1. |
Canola Fields
04:49
|
|||
I was thinking ‘bout you, crossing Southern Alberta
canola fields on a July day
are about the same chartreuse as that sixty-nine bug
you used to drive around San Jose
you never knew where my old white Lincoln might take you
party on wheels with suicide doors
bring the kids and the dogs and your grandma too
we always had room for more
til that white knuckle ride back from Santa Cruz
second best surfer on the central coast
had you wrapped up all the way back to Los Gatos
and I could’ve cut his throat
and it wasn't like we were an item to start with
it had no basis in fact
but the whiskey could push me to sudden extremes
I don’t want to think about that, I don’t want to think about that
(chorus)
take my hand Marie
take a death grip on some part of me
keep me from drifting far out to sea
or I’ll be lost out there
we all drifted away with the days getting shorter
seeking our place in the greater scheme
kids and careers and a vague sense of order
busting apart at the seams
I heard you switched coasts, moved in with your sister
I doubt you’d have called it familial bliss
we met up in Brooklyn before it went hipster
you carried your keys in your fist
in a way back corner of a cross town bus
we were hiding out under my hat
cashing in on a thirty year crush
you can’t be young and do that
you can’t be young and do that
(chorus)
I was thinking ‘bout you crossing Southern Alberta
canola fields at harvest time
look like tumbleweeds all raked up into rows
brown rusty contour lines
and there’s not much moving on the romance radar
not that I’m craving it all that much
but I still need to feel every once in a while
the warmth of a smile and a touch
and in a way back corner of a cross town bus
we were hiding out under my hat
cashing in on a thirty year crush
you can’t be young and do that
you can’t be young and do that
(chorus)
|
||||
2. |
If It Don’t Bleed
03:50
|
|||
looking back down the road from a little ways out
I never had a fear and I never had a doubt
if I’d had a lick of sense I’d have figured that out pretty fast
but I wasn’t any smarter than the average kid
somebody might’ve noticed, but I never did
I never saw the future fading right into the past
talking to the wallpaper, wandering the halls
I burned a lot of bridges and I dropped a lot of balls
it’s a wonder I can ever go back to anyplace I’ve been
but I wouldn’t get down on my knees on a bet
I’m near enough to Jesus as I ever want to get
seeking salvation isn’t part of my general plan
(chorus)
save your prayers for yourself
I raise my glass to your health
I don’t mind if you don’t look like me
I can share my bread and wine
I come from another time
it don’t matter all that much if it don’t bleed
if it don’t bleed
now it’s all I can do just to get out of bed
there’s more in the mirror than there is up ahead
I smile and I nod like I heard what you said every time
so run another rack, pour another shot
you don’t get it back so give it all you got
while you still got a more or less functional body and mind
(chorus)
I learned to answer my calls and open my mail
I paid my taxes and I stayed out of jail
you stay in the game when you’re too broke to fail
that’s a fact
talking to the wallpaper, sleeping in the hall
bones get brittle so you better not fall
you slow to a crawl and time gets to balling the jack
run you right off the track
(chorus)
|
||||
3. |
Operation Never Mind
04:34
|
|||
it don’t have to trouble me and you
the country boys will do the fighting
now that fighting’s all a country boy can do
we got a handle on it this time
no one’s gonna tell us we were wrong
we won’t let the cameras near the fighting
that way we won’t have another Vietnam
(chorus)
no one knows, ‘cause no one sees
no one cares, ‘cause no one knows
no one knows, ‘cause no one sees it on TV
she works a checkpoint in the city
choking on the gravel dust and smog
she knows not to stop the black Suburban
those guys will run you down just like a dog
the KBR man knows her trailer
he hips her to some recon that he’s found
says he’ll be coming by for a late inspection
and there’d best not be no soldier boy around
(chorus)
(bridge)
don’t they look just like on “SEAL Team”
Lord don’t they look the best
when we trot them out at halftime
or the seventh inning stretch
they stand up in their uniforms and help us sell the show
dying by their own hands for reasons we don’t know
we got an operation going on
it don’t have to trouble you and me
a KBR man cooks a T-bone
a soldier’s choking down an MRE
we just go on about our business
drop the kids off at the mall
play the Black Ops on the laptop
and don’t make too big a fuss about it all
(chorus)
|
||||
4. |
Jackie
05:07
|
|||
half a section in the short grass at the foot of the plains
grows broomweed in the dry times, ragweed when it rains
it’s all she’s got left that the lawyers don’t claim
Jackie does her damn best, never one to complain
she’s been green breaking horses when she’s home from the road
waiting on dispatch to find her a load
she leased all but the trap, ponies can’t graze a thing
another bobtail of coastal ought to last them ’til spring
there were pitchers on the tables and kids running ‘round
four generations of a blinking light town
it was the Cotton Eyed Joe or maybe just the right glance
she got to going with Randy at the Friday night dance
(chorus)
I just got two rules, if my conscience be known
don’t lie to me, don’t bring me nothing home
faithful’s a nice word in Sunday school class
life’s just too crazy for that
Randy says not to worry, he’ll feed while she’s gone
she’s got the Freightliner idling half up on his lawn
he don’t like her driving when the northers come blue
but if the horses went hungry Lord knows what she’d do
‘round Christmas up the Caprock you can see all the towns
and the courthouses lit up for ten miles around
it’s a magical time to be traveling the roads
watch the country roll by in the halogens’ glow
(chorus)
she jack knifed on black ice with an oversized load
there’s a white cross in the borrow ditch where she went off the road
she wasn’t going that fast, the responders all say
how it ended that bad, we can wonder all day
|
||||
5. |
Decent Man
04:48
|
|||
he was more than just a decent man, best friend I ever had
when you’re shooting at a coffee can, a thirty eight don’t kick that bad
but it kicks right through my bones every second of every day
clacking by like cobblestones under broken wheels
if the truth be known, I wasn’t doing that well
I wasn’t paying attention, I brought it on myself
and I blamed it on the gods that seemed to smile on everybody else
I got so inside out, I didn’t know what was real
(chorus)
my fields are empty now
my ground won’t take the plow
it’s washed down to gravel and stones
it’s only good for burying bones
I took the pistol off the wall, somebody hollered, ”Put it back,
sit down Dad before you fall down, you got no earthly use for that.”
but I slipped out the kitchen door, saddled up the sway backed mule
cinched her tight and swung on board, rode off like a drunken fool
I rode right on off the world, just like it never mattered none
there wasn’t nothing but me and the hurt, and the biting cold, and the heft of that gun
in the pocket of a sheepskin coat, moonlight in a madman’s eye
for the unfairness of it all, surely something had to die
(chorus)
he came out in the lantern light
his face in the flash was the last I saw of the world when it was still right
I didn’t watch him fall, I knew I’d hit him good, twice in the chest without a thought
turned the mule towards the county seat, like I knew I ought
(chorus)
Lola comes to visit, there’s just nothing I can say
we sit here of an afternoon ’til it’s time for her to go away
she rides home on that same mule that brought me to this place
I don’t know how she even stands to look upon her Daddy’s face
he was more than just a decent man
best friend I ever had
when you’re shooting at a coffee can
a thirty eight don’t kick that bad
|
||||
6. |
Vaquero
04:41
|
|||
in memory of Bill Witliff 1940-2019
I don’t take the paper, I don’t watch TV
I was out on the road when the word got to me
well goddamn the text, couldn’t I just have gone blind
and heard your voice in my ear like I did in my mind
(chorus)
mira vaquero (look yonder vaquero)
se pone el sol (the sun sets)
buen caballero viajando con Dios (fine horseman, travelling with God)
mira vaquero (look yonder vaquero)
no miramos atras (we don’t look back)
nos vamos al campo (let us go to the cow camp)
una vez mas, una vez mas (one more time, one more time)
your chaps are still dusty from late summer’s drouth
when the cedar turn rusty it’s time to go south
when your time is upon you, you don’t always know
“Brinca la vida,” Abuela nos dijo (“Life jumps,” Grandmother told us)
“Brinca la vida,” we learned long ago
(chorus)
so pour out the coffee and piss on the fire
I hear hounds in the distance, it’s down to the wire
make for the cow camp, we might have a chance
vamonos por el campo en el campo we’ll dance
vamonos por el campo en el campo we’ll dance
(chorus)
|
||||
7. |
||||
when the white oak leaves are rustling ‘round the courtyard
tell the cook to leave the kitchen window down
just don’t lock it from inside, I might still need a place to hide
when I turn to face the horses and the hounds
sister says to come on back for Christmas
mama’s wondering why I never come around
lord I’ve been running for so long I just can’t find a way back home
so I’ll turn to face the horses and the hounds
(chorus)
you might hear some gears a’grinding
‘fore I can get this rig turned back around
and head back down the highway winding
back towards the horses and the hounds
I thought I’d found a love to last me
’til she opted for that candy coated clown
I didn’t even make a show I just walked on and let’em go
still I’m running from the horses and the hounds
(chorus)
on the Trail’s Inn Motel sign rides a warrior
with his horse run out and his lance a’pointed down
that’s as far as he’s gonna get, he surely knows what’s coming next
he’s just waiting on the horses and the hounds
(chorus)
and I bet they hear it halfway back to town
when I turn to face the horses
the horses and the hounds
|
||||
8. |
Ft. Walton Wake-Up Call
05:16
|
|||
well she woke up mad and she’s trying to pick a fight
got a phone to my ear ‘cause I’m trying to book a flight
and she’s crazy as a goddamned loon
and the airline’s drowning in the belly of the beast
and they’re all bogged down from the weather in the east
and we’re not going anywhere soon
it’s thirty degrees on the Emerald Coast
I spilled my coffee and I burned my toast
and the rent car’s sitting on a flat
the internet’s down and they don’t know why
and I damn near made the desk clerk cry
and there wasn’t any reason for that
she’s camped in the shower and she won’t come out
and I don’t have a clue what that’s about
I’ll just have to wait and see
can’t get online to check the bank
Twitter’s on fire, my stocks all tanked
but what’s really getting to me is
(chorus)
I keep losing my glasses
I keep losing my glasses
I keep losing my glasses
I keep losing my glasses
Georgia license Code B Restriction
can’t drive ‘less I got my specs on
double negative’s proper diction
in this North Florida redneck lexicon
ain’t nothing but Fox News fiction on
nobody’s showing the game I’m betting on
how’re they gonna build a wall with no Mexicans anyway
honeymoon’s over less than enchanted
gonna be driving back to Atlanta
she don’t like the freeway so we’re going scenic
Apalachicola and points in between
patches of fog on up to Sopchoppy
ten four driver we good and gone, copy
we’ll get home tonight or there’s gonna be hell to pay
roadside stand selling tupelo honey
you take you a jar and leave’em the money
that’s how they do it down here
but it’s cold and they’re not selling today
she’d just break a jar on my head anyway
‘cause it’s my fault we got such a damn late start
I was doing my part for my art and I kept losing my glasses
(chorus)
made the exit and turned up Ponce
and I’ll be damned if I know what she wants
but we gotta get something to eat
Majestic Diner’s our best chance
pork chop and eggs oughta save the romance
it’s maybe a mile up the street
my daddy told me, if you got any sense
better feed the woman, many years hence
I know what he meant and I got me a plan
but I can’t read the menu ‘cause damn I keep losing my glasses . . .
|
||||
9. |
What’s the Matter
04:26
|
|||
the phone’s on the dash, the goddamned thing
it’s one of those times when I know it’s gonna ring
don’t want to answer, but I got no choice
there’s something bad wrong I can hear it in your voice
(chorus)
what’s the matter
what’s the matter now
the dryer’s broke down and the kids all cryin’
it’s pouring down rain and there’s clothes on the line
I don’t know what to tell you, don’t know what to say
how’m I gonna fix it, I’m a thousand miles away
(chorus)
I get to travel and you gotta stay home
you’re gettin’ tired of raising them kids alone
I know it ain’t easy, I know it ain’t fair
you keep saying I never take you anywhere
want me to take you for an airplane ride
want me to take you to the seaside
sorry baby but I can’t right now
gonna have to make it up to you somehow
(chorus)
(bridge)
we’re nearly twenty years older
and it’s not like we thought it’d be
we never talked this over
you can’t lay it all on me
van’s barely running and we’re all half sick
band leader’s being such a damn little prick
we hit the road early and I never got a shower
supposed to been at soundcheck back about an hour
blood pressure’s up and I gotta take pills
if the food don’t kill me, the alcohol will
I know it ain’t healthy, but this is what I do
same thing I was doing back before I met you
(chorus)
you want to know about a number I called
must’ve been a misdial I don’t recall
doctor bills came and we’re down on our knees
insurance pays when they damn well please
I sent home the money, soon as I could
sent it home to Sancho, like a good man should
what’s the matter . . .
|
||||
10. |
Blackberry Winter
05:09
|
|||
I don’t know what went wrong
I ain’t known you that long to begin with
leave the rocks in the road, stay away from the river Virginia
there’s not much you can do ‘cept wait on a train
when the road gullies out in a Biblical rain
and that’s how it’s been ever since I can remember
I’m not too keen of mind
I don’t pick up on signs like I ought to
so I won’t sweat the cost of the coffee
or the wine that I bought you
with your emptied out nest, your chicks have all flew
now there’s nobody left to take care of but you
and you don’t know how to just be
no one ever taught you
I can’t find much to say as you play with that loose strand of hair
if you had you a tail you’d be twitching it
and I’ve got to get over the scare and tell you no
(chorus)
and tell you no
and tell you no
and tell you no
never saw such a cold day in June did you ever Virginia?
in our young days the old people called it blackberry winter
as the mail plane goes out at a slow rate of climb
this cold rain don’t help with your low state of mind
hanging down like the fog on the ridge
you can’t tell what’s in it
and you stare me down hard and you ask me why I even care
it’s not that I’m any Sir Galahad
there just needs to be somebody there to tell you no
(chorus)
your bags are all packed, you’re not coming back that’s for certain
and the landlady won’t like the stains on the rugs and the curtains
that’s just wear and tear such as happens in life
but folks around here live to gossip and gripe
so I won’t tell a soul
what they’ll never know will never hurt ‘em
and I found the letter you left at the foot of the stairs
I hear the horn blow, the train’s pulling out
I hope you find somebody there to tell you no
to tell you no . . .
leave the rocks in the road
stay away from the river Virginia
|
Streaming and Download help
If you like James McMurtry, you may also like:
Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp