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Lyrics by Hannah Sennesh
Music by Matthew Middendorf

Blessed is the match
Consumed in kindling flame

Blessed is the flame that burns
In the secret fastness of the heart

Blessed is the heart with strength
To stop it’s beating for honors sake

Blessed is the match
Consumed in kindling flame

The FDA’s reporting happy dietary news
They’re gonna recommend new food groups
Only ones that fit the American scene
Are sugar, chocolate, fat and caffeine
But chocolate, as everybody knows,
Already contains all of those
And that makes chocolate the complete food

Chocolate, chocolate
It’s not an addiction, it’s good for you
It is complete, it’s the healthy cuisine
Full of antioxidants and dopamine
Embrace good health, bid your problems adieu
Eat chocolate, chocolate, the complete food

For fruit I’ll have chocolate dipped strawberries
And chocolate ice cream to get my dairy
Put the mole′ on the meat to get the nutrients I need
Veggies are deficient but chocolate is complete

Waiter bring a chocolate latte, then let dessert begin
Bless me, father, for this plate of double chocolate sinned
Roll me in the fudge and the Mississippi mud
Call a taxi! My blood chocolate’s point one and going up

Chocolate, chocolate
It’s not an addiction, it’s good for you
It is complete, it’s the healthy cuisine
Full of antioxidants and dopamine
Embrace good health, bid your problems adieu
Eat chocolate, chocolate, the complete food

I used to take Prozac, but my doctor made me switch
Now he gives me chocolate for my serotonin lift
Now I feel happy and my treatment plan is yummy
Those Indians were right when they used cocoa beans as money

Join the HealthByChocolate treatment plan, cause they prescribe
Semi-sweet or bitter, milk or dark or white
From truffles to Godiva to the ears of Easter bunnies
Any system of delivery that puts chocolate in your tummy
Those Indians were right when they used cocoa beans as money

Chocolate, chocolate
It’s not an addiction, it’s good for you
It is complete, it’s the healthy cuisine
Full of antioxidants and dopamine
Embrace good health, bid your problems adieu
Eat chocolate, chocolate, the complete food

My baby, looked down her nose at me,
She said, I need a guy who’s got stuff
A ladder climbing Beamer driving guy is what I want
I looked at her real funny and I said
I thought that this was about love

She walked into my closet,
She said, “Your clothes, they aren’t enough”
She thinks her boss will not promote her
If her man where’s this artsy fluff
I guess I was mistaken cause
I thought that this was about love

She used to treat me warm
But now she treats me rough
She used to say that I was great
Now she says I’m screwed up

She says she is the diva prima donna
And now she is the judge,
And she’s leaving me behind tonight,
Cause honey she’s moving up
I looked at her real angry and said
I thought that this was about love

She turned and walked away
Then paused and bent her head
I thought that she would wish me luck
She kissed her car instead

She found that ladder climbing Beamer driving guy
Who fit her like a glove
She said she was so happy
But I smiled, and sure enough
A friend said that she left him crying
I thought that this was all about love

I do as I please
You’ll just have to bleed
I’m the great human race
And I’m in first place
It’s all about me

Love a big GNP
Love my big SUV
And I don’t despair
For the water and air
It’s all about me

I’m up on the stage
And I’ve got the lead roll
If you can’t adapt
Then you’ll have to go

More development please
I’ve got all these needs
Eagle, grizzly and elk
Can just go to hell
It’s all about me

I learned to walk upright
And I grew this big brain
Population growth thrills me
And I get my way

Coast to coast concrete
A technological feet
I’m toasting and drinking
Cheers to extinction
As long as it’s not me
Because it’s all, it’s all, it’s all
It’s all about me

I was looking for Jesus, but I could never find him
Til I read in St. Luke that he was a friend of people lost in sin
Then I went to church and the preacher said that sinners
All would go to hell--it was later that night I put two and two together

I thought, Then...
Jesus must be in hell
If that’s where the sinners go
Jesus must be in hell
But not too many people know
So if you want to find Jesus as bad as I do
You’ll surely want to go there too
He’s not at church, he’s not in Rome
He loves them sinners so he’s made hell his home

The next week I rush into church with great elation
I stand up and announce, Hey! Everyone I’ve had a revelation
They march me to the pulpit, I climb the stairs and then declare
Since Jesus is a friend of sinners, I know where he’s at! Come we’ll meet him there

Yes...
Jesus must be in hell
If that’s where the sinners go
Jesus must be in hell
But not too many people know
So if you want to find Jesus as bad as I do
You’ll surely want to go there too
He’s not at church, he’s not in Rome
He loves them sinners so he’s made hell his home

My words caused a hundred church ladies to faint
The minister said, Stone that man! The gospel that sure aint
The whole congregation started to jump and shout
They grabbed me by the collar to throw me out
But I stood up tall and defended myself
I took a hymnal off of the shelf
I said what more proof do you need
And then I read them the Apostles’ Creed

Cause it says,
Jesus descended to hell,
I thought you all would know
Jesus descended to hell
Cause that’s where the sinners go
So if you want to find Jesus as bad as I do
You’ll surely want to go there too
They’re not outcasts, they are his own
He loves them sinners, so he’s made hell his home

Jesus must be in hell
If that’s where the sinners go
Jesus must be in hell
But not too many people know
So if you want to find Jesus as bad as I do
You’ll surely want to go there too
He’s not at church, he’s not in Rome
He loves them sinners so he’s made hell his home

I head south from Lusk
Through the grasslands at dusk
Gonna drive my eyes red on this highway
I’m so heartbroke alone
That I pull off the road
When there’s a rattlesnake dead on the highway

He wasn’t doing no harm
Just trying to keep warm
But that’ll get you killed dead on the highway
And trying to get warm inside
Many times my heart has died
Like that rattlesnake dead on the highway

When I fall in love
This pain always comes
And the pain--it’s more than I can take
I try to let love in
Fight to let love win
It’s like I’m standing my ground against an eighteen wheel rig
Yeah, I’m standing my ground against an eighteen wheel rig
Then I’m a rattlesnake dead on the highway

I used to think
That it’s a good thing
To kill a rattlesnake dead on the highway
But with my heart broke like this
I’ll swerve to miss
When there’s a rattlesnake out on the highway
Oh! Don’t need more rattlesnakes dead on the highway

I watch you run
The Wyoming range plains
Between the mountains
Where it don’t rain
And when I see you
I’m the lucky one
To see a band of
Wild horses run

Run like it’s freedom
Run like it’s play
Pleasure has stolen
Your heart away
Run, run wild

Across the sunrise
Charging over that ridge
But you’re only running
To feel the wind
Kicking the dust up
Full gallop fun
Men run for glory
Mustangs just run


Run like it’s freedom
Run like it’s play
Pleasure has stolen
Your heart away
Run, run wild

Sometimes I ride out here
In the middle of night
Just sit and listen
While you run by
It sounds like thunder
Shakes me inside
Takes me back a million years
When I was wild


Run like it’s freedom
Run like it’s play
Pleasure has stolen
Your heart away
Run, run wild

I know I could’ve held you
As long as you could stay
I know I could’ve kissed you
A thousand times that day
I know I could’ve had you
Hug the kids once more
I know I could’ve grabbed you
When you went out the door


Didn’t know I’d be crying
At your finest hour
Didn’t know Cape Canaveral was
just a little too far
Didn’t know it was useless
To keep staring at the sky
Didn’t know sixteen minutes could last
For the rest of my life

Sixteen, sixteen,
Oh! Just sixteen minutes away
From Cape Canaveral

I want you to come walking
Out of those Texas woods
I want you to beat the odds
Like the right stuff should
I want you to hold me
Like you promised you would
I want to hear somebody say
It’s possible

Sixteen, sixteen,
Oh! Just sixteen minutes away
From Cape Canaveral

At night I dream it’s possible
That you’re still coming home
At night I dream it’s possible
That you’re still coming home
I want to hear it’s possible
That you’re still coming home

Now the horizon’s covered
With flags at half mast
Your in that jet formation
But you’re the missing man
I know it’s useless
To keep staring at the sky
I know those sixteen minutes will last
For the rest of my life

Sixteen, sixteen,
Oh! Just sixteen minutes away
From Cape Canaveral

Though it’s been years
I remember like it’s carved in stone
How the spirit came and helped me
In the land of Yellowstone

I was raised in Montana
Felt creation’s heartbeat everyday
We lost the ranch and moved to St. Paul
Had this aching inside that I couldn’t make go away.

But when I came to Yellowstone
The geysers shooting sulphur steam
Grizzly bear and snow-capped ranges
The land was stirring inside of me

Then I was
Kneeling in prairie grass and watching
Whole meadow’s black with buffalo
And gazing in their eyes I feel that heartbeat
The heartbeat I remember from long ago

Then I could feel it at the canyon
Like thunder from below
And from the bear just like the buffalo
Still felt that heartbeat when I got home
From the land of Yellowstone

Now I’ve got children of my own
May not leave them money when I go
But I’m leaving them something more
We spend our summers in the land of Yellowstone
We spend our summers in the land of Yellowstone

I’m from Western Dakota where the prairie goes forever
Rising and falling like the sea
There’s sun, and dust, and cactus, and the grass sticks to your pants
And the wind blows and blows with no relief

Most people, rush on through here, got somewhere else to go
Say, it’s empty, barren as the moon
But the land, it will find you, if you don’t mind some waiting
And then, like that grass, it will hold on to you

There’s a lone tree calling from that dry creek
There’s a hundred birds singing melodies
I stand out on the prairie between the earth and sky
I don’t feel alone--this land is alive

In the afternoon the thunderheads roll in from the west
Like clipper ships spread across the sky
I’m praying for rain, like every blade of grass
Like every blade of grass for a hundred miles

Ain't it funny how the flat land makes the sky so big
Ain't it funny how it makes the earth feel near
And when I can see forever, I feel bigger than myself
Unfolded, open to the spirit here

There’s a lone tree calling from that dry creek
There’s a hundred birds singing melodies
I stand out on the prairie between the earth and sky
I don’t feel alone--this land is alive

Last night I spent the night out beneath that dry creek tree
Having dreams the prairie’s covered with buffalo running free
And I wake up with to the drumming of their thundering stampede
Ain't it sweet? Oh this sweet Dakota prairie

All songs written by Matthew Middendorf, except Blessed is the Match (lyrics by Hannah Sennesh, music by Matthew Middendorf). Recorded by Jay Vernali at Jay’s Place in Nashville, Tennessee.