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about

After my dad died, my mom sent me the family canoe. I wrote this song on our first trip with that canoe about my dad and our complicated relationship.

lyrics

Scuff Marks

She sent me their canoe inside a moving van across
A thousand miles of bush and the great Canadian shield.
No more journeys for them, my father dead, my mother frail -
So I inherit the canoe with all its dreams of wilderness.

And on its first journey in Ontario
On Rathburn Lake with the light just right and the sun so low
I look down in front of my feet
And I see the scuff marks left by my father’s feet.

Proof he left his mark in the place where I just sat,
And it took me back to other marks my father left behind -
That flinch in my left shoulder, guards my heart from those attacks
Launched across the dinner table – “where’d you lose that two percent?”

That man did more than any man for me. He said:
“You want to enjoy your life? You’d better succeed.”
His disappointment walked the stairs and the stairs, they creaked
And I feared the scuffling of my father’s feet.

He gave more things to me than I can share in one short song
Like generosity and an odd way to belong.
Once he told me he was proud of me, I said “thank you,” so numb
No socket for the plug, just left to scuff the empty wall.

He gave me things I treasure still
Mountain vistas better than any pill.
Now I steer the canoe, and I splay my knees, I put my heels
In the scuff marks left by my father’s feet
From the scuffling of my father’s feet
The scuff marks of my father.

Na na na ….

credits

from LaughCry, SmartStupid​!​!, released May 29, 2019
Conrad Sichler - vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitars, backing vocals, percussion, drums
Bob Doidge - bass
Danny Lockwood - drums
Frank Koren - electric guitars

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riot nrrd Hamilton, Ontario

riot nrrd was spawned in Winnipeg, Manitoba where he hung out with and played music with some of the members of The Weakerthans and Propogandhi. Many years and travels later, he landed in Hamilton, Ontario, where he released settle in 2014 and LaughCry, SmartStupid!! in 2019, joining 'free of the suburban dream' from 1999. riot nrrd is like riot grrrl, but for nerds. ... more

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