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Dear Dad and Mother

by Alec Betterley

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1.
then they left me here and sent me into the streets to be alone, alive and to wait for you there's a song of rain and sunshine around my head, these days are new and i'm going to wait for you lost on the first days, waiting for something just for me for you on the first days i found a new life, i'll give it to you cold at night and calm and i'll find a friend to carry me along and me i'll believe in you lost on the first days, waiting for something just for me for you on the first days i found a new life, i'll give it to you send, send me along let me belong and give me a way to begin lend me a song, silence be gone sung over and over again.
2.
A Raincoat 04:27
inside a raincoat warm for all these days away i'll put it on and there i'll stay and find a picture when you are gone and hope we'll love again and to find you out there i pray and i offer every piece of me inside a raincoat safe for all these days of pain they'll never see me where i lay i'll pull it round and all over me for all these dreams of you for us i'll bury it away and i'll offer every piece of me paint with your fingers, see all that i mean for cold i've got a land to know a dwelling place deserted in a home enter faintly either side now of the door flowers in these floorboards pick up a few and walk away to understand you're chasing sunbeams in the subway trains and sand where will you end inside a raincoat free for all these days alone, i'll wrap it tight and there i'll be and find a picture of you and me and hope we'll love again and to find you out there i see so let the storms all blow i'll pull my raincoat tight and put away all of my fears send it clearly when you are here beneath these cold cold rains down every road that i am near.
3.
No Uniforms 03:55
give me a land with no lights down no uniform no cuts through the evening skies give me a home a long way from mine and we'll leave as one in time give me a way to hurt without harm run arm-in-arm and i'm gonna prove to them i'll find a way to capture their breath and we'll leave as one in time stars they fade and last forever in the nighttime i'll find you and then we'll fade into the skyline stars they fade, they flicker and they go blind won't you fade with me the governor came by for to raise the flag the field is left with fragments of bones and all the riverbeds the hills and the swamps are filled with the good boys now we lay on roofs and at the edge of walls look at the worthless ones through the bars they call give me another way to believe in all that they left for me stars they fade and last forever in the nighttime i'll find you and then we'll fade into the skyline stars they fade, they flicker and they go blind won't you fade with me love for all and i will see you soon time for bed and so long until the next time love for all and i will see you soon time for bed and so long and we are lying underneath the sun for for all the days they come and then they go forth two little bags with all that i've left and i stand up high for you 'neath the stars they fade and last forever in the nighttime i'll find you and then we'll fade into the skyline stars they fade, they flicker and they go blind won't you fade with me.
4.
i'm up here on the hill with all your sisters still and when they go away alone up here i'll stay the nights they're moving slow a chair and radio a pile of pages left/read a pillow for my head you're sent to be a man somewhere out in the sand in dark the winds'll blow all burning broken slow they promise me they're sure just what they'll need you for so comfort me my fears and tell me that you'll come back home i've made a bed so warm for you come back home i'll sing a little song to you come back home as all of me will wait for you come back home there will always be a place for you you've found another home a place to call your own the faces they will come the faces they will go and you will watch the lands/lens and capture all you can for you to find anew and tell me that you'll come back home i've made a bed so warm for you come back home i'll sing a little song to you come back home as all of me will wait for you come back home there will always be a place for you you've your whole life in front of you now you've your whole life in front of you now but i know a way you can make me live again follow me, take my hand and you'll come back home i've made a bed so warm for you come back home i'll sing a little song to you come back home as all of me will wait for you come back home there will always be a place for you.
5.
new year's eve lights the city of the million dollar staircase love and lots lie empty christmas doves pray yourself to sleep fragments left of the black and whites that read we lost a gentle life sheltered now to lead along in water still and clear cry not, nothing to see fear of you and i we may be peaceful as i promised follow a kind man step into the blind night for to sleep until you've finally found your way sleep until you've finally found your way try to fight what they never learned in solace found all as to yearn a mother proud in the glowing rain joyful now of life 'til the day when she wake no more she rocks the baby back and forth in the cradle of her mind always he will be cry not, nothing to see fear of you and i we may be peaceful as i promised follow a kind man step into the blind night for to sleep until you've finally found your way sleep until you've finally found your way mom take bus into the station find an only son in silence he is leaving cry not he was once so young and peaceful now a dimming light until he's finally found his way sleep until he's finally found his way
6.
Place For Me 02:02
they told me just to grow and to learn and breathe they told me to collect all that i could see but i could never be them, no i could never begin just to win they told me to be strong when the winds would blow they told me to look up from the ground below but me i'll run away, find another little sunshine and i'll show when they set me free that i'll row where the seas take me and i know that i'll find a place for me and i'll show when they set me free that i'll row where the seas take me and i know that i'll find a place for me.

about

A few years back, my father was given an envelope of letters that were written by my Grandpa George. The envelope read "GMB, Correspondence while in college and in India, etc., 1939-1946." As my dad noted, he "transcribed the letters word-for-word with some punctuation marks added for ease of reading." On Father's Day, 2011, the typed and printed 249-page book was given as a complete surprise to family members.

This EP is loosely-based on these letters and was composed and recorded in a few different living rooms and bedrooms, mostly during late 2012 and early 2013. The songs are intended as snapshots or "postcards" themselves - recorded quickly and edited minimally.

Grandpa was a loving, clever and humorous man and while some of the lyrical representations herein are vague, I hope to do just a bit of justice to his great personality.

"This is a short letter, but it is bedtime. I'm perspiring profusely while you are probably getting ready to put leaves & frost protection on your flowers! Love to all, George."

credits

released April 13, 2013

This music is dedicated to the memory of George Morgan Betterley and is released one day after the 12th anniversary of his passing.

"Nothing to See Fear of" also in memory of David Chowenhill.

additional musicians:
Caitlin Claessens - voice 6
David Dawda - electric bass 1, 3, 5
Megan Keely - voice 5
Colin Summers - electric guitars 3

artwork by Gregory Hedderman
mastered by Josh Bonati at www.bonatimastering.com
All songs written, recorded and produced by Alec Betterley.

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Alec Betterley New York

Alec Betterley is an upstate NY-based songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and music therapist. He was a founding member of the groups My Friend Other & Toys and Tiny Instruments, and supports other artists on keys when he can find the time amidst a busy schedule of corralling three youngsters. ... more

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