Bull Creek Music

Lyrics

Down The Line

Mason left home when he was fifteen
His momma was gone, his daddy was mean
He learned to ride the box cars
That rumble ‘neath the stars
Always cold and hungry
The road is long and hard
But a train keeps rolling down the line   

Mason hoboed across the heartland
Picking crops, a migrant farm hand
He’d earn himself a meal
A place to lay his head
And if he was lucky
A week or two of being fed
One more meal then down the line         

Mason hauled timber in the Great Northwest
Down to the river ‘neath a mountain crest
He worked the mules and oxen
Dragging logs through the mud
He saw men killed and injured
Baptized in their own blood
Float fallen trees down the line

Mason got a job as a roustabout
Working in a circus, load ’em in and out
Traveling town to town
They became his family
The midgets and the clowns
The carnies and the freaks
Always moving down the line

Mason saw Chloe, thought she was a beauty
Swing so high up on the trapeze
They were young and hungry
Spinning in a fever dream
Within a year they married
Shared an old Airstream
And the years rolled on by down the line

When Mason was old, lying on his death bed
The life he’d lived tumbled through his head
Chloe held the calloused hand
Whispered soft in his ear
Said that she loved him
One last time held him near
He said he would see her down the line
That an old train keeps rolling down the line       

Sing The Blues

Sing the blues (sing the blues)
Sing the blues (sing the blues)
Why do so many have to sing the blues

Little babies in their bed
Crying to be fed
They don’t know the words  “It’s time to dine”
Scrunch up their face
Unleash lungs, make their case
Oh they tell you what’s on their mind   

Repeat Chorus

All in nature procreate
Find a friend, find a mate
Hope against all odds that they don’t split
But love’s like a blade
Leave you bloodied and filleted
                   Left roasting on a spit                    

Repeat Chorus   

Now who don’t have regrets?
If they’d said no instead of yes
When they should have been a lion not a lamb
When they lacked humility
Acted so self righteously
When they lied to get out of a jam

Repeat Chorus

A writer takes his pen
And writes a tune again
Thinking it might just be his best
Asks the wife to critique
Her response far from oblique
“Sorry, I’m just not that impressed”

Repeat Chorus

The Magellan

Endless is the void we cross
Like mariners sailing ancient seas
Destined for a distant world
That probes confirm has water, air to breathe

The mission takes four hundred years
Traveling at one tenth the speed of light
We must keep our numbers constant
Twelve generations conceived and die in flight

This is our world, pre-ordained, self-contained
But we did not choose to be the crew of the Magellan

We govern with a board of elders
Consult the books the Creators did bestow
They taught us how to grow our food
Maintain the ship, preserve the status quo

The Magellan the only home we’ve known
Built by Earthlings long ago, now all gone
Truly, an engineering marvel
Sustains our lives, propels us ever on     

This is our world, pre-ordained, self-contained
But we did not choose to be the crew of the Magellan

I stroll past the irrigation streams
In green fields beneath a simulated sky
I’m part of the tenth generation
So I’ll never walk beside a real shoreline

But our children will land on Eden
Watch the sun set, see its two moons rise
Magellan will stay in orbit
Long after its fusion engine dies

Through the void we travel onward in the ship Magellan

Thread Of Life

Now there are many stories how we came to be
Who was the creator of life’s tapestry
Stories so beautiful, they help the faithful believe
The myths and the legends, their Adam and Eve’s 

We’re part of a web spun long ago
An enduring, twisted strand
But just who conjured the thread of life?
Who could weave something so grand?

Now I can’t fathom the infinite
Billions of galaxies the primordial mist
And at each center a black hole does writhe
Tearing the fabric of both space and time

Repeat Chorus

I don’t know what lies ahead, I’m just a mortal man
Just one in billions of tiny grains of sand
But I don’t need solace when my time here is done
For I’ll re-join the mist from which I come

We live somewhere between
Heaven and Hell it seems
Is our fate here signed and sealed?

It doesn’t take a prophet to see the light
Just look up into the constellations at night
‘Cause there’s a connection that spans eternity
Deep in our bones that heavenly scree

Nobody

Duet vocal Sam Ganly

When I met you I felt a flame
Burned so hot it put the devil to shame
You wore that blue dress and I surely knew
That there ain’t nobody, nobody but you   

I knew some fellas back in the day
Could not be trusted, they were just birds of prey
Whisper words in my ear that never turned out true
There ain’t nobody, nobody but you

You are the one who always floats my boat
You are the one that cheers me up
When I find those silly notes you wrote
And I thank my lucky stars
You are who you are

Love is fickle, has a mind of its own
Can’t be conjured, it’s incantations unknown
But we found the recipe that feeds our groove
‘Cause there ain’t nobody, nobody but you

I love your looks, I love your mind
I love the ways you help me unwind
Let’s have a rendezvous
Date night is long overdue
‘Cause there ain’t nobody, nobody but you
Nobody, Nobody but you

Never Quietly Go

Dedicated to Renee Good and Alex Pretti
US Citizens murdered by masked ICE and BP agents

Blizzard on our tail
Snow all swirlin’ round
Been travelin’ two days straight
To the heartland’s hallowed ground
‘Cause we can’t stay on the side
Won’t be a domino
We got to lift up our voice
Never quietly go

Much has been forsaken
Since darkness waylaid the light
Chaos reigns in a cruel way
A shape shifting blight
We stand and resist the threats
For in our hearts we know
We got to lift up our voice
Never quietly go

I feel the Earth a shakin’
A tidal wave a breakin’
Across the crimson plains
I hear the voices thunder
A twister torn asunder
               Drowned in a cruel, hard rain                

Now once somebody told me
Said it was good advice
Hold your lantern high above
And know some will pay the price
Spit into the eye of the Devil
Bluff but never fold
And lift up your voice
Never quietly go

Kayla & Oliver

Kayla and Oliver
They are the best of friends
Playing together
The fun it never ends
They pile into her little car
She gives him a pat
Her feet on the driveway
Her arm around the cat

A kid’s like a kitten and a kitten’s like a kid
They tumble and they roll
They purr and they grin
A kid’s like a kitten and a kitten’s like a kid
Round and round they run
Like a song that never ends

Kayla and Oliver
They are as thick as thieves
They tend to like the same things
Like jumping in the weeds
She carries him around with her
Like a flour sack
Holding his tummy
And rubbing on his back

Repeat Chorus

Kayla and Oliver
They are the perfect match
One of them has flees
That the other one will scratch
One’s got purple fairy wings
She wears upon her back
Both got button noses
And they both like to snack

Repeat Chorus

Kayla and Oliver
They met one afternoon
Out in the front yard
When Kayla was just two
Oliver was lonely
You could hear it in his mew
I guess that he got lucky
His homeless days were through

Repeat Chorus

Kayla and Oliver
They like to climb in trees
Hanging from the branches
Then jumping in the leaves
Oliver runs ahead
With Kayla close behind
One more adventure
Before it is nap time

Repeat Chorus

If You Got A Good Woman

If you got a good woman
Standing by your side
It’s a little bit of heaven
The bluest blue sky

When she wraps her arms around you
And you feel her embrace
You ride the tail of a comet
Clear ‘cross the Milky Way

If you got a good woman
There ain’t nothing you can’t do
If you got a good woman
There ain’t no stopping you
If you got a good woman
If you got a good woman
If you got a good woman
You better be a good man

If you got a good woman
Then you know you are blessed
She’s got a way of healing
How to bring out your best

Got a deep well of kindness
That never runs dry
She lifts up those around her
Lifts them up, lifts them high

If you got a good woman
You don’t worry when times get hard
If you got a good woman
You don’t need no caviar

If you got a good woman
If you got a good woman
If you got a good woman
You better be a good man

If you got a good woman
Don’t ever let go
More precious than a diamond
A bracelet of gold

Always gives you good counsel
When the days don’t make sense
She’s that cool drink of water
When you’re parched and your spent

If you got a good woman
She’s the compass, she’s the stars
If you got a good woman
She’s your deepest reservoir

If you got a good woman
If you got a good woman
If you got a good woman
You better be a good man

Lift Them Up

Dedicated to Nathan Ebanks
By any measure – a remarkable man

I heard his music playing in my head
Remembering words that Nathan sang and he said
Away, far away on a distant shore

How his voice would soar above our chords
Pure and gentle, true down to his core
A life well-lived, who could ask for more?

Lift them up is what he’d have us do
Just a kind word or two
Lift them up and let them see it through
The memories in my head
Of the love he shared and spread
Along the road we travel but not alone

I saw a heron glide across the sky
Wings outstretched along the river’s side
And I felt such a moment of peace

I will miss him in the days to come
But thankful for the times we played and we sung
In the joy of that fellowship that bonds us

Repeat Chorus

Spirits wander towards the edge of time
Hidden deep within these words that I rhyme
In a mist they will rise from the morning dew

Shadows shrinking as the day unfolds
The world keeps turning to a new threshold
As we march to the beat of our own destiny

Repeat Chorus