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  5. Lullaby 4:43

 








COLD BLACK WATER

there’s an ancient tree by the riverbed
you can reach the arms out on fifteen men
to circle her where she meets the land
on a summer day I come and watch her stand
the wind there moves light across her leaves
close your eyes and let yourself believe
that you can hear the sound of a southern man
running for his life to the promised land

there’s a hole in the ground just beyond the hill
stones all around you can get a chill
if you daydream back a hundred years or so
to the day those stones showed the way to go
I walk this way just to feel the wind
sun on my face as the day begins
I’m a native where this river bends
a foreigner to where it’s been

cold black water they say that it runs
to hell and back again yet it knows somebody
loves enough to hold you in the quiet till the final
word is freedom

there’s a ghost in the field just beyond the bend
snapping the grass with a whip of wind
I pull my hat below my ears
waiting for something to appear
I choose my footsteps with respect
for everybody who stuck out their neck
to do what’s right to tow the line
back to where it serves mankind

chorus

there’s treasure in a story
that takes a fiery cross
and turns it into hands
reaching out reaching out into that

chorus

FULL BLOOD AMERICAN

Bailey says his money looks like
diamonds in the dirt
what looked like nothing
turns out to be something
half way around the earth
I guess the sun out there it’s setting
on a barren world
I’m trying hard to picture it
while I comb the baby’s curls and
put the TV on the millionaire show
watch somebody’s luck go
change for better again
lucky full blood American

Bailey took his film cans
down along the border towns
where young boys old enough to fight
where hanging around
he took a rolling close up
of the last of one towns sons
towing up the line in worn out shoes
and rusty guns
we’ve got a picture on the mantle
Babe Ruth signed the handle
of Bailey’s bat at ten
luck full blood American

we’ve got a mighty world of trouble
in a steady distant storm
used to seem so far off but as of
late it’s getting warm
everybody’s got a mind to

figure out the core
when there’s nothing left

guess everything’s worth fighting for

I put the TV on the millionaire show
watch somebody’s luck go
change for better again
lucky full blood American

- top -

ONE MORE THING

there’s something between us
we’re starring at Venus
with a twenty by twenty lens
spend most the time
drawing circles and lines
and equations that never end
did I ever mention how all the attention
is lost in the figures and facts
and if we were to land
face to face hand in hand
we wouldn’t know how to act

there’s something about us
the way that we doubt must
start down in the chromosome tide
like we’re missing the strand
that connects all the sand
into shoreline allowing our stride
and if we take one more step
we’ll be over our necks
from the fear of one day being caught
with our little secret
how far can we get
with our little secret thought

we’ll say what’s done is done
but I’m sure that there’ll be one
one more thing to do
look into me I’ll look into you

there’s something inside us
that wants to divide us and
I’m sure that it’s made of the past
if we were to know
how far down we all go
tell me how long do you think we’d last
we’d all run for the ladder
cause nothing is sadder
than being stuck on the bottom rung
but one day we’ll fall
in the giant catchall
and the bottom will meet everyone

chorus

- top -

WEATHERWORN

we are standing in the water
trickling down from everywhere
as if decency was planted
like a glacier in the air
with the temperature rising
and the profile losing form

we try to memorize the outline
turning weatherworn

then by chance we met a dry man
who could recall a time
when truth and habit stood
together in a line
we felt the past turn present
by the mention of it’s name
suddenly realizing we had
something to reclaim
and there was

no cry no goodbye
no ending regret
just a fast eye asking real wide
has the bridge burned
has the bridge burned out yet

each day we’re compromising
for better or for worse
sometimes we can barely tell
the blessing from the curse
when the big wheels of ambition
reach the bell and make it ring

I’ve seen some winners
walk away and give up everything

chorus

- top -

LULLABY

now that you’ve made it all the way down to
my deep unguarded dreams
nothing is sacred all the refuge of the night
has been stripped clean

in a swirl of light and air you were going
off somewhere so brilliantly
and from where I’ve always been aching down
so deep within I watched you leave

out in the open there is a lullaby
singing dark and sweet
I try not to close me eyes and go to sleep

now that you’ve made it all the way down to
my deep unguarded sleep
nothing is sacred every night I feel my
secret growing weak

out in the open there is a lullaby
singing dark and sweet
out on the air stream right through the heart of me
through the heart of me
out in the open there is a lullaby
singing dark and sweet
I try not to close my eyes and go to sleep

- top -

ONCE IN A WHILE

we’re going down down to one solitary color
and every town is going to look like all the others
out in the east the great Atlantic waves her hand
saying bye-bye to Provincetown and Dixieland
reach out for miles go coast to coast go make a call
find out all roads are being hosted by the mall

everybody needs a surprise
at least once in a while
everybody needs a new way
everybody needs their own style
everybody needs a surprise
at least once in a while

soon there will be no do drop in no mom and pop
no famous homemade recipes at the rest stop
no turquoise beads from Arizona
no leather boots from South Dakota
no snake skin bag out of Nevadaso go get them now if you’ve got to

chorus

it won’t be long before we all look like a few
but I’ll keep coming back around to look for you

chorus

chorus

- top -

COMING OUT CLEAN

on a southbound train
all the way from Buffalo to be
in the Delta’s mystery
on a cloudy night
crossing the rails you know that
they just might
cross the devil out of me

a voodoo man
a bag full of mojo in his hand
riding up ahead of me
heading home
To the soil that’s in his bones
and the song that’s calling me

Son House calling out to his lover
deep and dark as a distant mother
there was no way around
and no in between
I was pulled into pure soul water
just like Mississippi ’s daughter
jumping in with sin
and coming out clean

in the morning light
stretching out to the left and the right
all that land an endless sea
spirits rise
where the cotton fields grow wide
full of seed and history

chorus

- top -

LITTLE WHITE LIE

down in the belly of your deepest fear your
heart’s just pumping for a chance to get near
something bigger than life
better than you’ve every known
and you thought if you owned a little piece of shade
you could sit back in it like you had it made
isn’t it always something pulling you down the road

you buy genuine leather in a custom fit
we say yeah yeah you look good in it
and for a little while you feel just a little more bold
then you catch yourself in the rear view mirror
and realize just where you’ve steered
and you wonder how long ago you lost control

everybody’s trying to sell you paradise
you work a couple jobs just trying to pay the price
well isn’t it ironic that the finish line
is the distance of a little white lie

one step to touch what’s gold
two steps to leave what’s old
three more to step into the muse
one hand to hold the light

two arms to hold on tight
to everything you’ve got to lose

chorus

- top -

MODERN TIME

I put the clamp on the battery
and jump this old ford galaxy
and take her down by the
old ax factory
the river there it can bend and sway
all the sticky heat from a summer day
back in fifty five
it washed most this town away

I heard it on the radio
half of the time
we’re sending off the boys to war
the other half we’re doing fine
and of all the things I’ll never know
it’s how you rely on the world
repeating history and calling it
a modern time

now this factory it’s an antique store
and the suburbans leave with
their rope tied doors
ain’t it strange how you don’t
notice war anymore
it’s a better life and I’ve got my share
with a place to dream
and an easy chair
but a hollow feeling
can find you anywhere

chorus

there’s a dusty kid on the old steel rail
with a hummingbird
in a rusted pail
with a knack for fixing
broken wings and tails
and that big bright sun
up above his head
it must have seen the smoke
and the underfed
on it’s way out west
to this sleeping river bed

chorus

- top -

GOODNESS EVERYWHERE

it wasn’t’ till the fire came
and took this whole place down
we found ourselves living
in the heart of this town
in a sudden twist of fate
everybody knew my name
and from every direction
everyone came

a song for everybody
who loved me like rain
who opened up wide
and poured down
on my name
and gave me a shelter
and a place to begin
with one oar in the water
one wing to the wind

love overwhelms till we come undone
then wake up and find out we are the ones
worthy of every atom of care
there is goodness everywhere

when the cold settles in
and the spark will not light
out on the edge of a thousand
dark nights
someone will call
in the warmest of tones
like a choir that’s calling
a little lamb home

it’s a love that is painful
and powerfully bold
and for the unworthy
a demon to hold

for it lights every virtue

you’ve earned since your birth
and if I could start over
I’d be better rehearsed

chorus

- top -















































 

















































 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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