Show Do Tell: A Reading Series & Art Review cover art

Show Do Tell: A Reading Series & Art Review

Show Do Tell: A Reading Series & Art Review

By: Matt Waters
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About this listen

 Matt Waters is a singer-songwriter from New York City. His songs range from character studies of the contemporary American to intimate explorations of love. A writer of fiction, he attempts to meld the musical and literary realms through detailed lyricism. He has been particularly inspired by the likes of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Billy Corgan, Mike Scott, Isaac Brock, David Bowie, Tupac Shakur, Elliott Smith, Patti Smith, Nicole Atkins, Damien Rice and Bruce Springsteen. As a guitar player he’s influenced by the progressions of John Lennon and George Harrison. The lyrics to his song Aurora were published in the March 2017 issue of American Songwriter Magazine. An essay about being a performance artist called A Moment of Honesty was published in Guernica in May 2016.All rights reserved Music
Episodes
  • Winding Down

    Winding Down
    Aug 11 2025
    Winding Down So vast This Expanse The moon surface Of my mind Lamp-light frames the snow And we go Deeper into that gentle night Which is blind to the past The roles we’ve been cast The dreams that have been denied Chorus: Winding down The lights flicker in town Then they die They die They die I have no illusions I’m paid to entertain the delusions Of the hierarchies and their disaffected Sons Conditioned to think creative work Represents a nobler birth In our country of bibles and guns But I’m hardly cynical In fact, I’m quite equivocal About my replenishing of funds Chorus And your eyes are a respite Though we may fight About what you call my Callous attitude We have our bench and pond The graceful sense of being beyond Each other’s disappointment or gratitude Yet you feel so acutely my fear That I had a life that disappeared Like a flight lost at cruising altitude Chorus From where does this bitterness come? You live a dream, that’s supposed to be freedom Instead I’m the absence of joy In the state at large The teenage girl crying on her birthday Her businessman father with nothing to say The mother hardened by too many days in charge At least my students believe in writing And you leave me alone with my faulty wiring Like my father drinking alone in the garage Chorus Summertime now and I could leave Then its winter again and I’ve begun to grieve And in autumn my mother didn’t provide Any indication When you talk about next January My madness feels almost sanitary Maybe I just need a good, warm vacation You say I’m doing great, I’ve got it together I look like a knight in this coal black sweater Kiss me on the forehead Because we've arrived at our station
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    6 mins
  • Letter to my Double: Thinking about Bob Dylan and the struggling Yankees

    Letter to my Double: Thinking about Bob Dylan and the struggling Yankees
    Aug 10 2025
    Discussing another wonderful Bob Dylan performance at Jones Beach and the travails of a completely disappointing, befuddling Yankees team.
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    1 hr
  • Halloween

    Halloween
    Aug 5 2025
    Halloween Well, they said this one’s serious And not to go outside and smoke I figured my mother wasn’t delirious So I took note Hunkered alone in the basement Watching Season 5 of Mad Men I called to make sure you were aware And to feel like you still were a friend You sounded agitated And staticky on the line I said, you didn’t let that stupid bastard Talk you into giving him a ride Chorus There’s always tomorrow Until there isn’t There’s always the light of lightening in a storm There’s always tomorrow until there isn’t I will love you Forevermore Now the tempest seemed to be touching down My mother shouted downstairs, “some maniacs are staying in the casino.” She added its coming fast And asked about that, “girl you know.” If I’d known we’d split I’d have never introduced you to my mom If she knew you revenge cheated She might not care if you were harmed But it gave me another twinge thinking about the beginning You drove me wild when you laughed fluttering your eyelids Then under the streetlight outside your house We talked about having kids Chorus I hear the rain hard while Pacing from the boiler to my couch Even after the texts with the threats It’s you I still can’t live without So I raced up the stairs, put on my Yankees hat And grabbed the keys Planning to find you and John To explain what state of emergency means But my father grabbed me with half-my-shoulder Out the door And was already pulling me back inside before I even answered when he asked, “what the hell are you leaving for?” Chorus Well, two days later And it was Halloween I saw some little girl walking around a fallen tree And she was dressed like a Disney queen I didn’t feel nothing While walking through our little shattered town I couldn’t lose this shining vision of you Wearing a white wedding gown It was all my goddamn fault I grew up getting called ugly I couldn’t stop myself from wanting someone else Even when I knew you loved me I heard he wanted cigarettes And convinced you to take him The priest said nothing about his sins Nobody wanted to blame him Chorus You know what I got in my head? While I toss and turn In the absence of sleep In my childhood bed? That I’ve never really stopped taking That first walk right after the storm I’ve never wanted to mend the Threads of our life together that were torn Nowadays they say I make you a saint Because I block your flaws out of my mind They tell me it’s only natural for people to heal When they’ve had enough time Chorus
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    6 mins
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