YODELADY

JUST ANOTHER WASHED-UP COUNTRY HERO

There was a time

A once-upon-a-time it was

When I lived in your applause

Upon the stage

And in the incandescent days

Of the AM waves

Just another washed-up country hero

Another ghost inside the radio

But late at night

When I feel you dialing in

I can see myself again

And in your smile

And in the candles of your eyes

I can breathe again a while

Just another washed-up country hero

Another ghost inside the radio

Playing low

Come out and dance

Beneath the limelight of the moon

To that old forgotten tune

Lift up the wine

And lift your voice again in mine

In an almost-perfect rhyme

You’re an old ghost, too

With just another washed-up country hero

Another ghost inside the radio

Just another washed-up country hero 

Another ghost inside the radio

Playing low

Laying low

​

NACOGDOCHES

Like to be down in Nacogdoches

Riding that Indian Rodeo

With a bottle to burn and a bag of roaches

Smoke my way clear to San Antone

'Cause Nacogdoches is good when you’re good and gone

When the sun goes down in Nacogdoches

Looks like there’s blood pouring from the sky

And the goal posts where they hang the coaches

Stick like a needle in a spinster’s eye

'Cause Nacogdoches’ll do when you gotta die

Woo wee Nacogdoches

Woo wee Nacogdoches

All the college girls down in Nacogdoches

Think the moon was made for them alone

The look in their eyes when the night approaches

They turn to glass then they turn to stone

With a spin of a bottle, boy, you’re on your own

Woo wee Nacogdoches

Woo wee Nacogdoches

There’s a Motel 6 down in Nacogdoches

With 107 stations all for free

It’s pretty nice if you don’t mind the roaches

Let em crawl all over your memory

'Cause Nacogdoches is just what you done to me

Woo wee Nacogdoches

Woo wee Nacogdoches

Woo wee Nacogdoches

Woo wee Nacogdoches

​

COMPANY BLUES

I was born in Hazard Holler in the shadow of the mill

Where the coal smoke blows over Hurricane Hill

Where your name is just a number, every payday’s poor

’Cause your scrip floats back to the company store, singing

Toodle-oo and toodle-ee

I don’t know just what’s come over me

Toodle-oo and toodle-ay

What the boss man giveth the boss man taketh away

Well my daddy was a rounder

Mama taught me how to pray and sing

She was on the floorboards when they found her

Her cold hand clutching that company wedding ring

I got a little company cabin, it’s a one-room shack

Where I hang my company shovel and my company hat

And my company wife is cooking up them company beans

By the company lantern full of company kerosene, singing

Toodle-oo and toodle-ee

I don’t know just what’s come over me

Toodle-oo and toodle-ay

What the boss man giveth the boss man taketh away

Use to dream of something finer

Two mules, a cabbage patch to call my own

In Tennessee or Carolina

But Kentucky done took my blood, it’ll take my soul

See the company children playing in the company dust

By the company river running red with company rust

Where the cost of living’s nothing, boy, but it ain’t free

When your veins runneth over with mercury, singing

Toodle-oo and toodle-ee

I don’t know just what’s come over me

Toodle-oo and toodle-ay

What the boss man giveth the boss man taketh away

Toodle-oo and toodle-ee

I don’t know just what’s come over me

Toodle-oo and toodle-ay

What the boss man giveth the boss man taketh away

​

 NINETY-NINE

Five rows of tally sticks like fences on a wall

And a blacked-out window for an eye

Days sometimes the sun don’t rise at all

And a six-foot ceiling for a sky

Everybody got a number

And man I’ve sure got mine

Till I make it over yonder

Just a tied soul doing time

In Number Ninety-Nine

Everybody gotta get into this world

Everybody just some poor mother’s son

Everybody got a sentence gotta serve

Me I don’t know what I done

Everybody got a number

And man I’ve sure got mine

Till I make it over yonder

I'm just a tied soul doing time

In Number Ninety-Nine

Ah-Ooooo

Someday I’m gonna bust this cell of flesh and bone

Gonna sail into the sky

There ain’t no body gonna hold me down for long

There’s a bright world coming by and by

Everybody got a number

And Lord I’ve sure got mine

Till I meet you over yonder

I’m just a tired soul doing time

In Number Ninety-Nine

Number Ninety-Nine

In Number Ninety-Nine

Number Ninety-Nine

​

​

DON’T FORGET TO BE LONELY

You got your lipstick

You got your pearls

You got your grown-up big-girl curls

Got your Russian cigarette

Don’t forget to be lonely

You got your druthers

You got your thrills

You got your mother’s pink prescription pills

You got your worldwide Internet

Don’t forget to be lonely

There’ll be chances to take, all new friends you can make

Maybe even a love on the wing

Sweet nothings at stake, fresh young hearts you can break

Every fall, winter, summer and spring

But don’t forget

Don’t forget

Forget to be lonely

Don’t forget

Forget to be lonely

You got your rhythm

You got your blues

You got your midnight walking shoes

You got no bridges, no regrets

Don’t forget to be lonely

When you see that big moon like a child’s lost balloon

Floating over the carnival lights

Maybe once think of me and all the love you set free

And don’t forget to be lonely tonight

Don’t forget

Don’t forget

Don’t forget to be lonely

Don’t forget

Forget to be lonely

When you see that big moon like a child’s lost balloon

Floating over the big city lights

Have a drink, think of me and all the love you set free

And don’t forget to be lonely tonight

Don’t forget

Don’t forget

Forget to be lonely

Don’t forget

Forget to be lonely

In San Francisco don’t forget

Don't forget to be lonely

In New York City don’t forget

Don't forget to be lonely

In Barcelona don’t forget

Don't forget to be lonely

In Wauwatosa don’t forget

Forget to be lonely

​

 CHINATOWN

The unlikely fire on the ledge and the room swam with candles

The wine had gone straight to your head, you said I don’t understand you

When you said that, did you mean to suggest

I might like that, with your head on my breast?

Squall at the window and the snow piling forty feet deep

I can dig myself home on my own unless you’d care to sleep

Together for the rest of the night

Together for the rest of our lives

Yodelady

Little lady I do

Yodelady

Little lady I do

The fireworks down in Chinatown

Little busted lives across the ground

You could light the night sky, you could howl down the moon

You could blow it all just looking if you don’t have clue

Little lady I do

Yodelady

Little lady I do

The tea kettle screamed and the Joe Henry streamed from the kitchen

"We swung like a gate and we locked and we knocked like an engine"

Together for the rest of the night

Together for the rest of our lives

Together by the unlikely light

Together like I told you that night

Yodelady

Little lady I do

Yodelady

Little lady I do

Yodelady

Little lady I do

​

LILY-IN-COAL

There’s a rare kind of diamond they call the Lily-in-Coal

All across the country ’round ain’t nothing finer

You won’t catch her in Kentucky or in a West Virginia hole

No, she’s native just to North Carolina

She’s slippery as the wind in a mountain pass that blows

When the sliver of a moon’s barely shining

Through the hollers and the hills where the sun never goes

That’s the only lonely place you’re gonna find her

Oh, bless my soul

I’ve been mining all my life for the Lily-in-Coal

Long before there was the legend of the California gold

That emptied out these hills of ’49ers

Before the Cherokee, before the world was told

Was the legend of this lonesome little diamond

Oh, so it goes

I’ve been mining all my life for the Lily-in-Coal

Oh, bless my soul

I’ll be mining all my life for the Lily-in-Coal

Now I wish I was conductor of a ramblin’ rattlin’ train

Or the captain of a big ol’ ocean liner

Was a lizard in the spring, or any other thing

Than a godforsaken seeking mountain miner

Rather be a groundhog or a mole

I’d root that mountain down for my Lily-in-Coal

Oh, bless my soul

I’ll be mining all my life for the Lily-in-Coal

​

​

BITTERSWEET

Bittersweet winding by the side of the tracks

You go down that line you ain’t coming back

Make me a wreath of bittersweet

Bittersweet climbing up the side of a train

Don’t expect to see your likes again

Make me a wreath of bittersweet

Big wind blowin’ make you jump and shout

Mine blew north and hers blew south

Make me a wreath of bittersweet

Two lovebirds hatchin’ in a little nest

My flew east and hers flew west

Make me a wreath of bittersweet

Take the Texas Eagle up from San Antonio

Meet me, pretty mama, in Chicago

And make me a wreath of bittersweet

Give my best regards to Delia and Stackalee

Tell em, pretty baby, what you done to me

And make me a wreath of bittersweet

Bittersweet growing by the side of the road

Learning how to love you is a heavy load

Make me a wreath of bittersweet

Bittersweet growing who knows where

Won't you wind a little piece in your pretty hair

And make me a wreath of bittersweet

Bittersweet growing wild and free

That’s a bit for her and a bit for me

Make a little wreath of bittersweet

Make a little wreath of bittersweet

Make a little wreath of bittersweet

​

 CHEYENNE

Well New Hampshire ain’t Texas but there’s a hole in the wall up in Stratham where it’s almost the same

And a girl at the bar who pours whiskey and beer with tattoos and a faraway name

And on Fridays the bikers come in early to sit out the haze of a hot afternoon

And the distances fade as the radio plays some forgotten and faraway tune

As she turns to the window and silently sways

And you see her eyes soften, lost in the ways of that old guitar’s tune

We’ve all seen better days

And I’d tuck up my losses and toss ’em away

Buckin’ up on a bronco and yodel away through the smoke of the room

While the radio plays

Cheyenne, Cheyenne with the faraway name and the lean, hungry look in your eye

You belong on a pony on some lonesome range where a wish is as wide as the sky

With a bucket of Lone Star and the Cherokee Shuffle and a red Heart of Texas tattoo

Oh pour me a drink, gal, and help me to think I’ve got nothing but losing to lose

Now New England is nice in its way but it sure ain’t my home

When the winter wind blows and sends down the long snows it can chill you right deep to the bone

And I’d rather play horseshoes than hockey any old day

Sitting under a live oak in Luckenbach watching the clouds and hearing the pedal steel play

As she turns to the window and silently sways

And you see her eyes soften, lost in the ways of that lonesome old sound

We’ve all seen better days

And I’d tuck up my losses and toss ’em away

Buckin’ up on a bronco and yodel away, headed south out of town

While the radio plays

Cheyenne, Cheyenne with the faraway name and the lean, hungry look in your eye

You belong on a pony on some lonesome range where a wish is as wide as the sky

With a bucket of Lone Star and the Cherokee Shuffle and a red Heart of Texas tattoo

Now pour me a drink, gal, and help me to think I’ve got nothing but losing to lose

Cheyenne, Cheyenne with the faraway name and the lean, hungry look in your eye

You belong on a pony on some lonesome range where a wish is as wide as the sky

With a bucket of Lone Star and the Cherokee Shuffle and a red Heart of Texas tattoo

Now pour me a drink, gal, and help me to think I’ve got nothing but losing to lose

Oh pour me a drink, gal, and help me to think I’ve got nothing but nothing but losing to lose

​

THE BRIGHTER THE SUN (THE BLACKER THE SHADE)

I had a goodtime little girl

I was sittin’ on the tiptop of the great big world

The brighter the sun, the blacker the shade

Money came, money went

Thus began the winter of our discontent

The brighter the sun, the blacker the shade

Please don’t wake me, don’t shake me up from sleep

I’m the only child of a dream

No, don’t spin me around, don’t you let me down

I’d rather be a clown than to be a fool

I had a goodtime little girl

I was sittin’ on the tiptop of the great big world

The brighter the sun, the blacker the shade

God only knows that’s how it goes

Just when you were thinking that you had it made

The brighter the sun, the blacker the shade

The brighter the sun, the blacker the shade

​

 ORDINARY SOLDIERS

Driving out of a dream I guess ’cause I’ve been here before

Never knew your mother’s West was just another war
And your father with his medals and his mansions in Los Alamos

And his Halls of Montezuma and his pockets lined with Hiroshima’s ghosts

It was all dream, it was like a dream

’Cause she said, Ordinary soldiers, they don’t mean a thing

They’re just ornamental boulders in the same old spring

They don’t mean a thing, they don’t mean a thing

You can feel the ocean pressing on the desert floor

You can press yourself inside another just so far

And the storm we saw it coming like a vision of the great I AM

Or the Hopi Kokopelli in the shells above Afghanistan

Never rained so long, never came so long

But ordinary soldiers, they don’t mean a thing

They’re just ornamental boulders in the same old spring

They don’t mean a thing, they don’t mean a thing

And I held you up for ransom like I never held no one before

A phenomenal explosion in the middle of a great big war

Didn’t change a thing, didn’t mean a thing

’Cause ordinary soldiers, they don’t mean a thing

They’re just ornamental boulders in the same old spring

They don’t mean a thing, they don’t mean a thing

They don’t mean a thing

CALIFORNIA

Well now that you’ve decided that we’re all out of time

And the future's just a party that we missed

And the headlights stretch forever from the continent’s divide

And the past is just a place that don’t exist

There’s U-Hauls poring out of Austin

The Colorado like a blacksnake coiled with smoke

And the highway has the desolation after New Year’s Day

In the breaking dawn above the Broken Spoke

California I can hear you calling in the crawling of my mind toward a light I’ll never find

It’s the morning just before you’re born and every time you’re torn away from all you’ll never

leave behind

You can see the lights of Hollywood from Mulholland Drive

A sunken constellation full of fallen stars

It’s all the raging with the waves and all the bullshit and besides

If you don’t look too deep you’ll never see so far

There’s a full moon tonight over Austin

The Colorado Basin full of snow

You can’t hang your hat on hope and home is just a state of mind

If you don’t lose it now and then you’ll never know

California I can hear you calling in the crawling of my mind toward a light I’ll never find

It’s the morning just before you’re born and every time you’re torn away from all you’ll never

leave behind

Well I’d be lying if I told you I could hold you and I guess

I’d be lying to say I didn’t see it coming

With you sitting on the church porch in your mama’s wedding dress

Strumming that old tune by Leonard Cohen

I remember you well in the Taco Bell

We hit on the way out of Austin

California I can hear you calling in the crawling of my mind toward a light I’ll never find

It’s the morning just before you’re born and every time you’re torn away from all you’ll never

leave behind

It’s the way

You get caught in the bright new day

And let the light amaze your mind

Anyway

It’s too much of a price to pay

To let the light erase your mind

You can see the lights of Hollywood from Mulholland Drive

A sunken constellation full of fallen stars

It’s all the raging with the waves and all the bullshit and besides

You’ve never seen a thing so beautiful before

MARFA

The day they closed the borders the sky was so serene

The smog was lifting over China, we were all in quarantine

And the future was secluded like a hermit in Nepal

And in proper Dali fashion clocks were melting off the television wall

And if you close your eyes it’s elsewhere and things are what they seem

It was snowing down in Marfa, we were in a fever dream

And we’d gone out to the limits to watch the famous lights

Float like disembodied faces on the swirling snow-globe night

When our talk was interrupted by the wailing of a train

It was snowing down in Marfa, I was in your arms again

And the world was under water and the borders open wide

There was calabash for breakfast and John Prine never died

And we pressed our Easter faces to the pixilated white

It was snowing down in Marfa, I was in your arms last night

And if you close your eyes it’s elsewhere and things are what they seem

You know it never snows in Marfa but you can’t argue with a dream

And I know I’m only drowning but the future’s open wide

It’s snowing down in Marfa and I never left your side

​

 EL DORADO

Think I’ll pack my bags and go

Get a little pad in Mexico in the morning

Maybe Tijuana or Juarez

Take a silver bullet to the head in the morning

’Cause I feel so dejected and diffused

 I’ve got them discombobulated blues

Yes I do

Someday I’m gonna find my El Dorado

Gonna drive it to the palace in the sun

Someday upon my painted palomino

Gonna sip the chalice of the Chosen One

In the sun

Now you don’t have to pay the rent

When you wake up as the president in the morning

Private jets and all that jazz

Fly your conscience out to Alcatraz in the morning

But I feel so infected and amused

I got that Foxcombobulated News

And it’s all true

Someday I’m gonna find my El Dorado

Gonna drive it to the palace in the sun

Someday upon my painted palomino

Gonna sip the chalice of the Chosen One

In the sun

¿Donde volaste, mi corazón?

¿Donde volaste, mi corazón?

Someday I’m gonna find my El Dorado

Gonna fly it to the palace in the sun

Someday upon my painted palomino

Gonna sip the chalice of the Chosen One

Someday I’m gonna find my El Dorado

Gonna fly it to the palace in the sun

Someday upon my painted palomino

Gonna sip the chalice of the Chosen One

In the sun

​

Bonus track, CD only:

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IT AIN’T OVER YET

Well, if I’m lucky enough to get out of this life before I die

Gonna climb a silver ladder, scrub away the steel-wool sky

I’m gonna loan that lonesome sun a marijuana cigarette

Make him shine like Noah’s rainbow, ’cause it ain’t over yet

It ain’t over yet

It ain’t over till the cows come home

Floating on a four-leaf clover and the fat lady yodels

So yell it like a suffragette

It ain’t over yet

It ain’t over till the roll is called up yonder

So roll another number and stay a little longer

’Cause it ain’t over yet

Well, Little Jacky Horner’s got his finger in the pie

And Ezekial’s wheels are burning, there’s a black hole in the sky

And the gleaming Whore of Babylon has spread her Internet

But John the Revelator tells me it ain’t over yet

It ain’t over yet

It ain’t over till the cows come home

Floating on a four-leaf clover and the fat lady yodels

So yell it like a suffragette

It ain’t over yet

It ain’t over till the roll is called up yonder

So roll another number and stay a little longer

’Cause it ain’t over yet

Now all this topsy-turvy makes a doomy-gloomy sound

This world is a Titantic with the icebergs going down

But Nero on his fiddle's striking up another set

There’s time to turn and world to burn and it ain’t over yet

It ain’t over yet

It ain’t over till the cows come home

Floating on a four-leaf clover and the fat lady yodels

So yell it like a suffragette

It ain’t over yet

It ain’t over till the roll is called up yonder

So roll another number and stay a little longer

’Cause it ain’t over yet

​

It ain’t over yet

It ain’t over till the cows come home

Floating on a four-leaf clover and the fat lady yodels

So yell it like a suffragette

We gonna get that sinkin' sun so high that it forgets to set

So roll another number

We ain't a-gettin' younger

But it ain't over yet

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