The stories behind Crew of the Sub-Grade Run

• Harmonies and Accordion in Crew of the Sub-Grade Run — Take B delivers a tighter acoustic tempo at 112 BPM, leaning into rhythmic accordion riffs, banjo picking, and a somber oar-resting coda.
• Beneath the Waterline with the Sub-Grade Crew — A maritime sea shanty reimagines hospital biomedical engineering departments as engine room crews keeping critical hospital ships afloat.

Lyrics

To the lower decks, where the work gets done

Up on the bridge where the polished brass gleams

The surgeons and captains sail under bright beams

They take all the laurels, they steer with the wheel

When wounded souls ask for a blessing to heal

But deep in the bilges beneath the waterline, dwell the ghosts of the copper,

the masters of twine.

With grease on our overalls, burns on our thumbs, keeping the heartbeat when

darkness succumbs so drink to the crew of the subgrade run who work

in the shadows and sleep in the sun when the hull takes on water and machines lose

their breath we stand in the breach twixt the living and death with a fluke in our

holster and flux in our pack we keep the great hospital ship

on our track

No patient will remember our names when they leave

No family will toast to the solder we weave

They think that the dial's just magically turned

That light needs no keeper to flicker and burn

And we ask for no ribbons, we ask for no crown

As long as the lifelines never go down

From the birth of the babe in

the warming crib tray

To the elder whose breath gently ebbs with the day

Our craft was the vessel that carried them through

Unbroken, unyielding, and faithful and true

So drink to the crew of the subgrade run

Who work in the shadows and sleep in the sun

When the hull takes on water and machines lose their breath

We stand in the breach twixt the living and death

With a fluke in our holster and flux in our pack, we keep the great hospital

ship on her track

Shift is done, lads

Morning tide is here

Rest yours