Throw Me from This Train
Throw me from this train
When my body’s all used up
Don’t you mend me like a broken cup
You got to throw me from the train

Throw me from this train
It’s too late now to make it up
I’ve done so many things I shouldn’t’ve
Now won’t you throw me from this train

By the river where the sun goes down
The only peaceful that I ever found
You remember how I loved that sound
Of a train leaving town

Throw me from this train
Where the world can’t rough me up
You know I loved you like a newborn pup
Now won’t you throw me from this train

In the night hear it creak and moan
All those feelings that I’ve never shown
The truth is I always felt alone
Like a child way too far from home

Throw me from this train
I’m so tired of this endless roll
Cross me off but don’t you dig no hole
You gotta throw me from this train
Throw me from this train

 

Cold Canadian Road
Madness seethes and goodness bleeds
Like a bull teased inside my head
When the calm concedes I know that beast still breathes
I was a fool when I left him for dead

And I cry “whoa” and I think “oh no”
Don’t want to slide down this slope again
I’m on this cold Canadian road
And I’ve come so many miles
Just to make it here

I was born and raised in a soft warm haze
But those memories I mostly forget
Those early days in that small town maze
They weren’t nothing like this stretch that I’ve hit

When I cry “whoa!” and I think “oh no”
Well I’m lost in the twilight again
Climbing this cold Canadian road
And I’ve come so many miles
Just to make it here


Well I looked for the signs that you sent me in lines
And I followed the road up the hill
But the sun slithered down at the far edge of town
And I was wandering still
And the minutes turned to hours, and the light lost its power
And I almost lost my will

But I knew I cared despite my frozen stare
So I prayed for the trail to be lit
I sent up flares in that desperate night air
Just ten miles from the house where you sit

And I cried “whoa!” and I said “oh no”
I can’t feel, I can’t fight and I don’t fit
And I’ve climbed this cold Canadian road
For far too many miles just to make it here
For far too many miles just to make it here
Just to make it here

 

 

I Still Love You
Take that long bus trip west, look out across the fields
Test those swollen silences and see what they yield
Unwrap each sour memory and throw away the peel
I still love you baby

Maybe hide out in the woods like when you were a child
Stop picking at that thing, just let it heal a little while
Watch the whole thing once, then try and turn the dial
I still love you baby

And that’s in you forever and I mean permanent
Rocks in a river, roads through the hills don’t disappear
Through the lean and the hard times we’ve been learning that
This love could hold us together through the years

So you can climb up high and drink your fill
And then dance alone upon that shadowy hill
But please roll back home when everything is still
I still love you baby

And that’s in you forever and I mean permanent
Rocks in a river, roads through the hills don’t disappear
It may take you a little while, while you’re learning that
This love could hold us together through the years
Through the years

So grip it tight, then let it go
You might feel the same as you did before
’Cause we can have less or we can have more
I still love you baby
I’ll always love you baby

 

 

Ride The Shadows
I think of you, I want to take you in
Deep waterways where we’ll sink or swim
I’ll build a boat so we can disappear
And ride the shadows, never be insincere

Out upon the fiercest winds
I will not furl my sail again
Even if we shed a million tears
We’ll ride the shadows and never be insincere

Because currents rise and then they fold
But the angry words that I’ve been told
Drift away when I have you near
We’ll ride the shadows and never be insincere

BRIDGE
In holy smoke or heavy fire
Tell me darling, how were you raised?
I awoke in a deadly mire
And I crawled out of a haze

You can tell the boys I’m leaving home
I’ll pull the oars ’til we’re alone
In daylight’s wake, when the night is near
We’ll ride the shadows and never be insincere

Solo

BRIDGE
In holy smoke or heavy fire
Tell me darling, how were you raised?
I awoke in a deadly mire
But I crawled out of that haze


Life is where you sail your heart
Fill it up or fall apart
And find a way when it gets unclear
To ride the shadows and never be insincere

I know you’re out across the sea
Finding things to bring to me
But all I want is to have you here
Ride the shadows and never be insincere

 

 

 

Drive These Blues Away
I going home now dear
Because I know there’s no use in waiting for you here
Seven hours by the highway, but it’ll take more than a day
To drive these blues away

’Cause I call
But you don’t hear
On the road from the house to the Cocagne pier
I go there at sundown but I still can’t find a way
To drive these blues away

Look at me now, I’m drowning my sorrows
As the sunlight slips away
Oh this world’s so cold and quiet
Look at me now, I’m drowning tomorrow
In a dream of yesterday
When you sat right by my side

If there had been any way dear
I would’ve given you my breath just to keep you near
But you knew that ’cause I told you
Now there’s nothing anyone can say
To drive these blues away

Look at me now, I’m drowning my sorrows
On this old abandoned highway
And this road sure looks long tonight
Look at me now I’m drowning tomorrow
In a dream of yesterday
When you sat right by my side

This old road reclines on rocks and clay
Beneath the full moon’s light while the breeze stirs up the bay
I’m rolling on silent waves of emotion
I know I can’t escape
Til I drive these blues away
Oh let me drive these blues away
I want to drive these blues away
Drive these blues away

 

 

I Will Stand By You
Who’ll worship and deliver you
When time is no longer kind
Dust the corners of your mind
When your body’s worn and the kids have sworn
You’re the cruellest one alive
I will stand by you

Contrary to the way I seem
I could hold you up for quite a while
Got too much love to let you lose your mind
When you feel the scorn and your heart is torn
And you forgot what you hoped to find
I will see you through

All the mercies of the modern world
You can count ‘em on my hands, you’re my little girl
When one is wrong and two is right
At three a.m. in the middle of the night
That’s when freedom’s king and the fear’s unfurled
I’ll be your duke, your duke of earl
We’ll walk through this world, where the air is clear
And I’ll tell you everything you need to hear

Oh you know it wasn’t long ago
I was deep in the fiercest tide
I closed my eyes when it opened wide
I nearly bottomed out, but without a doubt
You pulled me back alive
And I will stand by you

All the mercies of the modern world
You can count ‘em on my hands, you’re my little girl
When one is wrong and two is right
At three a.m. in the middle of the night
That’s when freedom’s king and the fear’s unfurled
I’ll be your duke, your duke of earl
We’ll walk through this world, where the air is clear
And I’ll tell you everything you need to hear

 

 

Keep a Man Down
I go rolling when the light’s dim
And I’m dancing with the cruel insights of my life
When they swing me ’round the wrong way
And they shake my confidence I don’t think twice
Wrap my hand around a bottle,
Push that throttle just a touch across the line

As I roll on through night
A heaven-sent few moments come to make me smile
But I know reverie is never free
When it comes by some liquid device
Still my hands reach for the windows
Let the music and my skin caress the sky

You keep a man down that long, he’s gonna blow, he’s gonna blow sometime
Living in this world sure takes its toll

Because that woman sang that awful song
She’d say “Where the hell, oh where the hell are you going?”
I say “You don’t need to know, baby,
You just need to know that I think you’re worthy of knowing.
And if I leave you in the dark,
It’s so the distance we’re apart will keep on growing

I said you keep a man down that long,
He’s gonna blow, he’s gonna blow sometime
Living in this world sure takes its toll


Well my mother says I still have time,
I could make things right again
But I don’t think things ever work that way
I think even God don’t make things right
He knows that in the end
We’d just come along and make ’em wrong
Anyway

Now I’ve got no side to be off or on
No rights to be proffered, sold or stolen
I got no one to be answered to,
No harsh or tender words that need to be spoken
Just these four wheels spinning round
On some fresh and fertile ground that I have broken

’Cause I said you keep a man down that long, he’s gonna blow, he’s gonna blow sometime
Living in this world sure takes its toll
Living in this world takes its toll
Living in this world takes its toll

 

 

 

House of Dreams
All the time that you spent waiting
Hoping I might just come though
And the light that you’ve been shading so long
Baiting traps along the route

Then upon my non-arrival
You slumped down beside the deep
Twisted piles of driftwood strewn for miles
Where your doom and your dream states meet

And every wave rolls in to break your heart
You were a consummate misery from the start
Dark and dangerous, an abandoned mine
Or a house of dreams on a deep fault line

When I climbed up from that canyon
Where the sun can’t touch the stone
I knew the truth, you hold distain for youth
Cause you never lived one of your own

But I find it very hard now
To sympathize with all your pain
Your tiny mind’s a feeble axe you grind
But it cuts so deep into the grain

Cause every wave rolls in to break your heart
A consummate victim from the start
There’s only cautious comfort and fearful minds
In a house of dreams on a deep fault line

 

 

 

Staten Island Ferry
Just like the river has no choice
When it rolls down the mountainside
And it flows through the valley wide
If he knew that heaven could hear his voice
When he cried in the wounded night
He could hold all those thoughts in line

But if he believed it’s never as bad as it seems
What was he doing on the Staten Island Ferry
Staring into the deep

All of those birds are flying south tonight
They know the way back home, they just follow right
On the wing of the one beside
If he knew that heaven would steer him right
When he fell behind and out of site
He could find his way on the darkest night

But if he believed that God was awake in his dreams
What was he doing on the Staten Island Ferry
Diving into the deep

Bridge:
You say he should fly over to India again
Unwrap himself, disrobe, shed those sins
On the top of the mountain they don’t know what shame is
But he’d come back wearing that same skin
That very same skin

It’s like it’s written within him and it’s ancient and new
It’s the story he’s been anchored to
Now it’s dragging him down in the cold dark blue
If he knew that heaven would see him through
He could float like light from the lonely moon
Out across the night, back to his own bedroom
But if he believed that God had the will to relieve
What was he doing on the Staten Island Ferry
Sinking in the deep

 

 

 

Empty Slate
You were just 12 years old
Daddy said close the window but it was already closed
He was a desperate soul
You didn’t want to hold on but you couldn’t let go

Asking him for something it never seemed right
Took you driving through the mountains with your shoes to tight

But on you go
You put a bottle in the bag when you’re 20 years old
Can’t keep your eyes on the road
When you’re ducking down fast and drinking it down slow

Now you’re twenty-something and nothing is right
You’re still driving through the mountains with your shoes too tight

And you’re out in the middle of the night these days
And the road is splitting in a thousand ways
And you see the lights but you run them all
And you race that fear when you hear it call
What if this heart of yours won’t mend
You want to find out before you reach the end

That’s when you finally break
Down the road a long ways from the big mistake
Believing in a twisted fate
When it’s nothing more than an empty slate

Now you’re asking for something that’s gonna feel right
Not driving through the mountains with your shoes too tight
Searching for something that’s gonna feel right
And rolling down a mountain in the evening light

 

 

 

Water
I swam out into the water
The air was warm and still
I touched my feet on the bottom
Then I climbed back up the hill

I held out for the hopeful
And I held out a long, long time
Casting in a wishful motion
When there was nothing on my line

When I can’t see what I want to
Each moment is bound and tied
Yellow field, sky grey
Black birds stand and sway
And screech out to the night
As they feed in the fading light

It’s approaching and then it’s receding
But it’s with me all the time
The horizon that glows red perfection
Or cuts like a cold black line

I’m just a simple body
With a treacherous piece of mind
That makes me sink right down in dark water
Or throw my arms open wide

But when I don’t try to hold on to
The moments, they slip and slide
Yellow field, sky grey,
Black birds strut and splay
When restlessness ignites
I know that they’ll soon take flight

Bridge:
I was a castaway
In this living play
It was all childhood rhymes and grand designs
But something got blurred in between the lines
When I ran ahead just to look behind
And a curtain was rising every time
I cast myself in the false confines
Of tomorrow
Or yesterday

So if you’re piecing this all together
Like a quilt or a puzzle sky
You’re just twisting around on a tether
As you choke on a chain of lies

Because out on the windy shoreline
Or out on the crowded road
We’re all out in the middle of nowhere
And the only devil is the thought that you hold

Because words can’t tell what you’re onto
When each moment, it opens wide
Yellow field, sky grey,
Black birds fly away
And drift with pure delight
As they disappear from site
Yes, they disappear from site
Oh they disappear from site

 

 

That’s How Strong My Love Is (Roosevelt Jamison; additional lyrics Rob Lutes)
I’ll be the sun way up in the sky
Just so you never have to stop and wonder why
I’ll be the moon when the sun goes down
Just so you know, I’m still hanging around

I’ll be the best friend you ever had
I’ll be your mother and your brother and your dad
And I will kiss and hold you tight
All through the long, lonely night

And I’ll be the ocean deep and wide
To catch the tears that you cry
And I’ll be the cool breeze when the storm is gone
To dry your eyes and love you once more
That’s how strong my love is
That’s how strong my love is
That’s how strong my love is
That’s how strong my love is

I’ll be the best friend you ever had
I’ll be your mother and your brother and your dad
And I will kiss and hold you tight
All through the long, lonely night

And I’ll be the ocean deep and wide
To catch the tears that you cry
And I’ll be the cool breeze when the storm is gone
To dry your eyes and love you once more
That’s how strong my love is
That’s how strong my love is
That’s how strong my love is
That’s how strong my love is