Genuine. Quirky. Rootsy.
LYRICS
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1. THE 9:30 PINT
2. THE BALLAD OF STAN ROGERS & LEO KENNEDY
3. SEVEN MILES UPWIND
4. G-DDAMNED BLESSED ROAD
5. MIRACLE IN THE HILLS
6. TREES FALLING
7. CLAIRE & JOHNNY
8. THE ROOM OVER THE BAR
9. FOREST HILLS SUB
10. THE GOAT MAN
11. DANGEROUS TIMES
12. AL'S ASHES & ME
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1. The 9:30 Pint
It’s not so big a town and I know all of the locals
Some come in to read newspapers some forget their bifocals
Strangers find a home here - trust me I have seen all kinds
9:30 in the morning is when I start pouring pints
The 9:30 pint it can set the morning right
For the one who just got off after working all night
It’s a stop along the way as he makes his journey home
Before he pulls the curtains closed and disconnects the phone
The 9:30 pint for whomever wanders in
It’s not for me to wonder or ask where they might’ve been
If they passed out in the bushes or if they caught a couple winks
I don’t make it my business to know why they need a drink
If you’ve been at it all night & you just have to have one more
Or if you need a cup of coffee I’ll be happy to pour
If you just need a place to sit to warm up or unwind
I’ll be right over here pouring these 9:30 pints
The 9:30 pint - perhaps to start a person’s day
Who am I to judge? And who am I to say?
If they leave here happier than when they first come in
I’ll be here tomorrow morning should the punter call again
The 9:30 pint is one I’m glad to pour
I’m grateful for the business that comes in through the door
So what’re you having sir? Now...what’s it gonna be?
I can tell you’re not a local - are you from across the sea?
So top of the morning to you - it’s another fine day
I turn away no one - I have bills to pay
See that pub across the street...the one up top the hill?
If I don’t pour the early one - you can bet they will
So before you rush to judgement & condemn a decent man
Allow me to introduce myself & offer you my hand
I’m just your friendly publican & you’re very welcome here
I open at 9:30 - you don’t have to drink a beer
2. The Ballad of Stan Rogers and Leo Kennedy
Hardly anybody goes to visit Leo
All but forgotten except by a few
I heard somebody speak so fondly of him
Made me wish I knew him
I got directions to the church yard
I took a walk on up the hill
That overlooks the Stan Rogers Folk Festival
The year that I was on the bill
It was in the local Lions Club
Which was the backstage dining hall
Saw a picture there of Leo
Framed & hanging on a wall
Such a good hearted fellow
So say all the people I know who knew him
It had to be someone who loved the man
Whoever the artist was that drew him
Leo in his uniform
Pins & medals decorate his vest
Rolled up shirtsleeves & a funny hat
Tilted slightly to the west
I figured maybe he was there
To keep a watch over the place
Smiling on everyone
He had a real familiar face
If you’re up in Canso, Nova Scotia
It’s just a flat stone on the ground
He lies just next to Lumsden
You might have to look around
It’s a simple little marker
Two hands clasped in prayer
I sat down beside it
And said a little one there
I’d only heard about Stan Rogers
Now it was time to listen to him
His songs brought back to life again
By people I know who knew him
And I thought about a campfire
And the Texas morning light
And that feeling that you leave with
After being there all night
So I’m saying farewell to Leo
It was nearly a quarter ‘til...
The Ballads of Stan Rogers
I’d been enjoying from the hill
“Stay for another song, son“
I thought I heard somebody say
For one more song, and I had to smile...
Before I walked away
3. Seven Miles Upwind
The trees up here are all a sickly brown
It’s not for lack of rain
It’s in the mist that creeps around
Every night when most people are asleep
It slinks across the valley
And into everything it seeps
There’s a paper company
Seven miles upwind
I sit outside on a summer’s night
It irritates my skin
I get a little dizzy
Sometimes my lips go numb
I wake up in the morning
I can taste it on my tongue
The paper company employs this whole damn town
It’d wreck a lot of families if it ever were shut down
The last city council meeting went to hell
Neighbors turned on neighbors
People were starting to yell
The river’s fish you cannot eat
You don’t swim in the water
You don’t even dip your feet
Downstream the people made a stink
Fed up with being treated with a nod
Nod & a wink-wink
The local paper company burns my eyes
Coming from their smokestacks
You can see the vapors rise
Jobs...that’s all you need to say around here
Babies’ll let you kiss them and a marching band appears...jobs...
“No cause for concern,”
Say company personnel
“We operate within the law,”
They say about the sickly smell
“I can personally guarantee they’d pass inspection”
Says the paper candidate the company ran in the Most recent election
Paper company security
Thanks me for my call
They will file a report
As they’re required to by law
Then they ask me for my name
And my address
Why they’d want to know that
Is anybody’s guess
Paper company puts a burning in my nose
I have to come in off my porch
Pull all the windows closed
Maybe I’m just a little too sensitive
Maybe I ought to find myself another place to live
Said the note I found tacked outside my door
4. G-ddamned Blessed Road
For the kindness of strangers
I often give thanks
Some have fed me and clothed me
Some have filled up my tanks
Some have taken me inside
Of their humble abodes
Given me sanctuary
On this G-ddamned Blessed Road
It all fit in a backpack
With a sturdy metal frame
My map had routes to everywhere
I highlighted some names
I could’ve walked to China
I had that light a load
Nearly weightless when I set out
On this G-ddamned Blessed Road
I banded with some gypsies
They had a little camp
A garbage fire to keep warm by
From the cold & from the damp
They taught me about honor
And they handed down the code
Which I have always tried to live by
On this G-ddamned Blessed Road
Magic happens sometimes
And things will just appear
Some gone in an instant
But their memories are dear
My heart it gets heavy
And my legs they get bowed
Hauling all my riches away
On this G-ddamned Blessed Road
The picture was in black & white
Until color came one day
It was almost as if right before my eyes
The truth it became grey
Answers turned to questions
I put my faith in the unknown
And I trusted it to lead me
Along this G-ddamned Blessed Road
Alot of good books have been written
You can read every one
You can take notes and recite quotes
As proof that you got your reading done
So many interpretations of the words of The Ultimate Poet
Who inspires me to write my own
On this G-ddamned Blessed Road
The distance was far greater
Sitting face to face at home
Than it would have been from almost anywhere
If we’d been talking on the phone
I told her that I loved her
With a lump in my throat
Got in my car & drove away
Down this G-ddamned Blessed Road
Now the world is at your fingertips
All you have to do is choose
Certain games you’ll still play anyway
Even though the odds are that you’ll lose
So call it an adventure then
Just the latest episode
Where you let yourself be tempted
On this G-ddamned Blessed Road
Billboards tell you where to go
Others tell you what to do
So you’re left with having to decide for yourself
What might be right or wrong for you
My one and only question
Is how to know how to know?
With all the answers people have for you
Out on this G-ddamned Blessed Road
5. Miracle in the Hills
Being from the outside they were met with some suspicion
This couple from the city where they call themselves physicians
When mountainfolk got hurt or sick they mostly went untreated
They’d come to see the Doctor and his wife were sorely needed
Word came in on horseback that somebody was sick
“Doctor, get your saddle bags & come a’ riding quick”
15 - 20 miles, he’d follow them back home
There was no electricity and no one had a phone
No bridges crossed the river except where they laid rails
There weren’t any roads back then & barely any trails
That didn’t stop the doctor from the little mountain town
In western North Carolina from going & making the rounds
Doctor went a’ riding through the wind and through the rain
If someone out there needed him, if someone was in pain
He saved a few from dying but a few, they got away
He delivered lots of children & he loved to watch them play
Dr. bought an old junk dynamo that weighed more than a ton
They hauled it home by wagon & the doc got it to run
They moved it to the creek & from the house he ran a wire
Flipped a switch & there was light & all the folks came to admire
Now everybody was pestering the Doc to hook ‘em up
But that old dynamo of his couldn’t put out juice enough
He did some reading up on it while riding on his horse
He figured maybe he could make it work by rewinding the core
But they said you just can’t do it - GE told him so
They wouldn’t sell him parts to rebuild his dynamo
So he mail-ordered a forge and he made the parts himself
And the Doctor brought electricity to everybody else
Doctor’s wife assisted him - she was a doctor too
When he didn’t need her there was other work to do
She won people over - a little at a time
With the miracles that happened while the Doctor went a’ riding
Dr. Mary Martin Sloop taught the mountain folk to read
Got folks to send their kids to school, which was no easy deed
They soon outgrew the building - the little one room shack
So it was added on to and soon they outgrew that
Dr. Mary Martin Sloop started lobbying the state
To build a brand new school where the kids could graduate
She wrote a bunch of letters and she made a real good case
She even went to Raleigh where she pleaded face to face
The roads down from the mountains to the cities were so rough
Farm wagons couldn’t make it to the markets with their stuff
No way to make a living, no good route in or out
On the east side of the Blue Ridge heading north or south
Dr. Mary Martin Sloop again went to the state
Got people writing letters & she met with the legislature
She got a bill pushed through for 50 million dollars
It wasn’t long ‘til they were trucking beans and taters from the hollers
The little town of Crossnore saw the road & school get built
The women learned to weave and make the most exquisite quilts
Dr. Mary Martin Sloop had another thing to tell ‘em
She found a shop in Raleigh that was sure that it could sell ‘em
They sold all the quilts and rugs that these women could produce
Money started coming in - they put it to good use
Places where the wind got in they could afford to seal
A little extra cornbread at the evening meal
And so while Doctor went a’ riding - curing people’s ills
Doctor’s wife stayed busy performing other miracles
And to the town of Crossnore there came a better life
Love and admiration for the Doctor and his wife
6. Trees Falling
See where they’re putting in a Wal-Mart
See how they level the field
The community banded against it
But there was a backroom deal
Trees one day begin falling
Bulldozers tear up the grass
Just down the road from the superstore
Shopkeepers are boarding up glass
See where they’re gonna put that highway
They’re talking about 8 lanes
Running it right through a neighborhood
Invoking eminent domain
Trees one day begin falling
Bulldozers clear away bricks
A neighborhood is divided
Alternative plans are nixed
See where they’re gonna build a ballpark
It’s a developer’s dream
We give him $ 500 million
Or else we might lose our team
The money’ll come from the city
We’ll vote on it until the day it passes
All of our local schools
Will have to do without music classes
See where they’re putting in those mansions
Clearing out a bunch of these woods
Putting in a gated community
Where security’ll be real good
Trees one day begin falling
To open up mountain views
They put in a road to the waterfalls
And now they charge admission to it
Say you live out in the country
Up a steep mountain side
A holy little oasis
Nothing but peace & quiet
Trees one day begin falling
Somebody’s moving in
Building a house right on top of you
He says he wants to be your friend
Trees one day begin falling
Bulldozers clearing a path
For a really different future
No brakes - just stepping on the gas
7. Claire & Johnny
Claire, she loves Johnny
And Johnny, he loves Claire
Of all the places we could start
It’s as good as any right there
Johnny signed the order
They took his lovely Claire
They’re going to make her better
But it was more than he could bear
What other options were there?
What else could Johnny do?
She was the most beautiful woman
That Johnny ever knew
But Claire sometimes got ugly
She had Johnny in a vice
She could get so mean all of a sudden
After being so nice
Claire, she loves Johnny
And Johnny, he loves Claire
The way she was behaving
Johnny, he got scared
Sometimes it would be hours
That she would sit & stare
Some voice that wasn’t her’s would speak
But she just wasn’t there
Johnny felt so low down
He needed cheering up
He had to get out of the house
So he headed for the pub
That’s where we got to talking
We had a pint or two
He asked if I might write a song about it
I said I’d see what I could do
Claire, she loves Johnny
And Johnny, he loves Claire
Even with her cussing at him
Lord, how she could swear
Even with her throwing things
Some that really hurt
Even when she’d speak
Those unspeakable words
Claire is being cared for
They keep her in a room
Under medication
Every day she’s groomed
Sometimes she notices the flowers
Among whatever else she sees
And then she’ll turn to Johnny
And ask, “Who brought me these?”
Claire, she loves Johnny
And Johnny, he loves Claire
Although she may deny it
Says what Johnny did wasn’t fair
She tells Johnny she hates him
He strokes her lovely hair
Of all the places we could stop for now...
8. The Room Over the Bar
The room over the bar has a funny kind of smell
Your feet stick to the carpet, what it is you can not tell
The curtains, you can’t close ‘em and the toilet won’t stop running
The lights they kind of flicker - there’s a banging in the plumbing
The room over the bar - number 213
Not particularly large, not particularly clean
It’s supposed to be a king bed but it’s not even a queen
On a nightstand are some dusty & outdated magazines
The room over the bar is the one without a view
You can’t open up the window & there’s no light coming through
There’s a great big concrete wall you can look at if you want
The rooms that have a view - they’re all around the front
The room over the bar is the one they give musicians
It’s the one they haven’t fixed up ‘cause it’s only for musicians
There’s at least a couple burn marks on almost everything
You lie down in the bed & you feel each one of the springs
The room over the bar you’ll find hairs on the sheet
A broken down remote, and you can’t turn off the heat
A towel small as a washcloth and a shower that just dribbles
The tv with 3 channels on the ceiling, on a swivel
The room over the bar - you hear everything below
All sorts of filthy language - must be where all the cussers go
Some words I never heard before - and some I haven’t heard since
I’ve used a few myself - but one or two of ‘em made me wince
The room over the bar has a guitar player below
He’s got people singing - all the songs that people know
The sound is all distorted & it’s turned up way too loud
There’s some really awful singing going on there in the crowd
The room over the bar - it’s never gonna close
You’ve got to get up early - but that’s just the way it goes
They quit serving at midnight but the last one leaves at four
And then you toss & turn for a couple hours more
9. Forest Hills Sub
The sign says Forest Hills
It was recently defaced
I guess there was a forest here
Before they built this place
With these cookie-cutter homes
With the lawns all manicured
All the cars are waxed and polished
As are all the kitchen floors
It’s a wholesome kind of place
That’s what they’d have you believe
There’s a flag at every house
And a few overachieve
We have a child prodigy
And a couple of folks do art
And a little neighborhood baseball team
That plays with lots of heart
The letter to the editor
I read in last week’s paper
Was written by that knucklehead
Who used to be my neighbor
Talk about intolerance
Those people he calls heathens
‘Cause they don’t believe the same things
That this knucklehead believes in
Now I know for a fact
A certain so & so reads porn
A package sent to him once
Was delivered to my door
I didn’t hand it over
No, I kept it to myself
If we should ever have a problem
Well, it’s up there on the shelf
There was a Pakistani family
That lived just down the block
As soon as they’d replace the glass
Someone would throw a rock
I don’t think it was children
Though children can be cruel
Whoever it was that did it
They broke the Golden Rule
People read the Times
Aand they watch the tv news
They receive it like the Gospel
They’ve all fallen for the ruse
They all have their opinions
But none of them have clues
There’s a patriotic silence
There are no dissenting views
The school we have here
Couldn’t teach a monkey how to climb
And Evie’s neighbor maintains
That to homeschool is a crime
I think she’s a moron
I told Evie on the phone
Tell her it’s none of her goddamned business
In the gentlest of tones
They know him as the garbage man
But I know him as Anthony
Their trash he turns to beauty
Some could profit from it handsomely
These little works of art
That he would sprinkle on their lawns
Would end up in the trash again
As soon as people saw ‘em
Katy burned some leaves
And that’s against the law
The cop who showed up first
Aaid they had gotten 20 calls
They wrote her a citation
But it just went up in smoke
They put her in a squad car
It made for 20 happy folks
And each 4th of July
It’s the same tin foil parade
Waving from a flatbed
While a band behind them plays
All of our local sponsors
And all the block captains too
Party hats & streamers
All red, white, & blue
But just below the varnish
And under the veneer
Behind the smiling faces
And all of the good cheer
You’ve got your petty jealousies
And all your different feuds
Gossip and suspicions
And people who are rude
The sign says “Forest Hills -
A Wholesome Kind Of Place”
Now I’m not saying by whom
But it was recently defaced
So let the credits roll
And you can use my song
My guess is that for Hollywood
It’s a few seconds too long
10. The Goat Man
Traffic would get backed up
When the Goat Man came around
And the tv cameras picked him up
Some miles out of town
In his tattered, sooty overalls
And his greasy railroad cap
Going no place in particular
With a wagon full of scrap
Ches McCartney was a farmer
When the Depression hit
He had some land in Iowa
‘Till the bank foreclosed on it
So he took to cutting timber
For the WPA
‘Till a mighty tall tree fell on him
And crushed his arm one day
They found him underneath it
They thought he’d met his maker
‘Till he woke up in the funeral home
And that shocked the undertaker
The big tree left him crippled
But he swore one thing for certain
That he would never sign up for the dole
He would never be a burden
Some folks might’ve quit right then
After all that had occurred
But Ches still had his Bible
And he still had his herd
So he built a couple of wagons
And he hitched ‘em to his goats
And they all just set out walking
Down the old two lane roads
North they’d go in springtime
South when it got cold
The Goat Man kept on walking
‘Till he was 85 years old
All through the Carolinas
Virginia & DC
Georgia & Alabama
All across Tennessee
It was every year, or just about
That the Goat Man came around
Camped a couple of nights in somebody’s field
On the outskirts of a town
The people would flock to see him
Afraid there was a fire
‘Cause he made a lot of black smoke
Burning little scraps of tires
Yeah, the people would flock to see him
And then he’d have ‘em collared
Sell ‘em postcards for a quarter
3 of ‘em for a dollar
You’d laugh about it later
Down the road a couple miles
How he took you for a quarter
But he left you with a smile
The Goat Man preached the Gospel
But he changed a couple of words
He was the cussingest preacher
Anybody’d ever heard
And if you needed preaching
Come Sunday 4 o’clock
The Goat Man gave a sermon
Whether anybody was there or not
The things most people slave for
The Goat Man he rejected
It was for the good of others
All the money he collected
He didn’t have much use for it
Himself, he used to say
He walked a hundred thousand miles
Giving all of it away
The Goat Man had a bushy beard
With bits of food stuck to it
If you had some fat to chew
He’d sit with you and chew it
He didn’t bathe for all those years
You wouldn’t just not notice
You might even catch a whiff of it
Looking at some old Goat Man photos
Now the Goat Man had a favorite goat
It’s name it was Old Bill
For 30 years they walked together
Up & down the hills
Old Bill got to stop pulling
He earned his right to ride
His last days in the wagon
While the Goat Man walked beside him
The roads all got too crowded
And the cars all got too fast
The Goat Man parked his wagon
And he put his goats to pasture
It was somewhere down near Macon
In a nursing home
Where he found himself a sweetheart
They say he might’ve worn cologne
11. Dangerous Times
There’s terror in our midst
They could be one of us
Behind you in the line
Beside you on the bus
Wearing camouflage
They might be wearing suits
The terrorists among us
Might be wearing army boots
These are dangerous times
People are afraid
No looking back at history
To see how enemies were made
Some dictators are bad
Some dictators are good
That’s a hard one to explain
But I wish somebody would
So let us all agree
Let us not dissent
Let us not ask questions such as
Where our freedoms went
We’ll just fly fly the flag
Sing G-d Bless America
Question people’s patriotism
Who don’t join in the hysteria
These are dangerous times
And so we lose our rights
While these terrorists among us
Do their dirty work at night
There isn’t time to read
The contents of the bills
That Congress votes for anyway
Up there on The Hill
There’s terror in our midst
It wears the good disguise
Fools a lot of people
They seem like such regular guys
Rewriting all the rules
You don’t have any say
In fact they even count on you
To look the other way
There’s terror in our midst
All over the tv
It’s what’s behind the words
That scares the daylights out of me
The twisting of the facts
The stretching of the truth
The terrorists among us
They manipulate the news
So let us all agree
Let us not dissent
Let us not ask questions such as
Where our freedoms went
We’re going to build them schools
We’re going to build them banks
We’re going to build them pipelines
From their fields to our tanks
My heart goes out to Johnny
Sent off into war
They convince him it’s for freedom
That he’d lay his life down for
My thoughts are often with him
I pray he comes home safe
And I pray for every innocent
Laid early in the grave
These are dangerous times
You might be overheard
Using one of whatever they’ve defined
As being a dangerous word
What if they don’t like your songs?
What if they don’t like your books?
What if you fit a profile
Based solely on your looks?
They listen to us talk
They read the things we write
They watch us all on cameras
They know where you were last night
They know where you stopped for gas
Which magazines you bought
Back in 1984
This was all just crazy talk
So let us all agree
Let us not dissent
Let us not ask questions such as
Where our freedoms went
Let’s have a look inside those pockets
Let’s have a look inside that purse
Let’s have a look inside that glove box
Or someplace maybe worse
And who was in your house
While you weren’t home
And looked in your computer
And through everything you own?
What did they want to know?
Which websites do you visit?
What have you learned about them?
They want to know - what is it?
So let us all agree
Let us not dissent
Let us not ask questions such as
Where our freedoms went
We’ll just fly fly the flag
Sing G-d Bless America
Question people’s patriotism
Who don’t join in the hysteria
12. Al’s Ashes & Me
(In memory of Al Grierson, 1948 - 2000)
Welcome Home, Al, said the sign at the gate
I got there early, Al got there late
Together we entered and greeted our mates
Al - he was back in Texas
Al’s ashes & me, we’ve been for a drive
To places he loved while he was alive
Back at the ranch, on the day we arrived
We saw almost all of his favorite people
Al’s ashes & me, been making the rounds
Out in the country & into the towns
Trying to find some higher ground...
Al’s ashes & me, we sleep in motels
Where we have to be out by 11 or 12
Al could do better describing the smells
‘Cause Al, you see, he was a poet
I get the bed & Al gets the floor
My jeans in a pile over by the door
There’s always a bible in one of the drawers...
And a remote control for the tv
Now I might appear to be eating alone
A table for two, I sit on my own
But looks are deceiving, the truth it be known
Alone but for the roses
Al’s ashes & me had a brush with the law
At the airport the metal detector went off
I emptied my pockets, & the first thing they saw
Was Al, and I had to do some explaining
Al’s ashes & me on the Donegal shore
We walked in the sand and the ocean roared
Him in my pocket, me trying to keep warm
In my coat, but Al had a red bandana
Al’s ashes & me, we sat in a pub
Cobblestone Bar, in Smithfield part of Dublin
Al on the wagon, me raising my cup
“To Al,” I says to the barman
I introduce Al to some of my friends
Not all the time just every now & again
I guess you could say that it really depends
On how it feels at the moment
Al’s ashes & me, we wish you were here
We’d show you the sights & bring you good cheer
We’re hoping to see you later this year
Lord willing…