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1. |
Prelude
01:17
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2. |
West
03:46
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WEST
So I headed West
And I hopped a train
Traded my old dirt plow
For a prospecting claim
San Francisco
The Golden Coast
On the edge of the New World
Lit with an ambitious glow
The Son of a migrant
From the Old World's shores
Scottish-Irish mixed with the blood of the Native born
In love with a Gypsy
Fleeing Revolution in a foreign land
Her Father seeks the yellow color
Like I seek his Daughter's hand
Working on the railroad to make my way
The creeks of Brysonville now lie so far away
Still she waits
Chorus:
Heaven can be found
When she lets her gold hair down
On any field that she lay
There's a tremble in the ground
When you let that poor girl down
In the California Earth is what they say
Staring into the evening Sun
At the end of a long work day
Alone with your thoughts
Aside the hammer's heavy weight
I memorized
Every soft line on her face
And not a million miles of railroad ties
Could ever erase
The blood in my veins would surely turn to sand
Should I arrive too late to be her man
I pray she waits
Chorus
So I headed West
And I hopped a train
Traded my old dirt plow
For a prospecting claim
San Francisco
The Golden Coast
On the edge of the New World
Lit with an ambitious glow
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3. |
Puritan Cowboys
02:56
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PURITAN COWBOYS
It’s October on the Continent
It’s already cold in Wales
And I try to picture myself back home
But my imagination fails
Overcome with a restlessness
Still missing days long past
But it’s a brand new peaceful feeling
Now that I trust my path
Chorus:
With my Cowboy Ways
And my Puritan Roots
I set out each day
And I seek to live true
There’s a worry buried in my bones
Digging into my skull
But there’s a melody running through my veins
Givin’ my heart a pulse
Chorus
Too anxious for the rivers
There’s a New World around the bend
Too much time for despair
Carrying around this Original Sin
Solo
Tonight tonight the Moon’s on fire
Like it’s been since I don’t know when
Put my finger on a map
Check my thumb, my soul to the wind
Chorus
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4. |
A World Without
03:55
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A WORLD WITHOUT
War will break your heart
The Stars were doomed from the start
You feel alone when they fall
But love can find us all
A world without dreams
Without wild and beautiful schemes
Where man never lets himself hope
Leaves only a machine with no soul
Chorus:
I know there’s
Some place in this world still where
We can find love within I swear
Learn to chase the light
Without running from the darkness of night
You would not know love without fear
Know joy without pain, anger or tears
Chorus
The Church will break your heart
The State was flawed from the start
Anything we salute can surely fall
This world plays tricks on us all
Chorus
We can find love within I swear
We can find love within I swear
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5. |
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FAIRY TALES (The Flower’s Burden)
I don’t believe in Fairy Tales
She said as the waiter brought the check to our table
And I don’t want to hurt this time
An I’m just a boy sitting across from you
And you’re just a girl doing what girls do
But I can’t promise after tonight
Chorus:
And I sure can’t make you love me
Any easier than I could help you love yourself
She loves me, She loves me not sir
It’s an awful heavy burden for a flower to bare by itself
One for the money and two for the road
It’s one to hang on and two to let go
And I know it’s another thing altogether to trust this guy
Once bitten and twice shy
I’m a burnt child baby at a big bonfire
Standing here watching flames risin’ higher
Chorus
Sometimes it’s so hard just to figure it out
Sometimes we say what we mean
We have our doubts
I’m not without mine and that’s ok
Can do this together
I’ll jump if you will babe
Chorus
I don’t believe in Fairy Tales
She said as the waiter brought the check to our table
And I don’t want to hurt this time
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6. |
Every Time
03:14
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EVERY TIME
Every time I do the same thing
Guess I’m doing something wrong
Never was no good at dancing
Been a wallflower all along
How you got me on the floor I don’t know how
And I don’t’ know what to do without you now
Baby I could write a book about it
And still read it all wrong
Baby I could sing a song about it
And still sound all wrong
I don’t know how to read the situation
And my radio can’t pick up no good station
Chorus:
I’ve tried everything and every way
But it’s the same every time and every way
And she’s every bit and every way
The same damn girl leaving the same damn way
Once upon a time I thought my dreams
Were within reach of these arms
Till someone came between us
And our love fell apart
I got a good look into his eyes
Realized that reflection was mine
Chorus
Once upon a time the stars were out
And the ocean played us a song
Baby that feelings gone now
Just like that night long gone
Like waves my heart beat so strong
Wondered how this could ever go wrong
Chorus
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7. |
The Music Highway
03:56
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THE MUSIC HIGHWAY
Well I hitched a ride to Memphis with a ragtag band
They were chasin' Rock N' Roll and women in a van
I was chasin the blues with the strongest whiskey I could get
And chasin the truth and a tune in my head
I've been riding these roads and slinging these songs
Yeah from town to town I keep moving along
But every now and then a little something I find
That can make a town a little hard to leave behind
Ooh ooh ooh ooh / ooh ooh ooh
Well I tried my luck at love in Memphis before
Mississippi'd flow backwards fore I’d try it once more
But somewhere on her heart there was one weak spot
An you could pick it just right on an ole flattop
I dreamed a smokey kiss outside a’ Neil's Bar
With her ass pressed up against some dirty, white car
Me pressed up against her soft, white skin
Like the soft, wet beads on a glass a’ gin
Ooh ooh ooh ooh / ooh ooh ooh
Well I lied and said soon I'd be back in town
I didn't know that then, but I know that now
You trust the art and not the artist I guess
Cause who he is in a song is his idealized self
You feel the whole city sing along
When you tap the right vein in a hard blues song
They warn the outta towners it's hard to draw
Yeah they wonder why we ever come down here at all
Ooh ooh ooh ooh / ooh ooh ooh ooh / ooh ooh ooh
Well they call this stretch of 40 the Music Highway
But I can't seem to make it sing today
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8. |
One Fast Move
03:44
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ONE FAST MOVE
Like a drunk out on a tightrope in the sky
Inching towards my death twenty stories high
Don’t look down, don’t look up
Don’t look in the mirror don’t look now
Chorus:
One fast move or I’m gone
One misstep won’t take too long
Mind is losing it’s hold
One fast move or I’m gone
Like a branded sinner on a front row pew
Wondering if they all think that it’s true
Don’t look proud, don’t look sad
Don’t look at her, God least not now
Chorus
Sleep that does not refresh
Limitations of the bone and flesh
Don’t know how, don’t know why
It’s all over if I don’t move now
Chorus
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9. |
Silver Moon Saloon
04:05
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THE SILVER MOON SALOON
Sitting alone at a table for two
Outside a bar in Winston-Salem in June
Waiting on someone or something to bloom
Peeling a beer label at The Silver Moon Saloon
The shop across the street it's the New Age Kind
Incense and candles if God ever finds you
It's new to the age but old to the mind
And I pray that your God has mercy on mine
Chorus:
Hope you find me
Hope you find me
This neon's bound to blind me
Hope you find me soon
Oh tommorrow
Oh tomorrow
I'll be gone like the time I've borrowed
Hope you find me soon
At the Silver Moon Saloon
The bartender got a new puppy I see
She's holding him close, she's holding him gently
From the bathroom prophets graffitti I read
I pray that their God has mercy on me
Chorus
Sitting alone at a table for two
Outside a bar in Winston-Salem in June
Waiting on someone or something to bloom
Peeling a beer label at The Silver Moon Saloon
Chorus
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10. |
Dreamers And Kings
03:01
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DREAMERS AND KINGS
There’s snow on the hills and frost on the plains
It’s gonna be a long lonely winter dark cold days
The birds have all flown till silence becomes the song
The space in the silence, haunts our thoughts all winter long
Kings they come and Kings they go
While the rest of us plow to the end of our row
Get behind our mule hold steady the reins
Thankful for the crumbs that fall our way
Chorus:
I have been a dreamer
Though I ain’t been a saint
I am a believer
And that ain’t gonna change
No I ain’t gonna change
A new spring’s birth marked by songbirds return
Winter melts away as the turning sun burns
Shed old skin, old cares melt away
Staring into the East, to greet him face to face
Chorus
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11. |
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BABY BROTHER'S GOT A BABY NOW
Baby brother's got a baby now
He's scared to death but I know he's gonna make it somehow
I can't believe the way he looks into those little eyes
Staring back at him the way he did at me one time
I remember the day that they brought you home
Carryin' you around till you were crawlin' on your own
Till you were running to keep up always tryin’
Till you were fighting with me always tryin’ to drive
Chorus:
I turned around to look for you
I couldn't find the boy I knew
Instead there stood a man
With a Father's hands
I remember you so uneasy in our own Father's hands
I remember you squirming around and him proud but sad
He wasn't always there and I’ve come to know
Those early years left a little hole in you both
Chorus
We turned around to look for you
Couldn't find the boy we knew
Instead there stood a man
With a Father's hands
Should write a sonnet about the love growing in his life
should write his baby girl a sweet lullaby
It would be an ode about a boy growing into a man
An ode about a brand new Father doin' the best that he can
Chorus
We turned around to look for you
Couldn't find the boy we knew
Instead there stood a man
With a Father's hands
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12. |
On Top of A World
04:06
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ON TOP OF A WORLD
There’s a blank page in a notebook
And the pen on the desk’s all outta ink
There’s a blank canvas on an easel
And the brushes are all dried up in the sink
There’s an old guitar in the corner
And she needs a new set of strings
There’s a sparrow somewhere in the shadows
And he’s lost his will to sing
Chorus:
When there’s no time for dreaming
Into the ground lay my old bones
I swear I’d rather be six feet under
Than on top of a world with no hope
Yeah a World without Art has no hope
My mind’s humming like a locomotive
And he’s ‘bout to come right off the tracks
My heart she’s pounding like a hammer
And she’s anxious as a heart attack
There’s a honey colored Sun on the horizon
And some cotton ball clouds scattered in the sky
There’s a distant sound like children laughing
And I can see her face when I close my eyes
Chorus
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Stephen Simmons Nashville, Tennessee
Stephen Simmons was raised in the small town of Woodbury, Tennessee. As a songwriter and Ten years as a Road Dog, Stephen’s vision has grown to entail more than just reflections of rural America. Stephen’s records (which were compared to everyone from Johnny Cash to Ryan Adams) combine virtuosic songcraft and musicianship with unparalleled artistic honesty. ... more
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