LYRICS
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
Down The Highway
Driving through western Kentucky
On a two-lane near I-65
I’d just picked up a load bound for Denver
I figured 2 days before I’d arrive
I remember how blue was that morning
The smell of the crisp autumn air
How she stood by the side of the on ramp
The wind blowing her long dark hair
I stopped and I asked if she was alright
She silently studied my face
She slowly picked up her old suitcase
Said please take me from this place
Down the highway
You feel just as free
As the sun, the wind, and the sky
Down the highway
Miles from your past
Fading fast, fading fast
And you feel safe at last
At first, she didn’t do that much talking
Content to let the miles roll by
Mostly looked out of her window
I pretended not to hear her cry
It was plain she had once been a beauty
And still could turn a head or two
But her eyes were puffy and bloodshot
And her face was black and blue
Repeat Chorus
Slowly she told me her story
How her husband had threatened her life
He swore if she ever left him
He’d cut her face with his knife
I asked why she didn’t press charges
And lock that son-of-a-bitch up in jail
She said that his uncle was sheriff
He’d probably put up his bail
And all I could do was hold her
Let that pain subside
Feel her head on my shoulder
Dry the tears from her eyes
We didn’t split up in Denver
We felt like we needed more time
Why is it when you least expect it
Life sure can turn on a dime
Repeat Chorus
Grease The Latch
Grease the latch (grease the latch) so it don’t tug
Grease the latch (grease the latch) so it don’t stick
If you want it to be smooth again
Remember this old trick
Grease the latch (grease the latch)
Grease the latch
When we first hung the door it was a beauty
Perfect in every single way
It was plumb and it was tight
You know it always swung so nice
It had just the right amount of play
Repeat Chorus
Now it’s true that a door gets quite a workout
You see it’s used both night and day
All that coming and going
All that opening and closing
In time it’s bound to show its age
Repeat Chorus
It is clear that our door needs some attention
It barely even opens anymore
But Papa’s got a pill
That’s guaranteed to thrill
He says he’s up for working on that door
Repeat Chorus
Now some insist it be natural
Others like store bought in a tube
But everyone agrees
They like it slippery
Don’t come home without the lube
Repeat Chorus
Living On Borrowed Time
In the spring of twenty seven
It rained night and day
Down in the Delta
The sky thick and grey
My crops all washed away
The Mississippi swollen
A torrent deep and wide
Creeping up the levee
Never saw it rise so high
We feared for our lives
River was raging, the deluge bearing down
If the levee breeched, we knew, scores of us would drown
We were living on, we were living on, we were living on borrowed time
There ain’t nowhere to run, there ain’t nowhere to hide
We built the levee higher
Working night and day
Filling up the sand bags
We prayed it was not in vain
For God to stop the rain
It wasn’t very Christian
But I hoped up in Memphis it would flood
Divert some of the water
Away from my kin, my blood
Spare the ones I loved
Repeat Chorus
When Mound Landing levee
Finally burst and gave
It only took a minute
Before the levee tore away
And the wall of water came
Greenville mostly flooded
Smashed by the torrent’s maul
Nothing could withstand it
For miles the water sprawled
Spread like a coffin pall
We were living on, we were living on
We were living on borrowed time (repeat)
Ninety
I’m just an old man four score and ten
I’m still kicking but I can’t pretend
That I’m even half the man that I was back when
I’ve buried two wives and outlived my friends
Was I blessed or cursed
For never riding in that long, black hearse
How strange to be ninety
Surrounded by these memories on my walls
And if it’s Sunday the kids may call
We’ll talk about the days gone by
Tell those same old lies
And then we’ll say goodbye
Who would guess it but I once was young
Beneath this ravaged face, a boy who’d run all day
And find adventure in everything in every way
And there’s a young man
With dreams so big they could not wait
But the years just rolled on by
In what now seems like a blink of an eye
Repeat Chorus
The road has narrowed as I’ve traveled on
My body’s brittle and my spirit’s gone
I’m just waiting for that last curtain to fall
My final footsteps that will echo down the hall
And like a candle’s flame
I will flicker and fade away
Repeat Chorus
Camille
Camille was a friend of mine
Met her while busking down on 4th and Vine
Pretty good singer back in those days
Before she got into that crack cocaine
Camille could sing the blues
Take you places you never knew
Reach down deep into your soul
So much talent but out of control
Fell in with a loathsome crowd
Living on the fringes in a smoke filled shroud
She would not listen, she just spiraled down
Oh, Oh poor Camille
Bedeviled by addiction
Oh, Oh poor Camille
Call me on the telephone
Any time a day that she wasn’t stoned
In trouble, behind on rent
I never saw a dime of the money I lent
Camille tried to quit
Climb up out of that deep dark pit
But she loved that rock beyond all else
Burned through friends who tried to help
Saw her only yesterday
Down on Piedmont plying her trade
In the company of a pimp they call Jake
Oh, Oh poor Camille
Bedeviled by addiction
Oh, Oh poor Camille
Saw you on the evening news
Camera in your face, exploiting you
“Self defense” the lawyer claimed
But the judge and the jury didn’t see it the same
Oh, Oh poor Camille
Bedeviled by addiction
Oh, Oh poor Camille
Devil’s Courthouse
Deep beneath a jagged peak
Lies a cavern cold
Its corridors are dark and bleak
Built by a hundred trolls
Torches light the chamber walls
As a goblin wails
“Court is now in session, Let the gavel strike the shale”
In the devil’s courthouse the docket runs all night
Too many souls that never got it right
In the devil’s courthouse they pay in their own way
In the devil’s courthouse they never see the light of day
Bailiff reads the sins out loud
So everyone can hear
And the goblins in the gallery
How they love to hiss and jeer
Satan sits in judgment
Decides the poor soul’s fate
No deliberation, no need for debate
No deliberation……..No need for debate
Repeat Chorus
They line up on the fissure’s edge
Silently they leap
One final lesson
What you sow you surely reap
Into the darkness
They know what’s in store
The fire and the brimstone
The abyss for ever more
Repeat Chorus
In the Devil’s courthouse
Always an eye for an eye
You won’t be acquitted of the sins you committed
There are no alibis
In the Devil’s courthouse
You beg for a noose or a knife
You ask for forgiveness but there’s unfinished business
Of your sordid life
In the Devil’s courthouse
You’re bound and shackled and shamed
There are no appeals, no last minute deals
As you leave this earthly plane
Promised Land
They say love is sometimes blind
Been known to cloud the mind
But still you reach out with your trusting hand
To pick the fruit that’s hanging in the promised land
Seven years since you tied the knot
Rolled the dice, took your shot
But now you’re tugging on your wedding band
There ain’t no easy way out of the promised land
And no matter how you spin it
It just feels like wasted time
But how can you know what’s in somebody’s mind
Will they be cruel, will they be kind
Change your name, change the lock
Turn the page, reset the clock
And next time you swear you’ll find a man
Who’s always gonna be there and he’ll understand
That love is what you make it with your heart and hand
Not some little story about the promised land
At Seventeen
Life was hard long before that wicked man
Ma and me, little Katie, our fate in his hands
I could see he was a Jekyll and Hyde
Sweet to Ma, said he’d be my Pa, but his deeds revealed his lies
Touching me even though I told him no
Late at night in bed I cried from the shame I felt inside
Rose O’Kelly is my name
And I admit to what I done, what I’d do again
Locked away by a rusted key
A danger to society
Just for stopping him from hurting me
At seventeen
He would not stop always houndin’ after me
I begged my ma to get the law but she pretended not to see
My anger raged, had no money to get away
Twice my size, his cold dark eyes, a demon and I his prey
Holding me up against the alley wall
He splayed my legs, he’d have his way, I vowed to kill him one day
Repeat Chorus
Stole a knife, felt a power when I held the blade
In a sheath hidden underneath the dress my mother made
And once again after drinking and getting mean
He grabbed me hard out to the yard said he had him a need
I pulled the knife and slashed with all my might
I cut his throat, he writhed and choked
I stabbed and watched him bleed
Repeat Chorus
Angle Carved In Stone
I don’t remember all that much
The fever got so high
Just my momma praying soft
Rocking me by her side
Papa built the casket
From oak and yellow pine
Along with my carved wooden bear
He laid us both inside
How they wept when they buried me
Into the muddy clay
The town folk and my family
The gray, rain soaked day
An angel carved in stone
Watches over me
Keeps me company
An angel carved in stone
Watches over me
Me and my bones
Margaret brings me flowers
And twice an arrowhead
Tells me what’s been going on
Folks who’ve died or wed
Eleven years I roamed these hills
I knew every trail
Walking with my papaw
While he told me his tall tales
Learned the names of birds and trees
Plants that help you heal
How to snare and skin a rabbit
Help papa in the fields
Repeat Chorus
I can’t deny, there’s been many times
I’ve wondered where heaven lies
In this spirit realm, adrift in mist
Trying to remember my mother’s kiss
Spider spins her web again
Cold moons wax and wane
Seasons slowly drifting by
Links in a chain
Many years have come and gone
Since I walked the Earth
My family’s now here with me
Buried in this dirt
I’m everywhere that this holler runs
The creek, the hills, the sky
Leaves that blow ‘cross my grave
The light of a new sunrise
Repeat Chorus
Longest Of Nights
A cascade of stardust shines down from the heavens
Filling the darkness with a shimmering light
Consoling the shadows that dance in the meadow
Lifting our spirits on this longest of nights
Time never ends, never rests, journeys on
Welcome tomorrow when the night yields to dawn
Gone is the past whose embers glow bright
Burned in the hearth on this longest of nights
Safe in the cloak of family and friend
Light find your way on this longest of nights
We travel through time, a celestial journey
Marking the moment the harbinger comes
Burning the fires that foretell a new season
Come play the lute, the pipes and the drum
Sing the old songs that have been handed down
Raise up your voices in a crescendo unbound
Gone is the past whose embers glow bright
Burned in the hearth on this longest of nights
Safe in the cloak of family and friend
Light find your way on this longest of nights