1. |
Angry Anymore
03:21
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There was a time when I’d pound my chest
and I'd stomp my foot in righteous protest
I was a very angry man
and I’d sit in the kitchen and write protest songs
each one was several dozen verses long
all written in a heavy hand
I was so busy seeing things in black and white
I took leave of my personal oversight
‘til I fell far into the red
//and now I wonder
what spell
I must be under
‘cause I can’t tell
for sure,
if I
I can afford to be angry
anymore
can I afford to be angry anymore?
There was a time when I’d shake my fist
and I’d preach to the choir of intolerance
then we'd sing “we shall overcome”
But when we stood in protest by the governor’s band
it was just an excuse to hold your hand
and I was not the only one
and altho’ it’s been years I can’t let it go
it was a big chunk of my life you know
that you chose to throw away//
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2. |
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My grandpa settled here in 1951,
from dawn to dusk he worked a black coal seam.
But the land he lived upon has been whittled down and gone
and you cannot fish in the stream
//Mama said that only faith can move a mountain.
But Mama never knew the greed of man.
First they strip the topsoil bare, then it's just no longer there,
down where the mountain used to stand.
I have the river rising on a blue-sky country day.
Seen kids down at the schoolyard
with coal dust on their shoes.
And a midnight flood last may
took a third of my land away
and the DEP says there ain't nothing they can do.
//Mama said that only faith can move a mountain.
But that dragline seems to have the upper hand.
And if that damn begins to seep,
we'll be one more Buffalo Creek,
down where the mountain used to stand.
There's gonna be a meeting at the old churchyard tonight,
and we're all up for getting something done.
Lately I’ve been thinking that it might be time to fight,
and I don't think that I'm the only one.
//Mama said that only faith can move a mountain.
Oh, Mama, I sure hope you understand.
Got the access road closed down,
so now they have to drive through town.
Down where the mountain used to stand.
This is for Ms. Linnville and for Larry Gibson too;
for Ed Wiley walking to the white house lawn.
Hey Maria, yes, it's true. I wrote this song for you.
I want them to remember when you're gone.
//Mama said that only faith can move a mountain,
and Jesus said be stewards of the land.
So who among you thinks that coal is orate the value of your soul,
down where the mountain used to stand?
Yes the ones who rape the land, will one day wear blood on their hands.
Down where the mountain used to stand.
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3. |
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Steve flashed me the devil horns,
it was something I'd not seen before.
This was 1984 in the Holly High school hall.
We had been the kings of cool
at Juniata middle school,
but we were with the big kids who had had us feeling small.
Steve played me a new cassette
you couldn't get in town just yet,
it blew our minds and rocked our world
(although they kinda looked like girls).
//Heavy metal. Farmer's sons.
Blown away by everyone,
when LA seemed like half the world away.
Cut our jeans up, headbands on.
Things our parents frowned upon
and on and on and on the music played
So the next day we show up to class
in our fully decked out metal asses.
Oh man, you should've heard them laugh
it's was funny, sad and true.
Gym that day was really tough.
It was a long ride on the evening bus,
but the girls(!) had finally noticed us
and this was something new.
Situations such as these
could bring a young buck to his knees,
but our metal gods had told us take a stand.
So we started a band. \m/
//Heavy metal. Farmer's sons.
Nothing makes a rock band run
like three guys who think that they might get laid.
With our cut up jeans and red bandanas,
meet the world's worst metal band.
And on and on and on the music played.
Tho’ none of us could sing or play,
still we practiced everyday.
Steve played lead and I played bass
(and the drummer's name a can't quite place).
But we shared the shed where we learned to rock
was poison, anthrax, rats and wasps.
With our 10 watt amps on and old plank floor,
it was a Quiet Riot to be sure.
We got tapped to play the dance,
this was our big metal chance.
Yes, they'd crown us kings of rock romance.
yeah, this was gonna rule…
I felt like I was all grown up,
but Steve could not stop throwing up.
And the drummer never did show up,
instead he sent his mom.
//Heavy metal. Farmer's sons.
In the school gymnasium,
an acoustic set was all we got to play.
In our cut up jeans and spiked out hair,
everyone just stood and stared.
and eventually, they all just walked away.
And in the end you know we couldn't win
over Indiana's awful din,
and the real world would that sucks you in
and gets harder everyday.
But sometimes, when the moon is right,
on an Indiana summer night,
I swear to God that I am right
back there inside that shed.
When those heavy metal, farmer's sons
brought the rock to everyone,
and LA seemed like half the world away.
In our cut up jeans that smelled like hay,
the thought grows sweeter everyday,
and on and on and on the music.
On and on and on the music.
On and on and on the music played.
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4. |
Shenandoah
04:25
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I was born in the shadow of a mountain.
I was raised on the side of a hill.
But those fields that I once played in
been reduced to valley fill.
//So where's the life that worth the living?
O, Shenandoah, I long to roam.
If there's one gift Lord that you're giving,
take me home,
take me home.
To this land of milk and honey,
from the cities way up north.
For our lands the offered money
and we could scarcely not afford.
So they blasted off the bedrock,
after clearing all the trees.
Left a path of hells distraction
far as any eye could see//
From the foot of Kayford mountain,
through the towns of people's names,
across the breast of West Virginia,
every story sings the same.//
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5. |
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Betty drags hard on a Camel Light,
while semi's cower in the snow.
May be the only time she sits tonight,
the winter brings them in in droves.
The snow falls hard, makes diamond skies
and brings the truckers off the road.
Sometimes the snow is like a secret shared,
but tonight, it's only snow.
Betty stands up and straightens Dacron thighs
and tries to rub her legs to life.
She clicks her gum and cocks her hip
and ladles gravy on some fries.
And from the kitchen takes the steaming plates
of bacon shanks and scrambled eggs,
and table flirts with the driftwood men
to earn to coins that her work begs.
On a TV show is someone she knows,
they shared a room when she lived here.
And when she packed and headed for the coast,
Betty said she's wait another year
So many men had told her then
she looked like Marilyn Monroe.
She thought she could have been an actress then,
but now she doesn't know.
The snow fall slows and the truckers go
out to their cabs to sleep it off.
She counts the tips to pay the rent she splits
on a road that dead ends like a job.
She's not the girl she used to be,
but who she is she cannot say.
‘round here the path of least resistance
doesn't intersect the interstate.
For all this time, she's doing fine.
(If you ask her that's what she'll say,
then she'll pick up a broken coffee cup
“'cuz she's got tables anyway”).
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6. |
Little Liza Jane
06:08
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When I was just nine days old jumped off my pappy's knee
And I crawled out on the open road, a long-haul trucker for to be
Saved my money, bought a rig factory stock and plain
Tricked her out give the name, Little Liza, Liza Jane
I said bull dog train, she my ball and chain
Chokin' churnin' rubber burnin' Little Liza Jane
Now i took to haulin' overloads across the great divide
Missions through the rabbit ears, hell-for-leather, do-or-die
Crosswinds clocked at 80 knots, snow upon the ground
Black ice in the hammer lane, man, that don't even slow me down
Saying' bull dog train, she my ball and chain
Frettin' fussin' diesel guzzlin' Little Liza Jane
Smoky at the chicken coop, well he said the road was closed
So I doubled back a mile or so and took this little turn I know
Top froze over, bundled out, downgrade ten percent
Nailed her into boogie and then down that evil road I went
I singin' bull dog train, she my ball and chain
Slippin' slidin' skatin' glidin' Little Liza Jane
Road so slick I couldn't steer snow too thick to see
Runnin' short on shoulder and my nine lives runnin' out on me
Sheer cliff risin' to the left, drop off to the right
And nothin' past that guard rail but a thousand feet of endless night
I singin' bull dog train, she my ball and chain
Racin' rockin' tight-rope walkin' Little Liza Jane
Faster now and faster still, couldn't touch the brakes
So I let Liza have her head and I crossed my heart for goodness sake
But underneath that driven snow alligator bait
Chomped a tire, road went left, me and Liza went on straight
And we crashed right through that wooden rail, over the side we went
Thirty tons of smoke and chrome and thirty years of bad intent
Streakin' like a cannon ball, a comet trail in space
And the stars spun in my window, and the full moon in my mortal face
I singin' bull dog train, she my ball and chain
Rippin' roarin' eagle soarin' Little Liza Jane
Now Lord I pray forgive me for all the wrongs I've done
For all the bambis i have banged and the stogies i have flung
But as I stand before you, I swear by smoke and steel
That we sailed down past those chasm walls and never grazed a wheel
Because Liza's tires were spinnin' and her cab was cocked just so
That we touched down like a jumbo jet when we hit that valley road below and she
Pulled it out like magic on a triple-digit ride
And we made it home ahead of time good luck and trouble on our side
And drivers, when you're weary and you just can't find the trail
If you ask me to reveal the moral of this little tale, i'll say
Bull dog train, she my ball and chain
Jumpin' jammin' hammer slammin' Little Liza Jane
Bull dog train, she my ball and chain
Jumpin' jammin' hammer slammin' rippin' roarin' eagle soarin' racin' rockin'
Tight-rope walkin'
Slippin' slidin' skatin' glidin' frettin' fussin' diesel guzzlin' chokin' churnin'
Hellfire burning
Little Liza Little Liza Little Liza Little Liza
Little
Liza
Jane
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7. |
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You can do what you can to try and save face,
but nothing disappears without a trace.
A lotta dead air, a lotta blank page,
lotta time working on my thousand-yard gaze.
Ain't no secret to be revealed,
plow's gone rusty in the field.
The cow's won't milk, if they got no feed,
and I watched that crop all go to seed.
And it's a crooked barn with an empty smell;
dried manure in an empty shell.
Sunlight streaks where the shingles fell,
but the whole damn farm has gone to hell.
//I’ve been gone for a long, long time,
long enough to be outta your mind.
Many a moon since I been around,
but I'm a long, long way from settling down.
Bare-feet crying on the road again,
old nostalgia’s creeping in,
I smell the dust of an ill-black wind,
but I almost feel like I'm ready again.
So I'm gonna drag that thing out into the sun,
kick that motor 'till the damn thing runs.
The road might show you where it wants to go,
you got to learn to plow a straight line though.//
So I grew dust from a bone-dry field
‘til my wanderlust like a cyclone wheeled.
But if a harvest of rust has taught me just one thing;
it’s I'm here 'cause I got a song to sing.//
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8. |
Before the Flood
03:48
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When the sun has gone away,
and the moon has turned to blood,
I will dream of the days
like it was before the flood.
When a sky all painted red
was a scene of joy instead,
long before the thunderheads
and the stench of the dead.
//Even now, even now,
I can see it clear.
Even now, even now,
I can feel it here.
Saw them climbing up that hill.
Said, "the rain won't stop.
Lord, it never will"
So many lost,
so many killed.
I can see it even still//
You can cast your bread upon the water,
your seed upon the ground.
But it won't find no purchase here,
not in this lonesome town.
You can try to live the life you've lead
but it won't be the same,
the ghost of lovers walk these streets
and call you by your name.
repeat first verse//
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9. |
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“I'll never leave you.” was the accident’s reply.
And I knew that she was lying
'Cuz she looked me in the eye.
Caught in the gold band of a transcendental lie,
after years of buying tears over a Transatlantic wire.
I Christened her forgiveness, 'Tho it caused my heart to break.
And even tho' her father said, "There's bodies in her wake."
I felt I'd dodged the storm, the music never strayed.
But I couldn't feel the wind, that made the words all blow away.
//So where's the damned river when you need it?
To wash away the sins of the faithless one that feeds it.
How many times can history be repeated?
Tell me where's the damned river,
Where's that damned river,
Where's the damned river when you need it?
The truth be told, I was little more than struck.
In the influence sphere of genius
I could not believe my luck.
But her copper hair was just a penny set to drop.
On the train of her ambition, I was just another stop.
//So where's the damned river when you need it?
To wash away the sins of the faithless one that feeds it.
Why don't you just admit you've been defeated?
Tell me where's the damned river,
Where's that damned river,
Where's the damned river when you need it?
Out to the old bridge then, I made that lonesome trek.
Set to stare at the abyss
with a Lodestone around my neck
Until a voice inside said, "You are not to blame.
And as long as you're alive, she can never clear her name."
//So where's the damned river when you need it?
To wash away the sins of the faithless one that feeds it.
And what replaces anger now depleted?
Tell me where's the damned river,
Where's that damned river,
Where's the damned river when you need it?
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10. |
Here Comes the Flood
04:09
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When the night shows
The signals grow on radios
All the strange things
They come and go, as early warnings
Stranded starfish have no place to hide
Still waiting for the swollen Easter tide
There's no point in direction we cannot
Even choose a side.
I took the old track
The hollow shoulder, across the waters
On the tall cliffs
They were getting older, sons and daughters
The jaded underworld was riding high
Waves of steel hurled metal at the sky
And as the nail sunk in the cloud, the rain
Was warm and soaked the crowd.
Lord, here comes the flood
We'll say goodbye to flesh and blood
If again the seas are silent
In any still alive
It'll be those who gave their island to survive
Drink up, dreamers, you're running dry.
When the flood calls
You have no home, you have no walls
In the thunder crash
You're a thousand minds, within a flash
Don't be afraid to cry at what you see
The actors gone, there's only you and me
And if we break before the dawn, they'll
Use up what we used to be.
Lord, here comes the flood
We'll say goodbye to flesh and blood
If again the seas are silent
In any still alive
It'll be those who gave their island to survive
Drink up, dreamers, you're running dry.
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11. |
Glad That We're Together
02:24
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Noah's at the corner bar.
So everyone comes, here we are,
thankful that we made it through the weather.
If the music's good we'll stay out late.
And everybody's feeling great,
I don't see how this gets any better.
I'm glad that we're together.
Noah's wife has brought the kids.
I sometimes wish everybody did,
the young ones serve to made the good times better.
Noah's wife was once my love.
It didn't last, 'cuz nothing does,
but how awful things should stay the same forever?
I'm glad that we're together.
And all the other misfits here
are shaking hands and drinking beer,
talking about the hellish year behind us.
We share the good times, share the bad,
with the families that we choose to have.
As circumstances just serve to remind us;
That nothing still can stay the same.
There's nothing so constant as change,
just points along the road to something better.
Pulled in opposite directions,
the ones with whom we share affection
are constantly involved in new endeavors.
But tonight,
even if it's just for tonight…
I'm glad that we're together.
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Butch Ross Chattanooga, Tennessee
Chattanooga multi-instrumentalist and mountain dulcimer maestro Butch Ross has tackled everything from Radiohead to Bach and come away with a renewed appreciation for what the humble dulcimer is capable of. His music is born from his respect for its abilities, a respect born from the years he's spent prying apart its pieces and discovering new sounds where none existed before. ... more
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