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Track List
  • Names
  • Really Truly
  • Samadhi
  • Fade Out
  • The Snowman
  • Trigger
 
  • Blue Kentucky Gone
  • Turn Out the Lights
  • Blood Like a River
  • Fathers and Mothers
  • Every Other Day
  • All But Gone
NAMES

My name is Private John David McCutcheon
I come from the Wyoming Plains
I am the third of five strong boys
But I am just a name 

I played safety on my high school football team
We even won a couple of games
But they stand silent at halftime now
For I am just a name

My name is Sergeant Albert Jay Jefferson
I come from Seattle in the rain
I am the only son of Ann and Jerry
But I am just a name 

I quit my job as a house painter
When the hard times came
Now the hard times don't bother me no more
For I am just a name

I am just a name
To you, to you
I am just a name
To you, to you
You don't know the things I did
And will never do
For I am just a name
To you

 

My name is Specialist Maria Selena Lopez
I come from Santa Fe
I am the first of my sisters to go to college
But I am just a name 

I did exactly what I was told
But things went badly just the same
I am a candle in my mother's hand
But I am just a name

(repeat chorus)

 

SAMADHI

I wish I was a junkie user
I wish I was a drunken fool
I wish I lay in some dark alley
Where the wind is blowing through

I wish I was a rising blackbird
I wish I was the falling rain
I wish I walked these city streets
Without a penny to my name

One day I
Will be someday gone
So tell me why
is it taking me so long

Once I dreamed
I rode your railroads
Once I dreamed
I was a river
I dreamed
I fell in fields of fire
And I lay alone forever

One day I
Will be someday gone
So tell me why
Is it taking me so long
 

THE SNOWMAN 
(after "the Snowman's Revenge" by Glen Hirshberg)

It’s still 1975
I’m the only boy left on this road alive
And the snow is hard coming down
The world is making a dying sound
I’ve come face to face with the truth
You’re only really bulletproof
When you can turn around
See the lights of your hometown

Fast forward to 1982
I’ve done everything I can think to do
When she says goodbye
There are no tears in her eyes

Turn around it’s 1986
Everything’s broken and can never be fixed
No matter how I try
And I still don’t know why

I wanted to be a Detroit Pontiac
I wanted to be a Flint Chevrolet
I wanted to be a man of metal
Motor still running
As he rusts away

I used to see those smokestacks burning
Used to think I could hear the world turning

Yesterday I saw myself in the mirror
My eyes are tired but it couldn’t be clearer
I’m an old man
Fighting back the best he can

Every morning when the sun comes to wake me
I’ve got so much love I’m afraid it’ll break me
And I’ll be damned
Don’t know how I got here but here I am

I want to be a Detroit Pontiac
I want to be a Flint Chevrolet
I want to be a man of metal
Motor still running
As he rusts away

 

BLUE KENTUCKY GONE
(She Sang the Blue Kentucky Girl)

When she wasn’t even ten
She’d say play that song again
And I was in the palm of her hand
She’d say that’s what I want to do
Sing like Emmy Lou
Be the leader of my own band

When she quit school and headed south
I just shut my mouth
And did what every father does
Swallow every doubt
Hope it all works out
And wonder if it ever does

She sang the Blue Kentucky Girl
Shook the coal dust off my world
It’s been hell down here so long
The only hope is moving on
She sang the Blue Kentucky Girl
Now she’s Blue Kentucky Gone

She’ll come for supper soon
To this simple dining room
Ask me how I’ve been
And my songbird will sing
And I’ll have everything
Until she’s gone again

(Repeat Chorus)


BLOOD LIKE A RIVER

You don’t know why
I’ve been crying
You don’t know why
You don’t know 

You’re a wing that
Can never start flying
I don’t know why
You don’t know

Blood like a river
Brings us together
Blood like a river
Ties us together

You don’t know why
I keep driving
You don’t know why
I come home

I don’t know why
I keep trying
When you don’t know why
You don’t know

I wonder If I could live without you
I wonder how far I would have to go to forget about you

When blood like a river
Brings us together
Blood like a river
Ties us together

EVERY OTHER DAY

The only time I think about dying Is when the sun’s coming up or going down
And I hope I turn to ash
Because I hear time passes slowly underground

I could love you forever
And never have time enough

For there are only two days that matter
As life passes by
The day that you’re born
And every other day that you die

The only time I think about leaving
Is when the wind’s blowing hard and the wind is still
But it’s just my gypsy soul
And when it comes to going
You know I never will

I could love you right here and now
And never be close enough

There are only two days that matter
As life passes by
The day that you’re born
And every other day that you die

Breathe in, breathe again

REALLY TRULY

Mary said I love you and Jimmy gave her a ring
She got married in her mama’s wedding gown
And really truly it didn’t change much of anything
The sun kept coming up and going down

Jenny said I love you and Jill gave her a ring
They got married in their mama’s wedding gowns
And really truly it didn’t change much of anything
The sun kept coming up and going down

A wedding ring
Is just a little bit of gold
That you can melt down
To next to nothing
But when it’s on
A hand you want to hold
It can be everything
And ain’t that something

Jack and Jerry are big ass NASCAR fans
Got number 3 stickers all over their trucks
But they keep it all as quiet as they can
They don’t want to press their luck

But they’ll take separate planes and fly out west
Meet up somewhere near the bay
And the day that they’ll remember best
Will be a perfect and ordinary day

(Repeat Chorus)


FADE OUT

It was the dead of winter the day I was born 
The wind blew once and my mother was gone 
But fortune has followed me my whole life long 
Don’t think I don’t know it I do

And all I ever wanted was you 
And all I never wanted to do 
Was fade out

I had a home by the river until I was grown 
Where somebody loved me like I was her own 
Until my heart tried to break right out of my bones 
As if even my poor heart knew

That all I ever wanted was you 
And all I never wanted to do 
Was fade out

My hands are hard and my poetry plain 
I’m welded right here like the links of a chain 
I’m angry I won’t get to do this again 
But Goddam I’m thankful too

And all I ever wanted was you 
And all I never wanted to do 
Was fade out


TRIGGER

The gun was silver, his finger on the trigger and his hand was shaking
I could hear whispers in the shadows of the sounds my life was making

I had nothing but car keys and 13 dollars wadded up in a crumpled ball 
I said man that’s your lucky number you can drive it away and keep it all

But that’s all I’ve got 
And I’m sorry

You know how they say that time slows down well they ain’t kidding it works that way 
I could count every tear running down his cheeks and I knew exactly what he was going to say

He said I used to be somebody special, somebody somebody loved a lot 
I didn’t change I thought I was the same but now I guess I’m not

And that’s all I’ve got 
And I’m sorry

I said you can kill me if it changes anything but you know damn well that it don’t He said I could kill you but it would change everything so maybe I won’t

I closed my eyes and I heard footsteps and everything happened so fast 
I was a father once and a father twice and 30 years had passed

And that’s all I’ve got


TURN OUT THE LIGHTS

He’s in a station wagon going south
Through Ohio, across the river
East to Louisville, Kentucky
Used to take a moving truck
To move him down the block
But compared to most out there
He knows that he’s lucky
He’s got a sister with an extra room
Said he’d stay out of the way and he’d be gone soon
He’s got a wife somewhere and a daughter almost grown
But everything is somewhere else when you’re all alone

And he’s the last one out of Michigan
The last one out of Michigan
He’s the last one out of Michigan
And he’ll be turning off the lights

He’s got everything he owns in a beat up leather valise
He’s running for the border, he’s running from the border police
He’s got a letter from his mother with a couple of old addresses
That was ten years ago but they’re his best hope he guesses

And he’s the last one out of California
The last one out of California
He’s the last one out of California 
And he’ll be turning off the lights

He’s got everything he owns in a plain briefcase
Rubber bands around the bills and a smile on his face
He’s got a ticket to somewhere else where he’s invisible
And his interest will never cease to be compoundable
He looks like nobody he looks like everyone
He’ll never be held accountable for the things he’s done
And all the people he’s left behind to suffer through
But it’s hard to recognize the devil when he looks so much like you

He’ll be the last one out of America
The last one out of America
He’ll be the last one out of America
And he’ll be turning out the lights

FATHERS AND MOTHERS

You’ve got yourself a cardboard sign and the time to wave it 
This world’s going straight to Hell and you’re going to save it 
You are standing in the rain wishing you were somewhere else 
Standing on the sidewalk wishing you were someone else

It’s an old county courthouse made out of glass and stone 
There’s a child inside who’s been too many years alone 
But you say only a man and a woman can make a family 
And you’ll be damned if that boy ever goes home with me

The world needs more father and mothers 
Willing to love little sisters and brothers 
And a lot less hate from you and the others 
Who would stand in the way
Of fathers and mothers

A heart can never have too much love
If you ask me 
But a heart with only a little bit of hate 
Just stays empty

I walk up the concrete steps and go in through the door  
I can see your mouth moving but I can’t hear you anymore 
You know Jesus was a baby boy once just like you 
They say he loved everybody, maybe someday you will too

ALL BUT GONE (Ghost Explains Himself)
(After the Ghost Poems by Gaylord Brewer)

Hey brother 
I used to be somebody
I pulled the wires
Up into the sky
Now all I do
Is stand by the highway
And watch the world pass by

Nothing’s changed
I could still be the man
John Henry
With a hammer in his hand
But you can see in my eyes
I’m all but gone

I’m all but gone (2x)
Shine a light in the darkness
I’m all but gone

Hey darling
You used to love me
You were proud
To have my name
But now your kisses
Are just like Pennies
In spare change

Nothing’s changed
I’m still the man
Put a gold ring on your hand
But I can see in your eyes
I’m all but gone

Hey Brother
You used to know me
Used to call me by my name
But I can see in your eyes
That I’m all but gone

(Repeat Chorus)