in the New York Times, at The National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, and he has written music for the US Forest Service.

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