Lyrics
this cold (american heart)
© Troy Bronsink 2026
Waiting on
diamonds to grow
out of this cold
beating heart
Waiting on
‘ reaper to sow
its been so hard to grow
‘n this cold beating heart
You wait
nail upon the northern sky
Navigate
tailing me home
waiting on
time frames to show
out of this cold
‘tearing me a part
tearing me apart
tearing me a part
Great bear
Cassiopeia
Clouds there, wont let me see ya
out loud, t’ let you know
cause I
don’t know
how to say to no
to this part
(american heart)
this whole world — like hollars from below
often sorrows go too slow to show
singing out, like I’m singing to Boston
and I don’t know
this cold beating heart
this cold beating heart
this cold beating heart
Tearing us Apart
“Singing out like I’m singing to Boston” just happened when I first started writing this song, I guess it was related to the feel of the bar chords, even though it had a slower “SunVolt=Apalachian” feel of a song. Its wierd, the lyric made me go relisten to Boston and was amazed at how melancholy and capitalism-critical some of their stuff was (almost the way Born in the USA snuck in a critical ideology under the guise of pop rock.
This entire arrangement came to me back in November 2025 around our first snow in Cincinnati. Drop D, and the entire guitar rattling dropped down a half step. I didn’t know what it was about, just a feel.
The chorus took me a minute to recreate the chords from the field recording, and thats when the Northern start metaphors began to make since.
And today, making some decisions on the bridge the line, “american heart” just once, felt like a lightning bolt. I could sing about my parts, my hardened heart, the cloud of unknowing overtaking me these recent years… and sing it as a part of a people. Grief in feeling seen and in speaking a truth all at once.