Our new, all acoustic CD is almost here! Here are all the lyrics, music to follow soon:
BOHEMIAN HIGHWAY
Rivers in the sky
Layin in grass so high
Morning glory spied
By Mr. Darcy’s eye
I’m not alone in Freestone
Old friends reflecting
All my rarefied and better light
Green Apple meadow take this weary mind
Bohemian Highway
August river road
Bohemian Highway
Carrying me home
Pure black wooded night
Dipper in the sky
Seven Sisters fight
I ain’t takin’ sides
I’m the lonesome satellite
Following the Dipper lines
To true north my companion since the day before I chose delight
Abandoned my old sacred burden
Bohemian Highway
Rivers in the sky
Bohemian Highway
Rivers in my eyes
Thank you for wandering
Sweet curves and bitter hollows
Abandoned stone marked pastures
Return to random useless wonder
Return to random useless wonder
Bohemian Highway
August river road
Bohemian Highway
Carrying me home
DEAR FLASH
Dear Flash
Dear Flash
It’s been a long long long long long long time
Well I surely do respect your need
to fade into the hills
But damn, old man, I’ve got to say
the effort nearly killed me
I miss your prose and your sensitive nose
Do you still hunt chanterelles?
I miss those days
And freedom’s way
And the lovely unshod belles
Dear Flash
Won’t you lend me some cash?
Won’t you lend me some cash?
Dear Flash
As I sit in Angelino
there’s a rumble in the air
The feds are flying gray Chinooks
to pacify our cares
And yes I need a Greyhound fare
But I also need relief
I spent my youth in bitter truth
Now I want to lie in green
CHORUS
I won’t be a nuisance
You’ll hardly know I’m there
At the far in of your acres
I’ll be a cropper
If you’ll share
CHORUS
THE SPIRIT OF DEATH
I went out dreaming to the bottom of the sea
Under the whispering weight of the people gone before me
The song of the sinking sun summoned me to shore
That old friend I’d known a thousand times before
It was the spirit of death
The spirit of death
The spirit of death
The spirit of death
My heart is blessed
With the spirit of death
When I was a younger man
The good times eased the way
But now the stars are falling every other day
The dreams of childhood are returning to say
Your dance is coming, better pick a tune and play
CHORUS
Sweet sister Amy left us in the fall
Her spirit lingers in the hearts of us all
I asked my old friend if Amy was okay
He said that blazing spirit carried her on her way
CHORUS
If you visit my grave you won’t be alone
I’ll be dancing on my own gravestone
So bring your pretty woman, bring your fruit of the vine
A whole lot of laughing and a little bit of crying
Little bit of crying
Little bit of crying
NEW KIND OF LONELY
Our favorite young couple
Came by to watch some TV
They felt a strange loneliness so soon after their joyous
Matrimony
It was a rocking wedding
All the friends came in from out of town
Now they feel like they’re letting
Everybody down
There’s a new kind of lonely
And it’s sitting right next to you
There’s a new kind of lonely
Ah but even the sky is blue
Randy went out and got wasted with the boys
Chasing skirts and getting hurt, recollapsing
All the young man’s joys
Mona stayed home, slept with the cat
Too tired to wonder when Randy’s
Finally coming back
CHORUS
Little dove
Where’s your love?
The one always beside you
I guess it’s true
The lucky twos
Sometimes refuse the solace of their garden
Now I’m sitting on the back porch with my long time lovely bride
Waiting for the sun to set, the breeze to blow
Everything’s all right
CHORUS
I FELL IN LOVE WITH THE GRATEFUL DEAD
I fell in with the Grateful Dead
Hippie melodies in my head
I did what I did and I said what I said
In the parking lot caravan Grateful Dead
Me and my sister snuck out of the house
Took the Sunset bus into Hollywood’s mouth
To an acre of heaven in a concrete mile
Palladium, Palladium, Palladium smile
In the deep summer fog in Hampton Sydney
With the sweet southern girls who were oh so pretty
We smoked marijuana on the Chesapeake Bay
Fed the horses with handfuls of hay
CHORUS
In the summer of ‘72 I rode up the coast
On a sputtering Triumph with draft dodging freaks from my college
‘Twas the Santa Barbara Bowl and the New Riders opened the show
With a black wall of speakers as big as the ocean
Jerry came out smoking his cigarette
We hollered like wolves
He played his guitar seven days of the week
And the little man next to me was starting to peak
Oh, Donna, earth mama, smile down on this freak
CHORUS
My lady knew the crew
So we were granted backstage
Ate organic vegetarian curry and rice
Sat down in the wings on the hardwood floor
And the music washed over me
A foaming green gentle sea
A sea without jealousy
And I was the shore
I was laughing and crying without even trying
CHORUS
What, may you ask, is this song about?
It’s a cry for the tribes of peace to come out
We got the numbers, we’re fast and we’re strong
Consult your Whole Earth Catalogs
Take this hippie faded love and use it if you please
Or scatter us all gently on a Santa Cruz breeze
Or an Arkansas storm
To Winterland Meadowlands Soldier Field Tivoli
Rotterdam Amsterdam Newcastle Wimberly
Hey, batter, batter
You can’t destroy matter
I fell in with the Grateful Dead
Hippie melodies in my head
I did what I did and I said what I said
In the parking lot caravan Grateful Dead
A blonde hippie girl shared my bed
MARY AUSTIN SKY
Even her mundane objects are beautiful
Human folly cast in stone
L.A. river from the 6th street bridge
Weedpatch Highway, Old Road
Mary Austin Sky
Mary Austin Sky
She made the desert more sacred for me
Temblor Mountains, Carrizo Plain
Palo Verde, Saline Valley
Holy landscape, human stain
Mary Austin Sky
Mary Austin Sky
Holding
Back the
Inevitable
Mary Austin Sky
Mary Austin Sky
BIG OLD HYPODERMIC NEEDLE
She called me on the telephone and waited all night long
I never showed up at her door to carry her along
She scratched and scratched and smoked a pack
That itch just wouldn’t quit
Drank some wine, some Vicodine, and bought some time
It was that big old hypodermic needle
Nothing else would do
Big old hypodermic needle
Trusted, tried, and true
It was her steely shot of courage
It was her red white and blue
Four days later on the floor she didn’t feel so sick
Sun came through the kitchen door
Thank God she’d finally quit
Got out of the house, that brave little mouse
Facing the world on her own
Oh, but flying in on that clear desert wind
Her very best friend
Gonna be with her to the end
It was that big old hypodermic needle
Just a taste for the road
Big old hypodermic needle
Two sisters’ secret code
One last time for the memory
In a sunset turning gold
It was that same ironic ending to the fable at the wooden kitchen table
When you get too much of what you’re looking for
And what also killed the messenger, straight off the plane from Amsterdam
Was sweet and uncut heaven and I found them where they fell
It was that big old hypodermic needle
Who’s to say and who’s to tell
Big old hypodermic needle
Did you ever feel like an empty shell?
Comin home was easy
When you hear the angel bells
Two sweet sisters in the sunrise
Hear the angel bells
RIVER RUN
Now the river flows
Mostly underground
Summer rains
Have moved further south
Mosquitos in the sun
Miles of empty wells
Remember how we lived so well
My canopy abides
The strange new times
Open sky
Is hard and dry
Memory
Returns to me
I’ll root down
To porous ground
Run, river, run
River run, river run
River run
River run
River run
Now the river runs
Swiftly down my face
Wednesday brought the rain
Rain is holy grace
Grace be in my heart
My heart is in your hands
CHORUS
She said cottonwood, cottonwood
Don’t you cry
My source is the mountainside
If you keep me in your mind
My waters will find you
I will always pass on by
Reflecting changes in the sky
A thousand years is just a breath
A thousand miles before I rest
CHORUS
HIGHLAND PARK SERENADE
Slow down Figueroa
You’re breathing too fast
Twenty miles of boulevard
In a town that can’t last
I wake up at night
Hear your Saturday sounds
Helicopter, helicopter
Mission: surround
It’s a Highland Park serenade
Some are in love and some are afraid
It’s a Highland Park serenade
Five generations in this tumble down valley
From the concrete arroyo to T’s Bowling Alley
And a boy sprays his name on a newcomer’s walls
Just to let you know he’s not leaving at all
CHORUS
Calma te, calma te, calma te, mijo querido
Te amo, te amo, te amo, mi cuidad de pueblos todos
When the sun gets low
And the barbecues glow
There’s the asada you fear
And the asada you know
We’re living at the end of Monte Vista
Where the sun sets down right when I kiss ya
CHORUS
YOUNGER BUT WISER
We said our farewells
In songs and warning bells
The oracles won’t tell
Where we are going
We climbed the mountain trail
In lightning and black hail
Carrying the seeds of the revival
Younger but wiser
Addled, drunk and wild
I’ll meet you on the other side
Younger but wiser
Carrying our lives
I gotta say I kinda dig the ride
You and Karen sailed beside the great gray whales
Telling your own tales of the insurrection
Hope is burning bright
Southern Cross tonight
Wondering at life beyond the horizon
CHORUS
You and me alone
Cottages of stone fill our dreams tonight
Sheep up on the hill, brandy in the still
Feasting through the winter time
Flax, hemp, silk, sweet goat milk
Heaven’s so nearby again
Baby’s in the yard, learning all the stars
Heaven’s so nearby again
Heaven’s so nearby again
CHORUS
HUNGER MOUNTAIN BREAKDOWN
Hunger Mountain Breakdown
Hunger Mountain Breakdown
I’d like to introduce you to the mountain
I’d like to introduce you to my friend
You know that if I’m up here on this mountain
My problems will soon be at an end
I traveled all the way across this country
To climb above these pastures once again
See the smoke rising from the chimneys
Like memories scattering in the wind
The view through the leaf-bare trees
White birch and white snow
Following animal tracks
While the stark, strong, winds blow
Oooooohhhh
Welcome to the top of Hunger Mountain
400 feet of granite cliffs below
please tell all my friends in California
I’ll find satisfaction when I go
Hunger Mountain Breakdown
Hunger Mountain Breakdown
It sure is nice and quiet on Hunger Mountain
Now that my screeching demons are gone
Last night I dreamed about the ocean
And the time has come to travel on
Joy riding fighter planes
Golden eagle dips its wings
Slipping through the alpenglow
Back through your bedroom window
Hunger Mountain Breakdown
Hunger Mountain Breakdown
YOUR LOVE IS GOING TO KILL ME SOME DAY
Thirty pages of Ulysses
That much closer to the day
When one of us is leaving
And the other must remain
Well the western sky reminds me
Of the time you went all fiery
From my moment’s hesitation
At our wild and wicked ways
And it wasn’t just your beauty
Or your cosmic sense of duty
Or the dolphins in the gables
On our fabled wedding day
Giving you away
Your love is going to kill me
Someday
Your love
Your love
Your love is going to kill me
You believe in beliefs yet have none
Sleep your deep sleep when day is done
Laugh as you chop down my grandiositree
Now I watch myself rising to your elevated plain
Listening to Terrapin Station in the rain
If you leave me I’ll ramble, I’ll jump, I’ll go mad
Our love is so good that it’s exactly that bad
You believe in blood medicine just like your dad
CHORUS
Heaven is in your kitchen
My inferno is in remission
If only fate was a decision
If only we could hold hands for oblivion
The skies of our own Armageddon
The skies
CHORUS
IF YOU LEAD I WILL FOLLOW
The wheels are rolling in the ruts of the wheels
That have rolled down this trail before
Tumbleweeds dreaming, the cactus seem to be
Pointing towards some distant door
Where’s the stewardess on this wagon train?
I need something to cut the fog in my brain
When I just can’t take it any more
If you lead I will follow
You give me comfort from the world
When my heart is feeling hollow
You fill it up with your diamonds and pearls
On the shores of Independence Rock
We roll and laugh and dance and talk and shake off the dust from the day
And I stand on the granite
Just like I planned it
And I’m wondering if I could stay
But the sun is sinking in the west
And this whole long trip is just one big test
And damned if I’m going to fail
CHORUS
The angels are singing and I’m still clinging
To the crag at the end of the ledge
You’re calling to me
Denying gravity
I close my eyes and step over the edge
CHORUS