Lyrics

American Dreams

It’s a ghost that haunts no house, but every time you turn around
The spooks come out
If you don’t love it so much why not give it up
It’s hard to pray today in this world while our souls get bought and sold
There’s too many things to hold
An empty hand can hold
Time can cure this heart of mine, just like it did it every other time
I come out half cocked and half blind
I’ll spend my whole life dodgin’ the big machine
This pandemic of American dream
Aint nothing ever quite what it seems
Not quite what it seems
Black wings against the cold November sky
I’ve seen us dance from behind the Beholders eyes
I never kissed you underneath of those wintry skies
I always had an alibi
I know I’m hard to understand
Words on the floor like broken glass
A window is like a heart, but you ain’t tearing me apart
Time can cure this heart of mine, just like it did it every other time
I come out half cocked and half blind
I’ll spend my whole life dodgin’ the big machine
This pandemic of American dream
Aint nothing ever quite what it seems
Not quite what it seems
Take it all it ain’t much to give
But I feel the East come, like a warm warm wind
Drink it down and coat the pain
Lord it floods every time it rains

Claire

I wish I knew what to make of you
And what direction to take you
‘Cause it’s back and forth and it’s South and North
And where it’s due I wish I only knew
I know some things I shouldn’t
And I do some things I wouldn’t
Want you to know, lest my real self show
And how it goes only God knows
Well you gotta do your time
While I gotta walk the line
You say I display God’s grace
Well you’re forcing me to grow up at a faster pace
It’s hard enough to keep you from tearin’ my world apart
Why you gotta mess with my heart
Maybe someday we’ll be one
Maybe someday won’t come
But life is life and love is love
And damned if I don’t take ‘em both and run
Well you gotta do your time
While I gotta walk the line
You say I display God’s grace
Well you’re forcing me to grow up at a faster pace
It’s hard enough to keep you from tearin’ my world apart
Why you gotta mess with my heart

Cowboy's Last Goodbye

Layin’ in that prairie mud made by the dust and by his blood
Knowing he won’t make it through the night
Grave blanket knit by Texas skies thinking it ain’t his time to die
Layin’ there just reckoning his life
Yodel-aye
Yodel-oh
It’s a cowboy’s last goodbye
Been ridin’ hard so many years been holding back so many tears
For them pure and pretty doves that he let fly
Broken dreams blown at the seams every bottles bottom seems
To hold a prayer that he forgot to cry
It’s a life that he would love to hate When he’s standin’ at St. Peters gate
Trying to find himself a back way in
Markin’ time by the changin’ moon a wranglers wage spent in saloons
Warmed by the ladies of the night now and then
Yodel-aye
Yodel-oh
It’s a cowboy’s last goodbye
Killin’ men for their golden grin a thousand swords couldn’t do him in
Mexican revolution come and gone
Almost strung up in Abilene there ain’t nothin’ he ain’t heard or seen
Now all that’s left is his lonesome song
Yodel-aye
Yodel-oh
It’s a cowboy’s last goodbye

Days Have Come

Days have come and God knows something has gone
Took a while it took a while to get from dusk from dawn
Oh the mystery of infinite mercy
Oh the injustice of infinite love
Sin and love the struggle of my twenty-four years
Gonna lose I gotta choose, the end only nears
Oh the beauty of sacrifice
Oh my never ending need for salvation
Seeds are sewn, winds are blown, tomorrow’s never known
Was I born around the thorns or among the stones?
What I do ain’t who I am, it ain’t who I am
I lie to You I lie to You, but You understand
I lie to You I lie to You, why don’t You lie to me?
I trouble You I trouble You but You let me be
How do You how do You forget to see
All I do All I do to put You back on that tree

Don’t Take It Bad

Baby please don’t take it bad I didn’t really mean to go
All these lies that I have denied are eating up my wretched soul
With out a job Lord a man feels alone, your eyes would break me when I’d come home
Baby please don’t take it bad, tell the girls I love ‘em so
I know it’s strange me leavin’ like this but there ain’t no love here left to grow
Find peace in your fathers hands, I can’t look him in the eye
I used to believe in a God up above
But now when I look up all I see is sky
Baby please don’t take it bad, I guess this really is goodbye
She can’t make me half the man but that don’t matter here tonight
Baby please don’t take it bad, you’re better off all by yourself
I will pray that you will be redeemed, that my sin won’t find us both in this hell
Sweet Lord in Heaven if You can hear my cry
If there’s anything left down here to save
Please help me to amend my life
Don’t let this indifference deprave
Baby please don’t take it bad, I didn’t really mean to go
All these lies that I have denied, I really left you long ago

11th Prayer

I know that you have no more faithless son
You as I know the wicked deeds I’ve done
Then again I know not the greatness of my sin
Nor the magnitude of my malevolence
Can outrun, Your patience or Your love
I can’t outrun the greatness of Your love
Let my voice rejoice and shake with blame
How can a scarecrow dance within the flame
Strange wonder I’m ineffably bedewed
Old bush burned but not consumed
Can outrun, Your patience or Your love
I can’t outrun the greatness of Your love
Flesh and Blood from Wine and bread
My life within You so You said
I shake the demons from my bed
You give life and joy and love and breath
A thankful heart and mind and soul
What mighty mysteries You hold
Life from death and new in old
I worship magnify You Lord
Can outrun, Your patience or Your love
I can’t outrun the greatness of Your love

Finally Remembered Your Face

Singing Hallelujah with a broken tongue
Singing the angels' song about days to come
Specters of fire and hands of flame
Foundations on mountains brand new every day
I finally remembered Your name
I wanna be a picture on Your sanctuary wall
But I know I don’t belong up there at all
Strugglin’ to find the words to say
Learning to pray every single day
I finally remembered Your name
I think I finally found my way back home
I finally found a place to rest my weary bones
I finally found Your throne
Worn out knees and hands to serve
A cup to drink if I can only find the nerve
I think I finally found my place
A race to run if I can only keep the pace
I finally remembered Your grace

Lo, The Hard Times

Dreamers are leavers and they can’t get over the past
Lovers are redeemers and they help this world to last
Liars can take you for all that you wanna give
Victims can tell you that often times, life’s hard to live
You don’t know who you are; you just know your name
And your past of heart break and to come, well more of the same
Time will tell truth much better than you ever did
And expose all the relevant particulars of yourself that you’ve so kindly hid
Lo, the hard times sometimes seem to outweigh the good
Oh, my Jesus, give us hope, as you would
Mercy is not getting what you got coming to you
But getting what you don’t deserve sometimes happens too
Forgive and forget, so my Sunday school teachers would say
But it’s easier said than done, Lord have mercy on us today
Lo, the hard times sometimes seem to outweigh the good
Oh, my Jesus, give us love, as you would
Oh, my dear Jesus, save us if you would

Thy Kingdom Come

Our Father up above grant us grace and grant us love
and send your Spirit like a dove
Who art in heaven still be merciful until
we come around
And hallowed be thy name pure and perfect without blame
though we change you are the same
Thy kingdom come Thy will be done as shown us by your Son
when He came around
On this precious earth as it is
In all it’s worth
In heaven
Give us this very day the bread that keeps us lest we stray
from what you want for us
And forgive us of our sins as we forgive our foes, our friends
for what they’ve done to us
Let us not be tempted more than what we’re ready for
‘cause evil’s wagin’ a war
And deliver us from pain, pride and anger, danger, shame
and the evil one
For the kingdom’s Yours
And the power’s Yours
And all the glory’s Yours, Triune God

Long Road To Heaven

Mother dear Mother dear it will be too late I fear
When my prayers have reached your ears in my son’s cold eyes I’ll peer
I’m afraid I’m afraid I am in too deep to save
All my sins and sinnin’ ways have placed my children in their grave
Brother John, brother John what is taking you so long
When you hear my mournful song all my babies will be dead and gone
The sky is black the sky is black, there’s only dust in my harvest sack
Ain’t no rain to wet my back, aint no meat in my dryin’ rack
It’s a long way to Heaven dear Lord, it’s a hard row to hoe
And I don’t know if I’ll make it dear Lord but I sure won’t make it alone
Peter please Peter please for my family to receive
Where the fields of glory be near a place you’ve saved for me
I close my eyes I close my eyes I can’t watch my family die
In that wicked dust they lie, I will meet them by and by
Michael sir Michael sir take your fiery holy sword
Split my spirit from my bone, take me too my final home
Oh sweet Jesus don’t delay, I must meet them yet today
In a grave my hands have made, sweet death take me away
Well my Father’s come and said the prayers and rights of the walking dead
With my hand out to be led to my final pine box bed
It’s a long way to Heaven dear Lord, it’s a hard row to hoe
And I don’t know if I’ll make it dear Lord but I sure won’t make it alone

Sad Songs

Melancholy keys in minor chord and tones
Were once so unfamiliar but I learned them all by rote
From the day we met when I first heard your voice
You stole the joy from in between the notes
You came in without warning with mournful kinds of tunes
I gave you all my love songs you gave me all your blues
By the second chorus you captured my heart
When we both knew you’d break it from the start
Sad songs make me cry
Your voice sings them soft
I begged you don’t flood my eyes
That was your plan all along
You left me by the bridge and you left me to my own
Devices and what’s worse is my vices are the songs
You robbed them of all comfort now sorrowful melody
Is all the love you’ll ever sing to me
Sad songs make me cry
Your voice breaks my heart
I begged you don’t flood my eyes
But that was your plan form the start
Sad songs make me cry
Some days I still sing those songs
I begged you don’t flood my eyes
But that was your plan all along

Sands of Time

When the blackhawk steals the sparrows life
And evening fades under fascist skies
I’ll hold you close and dry your eyes
As the tides role in on
The sands of time
When the heat leaves your blood
And the newscast makes your heart sigh
Eyes glowin’ like the wrath of God
That you can see with your naked eye
Sands are red and hope untied
Set adrift in those Arab skies
I hate to see those children die
The heartland weeps and a mother cries
The sands of time, the sands of time
Fall upon a wicked vine
Walls close in, the walls close in
Upon the sands of that wicked crime
A mans a man, blood and skin
Where we go is where we been
A blind man stumbles, we cannot win
As Adam’s sons we all have sinned
Put down your rocks and bend again
Yours swords to plowshares to fit your hands
A heart of earth for that one of tin
Sowing peace in your fading sands
The sands of time, the sands of time
Fall upon a wicked vine
Walls close in, the walls close in
Upon the sands of that wicked crime

Sinners and Saints

The lovers and haters the hills and the planes
The Gentiles the Jews and the sun and the rain
The Pharisees and the birds and the bees
The hypocrites and the plants and the trees
The sinners the saints and the priests and the nuns
The mothers the daughters the fathers and sons
The Romans the Greeks and the Protestant types
The hardened of hearts and the ready the ripe
The black the white the yellow the red
The lost and the found the living the dead
The young and the old and the rich and the poor
The healthy and well the sick and the sore
The brainy the bright and dumb and the dim
The married divorced and the hers and the hims
The tall and the short and the shy and the loud
The scrawny the fat the gay and the proud
God loves them all
God loves us all
The Jen’s and the Gary’s the Misty’s the Tad’s
The Ryan’s the Kyle’s the Chuck’s and the Chad’s
Michelle’s and the Brian’s and Kayla’s and Phil’s
Luann’s and the Rick’s and the Fig’s and the Dill’s
Caleb’s and Drew’s and the Ben’s and the Blair’s
The Mike’s and the Pat’s the Kirk’s and the Claire’s
The Lauren’s and Lacie’s and Randy’s and Ron’s
The Matthew’s and Mark’s the Luke’s and the John’s
God loves them all
God loves us all

Song For Mary Thomas

Mary was a nurse at the Continental Can
She was proud and plain no need for a man
Too young for a maid but too old to start again
She fell in love with a blue eyed farm hand
With some ground and a girl and a fair GI loan
With his hands and his blood lord he built them a home
Two miracle daughters with help from the Lord
One day in the Spring it was all torn apart
Mary don’t you cry why your green eyes so cold
Too strong to be weepin to young to be old
Won’t you open your arms and please let me in
Find a place in your heart for a good hearted man
Season’s roll around the next Spring brought some joy
A miracle daughter gave birth to a boy
In all the excitement there was no time to mourn
Alone in their bed her heart it was torn
Mary don’t you cry why your green eyes so cold
Too strong to be weepin to young to be old
Won’t you open your arms and please let me in
Find a place in your heart for a good hearted man
He’s a white haired widower from the next small town
A long time had passed since her husband had drowned
Her love never died no her heart it stayed true
No matter how he tried he could never break through
Mary don’t you cry why your green eyes so cold
Too strong to be weepin to young to be old
Won’t you open your arms and please let me in
Find a place in your heart for a good hearted man
One winter she took ill and she had to take flight
From the house that he’d built teach her left hand to write
In May she was laid by her blue eyed farm hand
By a white haired widower and her daughters young man
Mary don’t you cry why your green eyes so cold
Too strong to be weepin to young to be old
Won’t you open your arms and please let me in
Find a place in your heart for a good hearted man