What is true in time

What is true in time

Does it really change with every season

Or is it always fixed and bound to reason?

 

What is true in time

What is true in time

And the words I used to think were mine

Come back to me in another’s lines

 

Yesterday comes back in rhyme

Yesterday comes back in rhyme

Yes, I look around and often find

The past is either here or close behind

 

I look ahead and I could swear

There was a path now nothing’s there

This crumpled map’s too hard to read

It seems that time just picks up speed

It seems that time just picks up speed

 

If we find love in time

There’s room for yours and mine

If what is true can change with every minute

Then how can we believe or have faith in it?

 

If we can be strong enough

To make each sound a song of love

Then maybe every song comes true

True in time

True in time

The cool people had a meeting

And decided that I wasn’t one of them

So I took my Nazarene guitar

And played it all the way to Bethlehem

Where some kind people took me in

Before I even found that I was lost

My mind moved slowly,

The north side covered with moss

 

Chorus:

Nazarene guitar, South Mountain star

Roads can scar and heal

Words can heal and scar

Oh, but love lasts longer

Love is stronger than steel

There’s music in the valley

The sounds of how it feels

 

They welcomed me               

A front door key to my dreams

The young and the poor

Tend to see the lower extremes

I listened in the wings

Filling with sounds that were true

It seems I was given

More than I was due

 

Chorus:

Future family had a meeting

And decided that I could be one of them

So took my Nazarene guitar

And played it all the way from Bethlehem

I miss those hills

That kept watch on me and my friends

Though I slouched away

They’ll be with me ‘til the end

It was a place where the hippies won

In the land of the Subaru

Where the dream was never done

And there still was room for you

 

In the valley of the Rio Grande

North of the Taos plateau

People there would lend a hand

And leave you room to grow, room to grow

 

It was back in ‘17,

The summer before the fall

Hope was being squeezed

By the bums who had it all

 

But there was music all around

Because the people dared to sing

You know they made such a sound

That they could face anything, any thing

 

Chorus 1::

Sun smoke and cottonwood snow

Some things only the Red Willow know

Arroyo Seco, New Mexico

 

Some made a little fire

So the big fire wouldn’t burn

The word rose like smoke

And the winds began to turn

 

Above the Taos plateau

In the valley of the Rio Grande

Lo  a new sound low

Resonated with the land, with the land  —

 

In a place where the hippies won

And a Subaru would do

The hard times came on

Harder than they ever knew

 

But they would build again

With sand, clay and straw

They found a new well within

And made an even deeper draw, deeper draw 

 

Sun smoke and cottonwood snow

Some learn what the red willow know

Hondo and Seco, New Mexico

Land of enchantment, New Mexico

 

It’s a pretty new day

In a pretty new year

It’s hard to know

Where to go from here

 

It’s easy to say

‘Cause talk is cheap

Are you worried now?

Are you losing sleep?

 

Refrain:

Worried man blues

Is an old song that comes to mind

In a world gone wrong

Where hope is so hard to find

Losing hurts worse        

Than winning feels good

They say move on

And you know that you should

 

When the good is lost

And the damage stays

A tattooed soul can last you

All your days

 

When you win

You should celebrate

It could come in a rush

But not stay late

There’s a lot of art

On the younger skin

And unseen marks

Deep within

 

So you carry on

As best you can

Get out of bed

And rise again

Once I loved a Mennonite girl, and for a while she was my whole world

I think of her when the swallows fly, as I make my way to the bye and bye

I did ride and I did roam I met her far, far from my home

Under northern lights I first kissed her hair.  She stole my heart and she kept it there

I roamed again and I did ride,  a hollow man who ached inside

Love seems to come from outside time. I knew love when she was mine

 

I lost her to another place, another’s arms another’s face

I made a vow right there and then to never let love go again

 

Chasing dreams, seeking gold. I was young man, now I’m old

I learned one thing to be sure you can find gold and lose something more

I never learned the Mennonite ways. She’s in my heart for all my days

I wish her peace, I wish her love iI wish her easy with the rough

 

Once I loved a Mennonite girl and for awhile she was my whole world

I think of her when the swallows fly as I make my way to the bye and bye

I think of her when the swallows fly

 I’ve got a crowded heart

Built for imaginings

Filling from the start

With all that living brings

 

I’ve got a crowded heart

That’s more than good enough

Each still plays a part

With all the one’s I’ve loved

 

Oh when it comes to love

Some choose a memory

A picture of what was

Not what has come to be

 

I’ve got a crowded heart

Partly worn with care

The sweetness and the tart

I bring it everywhere

 

I’ve got a crowded heart

Full of ifs and ands

It could be a work of art?

Wish that were in my hands

 

It’s a crowded place

For we are older now

But there is more space

If the time allows

 

I’ve got a crowded heart

For mixing up metaphors

Wiser than is smart

And needing a little more

 

If you’ve got a crowded heart

Full of odds and ends

Maybe we need a chart

A method to make amends

 

I’ve got a crowded heart

I’ve got a crowded heart

Do you have  a crowded heart…

 

I’ve fallen for you

…and I can’t get up

It’s sad but true

And old guy in love

I’m not lying, dear

I’m still lying here

It’s tough

I’ve fallen for you

And I can’t get up

 

I’ve fallen for you

Now I’m seeing stars

The night is so clear

They might really be stars

When Cupid’s arrow bit

The sound of it

Was harsh

I’ve fallen for you

Now I’m seeing stars

 

I’ve fallen for you

Though it never can be

For you are taken, taken

By one younger than me

 

I’ve fallen for you

I might be here awhile

The siren song

Here it coming for miles

Careful plans it seems

Love can interrupt

I’ve fallen for you

And I can’t get up

I’ve fallen for you

And I can’t get up

The last time he drank whiskey

He thought of her all night

He didn’t get to sleep

Until this morning

Tried to rearrange the past

To make it feel alright

But the way he feels now

Just seems like a warning

 

To leave it in the past

But the leaving doesn’t last

Call it a cry for help

When you cannot help yourself

 

The last time that he saw her

It was east of Santa Fe

On a bus to take her back to school

He’d rarely touch the hard stuff

‘Cause it tends to call her name

Reminding this half-educated fool

 

I guess we learn to live with our losses

Until we are lost as well

Is there a cry for help

When you cannot help yourself?

 

Is there a cry for help

When you cannot help yourself?

I like my feet, they’re very neat

None can compete with the meat in my feet

I like my toes, we’re very close

I should compose epic prose for my toes

They hold up my legs   while shopping for eggs

Now everyone begs to have pegs like my legs

I keep my calves   around for laughs

Both of my halves take their baths with my calves

I like my thighs,  they’re just the right size

They help me rise to new highs, my two thighs

 

Oh, it’s nothing but a butt

Oh, it’s nothing but a big butt

It’s beefy and mean Boston baked bean burnt burrito and a beer butt

It’s a really, really big butt

It’s a really, really big butt

It’s beefy and mean,

Boston baked bean

Burnt burrito and a beer butt.

 

Oh, it’s nothing but a butt.

It’s a what the heck was that butt.

It’s really, really lean hardly nothing in between, trendy out to make the scene butt

 

It’s a hardly nothing there butt It’s an absent derriere butt

It’s really, really lean hardly nothing in between trendy out to make the scene butt

 

Some butts are lost in poker games

Some butts end up in slings

Some butts end up as presidents

Who wish they could be kings

 

But they’re nothing but a butt

A double burger on a bun butt

They’re burly and bold, don’t you worry about the cold, yes, they’ve got an extra fold butt

It’s a really really big butt,

It’s a really really big butt

It’s a beefy and mean, Boston baked bean burnt burrito and a beer butt

It’s really  really lean hardly nothing in between trendy out to make the scene, Butt.

I’m just a cowboy riding past the sunset

You see my horse here would like to see heaven

I don’t mind it. I could stand it

Maybe play guitar in a band of angels

 

Have ‘em singing: (Chorus)

Red eyes in the morning, a cowboy’s warning

Redeye at night, a drunkard’s delight

 

My name is Henry. The horse’s name is Roses.

We’ve been riding so long, the saddle’s got the blisters

I’m only kiddin’ I’ve got a bottle hidden

We could drink it dry and look for some women — Chorus

 

Sorry sir I didn’t see the halo

I feel so dumb

Well I guess me and Roses will lay low

Killin’ time till kingdom come

I’m not a bad man

I hardly use my six gun

And I never threw lead unless I had to

I might be kind of lowly, but my horse is damn near holy

And she’d miss me, now wouldn’t you Roses – Who’d sing you: Chorus

Dear Mr. House, this is a letter from a stranger

Dear Mr. House, I know this letter is not news

It’s just a note I write to thank a man who

Came from Lyon near the Yazoo

And played the Delta Blues

 

I read somewhere that you knew Charley Patton

And so many more now forgotten and gone

And I read that you made records in Wisconsin

Showed your slide to Robert Johnson

And that he took up your song

 

I had heard that you used to be a preacher

And I’ve heard the way you played guitar

I wonder now if the one tore up the other

When Willie Brown was like a brother

And you played the country bars

 

There were blues in Mississippi

There were blues for everyone

There were blues in Mississippi

But they were blues with a rising sun

Blues with a rising sun

 

In ’43 you left that tractor in the delta

And came to work for the NY Central Line

When Willie passed the music didn’t matter

So you put away the patter

But it never left your mind

 

Someone said that you had your share of good times

The good times said that they had their share of you

Me, I say, what I say doesn’t matter

But what you did changed the world for good

 

I know your life wasn’t always made of music

I know your life has been so different from my own

When you sang you could rattle all the windows

And take all the things that I know and sing them from your home

 

With the blues in Mississippi

There were blues for everyone

There were blues in Mississippi

But they were blues with a rising sun (2x)

 

Pearl and Iris, Iris and Pearl, unsung heroes of the music world

Pearl and Iris, Iris and Pearl, unsung heroes of the music world

Iris played guitar and sang like a bird, Pearl played banjo like no-one had heard

Bill Monroe, Lester and Earl, learned the stylings of Iris and Pearl

Blue Moon of Kentucky, an old Iris tune

She gave it to Bill, one morning in June

Their genius was sure, but their egos were such

Cared less about cash than a treat or a touch — Chorus

 

In Maces Springs, VA near Tennessee

They took care of AP and Sara for free

Didn’t take to travel and neither could drive

They could’ve been as big as any band alive

Iris taught a boy named Elvis to sing

He and Pearl once had a thing

Pearl broke it off, made him shake and stir

But he was just a hound dog to her 

 

A north country town, taught a boy named Bob

And by all accounts did a pretty fair job

I think I have told too much of their tale

They never put their souls up for sale