Well, the good times scratched a laugh
From the lungs of the young men
In a Deadwood saloon, South Dakota afternoon
And the old ones by the door with their heads to their chests
They told lies about whiskey on a woman's breath
Yes, and some tell the story of young Mickey Free
Who lost an eye to a buck deer in the Tongue River Valley
Oh and some tell the story of California Joe
Who sent word th...
937 Pre-war Kimball
1, 2, 3, gone
Oh, it sat in this corner for many a year
Through fireside parties, tears and cheers
And the hands of James H***** flew over it's keys
And God know who else 'fore it came to me
And when I was alone I could be Julie Gold
It rang her "From A Distance" just like it was my own
I'd pretend I've the voice of Beth Neilsen Chapman
I wrote 'Late Night Grande' with just...
Kate Wolf
I've been walkin' in my sleep
Countin' troubles 'stead of countin' sheep
Where the years went I can't say
I just turned around and they've gone away
I've been siftin' through the layers
Of dusty books and faded papers
They tell a story I used to know
And it was one that happened so long ago
Chorus
It's gone away in yesterday
Now I find myself on the mountainside
Where the rivers chan...
Southern man, you sure are pretty, got a smile to still the city
And, Lord, you know you got those sleepy eyes
Alabama sweet-talking baby, calmed the heart of a lonely lady
You kept me flying high and the leaving easy
And it's Dallas in the rain and I was dreaming
October wind is still blowing, Lord, you know the songs were flowing
From a broken-hearted lady by the wayside
Listen to my song, y...
I saw you on the avenue
You looked so tired and a little blue
You were in your Sunday best
With your father's tie upon your chest
Hey, you always stood me still
And hey, you always will
In the corridor of one hotel
We once crossed paths I recall it well
Voices in an empty hall
Slamming doors to hearts that fall
Hey, you always stood me still
And hey, you always will
Always will, always will
He...
The touch of your hand will let me know
You'll take me in then let me go
If not for love why would we meet?
How is it turned two into one so easily?
We're lifted up by Angels
You understand, and you never say
How every plan could fade away
If not for love where would you be?
Ashes to dust, water to rust, away from me
We're lifted up by Angels
Higher than the world
Strong enough to leave it
Bou...
You can cuss the daylights
Outta this pale winter moon
We could ponder every reason
Why your true love was untrue
You can cry your eyes out
I've got a shoulder here for you
And everyday your broken heart
Is gonna turn a lighter shade of blue
'Cause anyone can be somebody's fool
Oh, look at me, I once was a fool for you
So, you know it's true
Anyone can be somebody's fool
Out in this lonely tow...
Let me say this one more time
Just in case you didn't hear it right
Put it in my own words
So I know it's understood
You sent me out on a limb
You brought me home sent me back again
Out on that limb one too many times
Should've known I'd learn to fly
You can have anything on earth you need
Anything that breathes, you can surely steal it's wings
You can have everything on earth you see
Anything...
Are you tired of me my darling?
Did you mean those words you said?
That made me yours forever
Since the day when we were wed
And tell me, would you live life over?
Could you make another wife?
Are you tired of me my darling?
Answer only with your eyes
Do you ever rue the springtime
When we first each other met?
How we spoke in warm affection
Words my heart can never forget
And tell me, would y...
Black boy in Chicago, playing in the street
Not near enough to wear, not near enough to eat
Don't you know he saw it on a July afternoon?
He saw a man named 'Armstrong' walk upon the moon
Young girl in Calcutta, barely eight years old
The flies that swarm the market place will see she don't get old
Don't you know she heard it yeah on that July afternoon?
She heard a man named 'Armstrong' he wa...
They both wrote poetry
In fact, that was how they met
He was a Yorkshire man in Cambridge
She was from Massachusetts
They spoke and they fell in love
They kissed and picked daffodils
She came across the ocean
Just to bid her heart goodbye
The hawk next to his goddess
They were glorious to see
Back when Ted loved Sylvia
Close friends disapproved
Said they ought to wait
They did not care with al...
Well I'm goin' back where my garden blooms all year
Where the wintertime speaks softly in the fallin' rain
And I'm goin' back to my green eyed lover there
We will dance along the banks of old Lake Pontchartrain
As I've grown pale beneath the streets of Montreal
Where the voices ring like bells in French-Canadian
And the rivers stand imprisoned till the thaws
I am alone at night and dream of my...
Nick Lowe - Paul Carrack
I live on a battlefield
Surrounded by the ruins of a love we built
And then destroyed between us, the smoke has cleared
As I stumble through the rubble, I'm dazed and seein' double
And I'm truly mystified
My new home is a shell-hole
Filled with tears and muddy water
And bits of broken heart
All around there is desolation
And scenes of devastation
Of a love being torn a...
Gonna wake up crazy to the cry of the trains on Beacon Street
So far from home, so far from love, so far from a friend in need
And all I need is a heart to hold and a good night's sleep
And all I have is the cry of the trains
As they bid farewell on Beacon Street
And here I am again, I'm in the company of strangers
It's a cold winter wind that sings a song
You say your love is lost, I'm not th...
Here?s a photograph of you in Woody Hermann?s band
It was 1952, you were such a handsome man
One of you at a memorial with all of Hoagy?s clan
And then you and my mother, walking hand in hand
And she was beautiful and you played the piano
You were beautiful upon the keys
The world was beautiful when the two of you were dancing
Beautiful to me
You took a photograph of us, your ladies liberty
My...
I dreamed of Louisiana
And a night in Lafayette
We had breakfast with Susanna
We were young and wild and left
What?s different here
Than in that dream and in reality
Is we weren?t afraid to fail in love
And we all believed in the dream
Before, before
I dreamed of Manhattan
In a time before this war
It was snowing down on Bleeker Street
It was before you were a star
What?s different here
Than i...
In 1914, this ball was at war
It went from Belgium on through Ireland
The Congo, then back home
This big blue ball of war spun on it's own
Spinning history in lines of blood
When many souls fell off
And we all ride on, this big blue ball of war
Souls with tickets through the veil, we all ride on
And we all ride on, this big blue ball of war
We choose to spin around and ride
This big blue ball ...
After you go, I can catch up on my reading
And after you go, I'll have a lot more time for sleeping
And when you're gone
Looks like things are gonna get a lot easier
Life will be a breeze, you know
I really should be glad
But I'm bluer than blue, sadder than sad
You're the only light this empty room has ever had
Life without you is gonna be
Bluer than blue
After you go, I'll have a lot more ro...
Oh, I'm sailing away, my own true love
I'm sailing away in the morning
Is there something I can send you from across the sea?
From the place where I'll be landing?
There's nothing you can send me, my own true love
There's nothing I'm wishing to be owning
Just carry yourself back to me unspoiled
From across that lonesome ocean
Oh, but I just thought you might want something fine
Maybe silver or...
Where are you goin' there?
With your suitcase by the back porch stairs
With my heart in your hand
In this cold December wind again
Cafes and bars are closed
Christmas lights are veiled in snow
Where are you goin'?
My brave companion of the road
It seems to me that you are lonelier
Than I've ever seen you be
And it's plain to see
That you've gone crazier
Than you ever thought you'd be
When the ...
It's a long and dusty road
It's a hot and heavy load
And the folks I meet ain't always kind
Some are bad and some are good
Some have done the best they could
Some have tried to ease my trouble in mind
And I can't help but wonder where I'm bound
Where I'm bound
I can't help but wonder where I'm bound
I've been wandering through this land
Just doin' the best I can
Tryin' to find what I was meant...
He is from the work of a Southern writer
Where every man's a fighter
Where the strong survive
And the weak move north to rest
And he had lines of silver
And hands that delivered
Me down to the river
To drift away alone
And I will never understand
The heart of a lonely man
Why my own wheels are gonna carry me
Far from his gentle hands
And baby, I can't come home
Lord, I've been away now just to...
Tom Russell
In the hills of Montana
There's a timber wolf howlin'
The rangers are prowlin'
For a woman alone
She'd run away from an Indian lover
He'll never recover
She turned him to stone
Chorus
She drank Canadian whiskey
Pure blended whiskey
She drank it like wine
Her eyes were the color of Canadian whiskey
Pure blended whiskey
So light brown and fine
Twenty years later
I heard of a woman
Sh...
I am a clock without hands
I'm walking through the midnights
Counting all the moments of the loves I've left behind
Crying on the shoulders of the days, I've not forgotten now
I am frozen in time like the battles of the soldiers
Left displaced of time where their tears still fall
Loves that wreck out on the track
Far beyond my looking back to recall
I'm just a clock upon the shelf
Without hand...
My bags are waiting in a cab downstairs
I've got a ticket in my pocket says I'll make it out of here
And I came by here just to tell you good-by
I can see it in your face, you don't want to know why
I made up my mind late last night
That I would leave your city behind
Oh, and love is not in question
When you're holding the answer
In your cold heart and your closed mind
You've got a cold heart ...
If I came back to the land of cotton
Would you love just me?
Old loves lost are never forgotten
That's the way it's supposed to be
Are you short or are you long?
Are you easy to see?
Are you weak or are you strong?
Makes no never to me
All the ballerina sees when her world's on fire
Is where she puts her feet
If she burns her toes, she'll just jump higher
Never skip a beat
I've been good most ...
Oh, I used to wish I was a hard line taker
They'd say, six to one a half dozen'll break her
Till I fell in love with a young man who sang the blues
Oh, bless my daddy, he warned me well
He'd whisper in my ear, he said, "Now look out, gal
There's always a ne'er do well gonna call you the fool"
He said, "You'll never learn to fish on a borrowed line
You'll never learn to write if you're walkin' ...
Tom Campbell - Steve Gillette
Where the Walker runs down into the Carson Valley plain
There lived a young maiden Darcy Farrow was her name
The daughter of old Dundee and a fair one was she
The sweetest flower that bloomed o'er the range
She was courted by young Vandermeer
And quite handsome was he I am to hear
He brought her silver rings and lacy things
And they promised to marry before the sn...
Woody Guthrie - Martin Hoffman
The crops are all in
And the peaches are rotting
The oranges are stacked
In their Creosote dumps
They're flying them back
To that Mexico border
To pay all their wages
To wade back again
Chorus
Goodbye to you Juan, goodbye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus and Maria
You won't have a name
When you ride the big airplane
All they will call you
Will be deportee
My fath...
I'd play the Red River Valley
And he'd sit out in the kitchen and cry
And run his fingers through seventy years of livin'
And wonder, "Lord, has ever' well I've drilled run dry?"
We were friends, me and this old man
Like desperados waitin' for a train
Like desperados waitin' for a train
He's a drifter and a driller of oil wells
And an old school man of the world
He let me drive his car
When he...
Lots of folks back East, they say, is leavin' home every day
Beatin' the hot old dusty way to the California line
'Cross the desert sands they roll, gettin' out of that old dust bowl
They think they're goin' to a sugar bowl but here's what they find
Now the police at the port of entry say
"You're number fourteen thousand for today"
Oh, if you ain't got the do re mi, folks, you ain't got the do...
Ronnie stood beneath the movie marquee
His memories all curled up inside
He was trying to remember
Was it August or September
He'd seen her for the last time
Heard that she'd become actress
Lord, she always had the prettiest face
And he stood with his hands
In his pockets and waited
For the dollar matinee
Lord, she's bigger than life on the screen
There's a laugh from the balcony, good Lord
An...
I can't be your weather
'Cuz if it rains then it rains
I can't be your lover
'Cuz the feelings would change
I can't be the wind
'Cuz the wind blows too free
But if you want a true companion
Don't forget about me
Don't forget about me
When your heart's in the shade
When there's no one to hold you
And you've fallen from grace
When the spotlights come blind you
And you can no longer see
I'll be r...
I once was a lot like you
We share a dream, I couldn't make come true
I was a child who wrote my name
Across a frosted window pane
And there are jobs that I might hold
If they'd just let me through the door
Without a shower and new clothes
That I can ill afford
Can you spare the time?
Can you spare a dime?
Can you look me in the eye?
I'm down 'n' out and I am lonely
Do you ever think of me on ...
Nanci Griffith
I once was a lot like you
We share a dream
I couldn't make come true
I was a child who wrote my name
Across a frosted window pane
And there are jobs that I might hold
If they'd just let me through the door
Without a shower and new clothes
That I can ill afford
Chorus
Can you spare the time?
Can you spare a dime?
Can you look me in the eye?
I'm down'n'out
And I am lonely
Do you e...
John Grimaudo - Saylor White
And she has a dress of laces
It's worn in many places
The shoulder hangs upon her by a thread
And she has a need for ahrin'
For someone warm and carin'
And no one sees a heart that's underfed
Chorus
Young girl in love
Young girl in tears
She hasn't seen the man she loves in years
And her mother is a waitress
At the harbour bar, good graces
Where the seamen come a f...
Sister had a crystal voice
She played a Silvertone from Montgomery Ward
Baez songs in Monroe hair
She sure could turn the boys' heads to stare
Swim wear saunter, tan and haunt them
That's all she learned in school
Books were for the other girls
And the other girls were fools
In Texas back in sixty-nine
It was drive-in movies and dashboard lights
Father waltzed her down the aisle
'Cause college...
Frank Christian
The drops from the faucet like a nervous heart
Beat on my porcelain sink a rhythm avant-garde
I page through the phone book, reach for my fountain pen
Is he comin' in for the holidays to haunt me again?
I call up Grand Central, quot;information please.
Is that nickel line on time? Oh finequot;
It's a hair-do with a wave
We both forgot and forgave last time
A peddlar of pots and...
This life is filled with wonder
This life is full of days not spent
I cannot help but ponder
Just what relevance that lends
But everything is comin' up roses
And I'm pushin' up daisies
They'll want roses anyway
Oh and everything is comin' up roses
It's comin' up roses every day
I've got a heart bent on confusion
I'm punch drunk straight half the time
I'm feelin' watered down and diluted
Still ...
I am fragile in the morning, I grow stronger in the day
I can sprint like a new spring doe by the fall of night
Love has chased me down through the cities and the towns
Until I stood beside the road and let it pass me by
Like a fool I've missed the rain 'cause I was crying
Then you are calling, call my heart, awake from years of slumber
And then I'm falling like a child head over heel in field...
Oh, its just another summer mornin', Baby, somewhere in this town
The heat is rising
Oh, I know where you spent last night so you can stop apologizing
You say that you've been out just lookin' around this town
I don't wanna know just exactly what you've found
Because tonight I'm goin' out on these streets and watch the lonely hearts
Go flyin'
Don't they fly by night
Yeah tonight I'm goin' out ...
She drove west from Salt Lake City to the California coastline
She hit the San Diego Freeway doing sixty miles an hour
She had a husband on her bumper, she had five restless children
She was singing sweet as a mockingbird in that Ford Econoline
She's the salt of the earth
Straight from the bosom of the Mormon Church
With a voice like wine
Cruising along in that Ford Econoline
Now her husband w...
I look out on these shields of heather
'Cross this countryside
I wonder how they've grown together
While people live such separate lives
Think I'll stay inside for the winter
'Cause the weather's in my bones
And the wind could shatter bone to splinter
Then howl me back home
Fragile as the lady of the harbour
Fragile as her torch that glows
Fragile as the Gulf Stream waters
To the Texas coast
T...
I am not a child, though you'll treat me as you've always seen me
You never saw the changes in a heart grown old and wise
Hey, it's good to see you smile, it's been so long between the pages
Wheels out on the highway seem to laugh between my lines
Do you still want to know?
Where does the love go when it dies?
Hey, I want you to know
That love never dies, it is sheltered here very safe inside
...
Ralph McTell
Four who shared this room and we caught up in the CRAIC
Sleeping late on Sundays and we never got to Mass
Chorus
It's a long way from Clare to here
It's a long way from Clare to here
It's a long, long way
It gets further by the day
It's a long, long way from Clare to here
When Friday comes around we're only into fighting
My Ma would like a letter home but I'm too tired for writing...
Down at the station the tracks are cold
The wheels of thunder, they roll no more
And the heart of America cries for the souls
Who won't be rollin' home
The dragon weeps with empty eyes
The whistle sigh's no more in the night
It rests in the lines like a ghost in the music
The soul of America's pride
The toil of our fathers with foreign hands
They laid the tracks and they opened the plains
They...
Buddy Mondlock
Flipped into the wind
Like the ashes of her cigarette
He got scattered thrown on the breeze
As he tried to forget
He lost all his heat
And his heart will never be the same
He got lighter than air
But he'll only come down in the rain
Strung out and hung out to dry
Laughin' under the line
It's not such a digified place
But he really don't mind
He says with his feet on the ground
H...
There's a lighthouse in the harbor
Giving guidance with its light
But I had no one to return to
As I wandered through the night
From the first time that I saw you
Standing silent by the shore
I knew my search was over
And I would look for love no more
Deep in the waters of love
I am falling, sinking like a stone
Deep in my heart I can hear love callin'
Goin' once, goin' twice, goin' gone
Goin'...
Oh, the city snow makes your brown eyes shine
We've gotta look real hard to find a reason to cry
New York, New York is a friend of the traveling kind
And I'm coming around from years of hard times
He's chased me down through the towns and the miles
Once stilled by love he was bound to roll on by
And if you feel my love won't leave you
And if your sorrow has been your share
If you are traveling...
My mother came to America
Sailed through the harbor of hopes and of dreams
Back in the Thirties with the streets paved in gold
And the sky laced with moonbeams
Mothers and daughters, fathers and sons
Here in the free world, we're the lucky ones
All of my yearning, all of my hunger
Maybe we're learning sometimes I wonder
Good night, New York
Before the Kennedy's, before the Beatles
Before the V...
Nanci Griffith
Flippin' bottle caps through the ring around the moon
All alone on a Saturday night with the stars in bloom
I am a vision of my mother's dream come true
Built this house out in the hills
All by my own will
I've got love enough for two
But it's just me and this old moon
Chorus
And the sailors on the water
They all want the captain's daughter
They want her beauty and her youth
To ...
Grapefruit moon, one star shining
Shining down on me
I heard that tune and now I'm pining
Honey, can't you see?
Every time I hear that melody
Something breaks inside
And the grapefruit moon, one star shining
Can't turn back the tide
Never had a destination
Could not get across
And you became my inspiration
Oh, but what a cost
Every time I hear that melody
Something breaks inside
And the grapef...
Gulf coast highway, he worked the rails
He worked the rice fields with their cold dark wells
He worked the oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico
The only thing we've ever owned is this old house here by the road
And when he dies, he says he'll catch some blackbird's wing
He will fly away to heaven, come some sweet blue bonnet spring
She walked through springtime when I was home
The days were sweet, t...
Stephen Collins Foster
Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears
While we all sup sorrow with the poor
There's a song that will linger forever in our ears;
Oh, hard times come again no more
Chorus
'Tis the song, the sigh of the weary
Hard times, hard times come again no more
Many days you have lingered
Around my cabin door
Oh hard times come again no more
While we seek mirth an...
Traditional
He was a friend of mine
He was a friend of mine
Never had no money
To pay for his fine
He was a friend of mine
He never done no wrong
He never done no wrong
Thousand miles from home
He never hurt no one
He was a friend of mine
He died on the road
He died on the road
Never had no money for to pay for sufficient clothes
He was a friend
He was a friend of mine
I stole
I stole away and...
Well, it's harvest time out on this Amarillo highway
Daydreamin' the South of France
I could whistle you out waltzin' there
Would you still say you can't?
Heart of a miner here takin' her last chance
Heart of a miner, kept her feelings buried deep
Heart of a miner, could there be something she needs?
Just a treasure that could hold her
That's not fool's gold
What could the miner do when
Her he...
I am on a Riverboat on the Saigon River
Where the music's too loud
While I try to have my dinner
Stories I've been told of 1954
When the bodies washed ashore from that distant war
My friend Michael came in '68
The bodies still floating with the dinner boats sailing
Beside all those souls of the American war
Oh, deliver me to the river of souls
In the heart of Indochina
Deliver me to a River at...
Julie Gold
I think I'll go to Heaven
There I will lay me down
Leave all the pain behind me
I'll bury it in the ground
Maybe they'll talk about me
I pray it won't be lies
I think I'll go to Heaven
Heaven is in your eyes
I think I'll go to Heaven
I heard it's peaceful there
They don't allow your troubles
Everyone's had their share
And if I can be someone who never needs a disguise
Then maybe I'l...
Everybody packs their goals
They sail away for better shores
And I have seen times
My sails have held a brilliant shine
I hear tell that dreams come true
Along these crowded avenues
But, my peace of mind
Is a place I go when I close my eyes
I need a hometown street where the boys are pretty
And a friend is still a friend
I need a hometown street where the love you're given
Surely comes back 'r...
I don't wanna talk about love
'Cause I've heard it before it talks too loud
You can hear it in a disco midnight, shouting
And I don't wanna think about it, think about it
It comes dressed in its summer clothes
When you're traveling through the heart of the winter's cold
And I don't wanna talk about changes
Changes come of their own free will
And if you wanna talk about leavin'
Well, you've alw...
Breakin' rocks in the hot sun
I fought the law and the law won
I fought the law and the law won
I needed money and I had none
I fought the law and the law won
I fought the law and the law won
Left my baby and I feel so bad
I guess my race is run
She's the best thing that I ever had
I fought the law and the law won
I fought the law and the law won
Robbin' people with a zip gun
I fought the law ...
I knew love when it still meant forever
When a feeling shared didn't always have to hurt
And a promise that was made would go unbroken
I knew love when it was more than just a word
I knew a time when hope was all you needed
And if you cared you found a way to make things work
When life was what two people shared together
Oh, I knew love when it was more than just a word
I knew love when I coul...
with Jimmy Buffett
I love this town??? like an unmade bed
I love this town??? of the living dead
I love this town??? gonna paint it red
If I can spare a minute
I love this town??? where curtains twitch
Where this door scratches??? next door's itch
It's a pantomime??? at fever pitch
And we can all be in it
People here are large as life
They know the whole world and his wife
From a razor's edge ...
Oh, your golden lights of America
Joseph sought your prairies and your buffalo
And the humming of the rails down through Kansas
They brought Joseph in from Baltimore
The Cavalry, the Indians
And an old dan were his only friends
Then the old dan died and the Indians' plight
Made the Cavalry young Joe's enemy
Oh, the outlaws spilled the blood
Across the Kansas plains back in the '70's
Joseph too...
At my door the leaves are fallin'
A cold wild wind will come
Sweet hearts walked by together
And I still miss someone
I go out on a party
To look for a little fun
But I find a darkened corner
Because I still miss someone
Oh, I never got over those blue eyes
I see them everywhere
I miss those arms that held me
When all the love was there
I wonder if she's sorry
For leaving what we begun
There's...
Oh, I wish it would rain, it's gonna wash my face clean
I wanna find some dark cloud to hide in here
Oh, love and a memory sparkle like diamonds
When the diamonds fall they burn like tears
When the diamonds fall they burn like tears
Once I had a love from the Georgia Pans who only cared for me
I want to find that love of twenty-two here at thirty-three
I've got a heart on my right and one on m...
I would bring you Ireland
The cool sweet of the Dublin rain
If you would keep my heart for me
In the quiet of your Texas days
And my old friend
Will you shelter me from pain?
In return, I'd bring you Ireland
One day I'll build a tower
High upon my Texas plains
I can see from coast to coast
On hot platinum summer days
When the dust is still
And the cotton prays for rain
And the thirsty passers ...
You never liked this place where we'd been living all along
So, you packed up your things and bought a one-way ticket home
Leaving never hurt as much as being left behind
I would change my life, I would make it right
I would change my life, if you would only change your mind
I have spent my hours on some misbegotten dream
I have spent my money on some foolish hearted things
I have spent my mem...
This flesh and bone ain't much protection
For an honest heart like mine
A broken home for good intentions
Damaged inventions of my design
I'll move along
Time to move along
I'll move along
Time to move along
I'll move along
Time
I'm slow to move these feet of clay
You passed me by now you're in my way
And I'll take my change at my own damn pace
I'll move along one day
I'll move along
Time to m...
Boston to Southshore in the back of the bus
It's the last winter storm of the season and such
And I am lost to the fiction of the book in my lap
The snow makes me drowsy, while the dreams roll and tumble
And it's a long way to Texas, it's a long way back home
It's a three hour flight on the plane when I go
Away from this snow from Boston to Southshore where the
Dreams roll and tumble, and brin...
Pete Seeger - Lee Hayes
If I had a hammer
I'd hammer in the morning
I'd hammer in the evening all over this land
I'd hammer out danger
I'd hammer out a warning
I'd hammer out the love between my brothers and my sisters
All over this land
If I had a bell
I'd ring it in the morning
I'd ring it in the evening all over this land
I'd ring out danger
I'd ring out a warning
But I'd ring out love betw...
If these old walls, if these old walls could speak
Of things that they remember well
Stories and faces dearly held
A couple in love livin' week to week
Rooms full of laughter
If these walls could speak
If these old halls, hallowed halls could talk
These would have a tale to tell
Of sun goin' down and dinner bell
And children playing at hide and seek from floor to rafter
If these halls could sp...
I wish that you loved me the way that I love you
I wish I had Angels who sang in my dreams
If wishes were changes, we'd all live in roses
And there wouldn't be children who cried in their sleep
And he wishes I loved him, the way that I love you
If wishes were changes, I'd dry all his tears
If wishes were changes, I'd make him my anchor
And he'd be my Angel who sang through the years
So long to...
In the wee small hours of the morning
While the whole wide world is fast asleep
You lie awake and think about the girl
And never ever think of counting sheep
When your lonely heart has learned its lesson
You'd be hers if only she would call
In the wee small hours of the morning
That's the time you miss her most of all
When the sun is high in the afternoon sky
You can always find something to d...
I have traveled far to be sitting here with you
And I will leave this place alone
That's a sad and simple truth
So little time and so much to say
And I'll be none the wiser
When I leave you here today
Is this all there is
I wanted so much more
The gold in those hills
The silver of the mores
And now that I'm here
Looking you head on
To the treasure that I left behind
And all I'll ever miss
Oh, ...
I am a backseat driver from America
They drive on the left on falls road
The man at the wheel's name is Shamus
We pass a child on the corner he knows
And Shamus says, "Now what chance has that kid got?"
And I say from the back, "I don't know"
He says, "There's barbed wire at all these exits
And there ain't no place in Belfast for that kid to go"
It's a hard life, it's a hard life
It's a very h...
The telephone is ringin' in the middle of the night
And I pull the bed clothes higher
Will it stop calling out if I turn on the light?
I'm afraid of these shadows here
'Cause my past is truly frightening
And I'm afraid of the warmth in the down
Of a feathered heart in flight
It's just another morning here
It's morning
It's just another morning here
It's just another morning here
It's morning
A...
You pace the pool and talk about it
And I read my book and think about it
You've walked on water
As I'm turning the page
You say, "What's the intrigue here
Of reading when the sky is clear?"
You are in the sun
And I am always in the shade
And it's too late to leave you
You know that I will never leave you
It's too late to know you
You don't like to be known
You would never hold me
I don't like...
An urban light hit's a bartender's smile
'Cause it's closin' time again
Last call rang out such a long time ago
In the heart of Julie Anne
Now she waits inside this midnight glow
To steal her dance of grace
White satin gloves on her hands these days
To cover the dancer's age
The wintertime's so sweet
Even wino's have their needs
They pretend that she is younger
When they are lonely
The bar roo...
1 2 3 4
If I promise not to cry
Will you look me in the eye
And tell me that you've known me?
I was your late, your lonely child
I am enhanced by all you've shown me
And in my youth I did defy you to the end
Please forgive my wildness then
Even I can't comprehend
What a mother's love has lent
To all that is me
And will you sing this song again?
Let us sing it hand in hand
While the band is sti...
By the time I get to Phoenix
Was the last song on your mind the day you left
Then you woke up in Nogales
With Tequila with her name across your chest
Now, you've stumbled through the morning
On these border tourists' dusty avenues
Singing every day's the hurting kind
And everyday you live, you're born to lose
Now, you missed the last train home
The whistle blew and now she's gone
West Texas du...
I'm working on a morning flight to anywhere but here
I'm watching this evening fire burn away my tears
All my life I've left my troubles by the door
Leavin' is all I've ever known before
It's not the way you hold me when the sun goes down
It's not the way you call my name that left me stranded on the ground
It's not the way you say you hear my heart when the music ends
I am just learning how t...
When you are leaving the harbor
Do you cry out to the shore?
Do you bless the wave of the ocean
Do you call your vessel home?
And as you leave the safest harbor
Do you wonder where you'll go?
When you feel your bough is breaking
Do you call that harbor home?
When you sing the lullabye
Do you sing it for the song?
Or do you love the way it slides
Like velvet 'cross your tongue?
And as you sing ...
There's a star in Heaven's sky
Always shining bright
It's just a tear in an Angel's eye
A gentle guiding light
Let it shine on me
Let it show the way
Let it always be
Let it always stay
Let it flood my soul
Let it hold the key
Let it all unfold
Let it shine on me
When the way seems so dark
Let it shine on me
Bringing home within my heart
A reason to believe
Let it shine on me
Let it show the w...
I am leaving Mississippi in the evening rain
These Delta towns wear satin gowns
In a high beamed frame
Loretta Lynn guides my hands through the radio
Where would I be in times like these
Without the songs Loretta wrote?
'Cause when you can't find a friend
You've still got the radio
When you can't find a friend
You've still got the radio
The radio
Listen to the radio
The radio
Listen to the rad...
When I wake in the night and find that I'm dreaming
You're the first thought in mind
Love's a fair-weather friend when you're lonely
You are my summer state of mind
Does it sing to you nightly, does it lay down beside you?
Does it make you hear songs on the radio?
It once was my shadow grown weary of travel
You gave it home
What makes the love grow
When the seasons change?
What makes the love ...
Now, I work this corner from eleven to five
And the hands get cold around midnight
And you askin' me if I've got the time
Well, I don't know but you're wastin' mine tonight
Whoa, you say you're looking for the time
Hey, I'm a workin' girl, you just wasted mine
And if you ain't got money, take it down the avenue
'Cause I ain't got the time for you, until daylight
At the sidewalk ice is cold as ...
Any given day, there's a jet flying somewhere
Oh, we bought a ticket and vanished in the sky
And how was I to know he was leaving in the morning
I never heard him go and then he never said goodbye
And I've learned to love the night 'cause the light's gonna get ya
Right between the eyes in the morning like a gun
And reaching out your hand and he's not there beside you
Oh, what can I say, I lost...
Rita was sixteen years, hazel eyes and chestnut hair
She made the Woolworth counter shine
And Eddie was a sweet romancer and a darn good dancer
And they'd waltz the aisles of the five and dime
And they'd sing
"Dance a little closer to me, dance a little closer now
Dance a little closer tonight
Dance a little closer to me, it's closing time
And love's on sale tonight at this five and dime"
Eddi...
She's a brown skin girl from El Paso City
He's a sweet tempered soldier from Fort Bliss
They ran off one July evening
All concerned said this one is anyone's guess
Love conquers all
Love conquers all
And to all concerned you'll survive that fall
'Cause love conquers all
She's a rest home bride up in New Jersey
It's her first trip down the aisle, and it's his second time around
All concerned sa...
She sleeps alone in the warm nights of Memphis
Where the Peabody Hotel meets the velveteen sky
She sings like the waves in the cool Mississippi
That brought her from St. Paul in '75
And men come to court her with roses and sweet wine
Where hands cross the ivories from six until nine
She sings away sorrows each night when she leaves him
She goes home alone, she's not the marrying kind
And love ...
Take this heart of mine out the winter
And let the new life of Springtime come rest at our door
May the soul of my brother never bow to the wicked
And the hearts of our children waltz together once more
Love is a Hard Waltz and we could all use a
Lesson in giving
If we give it hearts it could teach us the
Rhythm if only we're willing
Now my mother's had a hard life in learnin' to dance
My fath...
He owned a hotel on Jersey shore
She made her living seeing the sailors door to door
He was a small Hawaiian with a crooked smile
But he made her eyes light up like the heavens on the 4th of July
She ran the numbers, they say she ran them clean
And those porcelain hands keep a ledger even in her sleeves
While he worked the See-Bees in the Philippines
They say she made more money than you and I...
My friends think I'm crazy and maybe it's true
'Cause I'll go on and love you this way
Though I have discovered that you love another
And hardly remember my name
My youth was so crazy my heart was so lazy
Love never could stand me still
But, love's found a shoulder now that I'm older
With plenty of time to kill
I wish you well for your new love
'Cause true love is so hard to hold
You'll be the...
Sun will stop shinin' and hearts will stop poundin'
The screen is so lonely tonight
The men are out prayin' and the women are sayin'
She died for the loss of her prime and lived on DiMaggio time
So farewell you old tinsel city
With your waltz in the mornin' and your neon at night
I've bathed in your loneliness, drank of your wine
And I lived on DiMaggio time
And hearts felled to paradise still...
My daddy was a longshoreman in New Orleans
My mamma kept score just watchin' the Mardi Gras
Oh me, I sat on the front porch watchin' the rails roll out
I was waitin' for my Omie to take me outta this south
It was me and my sisters like to wore that front porch out
And there can't be more to this livin' than loving my Omie
We're both sittin' back here watchin' our children grow
If there's a bet...
I will find somebody new
Maybe tomorrow
I will stop this missing you
Maybe tomorrow
Times the healer times the key
So all the wise folks say
Oh, maybe tomorrow
But not today
Life will once again make sense
Maybe tomorrow
I'll regain my confidence
Maybe tomorrow
True love is just around the bend
Oh but I really don't know when
Oh, maybe tomorrow
Not today
There's a gorgeous morning in my future...
There's a light out on the freeway says, "It's time to go"
I'm wasting my time counting stains on a barroom floor
Thinking 'bout my hometown and the friends I'll leave behind
Mostly 'bout the man who writes his songs with smiling rhymes
And I'm holding on to a smoky view of his dreams in the midnight light
Michael counts his songs in the years of wasted miles
I used to think he was really part...
Are you sleeping now? It's midnight in Missoula
Where the Black Hills know your name
Is the snow piled high around your window frame?
Is there enough frost left to write our names upon the pane?
Are you sleeping now?
It's midnight in Missoula
Are you sleeping now?
It's midnight in Missoula
I am down in Rio where I cannot find the sky
Our savior on that mountain top has taught my soul to fly
I ...
Oh, I wish that you would call
We have not spoken since last fall
And that smoky conversation's
Coming home
Do I just read between your lines?
Yeah, could be this winter wine
So sweet upon my tongue tonight
Recalls your tender eyes
And I need more than a whisper
So much more than a whisper
It takes more than a whisper
To wake this weary fool
Oh, give me more than a whisper
If you're sayin', I ...
As the morning light stretched in across my bed, I thought of you
Remembering your laughing eyes and all we said, I love you too
As all my thoughts of you pass 'fore my face a thousand times
The way they race my heart I cannot say it all in lines
How the short time together lasts so long, makes me strong
As two weeks came and went then you and I were gone, living on
For it seems our love was d...
Suzy Elkins - Robert Field
There's a morning train
Headed for New Orleans
Carrying bussiness men and week day shoppers
I have sixteen bucks and a dollar in change
That's not bad price for a one way ride
On a morning train
I give you my devotion
You left me heartsick
Oh, you couldn't had hurt me more
Not workin' with a night stick
Now I'm tired of sharin' this bed of nails
So come first light I...
Easy come, easy go
Anything but easy???though
You were here, now you're gone
That's the only thing I know
And it's just one more sorrow
To throw upon the heap
Mountain of sorrow???steep
What you see, the new me
Changing right before your eyes
Like a leaf on a tree
Letting go before she flies
And it's just one more sorrow
To throw upon the heap
Mountain of sorrow???steep
Mountain of sorrow
How ...
You'll never be the sun turning in the sky
And you won't be the moon above us
On a moonlit night
And you won't be the stars in heaven
Although they burn so bright
But even on the deepest ocean
You will be the light
You may not always shine as you go
Barefoot over stones
You might be so long together
Or you might walk alone
And you won't find that love comes easy
But that love is always right
S...
You say you're heading out to California
You've heard the grapes are falling from the vine
I was hoping you might have the urge to write me
But I don't believe you will so never mind
I was talking to a man down at Genesco
And we they might be hiring any time
I'm so tired of going any way the wind blows
And I thought that me and you, but never mind
Never mind, never mind, I'm just talkin' throu...
Michael Burton
While I was out a-ridin'
The graveyard shift midnight till dawn
The moon was as bright as a reading light
For a letter from an old friend back home
Chorus
He asked me
Why do you ride for your money?
Why do you rope for short pay?
You ain't gettin' nowhere
And you're losin' your share
You must've gone crazy out there
He said last night I ran into Jenny
They married and have a goo...
Nanci Griffith
Something's disturbed me
I'm out of your company
Out of the country
With another man's heart
I'm angered and doubtful
I'd shout a earful
But nothing comes out
When I open my mouth
Chorus
I'm nobody's angel now
she's out of the country now
I'm nobody's angel now
she's out of the country now
'cause if I can't give love
I can't rise about the clouds
So, I'm nobody's angel now
I was...
I know you believe in miracles
And that this love will come back around
And I know you believe the grass is growing
Across this winter to the south of this town
I know your kiss is sweeter
Than the dust that this love has become
Yet, I know your path is clearer
Shed of me out there on your own
I don't intend to sound ungrateful
You've given love when I had none
My feet have tread upon the road...
I'm gonna open up the window and let in October
And roll up my sleeves in the rain
Roll out on the freeway with a heart a little harder
Breezes gettin' cooler by the day
5 a.m. travelers, bleary eyed and lonely
We're all countin' miles and tradin' lanes
But if I stopped to call you, what would I say?
Hell, I know I'd feel the same
I can open up the window and let in October
Roll up my sleeves ...
Where are all the Satchel Boys
Selling books outside the Metripole?
Books to read in English, books of light and sorrows
Of this foreign land and they are gone and they've flown away
Where are all the cyclos
With their drivers pedaling grace?
Crowded out by motorbike, confined to lesser space
In old Hanoi and they grew wings and they've flown away
And in the words of Graham Greene
Like the Qui...
On Grafton Street at Christmas time
The elbows push you 'round
This is not my place of memories
I'm a stranger in this town
And the faces seem familiar
And I know those songs they're playing
But I close my eyes and find myself
Five thousand miles away
It's funny how my world goes 'round without you
Oh, you're the one thing I never thought I could live without
I just found this smile to think a...
You honk the horn on your Mercedes Benz
I've rolled up my window so you're honkin' again
Your stereo could drive the devil out
Hey, you drink too much and you talk too loud
But you think you got it made
Think you got it made
Think you got it made
When you're one blade shy of a sharp edge
Republican is the way you vote
You've got a sticker on your bumper that's how I know
And you think true lov...
We walk along the Hudson when it snows here in Manhattan
We've lived our lives so out of place
You touch my cheek and I do wonder how this happened
That two young lovers could pack their dreams
And move from the Texas Plains
Oh, I'm gonna take us back where we belong
Where you can see it in the stars that the weather's comin' on
One of these days
Now, our Daddy's grew cotton spittin' dust of a...
We don't live on easy street
But it's home
Looking out on the open road
Where you'll go it alone
To the last of our simple days
We'll wave goodbye
And down this road we've grown
And it's our very own
This is not a one-horse town
And we're not alone
It's somewhere off the beaten path
And we're loyal to the bone
Everybody's got their place
And got their role to play
We should never change our ru...
Don't wanna be standing here
With this ticket for this outbound plane
Oh, I've been here before
Somehow this doesn't feel the same
Talk is cheap
So we could talk all night long
We may never figure out just
Where your love went wrong
'Cuz I don't wanna be standin' here
Don't wanna be talkin' here
And I don't really care who's to blame
'Cuz if love won't fly on it's own
Free will
It's gonna catc...
She was a party girl, now the party's over
She was a beauty and that's changing too
Now she's barefoot and having babies
She was a party girl, now the party's over
Now her husband watches TV
After working hard all day
And she's crying into her pillow
'Cause it's night time and she wants to play
She was a party girl, now the party's over
She was a beauty and that's changing too
Now she's barefo...
Oh, she was high up there in the air
Caught still by a soldier's stare
Whenever it was men amongst men
Down upon the land
And she followed those Mothers' sons
She felt the thunder of their guns
From a pearl's eye view
Just a camera in her hand
She was born Georgette but the name
Didn't suit her well
So, she blew out of Wisconsin as D***ey Chapelle
Oh, she flew with a pilot's pride
The first wi...
The evening fell just like a star
Left a trail behind
You spit as you slammed
Out the door
If this is love we're crazy
As we fight like cats and dogs
I just know
There's got to be more
So please call me, baby
Wherever you are
It's too cold to be
Out walking in the streets
We do crazy things when we're wounded
Everyone's a bit insane
I don't want you catching your death of cold
Out walking in t...
Goodbye gray skies
I see my heart comin' round the bend
The sun's comin' up on the Poet In My Window
Her saving grace is my old friend
An' I'll never lose if my heart goes flyin'
If I sail it true and set it free
It'll come flyin' home, be waitin' in my window
And callin' for the poet in me
And I wish you well for your whole lines
I watch you change within the new
You've got a pocket full of g...
Pour me a drink, light me a cigarette
Help me forget the things that I've done
Pour me a drink then pour me another one
To keep out this cold wind that blows through my soul
Look at my life here in these photographs
Look at these faces, what a story they tell
There was a time when I knew how to laugh
I'd drink to forget but I remember it well
Pour me a drink, light me a cigarette
Help me forge...
We all said you'd never make it
'Cuz you had that fragile heart
And you were odd within the ways of the social
You through a caution to us all
And now when the late night drinkers
Gather for their falls
Someone says they've seen you out there
Laughing at us all
You mourned the cause of discontent
With those who couldn't loose the dark
From the broad of daylight to half spent stars
Just waiting...
I'll never fall in love again
It's such a contradiction
To lose all control and common sense
And even intuition
You came along, with a strange new song
And the sweetest innovation
And you said, "One should never fall in love
But rise to the occasion"
To have loved and lost, I know the cost
I fell and almost drowned
If not for you, I'd have missed this view
From higher ground
Now we can touch t...
He still sends her roses on the 4th of July
They're always white roses and she never asks why
She still doesn't know where he goes Thursday nights
But his wedding band rests on their bedside that night
He was a soldier in the Vietnam War
He lost half his right leg whilst daydreaming of her
She lit a candle each holy hour he was gone
'You Were On My Mind' was their favorite song
Love is a myste...
He will leave behind all of his clothes
He wore when he was with her
All he needs are his railroad boots
And his leather jacket
As he says goodbye to Ruby's arms
Although his heart is breaking
He will steal away out through her blinds
For soon she will be waking
Morning light has washed her face
And everything is turning blue now
She holds on to her pillow case
There's nothing he can do now
As...
Saint Teresa, your patron child's come home
Were you there to greet her?
Did your angels know her songs and all of her sorrows?
Did you lift them from her brow?
And did you kiss her hand that took her soul back up to you?
Our patron saint of harmony and vow
Help me in this stillness
Tell me things I need to know
How we loved your patron child
We say, so long, so along ago
Saint Teresa, can you...
I never saw the morning 'til I stayed up all night
I never saw the sunshine 'til you turned out the light
I never saw my hometown 'til I'd stayed away too long
I never heard the melody until I needed the song
I never saw the white line until I was leavin' you behind
I never knew I needed you until I was caught up in a bind
I never spoke "I love you," until I'd cursed you in vain
I never felt m...
When you say I love you
Is it just because you know that's what I want to hear?
Lately friends are warning me
What they hesitate to tell me leaves a thread of fear
People talk around this town
And when the final truth comes down
There's only one thing left to do
It's come back 'round to you
Come back 'round to you
Say it isn't so
Tell me that you're someone I'll believe in
Am I the last to kno...
Snowing through South Dakota I once drove
With the wife of my best pal
Who cloaks her heart from cold with gold
It was well into the winter
Of December in the cold
Off to see Mount Rushmore staring through the snow
And to gamble with the boys of Deadwood
As we drove
Snowing, I am shaking out the snow
Oh, the cold that is within my heart
I'm gonna shake out all that snow
Riding years ago
Throug...
Guy Clark
She was standin' on the gone side of leavin'
She found her thumb and stuck it in the breeze
She'll take anything that's goin' close to somewhere else
She can lay it down and live it as she please
Chorus
She ain't goin' nowhere
She's just leavin'
She ain't goin' nowhere
Se can't breathe in
She ain't goin' home and that's for sure
She's not sittin' down and crying on her suitcase
She h...
I want a simple life, like my mother
One true love for my older years
I don?t want your wars to take my children
I want a simple life while I?m here
The sun and moon walk hand in hand together
Trading places shining on the truth
The moon moves the bottoms of the oceans
So, the sun can bring a farmer?s hands to you
I want a simple life, like my mother
One true love for my older years
I don?t wa...
My daddy sent me on to Baton Rouge in 1969
He said our love was like a forest fire and he'd end it with a mind
So you rode with us to Temple, Texas where I did catch the train
And I remember waving back at you from a silted window pane
And I said,?Fare thee well true love of mine?
And I said, ?Fare thee well sweet lips of wine?
And you said, ?Fare thee well my Texas rose?
And then you blew a k...
Well it's that old time story of a new face to glory
Someone wanted my soul for their pride
What about the system of fools arranged for missing
Well, I can't lie, they all pass with time
Why do my people come and go?
I keep on leaving them behind and Lord, I miss them so
I've watched my heroes change from silver into gold
As the time goes, only memories grow
It's your smiles that I remember
Th...
I'm sitting on a southbound train staring at the sky
I'm thinking of my childhood and I'm trying not to cry
While a stranger sleeps against me and it feels like I'm his wife
The towns and cities flutter past like the pages of my life
My heart is on the baggage-rack, it's heavy as can be
I wish that I could find someone who would carry it for me
Just to pay it some attention and to handle it wi...
John Prine
You come home late
And you come home early
You come on big
When you're feelin' small
You come home straight
And you home curly
Sometimes you just don't come home at all
So what in the world's come over you?
What in heaven's name have you done?
You've broken the speed of the sound of loneliness
You're out there runnin'
Just to be on the run
Well, I got a heart that burns with a fever...
Well, I could use a little spin on a red brick floor
In that crazy ol' bar when Tim locks the door
Where the walls are gonna ring and the strings are gonna bend
It's a buss on the cheek from all my old lovers again
And it's the Blue Ridge mountains at the fall of the night
It sure feels good when you cross that line
I'll tip my cup and holler at the moon
I'll say-a-great white north, honey, he...
You walked the line all your life
You never thought you'd have to change it
You're always there to give advice
You never thought you'd have to take it
It's still life but it's broken
It's still life when it's torn
It's still life that you're walking
On and on and on and on and on
You need to change, you don't know how
Your life could use a reformation
If you could see you as I see you now
I kn...
Ian Tyson
Never hit seventeen
When you play against the dealer
You know that the odds
Won't ride with you
And never leave your woman alone
With your friends around to steal her
She'll be gambled and gone
Like summer wages
And we'll keep rollin' on
'Til we get to Vancouver
And the woman that I love
She's living there
It's been six long months
And more since I've seen her
Years have gambled and ...
John Stewart
I'm sleepin' less in L.A.
Dreamin' of days yet to come
Oh, and I don't care what you say
I know that those days will surely come
I'm wakin' and I'm callin'
I'm shakin' and I'm fallin'
Oh, little darlin'
I wonder when those sweet dreams will come
There's a hole in the sky
Made by my Right Guard last night
Oh, and then there's you and I
Assuring that everything's alright
We are nurs...
Should have known that you were gone back in Germany
You told me in the dark while I was sleeping
Then you slept through the sunrise as it washed across your face
And all that I had heard were our heart beating
Talk to me while I'm listening now
While this love has a voice that we both can hear
Before you let it go greatest love I've ever known
Won't you please talk to me while I'm listening?
...
The name she gave was Caroline
Daughter of a miner
And her ways were free and it seemed to me
The sunshine walked beside her
She came to Spencer, across the hill
She said her pa had sent her
'Cause the coal was low and soon the snow
Would turn the skies to winter
She said she's come to look for work
She was not seeking favors
For a dime a day and a place to stay
She'd turn those hands to labor...
Tell me how to keep your love
You know how I need your love
Tell me how you keep the love
Within your heart from me
Don't you know that I love you?
Let me show why, I'm true blue
And when I know a love is true
Don't keep your love for me
If you would say to me today
The time for love is now
Could I sway your love my way?
Then I say, "Tell me how"
Tell me how to keep your love
You know how I ne...
Gordon Lightfoot
He was standing by the highway
With a sign that just said Mother
When he heard a driver coming
About a half a mile away
So he held the sign up higher
Where no decent soul could miss it
It was ten degrees or colder
Down by Boulder Dam that day
He was raised up in Milwaukee
Though he never was that famous
He was just a road musician
To the taverns he would go
Singing songs about...
Tequila after midnight drives loneliness away
Makes strangers all around you look familiar
And tequila after midnight makes you feel so warm
Makes you think you feel good when you don't
It's the same sad familiar story
Not a thing about it is new
Just about someone who loved and lost
And it's still hurting through and through
They say it drives you crazy, well I could hardly care
For quite som...
He was a flyer for the air force
In a plane from San Antonio
I was traveling to London
He was going off to buffalo
Changing planes in Pittsburgh
We got grounded in a storm
I would give anything
To be on that flyer's arms
Now we played cards, mostly blackjack
As we sat out on the tarmac
We sang songs we knew in Spanish
As we both loved songs of language
He'd heard me on the radio
I'd seen the f...
John Stewart
Every prayer that I'm not praying and every promise I'm betraying
Every price that I am paying, is like a ghost inside of me
Every road I could be taking, every dream I am forsaking
Every heart that's out there breaking, is like a ghost inside of me
Look around, around, look around
Every time I turn around
I'm not who I ought to be
Down, down, it gets me down
Every time I look aro...
Oh, he said it was the sound of the winter callin'
From up around the bend or it could be
The cry of your restless heart
For the love of your long lost friends
Oh, but me I think it's just the summertime
And the heat of these Texas winds
They keep on slappin' my face with dust so thick
That the tears won't roll again
Last of the true believers have you grown a weary all alone?
You could go hom...
Nobody seems to care about you
With your tool case by the roadside
There beneath the power lines
Or the pallor of your skin
Paled beneath fluorescent lights
In a Greyhound station's cruel midnight
Where you can't afford the ride
Oh, the power lines
They go from sea to sea
They carry voices
Love from him to me
The power lines you fall beneath
Are the rainbows you can't climb
And you will not cl...
I sold the farm to take my woman, where she longed to be
We left our kin and all our friends back there in Tennessee
I bought those one way tickets, she had often begged me for
And they took us to the streets of Baltimore
Her heart was filled with laughter, when she saw those city lights
She said, "The prettiest place on earth is Baltimore at night"
Oh well a man feels proud to give his woman,...
The wing and the wheel they carry things away
Whether it's me that does the leavin' or the love that flies away
The moon outside my window looks so lonely tonight
Oh, there's a chunk out of it's middle big enough for an old fool to hide
Where are all the dreamers that I used know?
We used to linger beneath street lamps in the halos and the smoke
The wing and the wheel came to carry them away
N...
There's a light beyond these woods, Mary Margaret
Do you think that we will go there
And see what makes it shine, Mary Margaret?
It's almost morning and we've talked all night
You know we've made big plans for ten-year olds
You and I
Have you met my new boy friend, Margaret?
His name is John and he rides my bus to school
And he holds my hand
He's fourteen, he's my older man
But we'll still be ...
Shut it down and call this road a day
And put this silence in my heart in a better place
I have traveled with your ghost now so many years
That I see you in the shadows
In hotel rooms and headlights
You're coming up beside me
Whether it's day or night
These days my life is an open book
Missing pages I cannot seem to find
These days your face
In my memory
Is in a folded hand of grace against th...
This house is full of memories that aren?t mine
Pieces I thought I would clear out over time
Life takes over, I get ahead of myself, and I turn around
And I?ve filled up the shelf
With things I don?t need that wear me down
Things I don?t want but still keep around.
I woke up today and I made up my mind
From now on I?ll Leave all those things I don?t need behind
The one thing that?s not on the ...
Nanci Griffith
This heart was almost taken
This heart had a love of its own
This heart was reawakened
When you came along
This heart was born feet runnin'
This heart saw your porch light on
This heart hit the sidewalk wonderin'
Why you left it on
Chorus
This heart was stranded in the winter
Stuck out in a blizzard in its summer clothes
This heart knows
When the love comes
And when it goes
This...
This old town should've burned down in 1929
That's when we stood in line
Waiting for our soup
Swallowing our pride
This old town should've burn down in 1931
When the rain refused to come
Air filled up our bellies, dust filled up our lungs
And we thought our time had come
This old town was built by hand
In the dust bowl of the motherland
There must be rock beneath this sand
Oh' I'll be damned, ...
Frank Christian
We returned to that five room flat
Now it was empty and this the last time
There were blinking pictures
Of how we'd sit and chat
Some of them are scattered
Others shattered in my mind
Chorus
It was always three flights up
Cathedral bells kept time
In the winter, a-chatterin' cold
While the building shook like ragweed in the wind
Stories from the heat pipes
We were told
But now ...
Oh, the grace that true love holds
When hearts grow weary for time alone
You give it room and the warm to hold
And it'll always come home
And true love is faithful all on it's own
Hearts know when they should fly alone
When the mind is rested and the heart's at ease
Two loves can give to each other's needs
Oh, the grace that true love holds
When hearts grow weary for time alone
You give it roo...
We're living in a time of inconvenience
Compassion fails me with this meanness in the air
Our city streets are filled with violence
So we close our doors to the city
And pretend that it's not there
Here I go again back out on these mean streets
The evil seems to cling to the soles of my feet
'Cuz I'm living in a time of inconvenience
At an inconvenient time
We're living in the age of communica...
Nanci Griffith
Nothing that I've ever seen
Now means much of anything
In traveling through this part of you
And the Vietnam that I had dreamed
The place you wore your life quot;fatiguedquot;
I'm traveling through this part of you
Chorus
Where are you amongst this madness
On the streets of Saigon?
Where were you in 1969?
When I was but a youth
Oh, here were you
You were traveling through this p...
I worked hard for that rose
You may have it when you go
'Cause it's the dreaming it lends
It's worth holding here
And when the outbound lane
Brings me trouble again
If my heart's in the wind
I wanna hold it near
Don't say no, 'cause it's not part of this show
And when the lights were down low
Your eyes were closing too
But the bar is closing
And I can leave here knowing
That the dreams are sti...
Oh, love is a hand you hold
When you think you've lost your mind
It is bitter as persimmons
Yet sweet of rose on vine
It's the thorns upon the vines
That sometimes tear two hearts entwined
It's a gentle breath upon your cheek
That is so truly something fine
Oh, love is something truly fine
Love is love and truly blind
Love is only human kind
Love is something truly fine
Oh, love is something t...
Pat McLaughlin
Before you marry, before you mend
Or have someone's children, long before then
You could find something with somebody new
Try the love I'm offering in my open arms
Before you do
We should have quarreled, it's so unwise
To cut yourself loose with only some lies
Wasn't my first time, it won't be my last
Try the love that took only a minute to grow
It won't die that fast
Bridge
Try...
Your late night conversation
Telephone call and an inspiration
For a heart to recall, had a tumble and fall
And my friends all say I'm lazy
Clumsy at love and I'm middle age crazy
I stumble along with a tumble and fall
Or maybe I'll come to my senses
Or come back to you when the fences are mended
Maybe love is a quiet whisper after all
Maybe love is a heart that heals you
Harmony when you can'...
Malvina Reynolds - Harry Belafonte - Allen Greene
Where are you goin' my little one, little one?
Where are you goin' my baby my own?
Turn around and you're two
Turn around and you're four
Turn around and you're a young girl
Going out the door
Chorus
Turn around
Turn around
Turn around and you're a young girl
Going out of the door
Turn around and you're a young wife
With babes of your own
Where...
Out of the blue horizon
Stretched a band of gold
From the straits of Juan De Fuca
To the east of Portland, Maine
You held my hand as we raced along the Buffalo Bayou
Chasing the tail of this globe
You said, babe one day we're bound to
It takes two for the road
We're two of a kind heart closing in the distances
Now here comes our twilight part
We've had the best light of our days
We're two rail...
Life is full of finer things, they're lost and found in the dark
It's a dog by the highway who said, "Goin' my way?"
Now, he lives in your own backyard
Waiting for love, you came along and fit the part
And it's a whistle from the man with the kindest hands
And a Norwegian name you can't say
You meet him in the street, tripping over your own feet
He claims you still anyway
Waiting for love, God...
I want you to tell me why you walked out on me
I'm so lonesome every day
I want you to know that since you've walked out on me
Nothing seems to be the same old way
Think about the love that burns within my heart for you
The good times we had before you went away, oh me
Walk right back to me this minute
Bring your love to me, don't send it
I'm so lonesome every day
These eyes of mine that gave ...
WALL OF DEATH
Richard Thompson
Let me ride on the wall of death one more time
Let me ride on the wall of death one more time
You can waste your time on the other rides
But this is the nearest to being alive
Oh let me take my chances on the wall of death
You can go with the crazy people in the crooked house
You can fly away on the rocket or spin in the mouse
The tunnel of love might amuse you
A...
She's just a hill country girl home from the city
Her pocket's full of plenty of those neon lights
And her mother's smile shines on her youngest child
Though she is just a barroom singer with her father's eyes
The city streets are harder understandin'
It would be easy for the devil to pass by
But she can close her eyes and dream about
The country boy chain of gold and a lullaby
Because he's wa...
Wasn't that a mighty storm? Yeah
Wasn't that a mighty storm in the morning?
Wasn't that a mighty storm?
Blew all the people away
Galveston had a sea wall
Meant to keep the water down
High tide from the ocean
Sent water all over town
Wasn't that a mighty storm? Yeah
Wasn't that a mighty storm in the morning?
Wasn't that a mighty storm?
Blew all the people away
Well, now the year was 1900
Fifty ...
Wash away the tears, all the angry times we shared
All the feelings and the sorrows, come and gone
We have let them slip away, because I'm standing here today
And I'm smiling at your old west Texas sun
I remember times when you'd weathered out my mind
But you always had a peaceful word to say
And you could always bring a smile, mischief in your eyes
Still, I'm glad the miles keep me separate f...
He took a plane to New York city
To chase his fortune on the wall street plan
He is stranded in Manhattan
But the southeast Texas coast still calls his name
He said come on wheels, give up a ticket
Oh hello thunder, won't you roll him home
Oh a needle and thread could mend his heartache
Old moon give way to the day and hand him the sun
There is no shelter for the lonely
And the northeast women...
I could have a mansion
That is higher than the trees
I could have all the gifts I want
And never ask please
I could fly to Paris
[Incomprehensible] at my beck and call
Why do I go through life
With nothing at all
But when I dream
I dream of you
Maybe someday
You will come true
I can be the singer
Or the clown in every room
I can even call someone
Take me to the moon
I can put my makeup on
And ...
Tell me where
Would I be now without you?
Without an angel
Watching out for me
Took a long, long time
For me to realize
All my faith in you
Was so justified
Tell me where
Would I be now without you?
Where would I turn
To find the truth I need?
I could never go back
To where I used to be
I've got so used to having
All the love you give to me
Tell me where
Would I be without you now?
And every t...
One, two, three
Across the evening sky, all the birds are leaving
How can they know it's time for them to go?
Before the winter fire, I will still be dreaming
I have no thought of time
Who knows, where the time goes
Oh, who knows where the time goes
Sad deserted shore, your fickle friends are leaving
Ah, but then you know, it's time for them to go
I will still be here, I have no thought of lea...
Bob Ferguson
Chorus
On the wings of a snow white dove
He sends his pure sweet love
A sign from above
On the wings of a dove
When trouble surrounds us
When evils come
The body grows weak
The spirit grows numb
When these things beset us
He doesn't forget us
He sends down his love
On the wings of a dove
Chorus
When Noah had drifted
On the flood many days
He searched for land
In various ways
Troub...
Vince Bell
Well, I've listened to the words you lovers speak
The sounds of the lover's song
And I've dreamed all the dreams a wayward girl dreams
In a thousand places gone
Dallas was my late night out
Radcliffe's served to roust me out
And Houston lay like Cleveland with the color removed
And all I ever wanted
Was to wander and be wooed
Like a Woman of the Phoenix
A welcomed Waterloo
I've seen...
It's a southern road west of New Orleans
I'm fightin' off a cold
From these winter rounds
Houston
She's just around the corner
But I think I'll stop off here in Lafayette
Lord and have me another round
I've been workin' in corners all alone at night
Pullin' down whiskey
Keepin' my eyes away from the lights
I'll never be a fool but I will gamble foolishly
I've never let go of love
Till I lost i...
If you could stand behind my eyes for just one day
Could you see my heart beside you?
And if you knew my love had never flown away
Would I be missing you
Wouldn't that be roses
Wouldn't that be fine
If I could wash away all these years with language
Could this naked love survive the light of day
If I could be the one who walked away
Would you be missing me
Wouldn't that be roses
Wouldn't that ...
Nanci Griffith
If you could stand behind my eyes for just one day
Could you see my heart beside you?
If you knew my love had never flown away
Would I be missing you wouldn't that be roses
Wouldn't that be fine
If I could wash away all those years with language
Could this naked love survive the light of day
If I could be the one who walked away
Would you be missing me wouldn't that be roses
Wou...
Mickie Merkens
I packed up my suitcase
Pulled down my old bedroll
And I started to wander
Far from my home
And the time it passed quickly
And the days seemed to be hours
Far from your city
And Yarrington Town
Well, I wandered through the midnights
Of sea-bordered bar lights
And I wandered through the forests
As deep as the sea
But I never got lonesome
Until I'd hear a sad song
One to remind me...
I truly need a year down in New Orleans
The hum of a southern drawl that I could understand
And should you meet my sweetheart in New Orleans
Kindly pass my heart into the safety of his hands
I remember clover in the fields south of New Orleans
And we ran so blindly through the roads of summer cane
Now when I'm lonely I send my heart down to New Orleans
To chase my memories alone down through m...
So much silence to my hometown streets
Gonna put my cheek to the window and watch it sleep
Where the shadow's fall from sycamore trees
Fight off this north wind and I'll be headin' back east
And let the Colorado river roll on to the sea
I will be crossing it changes
And this 'ole town never did really care
That much for me
I don't know why I always come here
In my dreams
It's the hardest to ho...
What have you got to say
For yourself, now baby
Now, that I am leaving you
What have you got to lose?
The truth you tried to keep from me
Well, it nearly drove me crazy
I have grown weary
From sleepless nights of you
Is that a broken heart
In the corner of your eye?
Something to remind you?
You made this love a teardrop
Waiting to fall
There are those who can't love right
I just can't love wro...
When I got up this morning
You were on my mind and
You were on my mind
I got some aches, and whoa oh
I got some pains, and whoa oh
I got some wounds to bind
So I went to the corner
Just to ease my pain and
Just to ease my pain
I got drunk, and whoa oh
I got sick, and whoa oh
I came home again
Well, I woke up this mornin'
You were on my mind and
You were on my mind
I got troubles, whoa oh
I got...
