more from
Fluff and Gravy Records
We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Thank God We Left The Garden

by Jeffrey Martin

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $9 USD  or more

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    LP in Natural Cream, limited to Natural Cream

    Includes unlimited streaming of Thank God We Left The Garden via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 4 days
    edition of 200 
    Purchasable with gift card

      $30 USD or more 

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    LP in Classic Black

    Includes unlimited streaming of Thank God We Left The Garden via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 4 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $25 USD or more 

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Old Skool Compact Disc, with lyric booklet

    Includes unlimited streaming of Thank God We Left The Garden via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 4 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $15 USD or more 

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Natural Cream Vinyl + "Dust" Sketch T-Shirt

    Includes unlimited streaming of Thank God We Left The Garden via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 4 days
    edition of 200  36 remaining
    Purchasable with gift card

      $50 USD or more 

     

  • T-Shirt/Shirt + Digital Album

    Heather Dust Sketch T-Shirt. Canvas Brand

    Includes unlimited streaming of Thank God We Left The Garden via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 4 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $25 USD or more 

     

  • T-Shirt/Shirt + Digital Album

    Heather Blue Sketch T-Shirt. Canvas Brand

    Includes unlimited streaming of Thank God We Left The Garden via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 4 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $25 USD or more 

     

  • Vinyl Bundle
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Limited Edition Blue Marble LP, Limited Edition Natural Cream LP, and Black LP

    Includes unlimited streaming of Thank God We Left The Garden via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

  • Limited Edition Marble Blue Vinyl / T-Shirt Bundle
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Blue Marble Vinyl + Heather Blue Sketch Shirt

    Includes unlimited streaming of Thank God We Left The Garden via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

  • Limited Edition Marble Blue Vinyl
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Limited Marble Blue Vinyl, limited to 200 copies

    Includes unlimited streaming of Thank God We Left The Garden via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

  • TEST PRESSING
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    These are the test pressings used to evaluate vinyl quality before the main run is pressed. There are only 15 in existence. These will be hand numbered. They come in a plain jacket

    Includes unlimited streaming of Thank God We Left The Garden via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

1.
Lost Dog 02:59
Last night I was a lost dog running wild on the road Looking back over my shoulder for the headlight’s glow Blood in my mouth, what I killed I don’t know There was an engine in my chest beating feet upon the road I outran the darkness and the light just the same and I cried for the edges when I forgot my own name You see me now Daddy I am a vapor of a ghost Out spinning in the blackness where the time doesn’t go The end is the beginning of a story I don’t know Out spinning in the blackness where the time it doesn’t go I met an angel, a boring man by a tree His fire had been stolen by an eternity I’ll be dead in a moment, just a breath and I’ll be gone Love is everything that can’t be held for too long
2.
Garden 03:02
Nobody knows me where I go when I’m angry Or how often I’m lonely I guess they’re the same thing In my mind there’s a garden Full of beauty and darkness Full of sorrow and sweet things Where my heart can be honest In that garden there’s a fruit tree And I eat from it daily The same that Adam and Eve ate What does that make me? In my Garden there’s a fruit tree I want to know the secrets I want to peek behind the curtain I want to find out for certain If I’m here on purpose As if knowing would save me From the things that have made me As if the mess that I’m making Isn’t really a blessing As if knowing would save me In my mind there’s a garden Full of beauty and darkness Full of sorrow and sweet things Where my heart can be honest
3.
Quiet Man 03:39
There's holes in all the sidewalls where the wind it brings the rain in And the gold crowns have been found out to be brass that has been painted There's holes in all our bibles where we make secret compartments To hide the broken treasures we smuggled out of the garden We gaze at our reflections like insecure children Poorly dressed and always panicking in the bodies of men and women And we stumble on like drunkards toward a cliff just because None of us cares about the end when we're trying to find love We get moving in the morning and we suffer on until the evening Where we finally drink the whiskey that soothes our disbelieving While others find a quiet place and build a fence around it Spend their time on the money they make and find ways to talk about it There's an angry man on the mountain just like there's always been And there's a quiet man in the valley standing taller than him And there's a child with a secret that she doesn't know she holds And the fact that I can see it means that I am growing old Some of us get lucky, find an anchor in the storm Some of us never learn to see beyond the place we were born Time is a mystic with a briefcase in his hand You can pay to look inside it but you can't afford to understand Maybe heaven is a place that doesn't have an address And maybe that's okay just like joy or sadness You can meet God in a cigarette just the same as in a sermon And the Devil's always listening to those who are deserving
4.
I can still see that red station wagon on the street by your house We’d walk to rent movies and wander our way across town Out away from your dad you were always so easily found You’d let your hands dance and you’d let yourself laugh out loud Hey I remember That night on the roof of the school when we were talking at stars And you said that you might be afraid of who you really are Your hand touched my hand and retreated in that desperate dark And I called you a faggot and laughed and lunched you in the arm I don’t believe it I can’t believe it now I can’t believe how I let you down The church was a boot on your neck since the day you were born They didn’t like the way that you talk or how you move in the world How you glide like a leaf on the water all gentle and kind The world wants a man who is hard not hard to define And you feel like a child that the God of all forgot to name Like he gave you a heart but He did not give you a place Did He breathe into you just to tell you that you are to blame? Did He breathe into you just to tell you that you are to blame? I don’t believe it I don’t believe it now I don’t believe how I let you down Did He breathe into you just to tell you that you are to blame? Did He breathe into you just to tell you that you are to blame? I don’t believe it I don’t believe it now
5.
Paper Crown 03:26
Wake up to the rain in the morning Wake up from your gold dust dreaming Stone-heavy in your mind Everything moves with the wind now Any day everyone is gonna find out That you can’t hold the line It’s okay Everybody feels the same way Everybody’s too afraid to say What they haven’t found And all the answers of the modern age They’re like skipping to the last page Read the story and lost the race It’s just a paper crown Get up and go to work in there darkness Come home and try to hold onto to something It’s a wheel that goes around Strike a pose and smile for the people Take a picture make it look so simple There’s a fire underground It’s okay Everybody feels the same way Everybody’s too afraid to say What they haven’t found And all the answers of the modern age They’re like skipping to the last page Read the story and lost the race It’s just a paper crown The sun come kissing through my window I’m at the edges of my dreaming There’s a golden moment But I can never keep it It’s a quiet kind of singing It is moving without moving And I am not worried About where I’m going It’s okay Everybody feels the same way Everybody’s too afraid to say What they haven’t found And all the answers of the modern age They’re like skipping to the last page Read the story and lost the race It’s just a paper crown
6.
The city will still be moving in the morning A million lives all breathing like a tide Each one a story beyond our comprehending Each trying to make a life and feel alive The trees will bloom down along the river The kids will race the fountains in the light Someone will cry and pray that it gets better Someone will stop and try to change a life The sun will rise like it always does On the day that I die The world will spin, the sun will go on burning Never even knowing I was alive There’s a treasure we all know but we can’t have it It’s a place beyond the measure of our minds It is where we go when we forget we’re living It is where we go when we forget we die And all the tools we use to feel important They are useless as a sailboat in the sky Where old bones and heartaches are forgotten It’s a place we don’t have words to describe The sun will rise like it always does On the day that I die The world will spin, the sun will go on burning Never even knowing I was alive
7.
All My Love 02:35
Roll down the window and breathe in the night as it finds us You fly your hand out and I can see shapes in the shapeless Talking about how there might be something between us And Falling asleep on a hill with the city beneath us The highway unwinds and I say your mind moves like a dancer And when I’m with you all my questions they feel like the answer Imagine the sun laying down to kiss on the water And the whole world stopping to hold the moment right after All my love
8.
Daylight 03:44
Standing alone with a ticket in my hand I paid all my money to be here That’s why it’s taken me so damn long To ask for the help to leave here How I imagine never comes to fruition I’ve got volumes of stories to spin here And my best dreams are only a sad imitation Of the mystery that cannot be seen here All of my nights for a glimpse of the sun All of my faith in the great unknown All of my love to be finally shown Oh daylight won’t you come I’m a scoundrel at best / all the things that I’ve kept Are from those who’ve already been here And the words that I write were first written by them Still I claim to have something to say here We each meet the garden as new as the first Better to eat the fruit than be blind here And set in the motion we wonder the reason And trust that there’s something to find here All of my nights for a glimpse of the sun All of my faith in the great unknown All of my love to be finally shown Oh daylight won’t you come The heavy weight of the nothing out there Is enough to bury me down here This fire in my chest can’t just run out of breath And leave no trace of love to be found here Say again the thing that you said back then About how there’s nothing to fear here And the wind will blow where the wind will blow Don’t mind me I’m down on my knees here All of my nights for a glimpse of the sun All of my faith is just the things that I’ve done All of my love to be finally shown Oh daylight won’t you come
9.
I grew up in a brick house on 15th behind the bakery Where my dad worked his bones into knots My mom was a watcher, my mom was a listener My mom was afraid to leave the house I used to walk the city, winter in Cincinnati Make you cry razors from the cold I hear mom and dad fighting, the busted oven and then they’re laughing And she’s chasing him down the hallway with a towel I didn’t know that they didn’t know what they were doing I woke to the sound of sadness and tiptoed out the bedroom To find dad crying at the window by the phone In the morning I had not forgotten and the whole house felt different I hugged my dad and left for school older and alone Mom said his sister was a drinker and they tried everything to help here But sometimes a story has already been told And I laid in bed wondering what was already written And who gets to decide where I go? I didn’t know that they didn’t know what they were doing
10.
Sculptor 03:29
Out across the dying engine are the cities mocking heaven Plans to fill the decades plans to keep death hidden Swing away until the sun goes Trade your soul for a photo And stories that we all know Are empty in the end But you wrote a letter like a sculpture And I cried and let the day go I miss your breath on my shoulder I miss your breath on my shoulder Driving north through California The sun is on the sea I know exactly who I am It’s not who I want to be The space between goes on forever A blessing and a curse A dreamer and a liar The devil in the church But you wrote a letter like a sculpture And I cried and let the day go I miss your breath on my shoulder I miss your breath on my shoulder Silver-tongued, the blood in my veins A salesman with a dark flame Nothing matters in the end child You’re only here for a short while And sadness is a blanket A comfort in the chains I wear when I am hopeless And too afraid to change But you wrote a letter like a sculpture And I cried and let the day go I miss your breath on my shoulder I miss your breath on my shoulder
11.
Walking 03:39
The violent sounds of busy streets People living at all cost Die away eventually If you stay up late enough Stoplights play for no one The dogs are gone to dream When I go out walking The rain has come and gone again The air is close and soft My mind has spun a dreamer’s web I hear a far off song Shadows have kind faces They are waltzing with the trees When I go out walking You sang alone in a nowhere town We played for tips and beer I watched you close your eyes and go Somewhere far away from there Take me with you dreamer I can hear you sing When I go out walking My mom laughs like something breaks It’s not often but it’s real My dad gave it all away Because he knows the deal That he’ll be gone with nothing The same way that he came So I go out walking Ya we’ll be gone with nothing The same way that we came So I go out walking

about

On a small corner lot in southeast Portland, Oregon, Jeffrey Martin holed up through the winter recording his quietly potent new album Thank God We Left The Garden. Long nights bled into mornings in the tiny shack he built in the backyard, eight feet by ten feet. What began as demos meant for a later visit to a proper studio became the album itself, spare and intimate and true. Recorded live and alone around two microphones, Jeffrey often held his breath to wait for the low diesel hum of a truck to pass one block over on the busy thoroughfare. During the coldest nights, he timed recording between the clicks of the oil coil heater cycling on and off.

Martin’s fourth full length album, Thank God We Left The Garden comes out on Portland’s beloved Fluff and Gravy Records Nov 3. He produced and engineered it himself, recalling, “There was a magic quality to the sounds I was getting in the shack with these two cheap microphones, some lucky recipe of time and place that allowed my voice and the way I play guitar and the shape of these new songs to come together with the kind of honesty I was craving.”

So much has happened in the world since the release of his previous album One Go Around, and Jeffrey has filled the time doggedly, but happily, touring the US and Europe, watching it all unfold in a stream of small town conversations and city sprawl. In a moment where depth is so often traded for the instantaneous, where tech billionaires are building rockets to escape the planet, where the dead-eyed stare of artificial intelligence is promising to existentially upend our world, and where divisiveness in our culture is breeding delusional levels of certainty, Jeffrey Martin’s new record feels like a hopeful and fully human antidote.

The sounds feel warm, close, and refreshingly real, all held up by the richness and rare candor of Jeffrey’s voice. Production is restrained mostly to his guitar and vocals, with flashes of classical guitar for a tumbling wash of melody and low end color. Martin’s voice sits high above everything, reaching into new melodic territory that goes beyond his earlier work. “I feel like I’ve only just learned how to sing,” Martin said. “Like I’ve been chasing this record since my very first recordings. I wanted to really see what I could do, just my guitar and my voice and little else. I don’t think it was conscious. I think maybe it was a reaction to the pace of life these days. The churning news and entertainment and politics and violence of it all. I needed to know that even in this day and age, just a few simple ingredients still hold up.”

This is an album that craves your full attention, best experienced as a whole. Each song further illuminates the scene until you find yourself resting in the strangely comforting tangle of aliveness and meaning (and full spectrum of being alive./what it means to be alive.). At its core Thank God We Left The Garden is an album made of questions, humble and nuanced, a reverent celebration of the asking.

Whether singing about his own internal landscape, telling a story of someone else’s, or reflecting on the elusive relationship between scarcity and contentment, Martin’s writing never pushes the listener away, never points a finger. He sings of things we can all pin a memory on, holding the rough shorn gem of human experience up to the light.

Thank God We Left the Garden will be released on Fluff and Gravy Records on NOV 3, 2023. Subsequent touring will carry Jeffrey Martin through all of the US, Canada, and Europe.

credits

released November 3, 2023

All songs by Jeffrey Martin
Recorded by Jeffrey Martin
Mixed and Mastered by Jon Neufeld
Produced by Jeffrey Martin and Jon Neufeld

Guitar and vocals by Jeffrey Martin
Additional guitar on "Red Station Wagon", "Sculptor", "I Didn't Know" and by Jon Neufeld

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Jeffrey Martin Portland, Oregon

shows

contact / help

Contact Jeffrey Martin

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Jeffrey Martin, you may also like: