Lyrics
Down The Shenandoah Road
I was raised to be a simple man
Taught to carry my own load
Learned it was better to keep it light
Down the Shenandoah road
I’ve climbed up these mountains
Left the valley far below
As free as a gliding eagle
Over the Shenandoah road
The hills of green sweep gently
The pastures bailed in hay
It’s hard to imagine a cannon flash
The blue against the grey
The bayonets were bloodied
In the battle of Belle Grove
Lost in a fog in a shroud of a mist
Lay the Shenandoah road
The blue bonnet dancing in the wind
Blood root pushing up from their seed
Ablaze in this cradle ever green
The light like diamonds in a stream
I’m as blessed as an angel flying home
Down the Shenandoah road
The trail winds through the valley
Under trees turned red and gold
The chill in the air carried on the wind
Down the Shenandoah road
The river runs freely
Cut deep into the stone
The waterfalls all a tumbling down
The Shenandoah road
I’ve climbed up these mountains
Left the valley far below
As free as a gliding eagle
Over the Shenandoah road
The river runs freely
Cut deep into the stone
The waterfalls all a tumbling down
The Shenandoah road
Caffeine
When my brain is foggy
And my body is groggy
And I need a couple volts
When I’m low on amperage
And my energy is lacking
And I could use a little jolt
I crave my coffee
Brewed in my mocha pot
I can smell her aroma
I like it black and steaming hot
Caffeine, caffeine
You know I love you
Caffeine, caffeine
Learned about her magic
When I went off to college
Up in Central Michigan
Pulling all-nighters
Cramming for exams
A cup of coffee in my hand
I’d go to class in the morning
Oh I’d ace that test
‘Cause coursing through my veins and head
That molecule I love best
Repeat Chorus
I like Cappuccino
Or a double shot Espresso
While I roam the internet
But it doesn’t really matter
‘Cause what I’m after
Is that little buzz in my head
She keeps me focused
She keeps me sharp
And when she’s inside me
I feel a flutter in my heart
Repeat Chorus
He Died Playing His Old Fiddle
He died while playing his old fiddle
Dancers dancing to his old time tune
Far from young but he thought he had some years left
Up in the sky rose the Harvest Moon
He felt no awe, no light he saw
Just the tumble of time in his mind
His family, his hopes and dreams
The life he would leave behind
He died while playing his old fiddle
It fell and broke on the well worn floor
But somehow the melody kept playing
Sweeter than he’d ever heard it before
It lifted him like a gentle wind
Like mist rising up through the trees
He looked around, no longer bound
By Earth or her gravity
He died while playing his old fiddle
Doing what he was born to do
The band knelt down beside their friend
Wishing him their heartfelt adieu
No more he yearned or had concern
All his burdens were lifted away
And in their place a boundless grace
A peace that made him feel so amazed
He died while playing his old fiddle
The Duncan Lee
I once sailed on the ocean
On a deep rolling crest
Sails full of a good wind a blowing
Making six knots due west
And I always knew those days would be sacred
Even now….…no regret
To plunge and rise through ocean and sky
To feel the wind
My sails tall and trimmed
I’m the schooner they called
The Duncan Lee
The crew sang of emerald islands
Harbors deep and blue
They placed their faith in me and the captain
That our course would stay true
Two oak masts, seven white sails
My ship’s bell made of brass
Through gales that screamed and tore at my rigging
To doldrums grasp
Dolphins swimming past
I’m the schooner they called
The Duncan Lee
But now I lay abandoned on a beach
Broken on the rocks
Where tides no longer reach
The year was eighteen hundred and ninety
Heading home up to Maine
The seas were rough as we heeled hard to starboard
In a punishing rain
And in my hold good Jamaica rum
Money the men would not see
Because the hurricane takes many a good sailor
Pushed on a reef
Hull smashed and breached
I’m the schooner they called
The Duncan Lee
Violet Rose
She rode upon a midnight mare
In a gossamer white gown
Her hair reflecting the setting sun
Like a jeweled, golden crown
I asked if she was a woodland sprite
From the green, green isle of Gael
She smiled and said “No, I’m flesh and blood”
“A maid from Colindale”
She told me that she was searching for
An enchanted violet rose
That she sees in her dreams most every night
By a wooded trail it grows
See the light and the shadows dance
In the mist and mistletoe
Enchanted nights filled with delight
How long….nobody knows
Oh, we yearn to hold
That elusive violet rose
Tomorrow I said I would join her quest
But soon night would prevail
She was welcome in my humble home
Just down that old mill trail
We cooked a meal of hearty stew
With wine and bread and cheese
We talked and we laughed like long lost friends
While the moon climbed through the trees
She pressed my hand up to her cheek
“You are a good hearted man”
“I wish to stay with you tonight”
“And hold you while I can”
Repeat Chorus
I awoke in the morning all alone
She was nowhere to be found
But her fragrance still hung in the air
On the chair still lay her gown
I searched the woods for the mare and her
But the trail revealed no clue
I reluctantly turned towards home
My tears fell on the dew
Now I’ve walked that trail a thousand times
And not one have I seen grow
But there it stood on a verdant rise
A resplendent violet rose
Repeat Chorus
Palms Trailer Park
Wake up in the morning
To a random pain
My body is revolting
These old bones do complain
My skin’s as thin as blue cellophane
And that’s why I keep it warm
Pay dearly for propane
Do most of my talking
In the past tense
Stories of old glory
That time makes irrelevant
I’d like to say something wise for a change
Befitting the patriarch
Of the Palms Trailer Park
Drinking and drugging
Wasted several years
Mostly worked construction
Fishing off the pier
Kids call me crazy, don’t care if I hear
Laugh at my yard art made of
Empty cans of beer
Up north is a daughter
Don’t have nothin’ to do with me
Never married her mother
Too much responsibility
I split for Florida when she turned three
Took off on a lark
To the Palms Trailer Park
I’ve been here 40 years come September
Back then they had shuffleboard
Lived through hurricanes and all kind of storm
This is my manor and that makes me the lord
I grow tomatoes
And petunias in the sun
Sit out in my lawn chair
Drinking beer ’till day is done
Then I watch reruns or sometimes read
Lay in my narrow bed
High on home grown weed
This old rusty trailer
Is my one true friend
We’re battered and we’re broken
Together to the bitter end
When my life’s over they’ll haul us away
And I’ll finally disembark
From the Palms Trailer Park
When Doves Fly Away
Everyone’s in motion
We tumble through our lives
Righteously denying
What is right before our eyes
Shunning common sense
Spurning common ground
Our fates, forever bound
The clock keeps right on ticking
While we foul the atmosphere
Pushing towards a tipping point
With consequence unclear
Flirting with disaster
Flipping off the gods
We forge our last façade
Do you hear the mourning dove
Pierce the sullen sky
Do you see them gathering
Grey wings on the rise
Will we heed their mournful cry
Or turn a blind eye, a blind eye
We cannot change beginnings
But endings maybe so
But it all builds off consensus
But that’s seldom how it goes
The status quo will plunder
Spew its PR out
Sow the seeds of doubt
But down inside the data
An unassailable trail
Foretells torrid weather
Fire and rain and gale
Coastal cities drowning
By an ever rising tide
While crops wither, wilt and die
Repeat Chorus
It never was the apple
Or the Devil tempting Eve
Knowledge is our blessing
Yet squandered….so carelessly
The problem is we’re tribal
Don’t trust what we can’t explain
Weaved so deep in our DNA
It tells us that we’re special
That the rules they don’t apply
How we walked out of the savannah
With fire and a crafty mind
But we’ve always been short sighted
Thinking ‘bout our next meal
To see our destiny revealed
Repeat Chorus
I Will Always Love You
You have always had my back
Trust and love have been our pact
You help me be the best I can be
Help me keep my sanity
You made such a happy home
I never thought to roam
Lives so deeply intertwined
The love to last the test of time
I will love you
‘Til my heart beats no more
I will love you
Like waves against a shore
I will always
I will always love you
You are the light of my life
You keep the flame burning bright
Together through the hardest of times
Through the darkest night
Repeat Chorus
You read me like a hand on brail
Your touch can heal whatever ails
Hold me like it’s our first night
Feel the burning embers re-ignite
Repeat Chorus
Late Autumn Lament
Instrumental by Russ Wheelock & Laura Smith
Gumbo
Gumbo was born down Louisiana way
Cajuns were cooking what they caught in the bay
Crawdad and shrimp in a thick brown roux
Stick to your ribs, can change an attitude
Oh, now it’s almost supper time
Squeeze a lemon and a lime
You gonna feel a little glow
Big smile they call it gumbo
Now that gumbo smells good when it’s cooking in a pan
Got to keep the heat low, let it simmer and stand
It’s so good with cornbread when it’s spread with jam
A little fat back bacon and a little bit of ham
Repeat Chorus
Gumbo’s been ‘round for a long, long time
But It did not come down a pedigree line
A little bit of this, yea, and a little bit of that
Flavors all blending make it funky and phat
Repeat Chorus
Shelton Laurel
In 1863, 13 men and boys suspected of Unionism
were killed by Confederate soldiers in Madison county North Carolina.
Now remembered as the Shelton Laurel Massacre.
Started marching early
With the morning sun
Up through the timber
Shouldering our guns
We knew that we were righteous
Knew our cause was just
Round up those Lincolnites
Whose names we did all cuss
Union sympathizers
Traitors every one
Brazenly they raid our town
And like cowards they do run
Holed up in these hollers
Thinking they are safe
Captain said we’ll march them back
Shackled and disgraced
Carrion crow
Blood is red upon the snow
Old men and boys
Lying dead in Shelton Laurel
They must of seen us coming
And lit out for the woods
Left behind their women
And defiantly they stood
We whipped them with our hickory rods
’till blood ran down their backs
But they would not give their husbands up
No matter how hard we hacked
Captain said get a rope
And to a tree he walked
Hung one high ’till she almost died
But not one of them would talk
Captain cursed and cried out
Burn down these shacks
Find every man and boy
They won’t be coming back
Repeat Chorus
Old men grey and grizzled
Years past their prime
Boys with no whiskers
Standing in a line
We were hardened soldiers
From all that we had done
But everyone could see
These weren’t a soldier, not a one
Captain gave the order
Shoot the traitors dead
But when we hesitated
He said fire or die instead
A boy knelt down wounded
He begged us let him live
But what we all did next
Even God cannot forgive
Repeat Chorus