The Sit Boy Soundtrack Collection
The Sit Boy is a multimedia novel-in-progress: a story told across fiction, music, and images. New chapters drop every Friday on Substack, and new songs land here on Bandcamp alongside them — the soundtrack growing as the book does. The early songs in this collection score the chapters before the road opens up. Some tracks are sung, some are instrumental score, some are voiced by characters other than the protagonist. Together they set the emotional weather of the opening movement — the silence after a marriage ends, the quiet weight of being carried by friends, the first tiny earthquakes of a man being changed by a country he didn't know he was crossing. More songs will follow as the story unfolds. The Sit Boy is also the origin story behind two albums: Somewhere West of Me (out now) and Somewhere Further West (forthcoming). The novel tells how those songs came to be written. The soundtrack tells what came before the songwriting began. Read along as new chapters are released on Fridays. Listen along here as new tracks are added weekly.
18 tracks
Tracks
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0:00 / 0:00A heartland-rock road song about being awakened by something underneath. Tiny earthquakes on the highway. A compass that does not point but trembles. The sound of a man who does not yet know where he's going — and does not want it to stop.
Lyrics
[Intro] [Verse 1] There's a tremor underneath me That I cannot really name A small unsteady kind of feeling Like the ground is not the same I have been the steady one The man who held the line But the line has started moving And the moving feels like mine [Pre-Chorus] And the careful man inside me Tries to tell me it's the road But the road is just a pathway And whatever's out there knows [Chorus - BIG] Tiny earthquakes on the highway Tiny earthquakes in my chest Something shaking something open Something asking for the rest I don't know what it's telling me I don't know where it goes But every mile of shaking Tells me something in me knows Something in me knows [Verse 2] There is a country I am crossing That is also crossing me Every mile undoes a little Of the man I used to be I do not feel the loss of him I feel the room that he made Like a house with all the windows open Letting in the air for days [Pre-Chorus] And the careful man inside me Tries to call it just a phase But whatever's been awakened Has been waiting all my days [Chorus - BIG] Tiny earthquakes on the highway Tiny earthquakes in my chest Something shaking something open Something asking for the rest I don't know what it's telling me I don't know where it goes But every mile of shaking Tells me something in me knows Something in me knows [Bridge] It's not fate It's not luck It's not something I can plan It's a hand beneath the surface Pulling levers on the man I'm headed where I'm going And I know I'm not there yet But the shaking is the compass And the compass won't forget This is not a thought This is not a choice This is something underneath me Speaking in my voice And I would not have heard it If I had not been lost And I do not want it to stop I do not want it to stop [Final Chorus - BIG] Tiny earthquakes on the highway Tiny earthquakes in my chest Something shaking something open Something asking for the rest I don't know what it's telling me I don't know where it goes But every mile of shaking Tells me something in me knows Something in me knows Something in me knows [Outro] Something in me knows
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0:00 / 0:00A neoclassical piece scoring a moment of revelation a man does not yet know he is receiving. Felt piano, sustained strings, and the quiet weight of a prophecy still unfolding.
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0:00 / 0:00A piano ballad sung from outside the story, scoring the silence after a door closes. About being the thing too heavy to take along — and the small forgotten quiet that begins to rise once everything else is gone.
Lyrics
[Intro] [Solo piano, simple chord figure, room tone, the sound of a house that has just gotten quiet] [Verse 1] There's a man inside the doorway And the doorway doesn't know That the life he held against it Has been told to let it go He is standing in the hallway He is standing in the rain That is falling in the kitchen Of the house that used to know him [Pre-Chorus] And the question he can't ask aloud The one he keeps inside Is whether he was something taken Or something left behind [Chorus] She didn't take the silence She didn't take the years She didn't take the person Who had carried both their fears She walked out the doorway And he just stayed in place And the thing she left behind her Had a face she used to love The thing she left behind [Verse 2] Now the work is his to carry Every wall and every weight Every choice she made together He is making now too late There's a lifetime in the closets There's a marriage in the walls And the man inside the hallway Has to answer when it calls [Pre-Chorus] And nobody tells the one who leaves The one who walks away That the one who stays behind the door Is the one who has to pay [Chorus] She didn't take the silence She didn't take the years She didn't take the person Who had carried both their fears She walked out the doorway And he just stayed in place And the thing she left behind her Had a face she used to love The thing she left behind [Bridge] But somewhere in the breaking Of the man against the wall A small forgotten quiet Started rising through it all Like a key inside a pocket He'd forgotten he had on Like a road outside the window He had not been looking on Maybe being left behind Is the way that you get free Maybe everything she didn't want Was the everything of me [Final Chorus] She didn't take the silence She didn't take the years She didn't take the person Who had carried both their fears She walked out the doorway And he just stayed in place And the thing she left behind her Had a face she used to love The thing she left behind The thing she left behind [Outro] The thing she left behind
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0:00 / 0:00A modern indie-folk song about the people who don't try to fix you. Three kinds of love rendered as three acts of presence — and the dawning recognition that being held is its own kind of strength.
Lyrics
[Intro] [Verse 1] There is a kind of friend Who turns the volume up Who orders for the table Who fills the empty cup He doesn't try to fix me He just makes the room more loud And the loud becomes a kind of light That cuts the heavy clouds [Verse 2] There is a kind of friend Who counts before she speaks Who sees the way I shake And reaches for my sleeve She does not need to argue She does not need to plan The silence that she offers me Is louder than I am [Pre-Chorus] And I won't say it's easy And I won't say I'm fine But I know how this is going to go I know I'll be alright [Chorus - BIG] 'Cause they're here to carry me And the people just like you Are the reason that the broken ones Get to come out the other side new They're here to carry me Through the part I cannot do And I hope I get to be the one Who carries you through too They're here to carry me [Verse 3] There is a kind of love That a son can give Who picks up the phone on a Tuesday And just lets you live He doesn't try to fix it He just lets you feel And he tells you in the silence That eventually you'll heal [Pre-Chorus] And I won't say it's easy And I won't say I'm fine But I know how this is going to go I know I'll be alright [Chorus - BIG] 'Cause they're here to carry me And the people just like you Are the reason that the broken ones Get to come out the other side new They're here to carry me Through the part I cannot do And I hope I get to be the one Who carries you through too They're here to carry me [Bridge] I have been the one who lifts I have been the one who plans I have been the man who never had To open up his hands But the holding is the easy part The hard part is to fall Into the people who were always there You just don't see them all Until the day you need them Until the day you break And the world that you've been holding up Comes down for goodness sake And there they are still standing With their hands beneath your fall And you finally understand That this is how we get through it all [Final Chorus - BIG] 'Cause they're here to carry me And the people just like you Are the reason that the broken ones Get to come out the other side new They're here to carry me Through the part I cannot do And I hope I get to be the one Who carries you through too They're here to carry me They're here to carry me [Outro] They're here to carry me
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0:00 / 0:00The companion piece to *First House*, scoring a man in motion across a country that is also crossing him. Where the first piece was an ending he could not yet feel, this one is an opening he is just beginning to.
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0:00 / 0:00An urban alt-pop song about stepping back into the world wearing a borrowed smile. The bureaucratic euphemism for a life that has been quietly rearranged — and the strange agency of saying yes to the show anyway.
Lyrics
[Intro] [Spoken] They tell you to get back out there. They forget to mention you're not sure where you went. [Verse 1] There's a door I cannot reopen And a silence in the hall There's a stranger in the mirror Who almost answers when I call I rehearse the easy answer For a question no one asks Just a few well-chosen syllables To soften where it cracked [Pre-Chorus] And the night is full of faces And the faces turn to look And I wear a borrowed smile Like a sentence from a book [Chorus] Tell 'em my circumstances have recently changed Tell 'em the version that you knew has been rearranged Pour me something pretty, point me toward the floor I'm back among the living and I'm not too sure what for My circumstances have recently changed My circumstances have recently changed [Verse 2] Caught somebody's eyes across the room Held a beat too long And a piece of me I thought was buried Raised a hand and said still strong Then the part of me that knows the world Whispered careful what you find 'Cause the looking always feels like love When you've spent the season blind [Pre-Chorus] And the world is full of mirrors And the mirrors full of light And I'm telling them my story Like it isn't mine tonight [Chorus] Tell 'em my circumstances have recently changed Tell 'em the version that you knew has been rearranged Pour me something pretty, point me toward the floor I'm back among the living and I'm not too sure what for My circumstances have recently changed My circumstances have recently changed [Bridge] I'm not the boy I used to be I'm not the man I'll find I'm somebody in the middle Trying not to lose my mind I've been a half-remembered chapter In a story I forgot But I'm stepping through the doorway now With whatever I have got [Final Chorus] Tell 'em my circumstances have recently changed Tell 'em the man you used to know has been rearranged Pour me something pretty, point me toward the floor I'm back among the living and I'm gonna find out what for My circumstances have recently changed My circumstances have recently changed Welcome to the show Welcome to the show [Outro]
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0:00 / 0:00An indie folk-rock song about a one-night vanishing — sung by the woman left at the table when he never came back. The adult voice of a thirty-something who knows the difference between a guy who's slow to text and a guy who simply walked out. The wound isn't the silence. The wound is being left without goodbye.
Lyrics
[Intro] [Verse 1] I read the signs, I did the math, I thought we had a spark Two strangers tipping toward each other in the dark You were charming, you were funny, had me laughing at your jokes But I guess some guys are mirrors — just reflections and some smoke You said you'd be right back, and I waited there a while Then I waited longer, sitting like a fool inside my smile [Pre-Chorus] It was electric, but I should have known A man who's running disappears alone You don't need a reason, you don't need to say You can be a ghost in the middle of the day [Chorus] We met on a Saturday night I thought you liked me but I guess that wasn't right Tight jeans and my hair just right I wanted your hands on me all night But you slipped right out the door without a sound You picked the night I cared and you walked away from me I thought you liked me, but that wasn't right And the worst part is I never got a goodbye But hey — your loss, I'm moving on [Verse 2] It's Monday now, the sun is up, and I'm just sipping tea Analyzing why you'd run from something good as me Maybe I'm a little too much, or maybe you're just less But I won't spend my afternoon cleaning up your mess If you thought you'd find a girl who'd write your story for you You picked the wrong direction — I've got my own things to do [Pre-Chorus] It was electric, but I should have known A man who's running disappears alone You don't need a reason, you don't need to say You can be a ghost in the middle of the day [Chorus] We met on a Saturday night I thought you liked me but I guess that wasn't right Tight jeans and my hair just right I wanted your hands on me all night But you slipped right out the door without a sound You picked the night I cared and you walked away from me I thought you liked me, but that wasn't right And the worst part is I never got a goodbye But hey — your loss, I'm moving on [Bridge] I'm not the type to cry over a man who couldn't stay I've got too much rhythm to be wasting on your way You're a chapter I am closing, just a detour on the road I'm dropping off your silence, yeah, I'm lightening the load Lightening the load Lightening the load [Final Chorus] We met on a Saturday night I thought you liked me but I guess that wasn't right Tight jeans and my hair just right I wanted your hands on me all night But you slipped right out the door without a sound You picked the night I cared and you walked away from me I thought you liked me, but that wasn't right And the worst part is I never got a goodbye But hey — your loss, I'm moving on Yeah, your loss, I'm moving on [Outro] I'm too smart for the disappearing game And I've already forgotten your name Yeah, your loss I'm moving on
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0:00 / 0:00The earworm song Sloane plays for Dixon on their date — a fictional band's psychedelic pop track that he insists is ridiculous and then cannot stop humming. Some kind of modern version of the Bee Gees, he tells Bobby.
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0:00 / 0:00The third piece in the threshold series. Where *First House* was the threshold approached and *Second Sky* was the threshold crossed, *Separate Skies* is the threshold acknowledged but not taken: two people standing close enough to feel what could have been, choosing with grace to stand still. Same moment. Different skies.
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0:00 / 0:00An electronic dance anthem about hearing the message in every almost-relationship. The man stops being acted upon and starts to choose. The practice goodbyes weren't wounds — they were qualifications. He's gotten good at this. He's ready.
Lyrics
[Intro] [Verse 1] Atlanta nights are quiet When you're someone who has changed And I'm sitting through the dinners Of a life that's rearranged [Pre-Chorus] And every voice keeps saying The same thing in a different way And I am listening I am listening [Chorus] [DROP] All signs say go All signs say go Every almost-something Tells me what I already know I've been practicing my goodbyes And I think I'm getting good And the world keeps telling me to leave And I think I finally should All signs say go All signs say go [Verse 2] I have tried to find the answer In the place where I feel safe But the answer is the doorway And the doorway leads away [Pre-Chorus] And every voice keeps saying The same thing in a different way And I am listening I am listening [Chorus - DROP] All signs say go All signs say go Every almost-something Tells me what I already know All signs say go I've been practicing my goodbyes And I think I'm getting good And the world keeps telling me to leave And I think I finally should All signs say go All signs say go [Bridge - QUIET] [Drop down to vocal and pad only, intimate and breathy] I am not afraid I am not afraid I have heard the calling And the calling sounds like home I am not afraid I am not afraid And I think I always knew That I was meant to fly alone [Final Chorus - BIG DROP] I've heard what you're sayin' I've practiced my goodbyes All signs say go All signs say go Every almost-something Tells me what I already know I've been practicing my goodbyes And I think I'm getting good And the world keeps telling me to leave And I think I finally should All signs say go All signs say go [Outro] Time for me to fly
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0:00 / 0:00A singer-songwriter song about competence under chaos. The man at the center of a $10M Vegas event — running on coffee, radio chatter, and muscle memory — wearing a lapel pin that reads NOT MY FIRST RODEO as half-joke, half-armor. The verses are three parallel storms (the show, the woman, the house). The chorus is the body that knows where to go. By the bridge, watching the room finally feel what he meant it to feel, the pin he's been wearing as a joke has become true.
Lyrics
[Intro] [Solo acoustic guitar, close mic, gentle entry] [Verse 1] Seven forty-seven and I got Cherubs watching me Somebody else's coffee, somebody else's voice Wash is going purple, lots to do by morning Body keeps moving when the mind wants to spin [Chorus] Let it come, let it spin, let it ride Pin on the chest, takin' it in stride World gets loud, body knows where to go No, this ain't my first rodeo [Verse 2] Phone keeps lighting up between the radio calls Her name on the screen — she's chasing, I'm trying to stay clean Pink mesh in an envelope — boldest thing I've seen She's texting me emojis — and I'm feeling kinda green [Chorus] Let it come, let it spin, let it ride Pin on the chest, takin' it in stride World gets loud, body knows where to go No, this ain't my first rodeo [Verse 3] Phone's ringing again — every six minutes, every nine Forty for this, eight bucks for that But Magnolia's there — she's safe and she's home Tell her I miss her. Tell her I'm coming home [Chorus] Let it come, let it spin, let it ride Pin on the chest, takin' it in stride World gets loud, body knows where to go No, this ain't my first rodeo [Bridge] Amber lights come up, exactly where I built them I can feel the people watching from the back of the room It feels just like I meant it. Pin says I've been here. Tonight I know it's true. [Final Chorus] Let it come, let it spin, let it ride Pin on the chest, takin' it in stride World gets loud, body knows where to go No, this ain't my first rodeo No, this ain't my first rodeo [Outro] No. This ain't my first rodeo.
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0:00 / 0:00The soundtrack's first blues track. A classic Mississippi Delta blues song performed at the carnival by the bluesman Dixon meets in Las Vegas and invites to take the stage — wild gratitude turned into a showman's anthem, sung by one of the people who helped wish it into being.
Lyrics
[Verse 1] Two days to make a room into something nobody's ever seen Mister Dixon givin' me a chance to get up and be heard Rounding up the performers It's a big Las Vegas stir Wake them up, get 'em here, get 'em in the door We gonna wake the dead to land it Let's make it big tonight y'all [Chorus] Hand on a stranger's shoulder — "are you seeing this?" Hand on a stranger's shoulder — "are you seeing this?" Welcome to the carnival of everything Welcome to the carnival of everything [Verse 2] Fire and silk and feathers, motion in the air Wheels and wings and noise and lights everywhere A wild thing we built out of nothing at all You couldn't plan it Had to wish it into being [Chorus] Hand on a stranger's shoulder — "are you seeing this?" Hand on a stranger's shoulder — "are you seeing this?" Welcome to the carnival of everything Welcome to the carnival of everything [Bridge] Somebody worked the phones, somebody lit the fires Somebody drew the lines, somebody made it real Just two days building thin air into a storm Working from nothin' Now you're here to see it all [Guitar solo] [Final Chorus] Hand on a stranger's shoulder — "are you seeing this?" Hand on a stranger's shoulder — "are you seeing this?" Welcome to the carnival of everything Welcome to the carnival of everything [Outro] It's the most amazing thing we did here. We did it y'all. Yes we did. [Guitar closes solo]
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0:00 / 0:00The industrial EDM track playing at the Voodoo Rooftop on Saturday night — pounding electronic drums under a sparse Latina-tinged female vocal. Plays while Dixon is on the dance floor, and is still playing when the room moves a quarter-turn off-axis.
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0:00 / 0:00The overture to the road. A bright, spirited cinematic instrumental for the first morning of a long drive — the city in the mirror, the whole country in the windshield, nothing gone wrong yet because nothing's happened yet. It scores a verb, not a place: the deep breath and the go.
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0:00 / 0:00An uptempo heartland-rock road song from the drive west with the dog in the back seat. This is about the bright version Dixon sends to everyone he loves, kept light on purpose so nobody has to carry his weight. The loud, free companion to Montana Sky's quiet, true one: two kinds of fine, one bright and one real. The one thing in it that isn't edited is wish you were here.
Lyrics
[Verse 1] Bought a postcard, wrote it on the wheel Everything true was too big, too much to make you feel So I wrote about the weather, wrote a joke about the miles Folded up the heavy stuff and mailed you a smile [Chorus] So I send you the bright stuff Sun's out, I'm doing fine I'll keep the heavy things beside me You don't have to carry mine [Verse 2] When they ask me how I'm holding up, I give 'em the good news Tell 'em about the mountains, leave out the empty rooms What they want is to hear I'm fine, so fine is what I send The rest of it rides shotgun, and I just hold it all in [Chorus] So I send you the bright stuff Sun's out, I'm doing fine I'll keep the heavy things beside me You don't have to carry mine [Bridge] Maybe it's a lie, but love allows a few The kind that only costs me Somebody's got to carry the heavy things Let it be me You keep the bright It'll keep you feelin' free [Final Chorus] So I send you the bright stuff Sun's out, I'm doing fine I'll keep the heavy things beside me You don't have to carry mine [Outro] Wish you were here Is the part that's true Don't go looking further You don't need to
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0:00 / 0:00A sparse acoustic song from the loneliest stretch of the drive home: man truly alone and on his own for the first time in his life, watching a Montana sky hold a storm and the sun at the same time. The discovery that you can be lonesome and fine all at once, and that neither one cancels the other. The first quiet tilt toward the West that's waiting up ahead.
Lyrics
[Verse 1] Two thousand miles of quiet, just the open road and me Used to have someone to say it to, now I just let it be Somewhere out past the last town, the whole sky tore in half Rain coming down on the left, and the right side bright as glass [Chorus] Storm to the north, sun to the east One sky big enough to hold them both Turns out you can be lonesome and fine all at once Both of 'em true, under a Montana sky [Verse 2] Watched the rain come down and never reach the ground Fell a mile out of a hard sky and gave up halfway down Reminded me of people, won't say their names out loud Everybody spills, but not everybody wets the ground [Chorus] Storm to the north, sun to the east One sky big enough to hold them both Turns out you can be lonesome and fine all at once Both of 'em true, under a Montana sky [Bridge] Been mailing home the bright version, sun's out, I'm alright The kind of fine you write, so nobody worries at night But this is the other kind, the kind that takes you by the hand and doesn't have to hide The kind that lives inside. [Final Chorus] Storm to the north, sun to the east One sky big enough to hold them both Turns out you can be lonesome and fine all at once Both of 'em true, under a Montana sky [Outro] Just me and the road and a sky that don't care Turns out that's the kindest thing out there
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This is a special live version of Something in me Knows: the heartland-rock road song about being awakened by something underneath. Tiny earthquakes on the highway. A compass that does not point but trembles. The sound of a man who does not yet know where he's going — and does not want it to stop. This is the uptempo live version.
Lyrics
[Intro] [Verse 1] There's a tremor underneath me That I cannot really name A small unsteady kind of feeling Like the ground is not the same I have been the steady one The man who held the line But the line has started moving And the moving feels like mine [Pre-Chorus] And the careful man inside me Tries to tell me it's the road But the road is just a pathway And whatever's out there knows [Chorus - BIG] Tiny earthquakes on the highway Tiny earthquakes in my chest Something shaking something open Something asking for the rest I don't know what it's telling me I don't know where it goes But every mile of shaking Tells me something in me knows Something in me knows [Verse 2] There is a country I am crossing That is also crossing me Every mile undoes a little Of the man I used to be I do not feel the loss of him I feel the room that he made Like a house with all the windows open Letting in the air for days [Pre-Chorus] And the careful man inside me Tries to call it just a phase But whatever's been awakened Has been waiting all my days [Chorus - BIG] Tiny earthquakes on the highway Tiny earthquakes in my chest Something shaking something open Something asking for the rest I don't know what it's telling me I don't know where it goes But every mile of shaking Tells me something in me knows Something in me knows [Bridge] It's not fate It's not luck It's not something I can plan It's a hand beneath the surface Pulling levers on the man I'm headed where I'm going And I know I'm not there yet But the shaking is the compass And the compass won't forget This is not a thought This is not a choice This is something underneath me Speaking in my voice And I would not have heard it If I had not been lost And I do not want it to stop I do not want it to stop [Final Chorus - BIG] Tiny earthquakes on the highway Tiny earthquakes in my chest Something shaking something open Something asking for the rest I don't know what it's telling me I don't know where it goes But every mile of shaking Tells me something in me knows Something in me knows Something in me knows [Outro] Something in me knows
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The soundtrack's first blues track. A classic Mississippi Delta blues song performed at the carnival by the bluesman Dixon meets in Las Vegas and invites to take the stage — wild gratitude turned into a showman's anthem, sung by one of the people who helped wish it into being. Live edition, performed at the carnival in front of twenty-five thousand people.
Lyrics
[Verse 1] Two days to make a room into something nobody's ever seen Mister Dixon givin' me a chance to get up and be heard Rounding up the performers It's a big Las Vegas stir Wake them up, get 'em here, get 'em in the door We gonna wake the dead to land it Let's make it big tonight y'all [Chorus] Hand on a stranger's shoulder — "are you seeing this?" Hand on a stranger's shoulder — "are you seeing this?" Welcome to the carnival of everything Welcome to the carnival of everything [Verse 2] Fire and silk and feathers, motion in the air Wheels and wings and noise and lights everywhere A wild thing we built out of nothing at all You couldn't plan it Had to wish it into being [Chorus] Hand on a stranger's shoulder — "are you seeing this?" Hand on a stranger's shoulder — "are you seeing this?" Welcome to the carnival of everything Welcome to the carnival of everything [Bridge] Somebody worked the phones, somebody lit the fires Somebody drew the lines, somebody made it real Just two days building thin air into a storm Working from nothin' Now you're here to see it all [Guitar solo] [Final Chorus] Hand on a stranger's shoulder — "are you seeing this?" Hand on a stranger's shoulder — "are you seeing this?" Welcome to the carnival of everything Welcome to the carnival of everything [Outro] It's the most amazing thing we did here. We did it y'all. Yes we did. [Guitar closes solo]