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A List of Sightings

Release Date: February 18, 2022

A List of Sightings Lyrics:

Here is the point; here is the blade
Here’s where it’s sharp; here’s where it’s safe
Here is the line, there is the toe:
One quick motion
Not that I know

Here is the scene; here is the look
Here is the moment writ in the book
Here is the actress, give her the part
That’s the idea
Not that I know

She could be a mud doctor
Checking up the mud

It is always on my mind: your mood
The first impression is the attitude
Obligation is in service to wishing
Not that I know

Thin in the back, but it makes no diff
She could be a mud doctor
Betting on a flood

Late though it seems
Here is the contract written by me
Here are the things on which we agree
And here the divine they told us was three
Not that I know

Born to the left, but it makes no diff
I could be a mud doctor
I have it in the blood

All songs written by T.J. Masters

Published by Guma University Publishing (BMI) except “House Analogue” written by T.J. Masters and Chris Schlarb

Published by Guma University Publishing (BMI) & Interstellar Music Holdings of the Psychic Temple (ASCAP)

Copyright 2022 Guma

Go to top of “Mud Doctor” lyrics

Soon I will be idle
But not before I’m ready
Not a moment too soon
Stillness, it comes like a hammer to the teeth

So simple to be misunderstood
What can I do?
Post to the people
Start threads, roll heads, and miss connections

But even by the coffin and the nail
Does the serpent finish eating its tail?
As far as the ego comes, I have an ancient one

Now more than ever
Split from the top of the thing
Fountain to the spring
Each time I check it is different
Is it? Isn’t it?
It is, isn’t it?

All songs written by T.J. Masters

Published by Guma University Publishing (BMI) except “House Analogue” written by T.J. Masters and Chris Schlarb

Published by Guma University Publishing (BMI) & Interstellar Music Holdings of the Psychic Temple (ASCAP)

Copyright 2022 Guma

Go to top of “House Analogue” lyrics

Find me a pen
I’ll do the crossword again
I wait for the night
When the rondure is right

I’ll make sure the garden grows tomatoes and a butternut

You’d have the boys
Giving it up for the camera
Picture the moment before the movement
We want to see them

My two cats:
The fat one and the butternut
Not for individual sale

Trade you for an appetite, never
Angles only we achieve together
Can I call a meeting in the shower?

All songs written by T.J. Masters

Published by Guma University Publishing (BMI) except “House Analogue” written by T.J. Masters and Chris Schlarb

Published by Guma University Publishing (BMI) & Interstellar Music Holdings of the Psychic Temple (ASCAP)

Copyright 2022 Guma

Go to top of “Butternut” lyrics

It is good for the ground to be ground
Same goes for you
Getting pretty good at the hard work
Keeping up with the yard work
Try to spend time with a pen

The church, the farm, the city
That was one of my favorite rides
A lifetime isn’t enough time to describe it

I receive my new sight
Proof of my paid attention
On bookshelves, in dreams attended things return to me

Marcel said, “It’s a pity”
That was one of his favorite lines
Like a gold rushing Buddha he arrived

That’s when the bugs come back
With no choice but to rebuild
And we let out the cat
Provided it comes back
Less one choice, more one will
That’s when the dirt comes back
With no choice but to be tilled
And I’m let out the back
Sulking like a cat
One more paycheck, one less bill

All songs written by T.J. Masters

Published by Guma University Publishing (BMI) except “House Analogue” written by T.J. Masters and Chris Schlarb

Published by Guma University Publishing (BMI) & Interstellar Music Holdings of the Psychic Temple (ASCAP)

Copyright 2022 Guma

Go to top of “A Giant Step Backwards” lyrics

What is it like to be hung?
Or to be given to someone?
How does it feel to be bound by the taste of an artist only recently found?

I find I know too well

When it was wet I could see
It was too bright and you would agree
But the thing about watching paint dry is:
The face doesn’t change, just the look to the eye

I find I know too well

Getting you home was no joke
All through the ride and we never even spoke
But now that you’re here I should say
That I like how you look, and I can’t look away

I find I know too well

All songs written by T.J. Masters

Published by Guma University Publishing (BMI) except “House Analogue” written by T.J. Masters and Chris Schlarb

Published by Guma University Publishing (BMI) & Interstellar Music Holdings of the Psychic Temple (ASCAP)

Copyright 2022 Guma

Go to top of “Song for a New Painting” lyrics

When you turn on, it’s all at once
I know
I was just there on the edge of the bed
And I called you a name that you knew
One word, one syllable: you
When you show up holding the punch
You know
I have been there
And I had to get up and get into a different mood
Keeping telling you it changes
If you just wait it out
When you come down we can have lunch with Tim
We can ask him:
If in all of the years, the cliff and the beach were the same
If in all of the years, the wheat and the chaff were the grain
As far as he knows, everything fits in the frame
As far as he can tell, everything fits in the frame

All songs written by T.J. Masters

Published by Guma University Publishing (BMI) except “House Analogue” written by T.J. Masters and Chris Schlarb

Published by Guma University Publishing (BMI) & Interstellar Music Holdings of the Psychic Temple (ASCAP)

Copyright 2022 Guma

Go to top of “The Fit in the Frame” lyrics

The greatest fear
They describe it here:
Fear of God
I don’t know about that

The greatest gift:
Idiot’s sacrament
The gift of god
It goes down easy, just like that

Pray for a sensitive mind
If you had one, you’d know about that

Actively I become the key
Hedonist
I am loved
Even now, I am loved

Just today
Chicken eat the snake
Gift from God
It goes down easy, just like that

Pray for a sensitive mind
You have one
And you know about that

All songs written by T.J. Masters

Published by Guma University Publishing (BMI) except “House Analogue” written by T.J. Masters and Chris Schlarb

Published by Guma University Publishing (BMI) & Interstellar Music Holdings of the Psychic Temple (ASCAP)

Copyright 2022 Guma

Go to top of “The Greatest Fear” lyrics

Always on the doorstep, never in the door
Tell myself the front porch is what patience is for
Always on the first step, never on the last
Tell myself the present is not the sum of the past

I remember days when I became so thin
It is happening again

A week of my dad, my brother, and I
Working hard, just the guys
Plenty of food and beer
But life it seems will find a way
To demonstrate the sameness between patience and fear

And a new standard arrives:
A new kind of person
Down the page from “listless,” is “lyric”
A list of songs to play, groceries, and options
And a list of sightings, better than the one before
Do we have to remember the one before?
Dig myself at the drawing board

All songs written by T.J. Masters

Published by Guma University Publishing (BMI) except “House Analogue” written by T.J. Masters and Chris Schlarb

Published by Guma University Publishing (BMI) & Interstellar Music Holdings of the Psychic Temple (ASCAP)

Copyright 2022 Guma

Go to top of “List of Sightings” lyrics

A List of Sightings Credits:

Produced by: Chris Schlarb
Engineered by: Devin O’Brien
Mixed by: Chris Schlarb & T.J. Masters
Mastered by: JJ Golden

Tabor Allen – drumset
Ana Barreiro – drumset
Danny Frankel – percussion
Anna Glenn – flute
Gary Calhoun James – double bass on “The Greatest Fear”
Ryan Jewell – drumset
Steuart Liebig – electric bass
T.J. Masters – acoustic and electric guitars, vocals
Isaiah Morfin – Moog Grandmother, Wurlitzer electric piano
Tony Rinaldi – piano, Wurlitzer electric piano, Hammond organ, Yamaha DX7, Prophet 6, Oberheim OB-6
Alex Sadnik – alto saxophone
Chris Schlarb – Korg DW8000 on “Butternut”
Heather Sommerhauser – vocals, Prophet 600 on “Mud Doctor”
Chad Taylor – drumset
Brian Walsh – bass clarinet

Woodwind arrangements by Alex Sadnik

Design and layout by: Stephen Rockwood
Cover photography by: Bridgette Miller
Studio Photography by: Devin O’Brien

All songs written by: T.J. Masters
Published by: Guma University Publishing (BMI)

Except “House Analogue”
Written by: T.J. Masters and Chris Schlarb
Published by: Guma University Publishing (BMI) & Interstellar Music Holdings of the Psychic Temple (ASCAP)

Copyright 2022 Guma