FRITZ GEARHART

1. Break Free

2. Bridges

3. Somethin’s in the Water 

4. Fast Train

5. Piper’s Salary

6. I’m Free

7. Seconds and Inches

8. Outstretched Arm

9. Postage Due

10. Canyon

11. On Borrowed Wings (2024)

Break Free

(2/14/24)

I don’t know what you want me to do

I would lie if you told me to

I pick up the phone and I hear your voice

You make it sound like I have a choice

I don’t know what you want me to be

I don’t know if I can get you to see

That I’m not your fantasy

Baby we’re both in chains

Or we both break free

You’re so sure of your promised land

But my world is just shifting sand

All your dreams are just crystal clear

But I just see air in the mirror

I don’t know what you want me to be

I don’t know if I can get you to see

That I’m not your fantasy

Baby we’re both in chains

Or we both break free

I don’t know who you think I am

But get off your knees and make a stand

I hear your pain on the telephone

But I’m not with you, but I’m not alone

This is not the way you want to be

And if you look inside you must agree

But for sure I’m not your destiny

Either we’re both in chains

Or we both break free

Bridges

(10/6/21)

I thought I was grown

It seems I’m still in school

It’s not my first try

As your first class fool

I went to bed

When all the anger was gone

And I closed that door

But left the porch light on

The bridges we make are the lessons we learn

There are the ones that you cross

And the ones you burn

And then when we think we’re through

It all comes around again

The slings and arrows

Are just the egos we defend

And so we learn

What it means to be free

Not to fight with you

But just to fight for me

The bridges we make are the lessons we learn

There are the ones that you cross

And the ones you burn

And then we face

Another twenty four

And find another foe

And invent another war

How long

’Til our soul gets it right

To lay down the blade

And cede the fight

The bridges we make are the lessons we learn

There are the ones that you cross

And the ones you burn

Somethin’s in the Water

(4/6/24)

Smash the windows and jump the fence

Tear it down, fuck the consequence

Take your selfie, show no shame

When your done you just shift the blame

You believe their lies

To blind to know what’s coming

A stream they monetize

To keep their empire running

There must be somethin’ in the water

You’ve pushed them to the edge

There must be somethin’ in the water

‘Cause you just swallow the lies they’re fed

I can’t believe that you don’t know

You’re just being taunted

‘Cause in the end they’ll just convince you

It’s what you always wanted

You brought this on yourself

You let hate define you

You’ll starve while they get rich

But we all know — Karma’s a bitch

There must be somethin’ in the water

You’ve pushed them to the edge

There must be somethin’ in the water

‘Cause you just swallow the lies they’re fed

There must be somethin’ in the water

Is it benign or some new disease

There must be somethin’ in the water

One things for sure, you brought us to our knees

Fast Train

(9/30/23)

I can’t say I was surprised

But it hit me just the same 

Like it or not

We all have to play that game 

Sons and friends and lovers

They take that ride 

 They ride those rails
To the other side 

Some will go out fighting
Some won’t wear their coats in the rain 

Some are so much more than careful 

Some have to take that fast train, take that fast train 

Some want to be surrounded

Others off and alone
Some will leave their baggage

Some will take it home 

We all have our dreams 

We have our time
We have our love
And our place in line 

Some will go out fighting
Some won’t wear their coats in the rain

Some are so much more than careful

Some have to take that fast train, take that fast train 

Walk with me today
Stay with me tonight
Hold my hand through the darkness 

Until the morning light

Some will count their mistakes

Some with count their gold

Some will live their dreams

Some will just get old 

Was there someone watching
Or someone keeping score 

Did we get all we needed
Or was there something more 

Some will go out fighting
Some won’t wear their coats in the rain

Some are so much more than careful 

Some have to take that fast train, take that fast train 

Walk with me today
Stay with me tonight
Hold my hand through the darkness 

Until the morning light

The Piper’s Salary

(4/25/21)

She said, you can laugh, 

but there is a day we all meet our maker

We locked eyes as her glass touched down

It's really a thought 

that only a blind man ignores

You might not realize, but you just met yours

She pushed her chair back, 

threw a five down on the table

She said, don’t get up, 

just drink up and enjoy the view

So I drained my beer, let go my smile and watched her wheels spin away

I don’t like to lose, but I never thought I’d win anyway

I spent hours at that empty table

I drank in search of loopholes 

and discarded clues

By closing time I had my comeback line, 

but she was gone

So I walked out that door and

 faced the breaking dawn

I couldn’t shake her words, 

maybe silence is my perjury

May this blind man’s running, 

keep his heart from mutiny

Where my truth lives, I can’t tell

‘Cause he wears his tailored shadows well

Three weeks past and there you walked on by

I’m not sure, but did you roll your eyes?

On my faults 

there’s much on which we would agree

But don’t mistake my silence, for a guilty plea

You hold that ace when you are able

And you fly when you are finally free

You can skip the work, 

but you can’t skip the fee

‘Cause we all pay the Piper’s salary

I’m Free

(1/1/23)

I climbed those dark cellar stairs

And raised a glass to the sun

I burned the map of what was buried there

And all receipts for the skeletons

And pulling out the drive

As the flames rose behind

In careful steps and reckless abandon

I smiled at everyone

There were those that rushed to douse the flames

Preserve the names on each headstone

But I just smiled from the eye of that hurricane

And turned away from what I could not atone

Accept what has become

And face the sun

No matter what came before

I’m just a visitor

So accept this gift of amnesty

‘Cause I’m free, I’m free

If I stare right at it

It’s still a mystery

I can never hold it in my hands

‘Cause it’s bigger than the wide-wide-wide sea

I’m free

I’ve got to 

 Draw the bridge and close the gate

Take what I own

And leave my dying kingdom

 And abdicate my throne

So I speak the words they want me to say

And wear the face, I leave by the door

If I get lost in a part that I portray

I lose a part that I ignore

Accept what has become

And face the sun

No matter what came before

You’re just a visitor

So accept this gift of amnesty

‘Cause I’m free, I’m free

If I stare right at it

It’s still a mystery

I can never hold it in my hands

‘Cause it’s bigger than the wide-wide-wide sea

I’m free

It’s freedom that I seek

It’s not what I accrue

I’ll can never find it if I look

But it will find me

I’m free

Seconds and Inches

(12/15/24)

She was sick at home in bed

So on that day they chose you instead

Now you can’t deny, that one chance changed your life 

Was it coincidence or fate

That you were two minutes too late

And then that flight

Crashed to the ground that night

Seconds and Inches

It was raining the day you met

Under the awning, she smoked her last cigarette

Would you have passed her by in sunshine and blue sky

Seconds and Inches

The Outstretched Arm

(2/20/22)

The man in blue tapped on my window,

 in his bullet proof vest

"You can’t stay here, you can’t sleep here,” so I pulled the wheel and headed west

There in the weak winter sun,

the miles passed in monotone

A thousand miles to go,

 a thousand miles from my home  

          

I’m so far from that outstretched arm

Back in the past, or in the days to come 

Does it hold a promise or does it hold a gun?

So I rode that rail ’til I had to stop, by an open field, an electric fence for company

The stars stayed quiet in their empty veil, 

I fell asleep, and the earth swallowed me

In the morning the sun looked so tired, a spent parent of its wayward only child

So I kicked the tires and hit the road, toward the mountains of indifference, and the untamed wild

I just can’t see the outstretched arm 

It’s nowhere near, it’s out of sight 

Does it hold the promise, or a pound of kryptonite?

And yeah, the architect or the pipe bomb, you never know 

The luck of the draw or your own making?

So long as the tank is not on empty, and the way is relatively clear

Just pack your lunch and hit the road, even though your heart is aching

Can you find the outstretched arm? 

Is it somewhere near, or is it out of sight

Does it hold a promise, or does it hold the light?