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Hamdulillah

by Tyler Matthew Smith

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    Includes cd in 4 panel case with original art, "River Runs Deep", by Daemian Hawthorne.

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1.
Hamdulillah 03:48
A man walks out in the morning not breathing very well he's living without loving and he works without a dream Though these lights are shining all around him he's standing in the dark every step going nowhere his feet keep sinking in the sand But the sun will come out and shine upon the backs of all the weary-eyed wanderers just trying to make it through today And the sun will come out and shed a little light on fate's well-worn path as ambition paves the way Distracted from what's here what's now distracted from what she feels she looks to tomorrow as the moment fades away And this weight on her shoulders shades her face like a cold afternoon every step going closer to a darker shade of grey But the sun will come out and shine upon the backs of all the weary-eyed wanderers just trying to make it through today And the sun will come out and shed a little light on fate's well-worn path as ambition paves the way Hamdulillah...
2.
Walkin' down the street, the people that you meet they all need something to help them carry on and your countenance, it amounts to it it'll tear down walls without saying anything at all One thing leads to another and this could lead to brotherhood If we all just try to see each other through a mother's eyes Oh the power of a smile to move mountains like the heart of a child swelling all around you take a chance, and catch somebody's glance make it last for a while oh the power of a smile Sometimes this world seems like nothing but trouble and i just wish I could get away for a little while but you can bring me back with something so subtle make me feel like I can walk that final mile And there's a loneliness in each of us but it doesn't have to hurt so much There's a cure so pure it's gonna make you wonder what's all this fuss Oh the power of a smile to move mountains like the heart of a child swelling all around you take a chance, and catch somebody's glance make it last for a while oh the power of a smile Those lips don't even need to be parted when I'm down and broken hearted that's when all I need to see, oooh is those twinkling eyes lookin back at me Oh the power of a smile to move mountains like the heart of a child swelling all around you take a chance, and catch somebody's glance make it last for a while oh the power of a smile make it last for a while, the power of a smile make it last for a while, oh the power of a smile
3.
You make my life beautiful like the moon kissin on the water I knew as soon as I saw that shining dancer this was gonna be the start of something good and the lights in the city like stars tonight's gonnna be an on night you ain't never gonna believe it the way that warm wind's blowin and if I wake up tomorrow and I haven't accomplished all of my intentions I know you're gonna be there to call attention to all the little things I do You make my life beautiful from the morning time until the day is done and I'm so glad that we found each other and now we can spend a little time together You make my life beautiful even when I don't know where you are cause I got my arms around you whether you're near or if you're far Oh and you're sensible I mean you got a sense 'a all that bullshit swarming around and tearing us down more than we oughta be oh and you're ecclesiastical at least the way you're attracted to the kind 'a people who laugh like we do making light of the things that we endure and the ides make me look at my life and wonder if I need something new but as July turns to December you help me to remember what a lucky fool I am. You make my life beautiful from the morning time until the day is done and I'm so glad that we found each other and now we can spend a little time together You make my life beautiful even when I don't know where you are cause I got my arms around you whether you're near or if you're far You make my life beautiful like the moon kissin on the water I knew as soon as I saw that shining dancer this was gonna be the start of something good cause you make my life
4.
Waning Light 05:05
What ever happened to the days when kids used to go outside and play Now it seems like all they do is sit around playing video games Maybe I'm just old fashioned and this world is passin' me by and maybe things aren't so bad, these are just different times Oh but, how long are we going to carry on this way before we go too far How long are we going to isolate ourselves before we fall apart I like homemade ice cream on a summer night and the silhouettes of children dancing in the waning light I keep searching for a reason or a rhyme Maybe I was just meant for another time What ever happened to grace and civility, the more I look the less I see when our children can't go to school together unless you agree with me I've got myspace and you've got yours, like if we build a fence tall enough we can end our wars But we're blinded by the walls of this utopian myopia, divided we are bound to fall Oh but, how long are we going to carry on this way before we go too far How long are we going to isolate ourselves before we fall apart I like homemade ice cream on a summer night and the silhouettes of children dancing in the waning light I keep searching for a reason or a rhyme Maybe I was just meant for another time I like homemade ice cream on a summer night and the silhouettes of children dancing in the waning light I keep searching for a reason or a rhyme Maybe I was just meant for another time
5.
Mystic River 05:23
Luke tells a tale of Simon, and the teacher from Nazareth invited in for dinner, though doubting whom he was with For as they sat together, they were joined by a woman of sin who was known to earn a living giving pleasure to village men Oh she fell to her knees and upon the teacher's feet she wept, with tears of sorrow to wash them clean and silky hair to dry them with Though anguished by the years of a kind of life that she had led Through bleary eyes she looked up at him and said, She said ooooh mystic river let the currents take me down, in this body I am bound She said ooooh raging river where the jagged rocks reach out, is where the eddies can be found As the teacher blessed the woman's head, Simon looked on in doubt for he had grown accustomed to casting women like her out But Jesus turned around and to the pharisee he said 'son I think you've missed the point, what this is all about for one who's seen the sand laid bare by a lowering of the tide has uncovered new pieces of their heart where love can often hide and if you too can free the peace that's tangled within your own heart then your tower of security might fall apart' but you'll say ooooh mystic river let the currents take me down, in this body I am bound you'll say ooooh raging river where the jagged rocks reach out, is where the eddies can be found From the mountains to the valleys the water runs below cascading through open fields from peaks of frosted snow and if ever I should find my way to crawl upon the shore I will know the meaning of its peace by what has come before And I'll say ooooh mystic river let the currents take me down, in this body I am bound I'll say ooooh raging river where the jagged rocks reach out, is where the eddies can be found and I say, let the water run down let the water run down let the water run down all over me, all over me Let the water run down...
6.
Colors 04:07
Oh I hear the sound of children crying over the roar of a million standing silent but let us heal our broken hearts and mend them end to end see the whole among our parts and lend a helping hand Can you hear me? calling on you together we can change this world Oh to laugh and play and dance the night away under starry skies where we can lie in another place while soft voices carry on into the dawn let the colors bleed among them from a mourning sun who's day it would be to take with care each fractured piece and make the world as one Can you hear me? calling on you together we can change this world
7.
Put a power plant down by the drinking pool now they're wondering why these kids ain't learnin' much in school cell phone towers on every corner just so they can hear more young people gettin' cancer each and every year You see when Jesus Christ walked the earth he told his disciples to turn the other cheek, pay no mind to your enemy But those who followed didn't see it that way and I still got bloodshed showing on my doorstep even to this day Sometimes it seems like I don't have the means to beat it but I got to rise up and try even though It wasn't me who pitched that bottle to the side of the road It wasn't me who took a Bible and threw it like a stone It wasn't me who saw this world and tried to make it all my own But it's up to me to be the change I want to see This beautiful creation is sacred at least that's what it should be, a place for me and for you But we got these multi-national corporations calling dibs on every little thing just like they was in grade school Sometimes it seems like I don't have the means to beat it but that's when I got to rise up and try even though It wasn't me who pitched that bottle to the side of the road It wasn't me who took a Bible and threw it like a stone It wasn't me who saw this world and tried to make it all my own But it's up to me to be the change I want to see Cause if I don't who's it gonna be to make this a place I want to leave to my children There's a higher route than where we're going to all we need is for each of us to believe It wasn't me who pitched that bottle to the side of the road It wasn't me who took a Bible and threw it like a stone It wasn't me who saw this world and tried to make it all my own But it's up to me to be the change I want to see
8.
Upon a stone, it was built God's earthly home Grounding truth to all of man's deep unknowns though hard as a rock I find no place where I can etch my own so I look to the inquiring minds guiding reflection of open ended questions through art and science but they don't give me any resolution to what I should believe what becomes of me when flesh and blood are gone they don't give me no definition of what is right and wrong But if I can hold this tension, that's tearing at the seams of my soul will my spirit grow stronger than simply doing what I find comfortable These days, we seek solutions in the black and white not in the shades of gray where consensus often lies branding truth to what the many say so even if it spilled from honest lips the few they would not drink finding flaws that don't exist but for distaste of otherness and so the divide it grows twice as wide torn by the need to pick a side and then bludgeon the opposition into submission though it only hardens the position for which they fight But if I can hold this tension, that's tearing at the seams of my soul will my spirit grow stronger than simply doing what I find comfortable and will my mind grow wiser finding truth in both sides at play or will my thoughts spiral downward with every idea that blows a different way Deep inside, the clock of Adam ticks away my time wondering whether it will ever take root the fruited tree that grows within my mind thought the love I feel is unrefined oh the pain of uncertainty in ground laid unclaimed leads me to seek a love that is more well-defined And the quest it blinds me to tie a knot eternal entwines me binding sated hearts from ever flying free But if I can hold this tension that's tearing at the seams of my soul will my spirit grow stronger than simply doing what I find comfortable and will my mind grow wiser finding truth in both sides at play or will my thoughts spiral downward with every idea that blows a different way Will my heart grow larger and burst open like a flower in bloom or will it shatter into a thousand pieces, scattered about an open tomb
9.
When the autumn leaves had fallen, something in the way she called felt like rain with the gusts of Old Man Winter, the season's litter turned brittle, bound to break though I've been through this before, there's nothing I can say We take a walk down a windy lane stop and talk to try to ease the pain what's yours is mine Though I'll stand just a little bit closer now, knowing your spirit's sinking down all you need is time But I'll pick you up off the floor and we'll weather this storm together As flurries of snow pile over and bury from toe to head sure as the spring's sweet clover lies underneath on a soft green bed I will kindle the fire, sit beside you until the flame melts away the chill that is frozen inside you turned your green eyes to gray These blustery gales have blown the wind out of your sails off to clearer skies But if she even knew what she was leaving behind to have your face when the sun won't shine All the world's silver and gold couldn't write the tale that you would've told And flurries of snow pile over and bury from toe to head sure as the spring's sweet clover lies underneath on a soft green bed I will kindle the fire, sit beside you until the flame melts away the chill that is frozen inside you turned your green eyes to gray
10.
Afraid of saying the wrong thing So you say what they want to hear Now you're stuck doing all the wrong things and it makes it even harder to bear Now you're hiding out with a fist clenched inside twisting everything around so tight waiting for it all to subside when what you need is truth's tale told right If you can let it all wash away you might wake up to a brand new day You got to get yourself out in it the world was made to live There' too many people walking 'round in fear You got to give it all you have to give Put on your prettiest face for a first date mind made up about what to be that day Oh but love it don't really work that way it's gonna find out who you you are no matter what you say If you can let it all wash away you might wake up to a brand new day You got to get yourself out in it the world was made to live There' too many people walking 'round in fear You got to give it all you have to give Will this song fall on welcome ears Oh I want it to come out just right so I bottle it up waitin' 'till I feel like I have something to share Until what I have to share fades slowly out of sight If I can let it all wash away I might end up waking to a brand new day I got to get myself out in it the world was made to live I'm tired of walking 'round in fear I got to give it all I have to give

credits

released October 14, 2011

Produced by Brook Reeder and Tyler Matthew Smith
All songs written and arranged by Tyler Matthew Smith except: Hamdulillah, lyrics by Caroline Moriarity Sacks and Tyler Matthew Smith; Seams of My Soul, music by Chris Kelly and Tyler Matthew Smith
Seams of My Soul based on the words of Parker J. Palmer
Be the Change based on the words of Mahatma Gandhi
Cover art, River Runs Deep, by Daemian Hawthorne
Album photography by Jeff Fielding
Album design by Johnny Selman
All songs © 2011 Tyler Matthew Smith

Engineered by Rudy Haeusermann at Eagle Rock Studios in Los Angeles, CA; Nick Testa at Stout Recording Studio in Oakland, CA, and Devil’s Tail Audio in San Francisco, CA; Brook Reeder at Universal Audio in Felton, CA; Robert Preston at GetReel Productions in San Francisco, CA; Evan Bautista at Lil’ Jimmy’s in San Francisco, CA; Bob Lindner at Studio Bob in San Francisco, CA

Mixed by Brook Reeder and Tyler Matthew Smith
Mastered by Mark Chalecki at Little Red Book in Los Angeles, CA

Musicians:

Tyler Matthew Smith—vocals, tenor and alto saxophone, flute, acoustic and electric
guitar, piano, percussion
Adam Farley—drums
Wayne Miller—acoustic and electric bass
Chris Kelly—acoustic and electric guitar
Al Torre—electric guitar
Kiyoshi Foster—electric guitar, slide guitar
Ryan Leonardo—percussion
Brook Reeder—vocals, guitar, keyboard, percussion
Yohei Shikano—dobro, keyboard
Turi McClean—violin
Scott Valenzuela—viola
Pawel Walerowski—cello

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Tyler Matthew Smith San Francisco, California

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