1. |
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O big big world, here I come
With my big ideas and my tommy gun
My arms are brown, my heart is blue
Heaven knows that’s the life I choose
And I know it won’t be long
I’ll find myself among the weeds
No it won’t be long
You’re a pretty thing with a head fulla sand
Waiting for the promised land
I’m miles away with a broken heart
Miles away, hey that’s a start
And I know it won’t be long…
The jailor’s lost his ring of keys
The savior waits on bended knees
The rivers freeze and turn to glass
The wildflowers bloom at last
And I know it won’t be long…
Whoa big big world, here I come
With my big ideas
And my tommy gun
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2. |
Sunday Caller
03:18
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With a hundred dollars
I come alookin' for you
With a whoop and a holler
With my good times crew
I won't ask for your hand, dear
Or for you to be true
I'm your sunday caller
Be my Emmylou
Tack your stash to the waypost
Keep your ear to the line
I'll make my way to the east coast
But I'll take my time
I won't ask you for nothin'
Just a wish and a rhyme
I'll be your rainbow
Be my Caroline
The road calls my number
And you always call my bluff
Oh won't our love
And the rain that falls be enough
Your pa never wakes up
That phone never rings
And you'll never make love
Without a diamond ring
I got work for tomorrow
And a pack to sling
If you be my song dove
I will always sing
The road calls my number
But you always call my blood
Oh won't our love
And the rain the falls
Be enough
Oh won't our love
And the rain the falls
Be enough, be enough
Took a hundred hours
From Abilene
To a breath from the border
Of south Tennessee
But I won't ask for your hand dear
Or for you to come clean
I'm your Sunday caller
Won't you be my queen
I'm your Sunday caller
Won't you be my queen
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3. |
New Mexico Someday
03:52
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New Mexico is the land of enchantment
That’s what her license plate say
Well I’ve never been to Santa Fe
Never been out of Michigan
But I’d like to see New Mexico someday
Albuquerq’, would you quench my thirst?
Would you take me in like I loved you first?
I’ll make it down to the mesas
With a toothache and a suitcase
I’d like to see New Mexico someday
Might be a woman there
With green eyes and auburn hair
With a piece of land she’d like to share
We’ll carve our names into the sandstone
Live off the Rio Grande
Chase hummingbirds through the canyonlands
We’ll wake before the sun
And when our chores are done
We’ll listen to the coyotes on the run
Let me sleep beneath the moonlight
I’ll build my fire of pinyon pine
With nothing but the stars to guide
I spend my nights
With a picturebook, with a flashlight
I spend my days the same way
If this fever ever breaks, I will leave the northern lakes
And head on south down the interstate
If the Lord should strike me blind
I could still feel the sunshine
And the desert wind of
New mexico
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4. |
Seeds and Manure
02:19
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I’m gonna marry a farmer
I’m gonna leave this city life
Cuz I want me some farmin’ children
And a farming wife
And when the sun goes down
And full moon is round
We’ll have all we need
From the earth, from the ground
When the sun goes down
And full moon is round
We’ll dance til we fall
In our little country town
I’m gonna leave the city
Where the people all try to look pretty
Some seeds and manure
And a tractor oughta do ‘er
And a woman whose heart is pure
Yeah I’m gonna marry a farmer
I’m gonna leave this city life
Cuz I want me some farmin’ children
And a farming wife
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5. |
That Cutting Wind
03:38
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Got a wife and kids
back in Baltimore
But I aint coming back
I put it all in a gunny-sack
and headed for the war
I was looking for salvation
Looking for a thrill
But all I found
Was that cutting wind
That cutting wind
Will tear you to pieces
And that cutting wind
Will show you no mercy
So come when the water's high
With a twinkle in your blue eyes
That cutting wind will blow you home again
Slick rifle hand
Shake me to my marrow
But I'm a child of sin
My numbers coming in
The day after tomorrow
With a nickels worth of dimes, Lord
For every town I been
And every time I faced that cutting wind
That cutting wind…
To lay down my arms
And jump across the ocean
To be home again
With my wife and kid
Is all that I am hopin'
But I cannot catch a break
And we cannot seem to win
And all we find is that cutting wind
That cutting…
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6. |
Ballad of Frankie
04:46
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I left my baby on a steam rail line
With a pocket fulla shiny government dimes
I could not say a reason if I tried
Just fare thee well, my Caroline
I remember when we took that drive
From state to state just looking for the good life
But one day the engine quit
And thinking ourselves wise
We clicked our heels and crossed the wires
They say a slow and steady pace will do ya fine
Just don’t keep your eyes off the finish line
I’m miles back and running out of time
My father was a worker of the land
Nothing more than a common man
But a tractor spilled his body down
Into the Rio Grande
He never worked again
So with a borrowed gun and a dime-store disguise
I was caught between redemption and demise
I said don’t do nothin’ funny son
Oh don’t you even try
Just count the cash and shut your eyes
They say a slow and steady pace will do ya fine
But I’m miles behind the finish line and running out of time
And I still have that woman on my mind
But she aint mine
Santa Fe’s an awful place to hide
So I hitched a ride across the great divide
I’ve seen miles and miles of blacktop
And every type of sky
But I can’t recall what I meant to find
So I sit here with my ankles in the bay
Waiting for the sun to mark the day
I guess there’s nothing left to do
But turn around and say
My oh my, I sure lost my way
But a package came in the month of May
Wrapped in bailing twine
And the return address in violet read Caroline
Oh I still love that woman soft and kind
Yeah a package came in the month of May
Wrapped in bailing twine
And the return address in violet read Caroline
She said I’m still in love
With you my oldest friend
Til the end
Til the end
Til the end
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7. |
Ballad of Caroline
05:51
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Come down to the water sometime
It feels fine my love
Feels almost right
It’s where I’ll be lying tonight
My story ends at the riverbend
Where the brambles are always in bloom
And just overhead the slivered moon
Frankie you son of a gun
I will never forgive the things that you done
Frankie you son of a bitch
With your sweet-talking tales
I’m over it
You swore that job was your last
So I lent you my gun
And waited out back
Then you sang me to sleep in your arms
But I woke up cold
And the money was gone
They told me I wasn’t the first
To fall for your charms
To quench your thirst
But I believed you
For a year or two
Frankie…
I walked to the edge of our town
Where the poor boys
Pass their bottles around
And I followed the rail til the bridge
But I never looked back
I just jumped right in
If you’re ever coming back home
Bury my clothes and scatter my bones…
If you’re coming back home
Scatter my bones
Come down to the water sometime
To the place where we’d meet
With a bottle of wine
You used to kiss me so sweet
But my story ends at the riverbend
O Frankie you son of a gun
I will never forgive the things that you done
Frankie you son of a bitch
With your sweet talking tales, I’m…
O Frankie you son of a bitch
I love you still
You lunatic
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8. |
Wildflower Tea
03:59
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I've known some people in my travels
That showed me what it is to live
I've known some givers and losers
And a comeback kid
I met an old woman in the woodlands
With her gentle man
She put her right hand 'round my shoulder
And I followed them
She said:
We've got so much love to give we cannot keep it in
We've have so much love to give, we cannot keep it in
At the edge of a clearing stands their cabin
Just a bedroom and a door
An old copper kettle and a woodstove
On the creaky wooden floor
She brings her pail down to the creekside
While he splits the wood
They watch the fireflies through the white pines
Like any lovers would
Cuz they've got so much love to give they cannot keep it in
They have so much love to give, they cannot keep it in
Sittin' on porchswings in the morning
Listenin' to the wind
They watch the deer pass through the witchgrass
As the day begins
They live on nothing
They live on nothing
They live on nothing but light and love
And wildflower tea
That could be you and me
These days I'm squinting at the daylight
I shiver from the night
I put my left shoe on my right foot
Nothing adds up right
But I've got so much love to give
I cannot keep it in
I have so much love to give
I cannot keep it in
I never noticed the way you glow
until the lights were low
I never noticed the way you glow
until the lights were low
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9. |
Lord Comes a Knockin
02:14
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You know they caught the preacher
With his pants down
He was drunker than hell and upside down
He bought a one-way ticket straight down
To the land of fire and terrible sounds
So when the Lord comes a knockin
Tell him I aint around
The county clerks wear roller skates
While the deputies and magistrates
Sit on picnic chairs above the lake
And the peasants all wait for their cake
So when the Lord comes a knockin
Tell him I’m running late
In a distant land I tried to find
A simple life from another time
The natives sat and sucked on limes
Waiting for a bell to chime
So when the Lord comes a knockin
Tell him I’ll bring the wine
Christmas bells and shotgun shells
Lollipops and show and tell
I’ll count to ten and back again
But you can’t hide from me my friend
I would saw my bones just to see you smile
Drag a boulder down a crooked mile
But my tools all lay in a rusty pile
And dragging never was my style
So when the Lord comes a knockin
Tell him to stay a while
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10. |
Deliver Me
05:14
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Deliver me
When the skies have settled
When the ice has melted
When the flies and nettles come
Deliver me
From the orphan chatter
With an orchard ladder, come
I'm poor but I'm blessed
I'm happy, I guess
But it's just one hard year
To another, I fear
So let's skip the pleasantries
And loosen my tie
Give me something to remember you by
Come dance with me
Beneath the willow tree
Let us see what spring will bring
Our lonely hearts, drifting apart
We're poor but we're blessed
We're happy, I guess
But it's just one hard year
To another, my dear
So let's skip the pleasantries
And loosen my tie
Give me something to remember you by
Deliver me
When the skies have settled
When the ice has melted
When the flies and nettles come
I will be undone
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Leo J and The Mêlée Portland, Oregon
Hands in the dirt
Face to the wind
Folk Songs
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