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Celebration Smile

from Strangers by Balto

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  • Streaming + Download

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

      $1 USD  or more

     

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

  • Limited Edition Vinyl (incl. CD & Download)
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Balto's new LP, lovingly pressed to vinyl here in Oregon!

    Included along with the 150 gram record is a CD version and a download code for any format you choose! Features full-color mixed-media artwork by Alyce Vasquez and a postcard for your refrigerator.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Strangers via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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  • CD Version (with bonus Tracks)
    Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    This version contains two live versions of Balto songs from a Daytrotter Session in 2017! Artwork by Alyce Vasquez

    Includes unlimited streaming of Strangers via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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  • CA LUV Shirt (Blue)
    T-Shirt/Apparel + Digital Album

    Gildan Softstyle shirt screen printed with artwork by Matt J Adams. Lovely and soft - they run a bit small, as they were printed in Belgium.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Strangers via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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  • Full Digital Discography

    12
    releases

    Get all 12 Balto releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Wrong End, Spanish Wine, No Hard Feeling (4-Track), From Them to Us, From Us To You (A Cover Tape), Magnet / Mind, Black Snake, Mojave Blues/Still Don't Know, Bullshit Dream, Songs for Viktor, and 4 more. , and , .

    Purchasable with gift card

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lyrics

Bells over the rooftops
A celebration smile
Your father put his belt across your back
For the last of many times
Your sisters passed out flyers
Your mother’s still in shock
Awake through every endless summer night
While you were sleeping beneath the docks

A runaway with years to run on
Could get a long way out of queens
Yelling timber in the kingdom
Pulling fish out of the sea
A couple years, a couple boxcars
A carney, a marine
A half a dozen girls besides your mother
Shooting stars across their dreams

But I don’t want to grow old anywhere with anyone
Gonna keep the best intentions but regret the things I’ve done
I’m going down, I’m going down don’t you try to stop me now
Oh I’m not the man I thought I’d be and I won’t be coming round

Are those your children in the kitchen?
Are they Hungry or were you wrong
About the little orphan girl you married
Or your debts or dead end job?
A couple lost among the secrets
Broken windows and boarded doors
Do you recall the weight that left your shoulders
when you first left this town for good?

But I don’t want to grow old anywhere with anyone
keep the best intentions but regret the things I’ve done
I’m going down, I’m going down don’t you try to stop me now
Oh I’m not the man I thought I’d be and I won’t be coming round
But it’s quiet in the ward now
And the children have gone home
And left you with the nurses and technicians
And whatever’s killing all your bones
If I could wake up as a child
If I could wake up and begin
I’d burn up every dollar bill I’d ever touched
And throw the ashes in the wind

credits

from Strangers, released February 24, 2017

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Balto Los Angeles, California

Card Carrying Cultists of the Great American Song, The Great American Groove, and the Great American Highway

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