"...rootsy, spacious, and bright. This song brings you straight to the ocean.... The waters will rise, the sea will not be deterred in the end."
- Melissa Clarke, Americana Highways
"...a thoughtful and beautifully performed song that leaves you with plenty to ponder."
- Renee DeRobertis, Goldfields FM
Producer: Ed Tree. Recorded at Rainshadow Recording, Port Townsend, WA (Engineer: Conor Sisk) and The Treehouse, San Gabriel, CA (Engineer: Ed Tree)
Mike Berman: Vocals, Acoustic Guitar; Elissa Barron: Vocals; Marty Axelrod: Hammond B3 Organ, Piano; Ed Tree: Bass Guitar, Electric Guitar; Conor Sisk: Drums
Hold Back The Sea
Michael Berman © 2023
Ten years old sprawled across the sand with a shovel in his hand
Making moats and walls and castles with a calm intensity
The cool wind whips the wave tops you can smell the tide coming in
As he constructs his crumbling empire in the gaze of the hungry sea
And he knows deep down inside it cannot stand
When the waters breach his castle it’ll tumble down again
Because there’s no holding back the sea
The works we build are washed away, we can’t stop the waves you and me
No matter how we dig, the walls we raise, the lines we rig, it’s all futility
There’s nothing that will hold back the sea
By the water in Connecticut, white clapboard buildings cower on a bluff
A beeping front end loader crawling back and forth, pushing sand around
A garden’s edges fall away, topsoil gone down to the clay
Bricks and mortar peeking out where they once were buried underground
And he knows deep down inside they cannot stand
When the next storm comes the waters rise will wash away the land
Because there’s no holding back the sea
The works we build are washed away, we can’t stop the waves you and me
No matter how we dig, the walls we raise, the lines we rig, it’s all futility
There’s nothing that will hold back the sea
And he sees there’s something noble in the trying
We keep those castles while we can, we don’t want to watch them dying
But there’s no holding back the sea
The works we build are washed away, we can’t stop the waves you and me
No matter how we dig, the walls we raise, the lines we rig, it’s all futility
There’s nothing that will hold back the sea
There’s nothing that will hold back the sea
There’s nothing that will hold back the sea
