Mostar Hearts (Rivers of One Stream)

Intro

Mm-mm

Mm-mm-mm

Oh-oh

Verse 1

Met her at the market in Mostar town

She was selling honey from a little stand

I spoke to her in Bosnian words

She laughed and answered in her mother tongue

Her grandmother danced a kolo somewhere far

My grandfather sang sevdah under a star

Pre-Chorus

Two rivers meet and make one stream

Two families learn a brand new dream

Chorus

Sarajevo loves Mostar hearts

Split blood writes the tenderest parts

We are the victims and we are the vow

Multicultural love keeps us somehow

Post-Chorus

Oh-oh-oh

Keep us somehow

Oh-oh-oh

Verse 2

My father said the names divide the streets

Her mother kept a photograph in tears

We carry passports that don't know our names

But every bridge remembers both the banks

The tabla plays a rhythm she taught me

My harmonica answers in a plea

Pre-Chorus

Two rivers meet and make one stream

Two families learn a brand new dream

Chorus

Sarajevo loves Mostar hearts

Split blood writes the tenderest parts

We are the victims and we are the vow

Multicultural love keeps us somehow

Post-Chorus

Oh-oh-oh

Keep us somehow

Oh-oh-oh

Bridge

They buried a son on the wrong side hill

They gave her sister a different name

Still I walk down where the coins were thrown

Calling her soft through the streetlight glow

Echoes answer back in a hollow tone

Echoes answer back but the names are home

Pre-Chorus

Two rivers meet and make one stream

Two families learn a brand new dream

Chorus

Sarajevo loves Mostar hearts

Split blood writes the tenderest parts

We are the victims and we are the vow

Multicultural love keeps us somehow

Post-Chorus

Oh-oh-oh

Keep us somehow

Oh-oh-oh

Outro

Mm-mm

Multicultural love

Mm-mm-mm

Keeps us somehow

Mm-mm

Talking Blues Verse 3

Now friend, let me tell you about the local customs

Down at the bakery, they say don't discuss 'em

I went to buy some pita, just a simple little crust

Found a wedding party standing in a cloud of copper rust

She wore a veil of silk, I wore a linen coat

We had to build a raft just to stay afloat

Because the lines in the sand were drawn with a pen

That hasn't been sharpened since nobody knows when

Yeah, it's a complicated recipe for a simple slice of cake

A little bit of Balkan soul for goodness sake

Verse 4

So we loaded up the Zastava, blue and white

Chased a crooked mountain path through the middle of the night

Stopped by a shepherd with a radio play

Singing songs about the boys who took a different way

I reached for a coin to toss in the well

She reached for a ring with a story to tell

One for the chapel and one for the dome

Both of 'em calling this canyon their home

We didn't need a map or a government stamp

Just the flickering light of an old kerosene lamp

Pre-Chorus

Two rivers meet and make one stream

Two families learn a brand new dream

Chorus

Sarajevo loves Mostar hearts

Split blood writes the tenderest parts

We are the victims and we are the vow

Multicultural love keeps us somehow

Post-Chorus

(Hey hey) Oh-oh-oh

(Sing it loud now)

Keep us somehow

(Yeah yeah) Oh-oh-oh

Harmonica and Talkbox Solo

Talking Blues Verse 5

Now there’s a fella in Travnik with a checkered past

Claims his grandmother’s secret was built to last

She said love is a bridge with no toll to pay

Unless you listen to what the politicians say

I saw a brick house standing with a hole in the roof

If you want to find the sadness, well there’s your proof

But inside the garden, the lilies still grow

Watered by a spring from a thousand years ago

And it doesn't matter if you call it kava or kahva

The heat of the cup is the same kind of lava

Verse 6

We sat on a bench where the two paths cross

Counting the gain and measuring the loss

Her father brought sljivovica in a glass jug

Gave me a nod and a giant bear hug

The neighbor came over with a platter of figs

Forget all the borders and the political rigs

The radio sputtered a synth-wave sound

While we buried the ghosts deep in the ground

Yeah we’re singing out loud through a vocoder sky

Searching for the reason, never asking why

Pre-Chorus

Two rivers meet and make one stream

Two families learn a brand new dream

Chorus

Sarajevo loves Mostar hearts

Split blood writes the tenderest parts

We are the victims and we are the vow

Multicultural love keeps us somehow

Post-Chorus

Oh-oh-oh

Keep us somehow

Oh-oh-oh

Big Band Outro

(Everything is fine)

Walking through the market (market)

Talking through the tension (tension)

Mentioning the unmentionable love

(Balkan soul)

Underneath the vapor (vapor)

Wrapped in old paper

(Keep us somehow)

Yeah we’re keeping on (keeping on)

Building bridges out of words

Building homes out of memories

From the mountains to the sea

One more time for the history

Mm-mm

Multicultural love

Mm-mm-mm

Oh we’re the lucky victims now

Mm-mm

Yeah we're still standing somehow

Mm-mm

Goodnight Mostar

Goodnight Sarajevo

Mm-mm-mm-mm

(Fade

Talking Blues Verse 7

Well I hopped on a tram in the center of town

The tracks were shaky and the seats were brown

I met an old man with a glint in his eye

Wearing a beret under a purple-tinted sky

He said "Son, I remember when the air was clear

And a man didn't live by his brother's fear"

I said "Gramps, I'm just looking for a little bit of grace

Between the mountain ridge and the marketplace"

He handed me a pipe and a plastic rose

Said "Truth is the only thing that nobody knows"

(That's a lot of truth for a three-minute ride)

Verse 8

So I wandered down to the Miljacka bank

Thinking 'bout the ships and the way they sank

But then I heard a synth in a minor key

Drowning out the weight of the gravity

It was a wedding parade for a boy from Zenica

And a girl from the coast with a new harmonica

They didn't care about the ledger or the law

They were looking for the beauty in the jagged flaw

One was singing rock, one was chanting prayer

Putting all that longing in the chilly air

Pre-Chorus

Two rivers meet and make one stream

Two families learn a brand new dream

Chorus

Sarajevo loves Mostar hearts

Split blood writes the tenderest parts

We are the victims and we are the vow

Multicultural love keeps us somehow

Post-Chorus

(Hey hey) Oh-oh-oh

(Yeah it's happening)

Keep us somehow

(Uh-huh) Oh-oh-oh

Drop it

Vocoder Breakdown

Connection is found in the wire

Burning the lines of the pyre

Old names and the new frequencies

Sailing on electronic seas

(Heartbeat)

Bosna is the sound of the ghost

Loving the one you need the most

Talking Blues Verse 9

Now listen to this part 'cause it gets a bit weird

I met a fortune teller with a glittery beard

In a vaporwave lounge behind a grocery store

Where they sell the kind of hopes you can't buy anymore

He looked at my palm and he looked at her ring

Said "I can see the bells and I can hear them ring"

But he didn't see walls or the barbed-wire fences

He just saw two kids coming to their senses

Selling old records by the roadside stands

Building a palace with their bare cold hands

(I told him, man, that's a beautiful vision

He said, just don't watch the news on the television)

Verse 10

I watched the moon rise over the yellow fortress

Thinking 'bout the ways that the past would distort us

The drums started thumping a rock and roll beat

While the smell of the cevapi drifted down the street

Her hand in mine felt like a victory sign

Winning every war without crossing a line

It's a bittersweet stew that we're stirred inside of

A strange little recipe they call Balkan love

No labels required for the way that we feel

When the promise is broken but the spirit is real

Chorus

Sarajevo loves Mostar hearts

Split blood writes the tenderest parts

We are the victims and we are the vow

Multicultural love keeps us somehow

Post-Chorus

Oh-oh-oh

(We’re survivors)

Keep us somehow

(Against the odds)

Oh-oh-oh

Harmonica and Synth Outro

(Talkbox: Multicultural)

Keeping us together (together)

Walking through the weather (weather)

It’s a long long road through the karst and the stone

But we’re never walking it entirely alone

(Talkbox: Bosnian nights)

Mm-mm

Yeah I'm a victim of the affection

Moving in a positive direction

(Keeping on)

Keep the rhythm in the canyon (canyon)

One last kiss for my companion (companion)

(Love wins)

Fade it out slow now

Let the talkbox go now

Mm-mm

Bosna my home

Mm-mm-mm

(Fade out with robotic laughter and synth flute)