Song​-​A​-​Week

by Michael Shoup

Song-A-Week Cover Art
  00:00 / 00:00

  • Digital Album

    ABOUT SONG-A-WEEK

    Song-A-Week is a weekly video blog where I take submissions / ideas from readers of my blog and pick one [or a few] each week to write a song about. Viewers can submit ideas at blog.michaelshoup.com/submit, and a new song will be posted every Tuesday.

    Rough and raw, these are the songs at their core.

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1.
03:46
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2.
04:09
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3.
02:38
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4.
03:35
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5.
04:08
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6.
02:40
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7.
03:49
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8.
04:11
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9.
02:47
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credits

released 01 September 2010

tags

tags: acoustic acoustic free indie nashville pop rock singer singer-songwriter songwriter Nashville

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All rights reserved

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about

My mother calls me Michael. My friends call me Shoup.

A Songwriter, Storyteller, Pixel Manipulator, and Entropic Strategist, I make music and tools for others like myself.

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Track Name: Collateral
COLLATERAL

I’ve got memories of this town
From back when you were still around
The friends that I lost
And the missteps that cost me my pride

I may not be a perfect man
But at least I know who I am
With all this tossing and turning
From yesteryear’s learning inside

CHORUS:
I’ve got Collateral Damage
So much more than I can manage
Heart at the Helm
But I keep washing over the side
I don’t know what the plan is
Just trying to find where my dry land is
All open ended
Except this unintended
Collateral Damage
From living my life

My heart keeps looking like a travelogue
Every time I start singing songs
But all this rocking and rolling
Helps me keep knowing I’m alive

I can’t stay still
This lack of motion keeps making me ill
It’s something I gotta get through
This life I woke up into is mine.

CHOURUS x2
Track Name: Mighty Fine
MIGHTY FINE

I see it in a different light
Different than I used to
I've been living life in chorus
And it brings me right back to you

So tell me what I can do
To get you on the line
So I can say

Hey Baby
Is it just the wine
Or did we give up something
Mighty Fine

I let you run your journey
Like you said you need to
But the words you said keep ringing
How I'm better off without you

Everyone keeps saying
I've gotta give it time
But I say

Hey Baby
Is it just the wine
Or did we give up something
Mighty Fine
Track Name: Bigger, Better, Soon
Bigger, Better Soon

I can feel the wheels rolling
On 65
I've been waiting for the summer
Just to feel alive

Got no gas in my tank
But I'm not afraid
'Cause the only way I move
Is by a leap of faith

Drive, until the sky turns blue
Oh try, just gotta make a move
Oh I'm alive, so what have I got to lose but
Bigger, Better, Soon

Got my head lights bright
Cause' the road's not clear
I leave the sun of yesterday
In my rear view mirror

And try as I might
To pick up the pace
The only way I move
Is by a leap of faith

CHORUS

Speak up world, I wanna listen
Tell me all that I've been missing

SOLO

CHORUS
Track Name: Simple Things
/----------------------------------------------------------------/

SIMPLE THINGS

Every day the same alarm
But still it doesn't wake me
A dead end job, so what's the harm
Gotta find something to shake me around

Never thought it'd be this hard
When I was a child
I miss those things I disregard
Haven't been there for a while

CHORUS:
Like riding your bike down your childhood street
And eating the things that you're not supposed to eat
Whatever you do that makes you feel complete
It's just the simple things

Change my clothes, change my name
Change my location
But everything just felt the same
It's a life of simulation

Everyone's just running blind
If only we would listen
Take a breath and just unwind
Find those pieces that we're missing

CHORUS x2
/----------------------------------------------------------------/
Track Name: Leave The Ground
LEAVE THE GROUND

She tells herself this is the last time
Like a hundred times before
She builds a house and hides it inside
But it keeps knocking down the door

It turns her somedays into maybes
It turns her maybes into doubt
She runs away into tomorrow
But today's her only one way out

CHORUS:
So, Take one step to the edge now
Eyes closed, holding your breath
You fall, you fall
Heart pounds out of your chest but
Can't stop, can't take a rest
You fall, you fall down
Can't fly until you leave the ground

Paralyzed she keeps her feet down
Afraid to let go of her pride
She knows she's running out of time now
Just gotta spread her wings and learn to fly

CHORUS

Can't fly until you leave the ground
Gotta start out lost so you'll be found
Can't fly until you leave the ground

CHORUS x2
Track Name: Irons In The Fire
---------------------------------------------
IRONS IN THE FIRE

I was running behind
With my heart on the line
But I was getting no where fast

So many things to do
To see it through
Always afraid of coming in last

It took so much time
To get back in line
And to find my melody

But now the voice is here
And I can hear it clear
And this is what it said to me

CHORUS:
How you gonna get higher
With all those irons in the fire
How you gonna get higher
With all those irons in the fire

Every now and then
I start back again
And everything begins to unwind

I stay up so late
That I can't see straight
Oh how could I be so blind

Cause the road that I'm on
Needs me to be strong
Not living life this way

But when it gets too dear
The voice in here
Just stands right up to say

CHORUS

How you gonna get higher
With all those irons in the fire
Gotta make your load a little lighter
And cool those irons in the fire

CHORUS

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Track Name: History Train
-------------------------------

HISTORY TRAIN

Our story ends where I begin again
I'm going it alone
I'm fine

Still navigating back to new and then
Old memories come
Crashing from behind

Chorus:
Now I'm back on track but it's not the same
I'm haunted by my history train
It's got speed and it won't leave me behind

So somebody call an engineer
Cause my ear's to the rail and all I hear's
That wailing whistle blowing through my mind
And it says

I check the manifest for all my friends
But I don't belong
On this line

And though the radio says clear ahead
I'm firing up my engine
For this climb

Chorus x2
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Track Name: Last Goodbye
-------------------------------

LAST GOODBYE

Nothing left to say
All my reasons behind me
So you go yours and I'll go my way

Every step I seem to take
Is further from where we begin
And closer to I'll start again

Chorus:
So maybe life's not right
For what this love has got in store
One last goodbye
Is all I waited for
But I'm not anymore

But I keep finding you in a memory
All tied to
Tied to the best pieces of me

I always seem to play the fool
And wind up broken hearted
But I can't tell just where it started

CHORUS

Everyone keeps telling me
The past is practice
And I just can't keep killing time
While I get past this
Again

CHORUS
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Track Name: The Ballad Of A Nice Guy
-------------------------------

THE BALLAD OF A NICE GUY

It started out just being friendly
Her heart was broke and I was being gentlemenly
You're telling me he's so refined but
You're aperitif and he's been tasting other wines

So what then should I be
For you to notice me

Nice guys lose again
Always hoping that she'll make the switch
Polite guys never win
Perhaps its time we learn to smack a bitch

Take you to show, I'd buy you flowers
I could sit and stare and listen to you talk for hours
Write poetry for a song like this
I like your company but still there's something that I miss

So what then can I do
To get it on with you

CHORUS

I've resolved to be more criminal less subliminal
Beef my upper body cause that's what gets the hotties
Never date less than two ladies
Always leaving when there's babies
Cause it seems like that's what I'm supposed to do

CHORUS
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