Louder than dirt consists of Adam Lawsky, keyboards and vocals; Joseph Lawsky, drums and vocals; Julian Phillips, bass and vocals; and me, Greg “DK” Kelley, guitar and vocals.  I wrote the words and music below except for one song, “Nightingale,” by Julian.  I include the lyrics only for those songs I have written.

01 No Easy Way
Don’t you look at me that way John Dillinger
I’ve seen you smiling stretched out on the street
Well you really gave ‘em hell gave it to a lot of men
Now they’ve all come back to pick your body clean

No no there ain’t no easy way to go
No no there ain’t no easy way to go
No no there ain’t no easy way to go
But when I’m gone I won’t be round no more

I’ve spent a lifetime chained down in the cave
I’ve spent a lifetime on death row
Where the dead all drop like lead while all the living weep and wail
Where there really ain’t no easy way to go

No no &c.

So stop your silly grinning now John Dillinger
You think you are the master of the game
Well you were the biggest member on the ten most wanted list
But now you’ve shrunk right down into your name

No no &c.

02 Auditory Man
I am an auditory man
I do not understand the optical machine
I am not present in the scene of being seen
I am an auditory man

I am a listening device
I hear what you’re saying you don’t have to tell me twice
I name the numbers from the rattle of the dice
I am a listening device

Oh but I am one for whom all sounds make sense
Sizzle of a steak and the clatter of the bones
Grandfather clocks tell tolling out like Big Bens
Distant chime of power saws and diesel on the roll
Hounds that howl in answer out sirens on patrol

I cannot she what dress she wore
I can’t even see the flowers hanging in the trees
Facial expressions to deny or to displease
I cannot see what dress she wore

Oh I am one for whom all sounds make sense
Big hall hollers and the noble saxophone
High bird callers and the voice that calls me home

I am an auditory man
I love you talking dirty on the telephone
I love to hear my baby make delicious moan
I am an auditory man

03 adagio (Instrumental)

04 Stupid Song
Stupid feeling stupid song
Stupid singer stupid song
I got no feeling in my tongue
This is the worst song ever sung

Stupid feeling stupid song
Stupid singer stupid song
I got no feeling in my brain
Not smart enough to go insane

Stupid feeling stupid song
Stupid singer stupid song
Stupid song stupid song
Stupid song stupid song

05 gigue (Instrumental)

06 The Ballad Of Briarcliff Road
Up in Atlanta stands a stunted pine tree next to Briarcliff Road
But upon the pine wisteria all riotously grows
Its flowers clustered like the grape but hanging empty hanging dry
As the wisteria flourishes the Georgia pine tree dies

And right up to the ruined KFC all gutted once with fire
Through the pine and the wisteria runs electrical wire
And a mockingbird alight upon that Georgia Power line
Flings his soul abroad in strains of unpremeditated rhyme

You people cherish every failure you think each sin makes you more human
See yourself see yourself

No joy no sorrow yeah but only naked triumph tells me that
The little bird fancies himself an aristocrat
He looks so strong he looks so dapper in his uniform of grey
And it was given me to translate what I heard the singer say

You love your jim crow republic you love your rotten old lost cause
Your wretched oaths and hateful contracts your filthy bills of sale
See yourself see yourself

The cars swerve by they’re all sealed up they neither hear nor do they see
The pine tree or the singer or the ruined KFC
Or how you’ve got to kill the past before the future can arrive
Or how all smothered up in beauty Georgia pine tree struggles to survive

07 Nightingale (Lyrics by Julian Phillips)

08 tarantella (Instrumental)

09 Hey Jo (Gin Sno Cone)
Hey Jo I pressed you a twenty in your hand
Hey Jo I just pressed you a twenty in your hand
You know that’s legal and it’s tender everywhere across the land

Hey Jo take that pipe out of your mouth
Hey Jo take that stump of a pipe out of your mouth
You better pass it on around Jo baby before you’re all run out

Jo’s got echolocation always knows where you are
Telescopical vision Jo can see from afar
Jo can pick every lock always get you inside
Keep a truck in the lane Jo can make a lane nine miles wide

Hey Jo don’t forget to bring the snacks
Hey Jo don’t forget to bring the snacks
Once you let go a twenty you can bet it ain’t never coming back

There goes Jo searching all the pastures all around
There goes Jo searching all the pastures all around
He’s never satisfied until all the fungus be found

Hey Jo Where you going with that fungus in your hand
There goes Jo there goes Jo
Taking all the the fungus in the land
Hey Jo there goes Jo