Through This Fire Across from Peter Balkan

Title: Through This Fire Across from Peter Balkan
Released: 2025
Label: Cadmean Dawn


Liner Notes / Physical Release Text

(CD lyric pamphlet):

A FISHING BOAT, HELMED BY CAPTAIN PETER BALKAN, sets sail from port with a crew of fifteen. In heavy waters on the open sea, the vessel keels over and is lost; only three of the crew survive. These three - Peter Balkan, a crewman named Adam, and an unnamed narrator - wash ashore on an islet too small and barren to sustain life. Captain Balkan, having sustained injury to his head in the wreck, begins to suffer greeat visions, prophesying the end of the world and the arrival of a new kingdom. As Balkan deteriorates, Adam goes missing, presumably drowned. The narrator is left to care for his captain in his final days. Alone, he imagines himself restored to society in the world before the wreck, vowing to remember his companions in catastrophe.


Table of Contents

  1. Overture
  2. Fishing Boat
  3. Cold at Night
  4. Dawn of Revelation
  5. Your Bandage
  6. Peru
  7. Through This Fire
  8. Rocks in My Pockets
  9. Armies of the Lord
  10. Your Glow
  11. The Lady from Shanghai 2
  12. Broken to Begin With

Album Credits
Footnotes


Overture

(no lyrics)


Fishing Boat

Free as the wind on the ocean
Wild as the rain in the storm
Immense out on the grand horizon
As a thunderhead taking form

Turn in with the stars on the water
Rise with the tides in the dawn
Be your own boss for the summer
Seize the moment before it's gone

Sixteen on a fishing boat
Learning to float

Some who keep their secrets like treasure
Some who tend to cling to the coast
No one who can stand staying landlocked
For longer than a month at most

Free as the churn of the riptide
Free as a wreck in the drift
Nothing's ever promised to anyone
Everything you get is a gift

Sixteen on a fishing boat
Learning to float

Learning to swim
Learning how to tread water
Learning how to raise our cries to the skies
Like seals to the slaughter

Still as the sky on the ocean
Mute as the moon overhead
Me and Peter Balkan and you, friend
Everybody else is dead

Turning where the rain won't reach us
Rise with the sun all alone
Be your own boss for the summer
Just once before you're grown

Sixteen on a fishing boat
Sixteen on a fishing boat
Sixteen on a fishing boat
We are learning to float


Cold at Night 1 2

Let yourself go in the current
Only rise and fall as the angles allow
Finally make a break for the surface
Breathe in the sweet air of the here and now

Wake up in the arms of the earth
Fully present at the second birth

Well the first thing you learn is how strong you can be if you have to
And the next thing you learn is how cold it can get at night

Let the waves break where they have to break
Let the people make ready to approach the throne
Two are going to stumble along the way
One is going to go up alone

Fires gathering on a distant peak
Let me get some sleep before I speak

Well the first thing you learn is how far you can go with no gas in the tank
And the next thing you learn is how cold it can get at night

Lightly row, but this much I know:
The first thing you learn will be the last thing to go

Sharpen sticks and stab at the tide pools
Pitch a camp as close as we can to shore
Nobody thought to carry a compass
It's not the 19th century anymore

On the third day you said you felt sick
I could hear the clock tick

Well the first thing you learn is that there's always a clock ticking somewhere
And the next thing you learn is how cold it can get at night

Well the first thing you learn is how strong you can be if you have to, so strong
And the next thing you learn is how cold it can get at night
(And the next thing you learn is how cold it can get at night)
And the next thing you learn is how cold it can get at night
(And the next thing you learn is how cold it can get at night)
And the next thing you learn is how cold it can get at night


Dawn of Revelation

We who gather by this fire
To remember who we were
To recall the days of yore
To recall the days before

Hear the crackling, stoke the flames
Conjure long-forgotten names
Look long enough and see
Where the referent wriggles free

I will turn these stones to bread 3
All who hunger will be fed
Plates will shift and the earth will groan
And no one here is going to die alone

Ah ah ah ah, ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah, ah ah ah
Ah ah ah

Live in hope, walk in fear
Let them come, let them gather here
Meaning well, boding ill
Let their hundreds crest the hill

As you were, so they are
Orphans from a dying star
Let them cluster, each to each
Like smooth rocks on a distant beach

Look upon them there, and know
We will all go when we go
Look into these eyes and see
How we all will be made free

Ah ah ah ah, ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah, ah ah ah
Ah ah ah

Beyond the grasp of the grave
Free as a driftwood on the waves
Through their fingers like a fish
Free from the clutches of the flesh

I will bring this word to them
Last to first and stern to stem
The king is going to sit upon his throne
And no one here is going to die alone

Ah ah ah ah, ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah, ah ah ah, yeah
Ah ah ah
Ah ah ah


Your Bandage

One day the stars will all go out 4
And those who can remember when
The night sky was a tapestry
Will be acclaimed as prophets then
Will you lie still while I reapply your bandage?
Will you lie still while I reapply your bandage?

There's untold riches in the depths
There's gold inside the jetstreams
There's a message for the people
Sounding loudly in my dreams
Will you lie still while I reapply your bandage?
Will you lie still while I reapply your bandage
On your temple?
There aren't any people
Remember it's me
And Adam makes three

One day the stars will all go out
You're right, you're right, you're right
And light will be a memory
Shining in the endless night
Yes it will
Be still
Lie at peace
Soon we'll all be released
Testify
While I
Reapply your bandage


Peru

You were already talking when I woke up today
For a man on combat rations, you sure do find a lot to say
Try to fix my attention - can't clear my head
Sun clearing the waterline
Hot and deadly and red

Like the flowers you said you wrote about
About a million years ago, you said they grew
On a distant mountain in Peru

I don't want the water to break you
Let me lead you back to the fire
You've always got a little further to drop
When you've risen that much higher

Fear in my heart like a shadow
I can't let it linger too long
When your gift begins to consume you
One of us will have to be strong

Like the flowers that die in the winter
But never fail to grow back new
In the cracks down in the canyons in Peru

In the deep crevices where you wouldn't think the light could reach
Distant as a dream of the cradle on this lonesome beach

Let the man whose heart would know peace
Praise all the things that he should praise
Just about a week in the future
These are going to seem like the good days

Because the snake is going to rise from the pit
And brother will turn against brother
We won't have a minute to lose
At most we'll only have each other

Like the flowers you said you saw when you were young,
When you were still you
Like the flowers you may have imagined, doing what their nature tells them to
Worlds away in the wind in Peru


Through This Fire

My faith ran out with the flames one night
Shrinking in the embers of the firelight
You were rambling about your friends
How you were never going to see them again
There wasn't any fire and brimstone left
Just a hollow rattle inside your chest
Deep in the dark of our forty-fifth day
It wasn't ever going to go away

I began to understand the things that heat requires
Looking at you through this fire

The last days come and the last days go
Carried away in the undertow
But on our trust we rise and fall
Human after all
I calculated one week to go more or less
You were slipping in and out of consciousness
What are seven days worth
Seven days on this earth

More than kings in their castles might desire
Looking at you through this fire

Through this fire where we were witnesses when
You were reborn
One of the seven at Jericho 5
Sounding his horn

Bear me on the breath of dawn
Very soon we'll both be gone
It's getting harder to hear you, friend
Waiting for the world to end
But let me isolate the relevant voice in the choir
Somewhere out there on the wire
I'll run all night but my legs won't tire
The ocean is faithful and the devil's a liar

Looking at you through this fire


Rocks in My Pockets 1

Like a good luck charm for a soldier
Heading off into battle
I carried a stone in my pocket
Something I found in Seattle

It vaguely resembled a face
And it looked like a headstone a little
Deep groove from a worm or from years underwater
Running right down the middle

Some people name their cars, or their guitars
Some things are too fragile to name
Some things are made for the spotlight
Some live at the edge of the frame

Just a few days above surface
A lifetime below
Rocks in my pockets when I go

Stuck to the shoreline
In the light of the torch
Wrapped up in your bandage
Like a package on the porch

You were never going to make it
I felt like you knew
But at least you'll have someone
For some of us that won't be true

Some people go down swinging, get in a few punches
Some learn to ride the currents, some never learn
Probably not going to leave the slightest trace in the wake
When it's my turn

Tie down the sails
When the crosswinds blow
Rocks in my pockets when I go

Initials in the bark of a tree
Little signs of hope
Lie a good luck charm for a soldier
Mailed home in an envelope

Some people go it alone
Some need a friend
The weak ones get lucky
The strong ones stick around to the end

Just a few days above surface
A lifetime below
Rocks in my pockets when I go


Armies of the Lord 6

Trying to pantomime surprise
After we buried you at sunrise
With nothing you'd predicted coming true
Just doing what we'd promised we would do
Not ready any more
Late for the war

Who would prepare for peace, take up the sword
Waiting for the armies of the Lord

Even if we found the world again
Haircuts and clean clothes, and what then:
Sew ourselves clean back into the fold?
Remember til we don't, and then grow old?
Not ready to go that way
What would our old friend say?
Who goes without will find some great reward
Waiting for the armies of the Lord

And even if they never come
Stay here by the fire
Listening for the drum

In the world but not of it any more
Starving to death down by the shore
Prehistoric insects trapped in ice
Letting the hunger claim its price
Sixteen to three now down to two
Soon it'll just be you

Raise the flag and cut the cord
All aboard that's going aboard
Waiting for the armies of the Lord


Your Glow 7

You lost your feeling for the waves
Before we ran aground
And you lost thirteen men to the waves
We watched them all go down

Find you babbling in the sand there
Trying to find the thread
Spend an hour or so beside you
Cradling your head

It's time for you to go
But you never lost your glow

You lost a lot of sleep
Before the fever broke
And you found a kingdom by the fire
Rising in the smoke

Leave you here, or let the ocean
Claim you for its own?
Keep you here, or tithe you to the tides
To die here all alone?

Breathing through your visions, soft and slow
You never lost your glow

Your light, your signal
Fifteen did respond
Just me left now, and you, about
To see what lies beyond

When we wake up from the big dreams
Of empires in the surf
If there's nothing left but water,
Then let water be enough

Thirteen gone, one vanished
You well on your way
Adrift for half your life
Headed home today

"Be still and know" 8
You never lost your glow


The Lady from Shanghai 2 9

When I was a young man I
Sank into the shadows where the edge begins to blur
And when I was a young man I
Sought out the places where the shadows were
And then luck found me
Out on the open sea

Hoisting up the main sail high
Emblem of the mirror in the stitching on the ocean breeze
Nibbles in the nets all night
Kings up in their castles not arrayed like these 10
Out there where the dreams come from
When will my moment come?

Everything that sinks will float
Everything that sinks will float
We went down to the boat 9

When we built the fire, I knew:
When the smoke settled it would come down to us two
Just a lucky guess, you know
Show me the places where lucky guesses go 11
But when I was a young man I, I
I sought out the sky

Everything that sinks will float
Everything that sinks will float
We went down to the boat 9


Broken to Begin With

Men of old who sailed the seas
Bringing nations to their knees
Turning up the remnants of our campsite
Would never know it kept three people warm at night

Survey the clumsy architecture
Idly make a few conjectures
Scribble some conclusions in a ledger
Never knowing better

Like anything you ever come across
Before you knew about it, it got lost

It was broken to begin with
It was broken to begin with
It was like that when we got here
It was broken to begin with

When the archaeologists arrive
No proof that we were ever here alive
Me and Peter Balkan and you, friend
Until the dream ran out of oxygen

Is this not what you wanted from the sea?
Is this not what the waves require of me?
Isn't this what we suspect we'll see
On the day we finally get free

And if that day turns out to be today
Maybe that's okay

It was broken to begin with
It was broken to begin with
It was like that when we got here
It was like this when we got here
It was broken to begin with

Well the first thing you learn is how far you can go with no gas in the tank
And the next thing you learn is how cold it can get at night


Album Credits

Recorded January 19-27, 2025,
at Dreamland Recording Studios, Hurley, New York

Engineered by Matthew Barnhart, assisted by Ben Loughran
Additional engineering by Matt Douglas
Mixed by D. James Goodwin at Isokon, Shenandoah Valley, VA
Mastered by Brent Lambert at Kitchen Mastering, Carrboro, NC
Produced by Matt Douglas

THE PLAYERS:
Matt Douglas, piano, keyboards, and guitar
Jon Wurster, drums, percussion, and guitar
Cameron Ralston, bass
Mikaela Davis, harp
Ben Loughran, synths
John Darnielle, vocals and guitar

string & woodwind arrangements by Matt Douglas
all woodwinds by Matt Douglas
all strings by Karen Galvin

with
VERY SPECIAL GUESTS
Tommy Stinson, bass: "Cold at Night," "Dawn of Revelation"
Lin-Manuel Miranda, backing vocals: "Cold at Night,"
"Through This Fire," "Armies of the Lord," and "Broken to Begin With"
Josh Kaufman, lead guitars
Gabriel mairson, French horn
nicole Lawrence, pedal steel

and introducing
THE LATTER REVELATION COMPANY SINGERS:
John Darnielle, Jon Wurster, Matt Douglas, and Tommy Stinson,
chorale on "Dawn of Revelation"

In the night of May 29, 2023, I had a dream. Waking from it, I transcribed what I could remember of it into the note-taking app I keep on my phone. The note reads: “through this fire across from peter balkan #dream. It was the title of a work, not sure which form.” The next time I sat at the piano to see if I had ideas, I got the notion of writing a work that proceeded from its title, and that tried to make real the dreamlike grammar of that title. This album is that work. Since its protagonist shares a first name with our longstanding bassist Peter Hughes, who bid farewell to the sea in 2024, this album is dedicated to him – he who served aboard the good ship Mountain Goats for so many years: may the fire always keep you warm, and may your nights in its light be as numerous as the grains of sand on the beach.

Special thanks: to Jerry Marotta and all at Dreamland; to Ryan Matteson and all at Ten Atoms; and to every port of call along the endless ocean way, sea-facing or no, landlocked or otherwise.
–John Darnielle
Durham, NC, 2025

All songs © 2025 Cadmean Dawn (ASCAP), administered worldwide by Me Gusta Music. 1, 2, 5, 11 also © 2025 Matty Bones Music (ASCAP). Design by Daniel Murphy. Management by Ryan Matteson and Kevin O'Halloran for Ten Atoms.


Footnotes

  1. "Cold at Night" and "Rocks in My Pockets" were released simultaneously as singles before the album release. Across multiple platforms, their release was accompanied by the following message:

    A GREAT GOOD DAY TO ALL WHO SAIL THE TREACHEROUS WATERS OF OUR BROKEN WORLD. WE, THE MOUNTAIN GOATS, COME BEARING NEW SONGS, NOT JUST ONE AS IN FORMER DAYS BUT TWO, AS THERE IS A NEED FOR MORE SONGS. “COLD AT NIGHT” IS ABOUT A SHIPWRECK AND ITS IMMEDIATE AFTERMATH. BASS ON “COLD” IS BY TOMMY STINSON WHO YOU KNOW FROM THE REPLACEMENTS AND GUNS ‘N’ ROSES. GUITARS ON “COLD” ARE BY JOSH KAUFMAN, WHO YOU KNOW FROM BONNY LIGHT HORSEMAN, THE NATIONAL, BOB WEIR, AND A PROMISING YOUNG ARTIST NAMED TAYLOR SWIFT, AND BY MATT DOUGLAS, WHO PRODUCED THESE TRACKS AND WROTE THE STRING ARRANGEMENTS. “ROCKS IN MY POCKETS” IS A SOLILOQUY FROM ADAM, ONE OF THREE SURVIVORS FROM THE WRECK. IT IS THE LAST WE HEAR FROM HIM. HARP BY THE GREAT MIKAELA DAVIS. ALL THREE MEMBERS OF THE MOUNTAIN GOATS — JON, JOHN, AND MATT — PLAY GUITARS ON “ROCKS,” AND THE TRACK IS LIVE EXCEPT FOR THE PERCUSSION AND HARP OVERDUBS. HARMONY & RESPONSE VOCALS ON “COLD AT NIGHT” ARE BY LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA, WHO SANG AS CHARLEY IN THE 2012 “MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG” CONCERT. I WILL NEVER GET OVER HAVING A GUY WHO HAS SUNG SONDHEIM ONSTAGE ON MY ALBUM: THANKS, BUD. THE REST OF YOU: ENJOY!

    ↩ ↩2

  2. This song has an official lyric video. ↩

  3. Possibly an allusion to the Bible verse Matthew 4:3, "The tempter came to him and said, 'If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.'" (New International Version) ↩

  4. In the lyric pamphlet, this line is written as "One day the stars will out go out." ↩

  5. Possibly an allusion to the Bible chapter Joshua 6, in which Isrealites conquer the city of Jericho. As part of the conquest, seven priests march around the walls of the city blowing trumpets. ↩

  6. This song, which was the first single released for the album, has an official visualizer. ↩

  7. In the lyric pamphlet, the lyrics for "Your Glow" have the following epigraph:

    Is there no other goal for man except being king?
    —Jean Giono

    Jean Giono was a French writer active in the 20th cantury. ↩

  8. Italics and quotation marks present in the lyric pamphlet. Possibly a reference to Psalms 46:10, "He says, 'Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.'" (New International Version) ↩

  9. "The Lady from Shanghai" is from the 1992 EP Songs for Petronius. Both songs include the line "We went down to the boat." ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  10. This line is reminiscent of two Bible verses: Matthew 6:29 "Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these." and Luke 12:27 "Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these." (New International Version) A similar allusion is made in "The Destruction of the Kola Superdeep Borehole Tower." ↩

  11. In the lyric pamphlet, this line is written as "Headed for the places where lucky guesses go." ↩