1. |
Big Blue World
04:28
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The building still stood in my hometown;
A diner of memories still hangin around.
Grandmas and kids just like us
And somebody's pictures on the wall hangin up.
Plaid shirts and corduroy side by side.
Break-out the Polaroid, now, both of y'all smile.
We're left with snapshots held up with pushpins
Up on the wall of a diner we were in.
People remain in an ever-changing world;
Some mother's sons and little girls
In a small town diner
In a Big Blue World.
Years they would come and they'd go.
That kid in the Polaroid left for Nashville, don't ya know.
And there in the plaid---whatever happened to that one?
Well he's still around, but the old lady's gone.
I felt the rumble, yeah, felt my world shake
And I knew it was comin' nine-hundred miles away.
After the earthquake, well, that life was dust;
The grandmas and kids, that used to be us.
But people, they change and they take on the world;
Some mother's sons and little girls.
Yes, they rise from the ashes
In a Big Blue World.
When I can't recall, there's a picture hangin' up.
As time moves along, one memory gets stuck.
And some mother's son someday will see
In a plaid shirt in a Polaroid, Grandma and me.
And we will remain in an ever-changing world,
Some mother's son and a little girl,
In a small-town diner
In a Big Blue World
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2. |
A Letter to Myself
03:29
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You don't know me, but you know my name.
I see a picture; you see a frame.
Just walk away from nothin'.
It's easy to do
When it means nothing to you.
But if you're gonna go then you'd better get goin'.
I can feel the wind and the wheels rushing by.
We already know where all of this is goin'
Showed-up on your way out when you passed 'em by.
I wish it was you or somebody else,
But I put it down in a letter to myself
Yesterday when I was leavin'
Why can't I let the time be
Right here with you and me?
I know you're gonna go, and you'd better get goin'.
I can feel the wind, and the time rushin' by.
We already know, but sometimes it don't help knowin'
Were we really there when you said goodbye?
I know you're gonna go, and you'd better get goin'.
I can see the clouds and the storms in your eyes.
Did we really know where all of this was goin'?
Showed-up on your way out when you passed 'em by.
Showed up walkin' out when you said, "Goodbye."
Goodbye
You don't know me, but you know my name.
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3. |
Abilene
04:39
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Patches on both knees;
Toughskin bootcut jeans
In a Levi world.
We were poor but we had plenty;
Just a simple kind of life.
I couldn't wait to leave behind
Abilene, in my rear view mirror; sundown to the west.
I believed I could be from somewhere else.
By the time I saw it clearly the decision had come and gone
Just like me---down the highway singing your song,
Oh, Abilene.
Cracked and dried ground;
The southwest sun beat down
On all my dreams.
And the stars that shined above me
Were just too far out of reach.
The time came to leave
Abilene, in my rear view mirror; sundown to the west.
I believed I could be from somewhere else.
By the time I saw it clearly the decision had come and gone
Just like me---down the highway singing your song,
Oh, Abilene.
I used to think that I had nothin'
Just to leave some things behind,
But up ahead...just might find
Abilene.
By the time I saw it clearly the decision had come and gone
Just like me---down the highway singing your song.
Oh, Abilene, in my rear view mirror; sundown to the west.
I believed I could be from somewhere else.
By the time I saw it clearly the decision had come and gone
Just like me---down the highway singing your song,
Oh, Abilene.
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4. |
New Orleans
04:16
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Rolling like a river to the sea,
Yesterday's a dream to me now.
Water stretchin' out as far as I can see
Like a riverboat sendin' me down
To New Orleans.
New Orleans
Slow-moving clouds sharing time with the sun
Til September twilight is through.
On the porch of a house on the street of our town
Is a girl I'm comin' home to
In New Orleans.
New Orleans
The water's risin' up
And the years keep goin' by.
And I wonder sometimes if we'll make it through
New Orleans.
Across the sky like the moon at midnight
Flyin' me back home to you.
There's a promise in the stars and in the mornin' light
When the sun makes it's way back to
New Orleans.
New Orleans
New Orleans
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5. |
Restless Spirits
04:17
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For reasons that don't matter
I was walking down an alley
Heard some music coming through a screen
Without really thinking
I walked over to the window
To a scene that reminds me of a dream
She was standing in the kitchen
With her face turned towards the ceiling
Eyes closed but still they held a light
From a battered guitar
Came a sound like angels weeping
For all the restless spirits in the night
I don't know how long I stood there
Seemed like many many lifetimes
Then I felt the burden just lifted away
And walking down the alley
I was feeling so much better
I knew that I could face another day
She was standing in the kitchen
With her face turned towards the ceiling
Eyes closed but still they held a light
From a battered guitar
Came a sound like angels weeping
For all the restless spirits in the night
For reasons that don't matter
I was walking down an alley
Heard some music coming through a screen
Without really thinking
I walked over to the window
To a scene that reminds me of a dream
She was standing in the kitchen
With her face turned towards the ceiling
Eyes closed but still they held a light
From a battered guitar
Came a sound like angels weeping
For all the restless spirits in the night
From a battered guitar
Came a sound like angels weeping
For all the restless spirits in the night
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6. |
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The paper said, “150 miles from anywhere”.
And in their own way in a nowhere town
The townsfolk talked without sayin' a word.
And nothin' good ever came around.
Over the hills of Waggoner soared the highway.
There was a new west but it's old now.
Somethin' else called the townsfolk away
Whispered “Nothing good will come around.”
We used to have our own downtown.
We used to have our own things to do.
But nothing good ever came around
So it's off to the city and the promise of something new
Railway steel rumblin' down the line;
Sky above is dark and gray.
Just a thin line of light on the horizon
And the Iron Horse pullin' away.
We used to have our own downtown.
We used to have our own things to do.
But nothing good ever came around
Empty the streets; board-up the windows on the avenue.
We used to have our neighbors and friends.
We used to have our own things to do.
These empty streets and the boarded-up old windows
Left us nothin'; nothin' but me and you.
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7. |
My Kind of Memory
03:43
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I can see the mountains from this front-porch-view
Drinking Coke from the bottle playing gin.
Board games, peanut shells on the ground.
Remembering when.
They say you all are heroes of the bravest kind
Left families, sons and daughters in the wind
All the places and the faces you left behind
Over the mountains and then back home again
Echoes of your footsteps through this life we made;
A ghost town for only you and me
No one else remembers quite the same way
It's a side of you only I can see
You're my kind of memory
Like the wind talks through the switch grass, I heard your voice
When the world slowed down as if to try and see
The child out on the front porch staring back in time
Past the mountains, the prairies, and the sea.
Echoes of your footsteps through this life we made;
A ghost town for only you and me
No one else remembers quite the same way
It's a side of you only I can see
You're my kind of memory
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8. |
Into the Light
04:43
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Movin' into the light
Where'd you come from?
You were burnin' both ends of the night
Shadows trailin in the sun.
Where the miles you walked were ours
You were carryin' the weight
Out among the wildflowers
When the sun came up today.
See, there on his head?
There in his hands? There in his feet?
Sorry flowing down.
How he loved you and me.
Movin' into the light
What have they done?
You were fighting the good fight
and the battle'd just begun.
With your life you fought for ours.
You were carryin' the weight
For people, miles and miles,
when they rifled you away.
See, there what he said?
That what you are---“I have a dream...”
There every man, woman, and child
Someday will be free.
Movin' into the Light
Though you are gone
You were fighting the good fight
When the battle called you home.
With your life you fought for ours
And we looked for what to say
Out among the wildflowers
in the fields where you lay.
See beyond the hills
There is a land for you and me
There every man, woman, and child
Someday will be free.
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9. |
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I'm gonna ride through the streets of my city
Where my Lord's done gone before
Gonna sit down on the banks of the river
I won't be back no more
All my crying will be over
I won't have to cry no more
I'm gonna sit down on the banks of the river
And I won't be back no more
We're gonna have a good time when we get there
Gonna sit down by my savior's side
Gonna sit down on the banks of the river
God knows I won't be back no more
I can shout and give my God praises
Singing glory be to his name
Gonna sit down on the banks of that river
And I won't be back no more
Lead
I'll be where no hearse-wheel will be rollin'
And I won't have to die no more
I'm gonna sit down on the banks of the river
And I won't be back no more
I'll be where I can be free from trouble
I won't be in trouble no more
Gonna sit down on the banks of the river
And I won't be back no more
I'll be where I won't have to be looked-over
When I finally reach the other side
Gonna sit down on the banks of the river
And I won't be back no more
Gonna sit down on the banks of the river
And I won't be back no more
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10. |
Sonny
03:34
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Sonny left the coal mine
In 2013.
He'd met some woman online
and headed down to Abilene.
Hit the highway in December;
Headed for the sunshine way down south.
The kids were grown and all on their own.
And the rest is what he'll make it now.
Well he grew up in the Golden Age;
Never throwin' nothin' away.
Bought and fixed and sold and worked
with his hands on somethin' everyday.
'Was a time he talked about leavin';
Get rid of everything holdin' him down.
But years are the only thing that went away
And the rest is what he'll make it now.
'Cause it's comin' over what you've stacked-up.
Knocks you down when you get back up.
Takes you out and you can't see how
You're gonna do what you gotta do now,
But you're gonna do what you gotta do now.
Her old man left slowly;
The kind of leavin' that don't go away.
She thinks about him all the time---
Takes it day-by-day.
Says it's hard to hold on to the memory of a man
and not the battle that took him down.
I just stood there with nothin' to say.
The rest is what you make it now.
'Cause it's comin' over what you've stacked-up.
Knocks you down when you get back up.
Takes you out and you can't see how
You're gonna do what you gotta do now,
But you're gonna do what you gotta do now.
It's comin' over what you've stacked-up.
Knocks you down when you get back up.
Takes you out and you can't see how
You're gonna do what you gotta do now,
But you're gonna do what you gotta do now.
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Chris Beall Austin, Texas
Chris Beall is a singer/songwriter/producer/guitarist who's albums have been featured on numerous Americana radio/music charts. He is a member of the well-established South Austin Moonlighters whose album “Travel Light” went to #1 on the Alternative Country Roots Radio Report in 2019 and reached #61 on the national Americana radio chart. ... more
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