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Later than you notice Sooner than you think

by Thom as Fred

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    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Later than you notice Sooner than you think, Grow up Canada, Dot to Dot (Acoustic Version), Stand By Your Heart, Revealed, Plead for Mercy, Over Ground, Dot to Dot, and 16 more. , and , .

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1.
Different Kind of Hard Times 03:22
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We were in love but out of luck A different kind of hard times Playing tag on the wrong side of the tracks A different kind of Hard times Knowing when to get lost and never found A different kind of hard times Four sheets to the wind Or so I thought Wished I’d found a friend Instead of you lot Somewhere along the way We got mired in the commonplace A different kind of hard times When we can’t know what happens until it’s too late A different kind of Hard times Sometimes all that’s left is an empty plate A different kind of hard times Went out and made a life Or so I thought Have kids, a job and a wife House is bought
2.
Being There 04:19
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When I look around at you and me When you go your way I just can’t see Only time can tell us What we need When life will give us that one seed Being there now All we can see Finding the way to be free Being there now Say can you see All the ways you can be Time moves on for us anyway You go your way and I just can’t stay Only love can tell us what to heed When life will give us that one seed Being there now All we can see Finding the way to be free Being there now Say can you see All the ways you can be Being there now All we can see Finding the way to be free Being there now Say can you see All the ways you can be
3.
No Man's Island 03:11
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On the island Looking for money It’s so cold outside It isn’t even funny Cars pass me by As I show them my sign Ignored or spat on Almost every time A space between worlds moving In different directions Asking for help and finding derision A gulf between what I see and my life In no man’s island, out of sight In the lineup waiting for a room It’s a good day when It only takes til noon People threaten And they steal Sometimes worse You know the deal A space between worlds moving In different directions Asking for help and finding derision A gulf between what I see and my life In no man’s island, out of sight I had a job and a place Lost my work, couldn’t find more Slipped between the cracks in the floor Been living on fumes, barely sane How did I end up here again? On the island Looking for money It’s so hot outside It isn’t even funny On the island Looking for money It’s so wet outside It isn’t even funny On the island Out Looking for money It’s so snowy outside It isn’t even sunny On the island On the island On the island No man's island
4.
Book of Martha 03:32
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She says Live your vivid dreams Instead When you wake From your sleep Pray yourself Your soul to keep If you have the freedom What will you do? How shall you change This world we grew? Now you have the time You must decide What you’d do For humankind She says Live your vivid dreams Instead When you wake From your sleep Pray yourself Your soul to keep Writing has changed And reading too It’s an experiment That has no proof How to improve This world of ours? Subconsciously Like Job’s tears She says Live your vivid dreams Instead When you wake From your sleep Pray yourself Your soul to keep Dream a little dream Every night Which comes to mean Everything Your heart desires From wildest love To bloodiest violence Waking up To a world Where your Calm energy Is undisturbed When you play Games with God How do you know What is odd? How do you know It’s not a game? And would you play it All the same? She says Live your vivid dreams Instead When you wake from your Sleep Pray yourself your soul to keep She says Live your vivid dreams Instead When you wake From your sleep Pray yourself Your soul to keep When you wake From your sleep Pray yourself Your soul to keep When you wake From your sleep Pray yourself Your soul to keep
5.
New Levellers 04:21
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When in Rome do as the church, Amass power and wealth And forget about the Christ Memory is of danger to power Luckily it’s malleable to manipulate, What was that again now? When the Phoenix rises from the ashes Be sure to shoot it down but Don’t let anyone see that When we take back what’s ours No ark will be big enough For you to float away from us When we burn you down and tear down your rules You’ll know why we rebelled You’ll bow to the New Levellers My yacht isn’t big enough For my flying machine So, you see, I need another one My bank accounts’ Bursting at its seams But that’s not enough to afford the life I want Get off my lawn You homeless fraud These seeds came from my world, my mind, my words These seeds came from my world, my mind, my words When we take back what’s ours No ark will be big enough For you to float away from us When we burn you down and tear down your rules You’ll know why we rebelled You’ll bow to the New Levellers You’ll bow to the True Levellers again We could see a world without your greed, your honour, your creed Stroll on down your golfing green And see the black heart underneath A wasted walk on weakening knees Swing your last on that green, Donny T____ Bury the savages Children and all No time to look at how they lived We have to put up this wall We laugh at hoarders And call them fools Never thinking for a minute we are playing by the same rules Deaths are trivial Lives even more so Do you recognize your own life and death in that theory now? When we take back what’s ours No ark will be big enough For you to float away from us When we burn you down and tear down your rules You’ll know why we rebelled You’ll bow to the New Levellers When we take back what’s ours No ark will be big enough For you to float away from us When we burn you down and tear down your rules You’ll know why we rebelled You’ll bow to the New Levellers You’ll bow to the New Levellers You’ll bow to the True Revellers again You’ll bow to the New Levellers You’ll bow to the True Levellers again
6.
Next Trip 02:26
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You come to me All innocence Will it be This way again? We go out there And make a world Is it rare To come unfurled? Time has changed us For better or worse Gotta keep movin You never know when your next trip’s in a hearse We’ve lived through much And yet we search With any luck We’ll still emerge We leave this place Without a thing Except the state Of our being Time has changed us For better or worse Gotta keep movin You never know when your next trip’s in a hearse Time has changed us For better or worse Gotta keep movin You never know when your next trip’s in a hearse
7.
For the Orchids 02:58
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Our bones lie here Have been for years Our importance lost Is importance found For the orchids Lives were buzzing Not so long ago Bee to the flower Pollen falls like snow Balance for millennia Upset by greed Only one species Answers that creed Our bones lie here Have been for years Our importance lost Is importance found For the orchids Oceans higher And icebergs low Weather changing But we don’t know Still we fly and drive Industry goes on We had it all once Now it’s all gone Our bones lie here Have been for years Our importance lost Is importance found For the orchids Our bones lie here Have been for years Our importance lost Is importance found For the orchids For the orchids For the orchids
8.
Dollar Sign 03:14
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Climb to the mountain top Don’t look down or you will drop Our story plays out passionately It’s a human tale of fragility It’s a human tale of fragility One step forward And stumbling back Everything seems to lack One day there will come a time When we don’t live by the dollar sign One day there will come a time When we don’t live by the dollar sign One day there will come a time When we don’t live by the dollar sign
9.
Nothing 02:46
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No time to sleep No love to keep No anything I got nothing You’re far away I want you to stay so Too close for me I got nothing And when I’m asked to explain The energy drains You look at me and say I got nothing You’re one to know Ask you to show Tell me again You got nothing Message is loud So very proud Flag wavin' round You got nothing And when you’re asked to explain The energy drains I look at you and say You got nothing We talk away At least half the day Round and round We got nothing Speaking in tongues Watching like nuns Exorcist comes We got nothing When we’re asked to explain Our energy drains We look away and say We got nothing Yeah when we’re asked to explain Our energy drains We look away and say We got nothing We got nothing We got nothing We got nothing We got nothing, nope We got nothing We got nothing When we’re asked to explain Our energy drains We look away and say...
10.
Snake Oil 03:13
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Running around wild all the time What in the world were you hoping to find? Seeing you back again right now I gotta wonder why and how Are you going to fix all that you broke? When there isn’t any hope Of making good on your claims Or is it just more of the same? Tell them whatever you want to But we know better Sell them that magic potion Snake oil to the letter How’s it gonna work out For you now? No one left who trusts you anyhow No ones buying what you sell Ya still think that you do very well When you gonna come to realize That you’ve always been living a lie? Any hope of making good on your claims Or is just more of the same? Rope em in hook, line and sinker But we should all know better Sell them that magic potion Snake oil to the letter Rope em in hook, line and sinker But we should all know better Sell them that magic potion Snake oil to the letter Snake oil to the letter Snake oil to the letter
11.
Ask Me For Anything 02:56
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Could I take the time back To an era when life seemed worth it? Is it a possibility Or a dream? Could I roll my life back Round to that time with you that meant something more Than the two of us? Or than me at least? Ask me for anything I’ll give the answer in my time Forgive me nothing I’ll still take what’s mine Does it get better anyway Is there a date, a time, a locale? Because inquiring minds want to know And then live in denial Count off the fucking song already And ask for another round When we get our pay in a couple weeks We’ll be financially sound I see it on the horizon That one thing I cannot grasp Disappearing like a mirage In the waves of sand Like Atlantis to Poseidon That one place that doesn’t last Only able to assuage With a wave of the hand Ask me for anything I’ll give the answer in my time Forgive me nothing I’ll still take what’s mine Ask me for anything I’ll give the answer in my time Forgive me nothing I’ll still take what’s mine

about

Later than you notice
Sooner than you think were lyrics for an unfinished song and I thought the phrase itself made a very appropriate title for this album.

I wrote this record in a relative short span of time from July 2021 to April 2022. Then I recorded and mixed it for a couple months. It’s more cohesive thematically than anything else I’ve done - except maybe for Tales From Maisy May, but that was all solo banjo music so… there's that.

Everyone on this planet - almost - is going through hard times. The small fragment that are experiencing dizzying heights of success are sometimes the ones that could aid this whole planet in healing but won’t. Because it’s against some olden rule saying in essence “you oughta pull yourself up by your bootstraps LIKE I DID” “law of attraction” “takes money to make money” etc. beware of the smell of snake oil here. Capitalists don’t wear boots. They wear people out. But… this is only my perspective and that means it’s just that: one perspective. I think we were getting by by believing other’s views because - in the not so distant past - it was challenging to counter these views. It took a lot of research and that took the effort of hunting down information. I’d really like to see if the do-your-own-research crowd were doing their own research in these ancient pre-computational times known as the 80s (really even the 90s if I’m honest) and before.

And now I think it’s also difficult because of the amount of misinformation we must sort through to ascertain our personal version of the truth. It isn’t really all misinformation though. Much of it is folks like you and me searching for “their own truth” and leaving their own inter-braiding trail of bread crumbs, times a billion. But that’s what life looks like now. Sort through and maybe believe. Sift the sands and hopefully see. There is little knowing. And maybe this was always the case in some ways. Could be where the term dead certain came from in a funny way, as in the only thing certain for us is…

Oddly I found a lot of religious and mystical symbols and biblical references coming out in this album. Previously, I’ve tried to keep this out unconsciously I think. But as they came out for this project, I just let them swim. They are part of me and formative to me so why omit them? I just don’t abide by them anymore and did I ever really?

I’m several eves away from doing what is called the 50 90 songwriting challenge. And where it will be a challenge, I’m not doing this for any kind of recognition in a way one might expect. I’m fascinated by the process of writing words and surrounding them with music or vice versa. I haven’t seen what anyone would call success in this part of my career except for completing goals that are directly related to music. I’m absolutely terrible at self promotion, keeping on top of socials, making real connections. Even performing live has me feeling less than optimum, where I know many of my peers are over the moon for these opportunities happening again.

I know this. And yet I keep making music because there is more to do that way - to syphon off energy to something that may offer some short term gains seems like a poor choice to me.

I’ve helped raise two children and while they’re still here at home, I want to model joy for them. My joy is in the process of creation and always has been and when I follow that path it always leads to good things. When I follow fear, I start worrying about not having any listeners, not engaging with my followers instead of seeing the wonder of that small handful of people listening to music I've written and performed - the world over.

Instead of being in awe of creating something out of vibrations of sound and getting to shape it and give it some direction.

Instead of simply being grateful to be here with each one of you.

credits

released September 21, 2022

Thom as Fred - vocals, guitars, bass, drums, keyboards, recording and mixing
Mastering by Ron Skinner
All other credits listed on each track.

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Thom as Fred Edmonton, Alberta

Thom as Fred is Thom Golub's songwriting project. He's released three albums and numerous singles. There is always a roots and acoustic element to his sound. Topically he likes to write personal songs from a philosophical vantage point.

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