1. |
Avenue of the Saints
03:30
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Avenue of the Saints
I slept beneath the light of the sodium moon
Parked between trailers and the interstates boom
My pallet, the bosom of my old sleeping bag
I shake off the cold in my four-wheel nag
The clouds are lifted, the curtain is drawn
My caravan's waiting, the morning has come
I drive from St. Paul into Iowa
Tomorrow through Illinois to sing in Indiana
The milepost markers make a fine rosary
Down the Avenue of Saints, past the town of Albert Lea
Past factory outlets and budget motels
To lonely old farms where the land's up to sell
You can lay down four lanes and build up a mall
But I keep coming back in spite of it all
Cause there will still be places that you will never change
A horizon so wide, my home on the range
The only Saints I seen on this avenue
Are planting the acres and harvesting food
Silos like Buddhas near Indian mounds
Sunflower monks watch the world turning round
Just how many more roads you need between St. Paul and St. Louis?
When a bald eagle fly's above the Mississippi
Oh Avenue of Saints, I won't grudge you now
A dirt road you ain't, but I'm with you anyhow
I slept through the night beneath the sodium moon
On the Avenue of Saints by the interstates boom
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2. |
Love Beyond
02:35
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Love Beyond
There is a love that exists beyond the love we think we know
It sustains us from beyond the places we are wont to go
It fills us with a substance that can’t be bought or sold
Yet we ache and we yearn for something we might have and hold
There is a love beyond desire we seek but cannot reach
It covers us like waters that wash the sandy beach
It moves us like the wind, shakes the dying leaves
As it bears us to the wholeness where the soul no longer grieves
So empty and so lonely we crawl upon the earth
Seeking for redemption from the moment of our birth
We drink without fulfillment, will not cease to thirst
Till the first becomes last and the last becomes first
So empty and so lonely because we cannot see
The love that’s all around us, will not leave us be
We drink without fulfillment, will not cease to thirst
Till the first becomes last and the last becomes first
There is a love that arises from the bottom of my heart
I don’t know where it stops, don’t know where it starts
And though love may wound us still we wish to love again
For love flows eternally through the moments that have been
There is a love with no beginning and no end
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3. |
One Way Ticket
04:42
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One Way Ticket
I woke up in a Greyhound
Under the shining cowboy
Elko, Nevada 1982
And he said, “Howdy partner,
Now give me all your money
This town here is just for those
Who are only passing through.”
I see you got a one-way ticket
That is all you need
Is to have a destination
And a reason to believe
I said, “I’m bound for California
I’m gonna make my stand
I hear the Silicon Valley
Is gonna be the Promised Land.”
But when I got down to the valley
I could not find a home
Cause I did not have enough money
Nor the roots to take a hold
But I had a one-way ticket
That is all I need
Is to have a destination
And a reason to believe
So I kept up with my ramblin’
I beat the dust off of my clothes
My source of motivation
My fathers’ shadow in my bones
Sometimes I see that shining cowboy
When he come and take his toll
He tells me I am lucky
Just to have a heart that’s whole
And to have a one-way ticket…
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4. |
What Would Woody Do
04:38
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What Would Woody Do
I am just a working man without a stock to trade
I drive my rig from town to town, at night I get to play
I've not been down Wall street nor Madison avenue
What would Woody do
I was born into this life without a guarantee
No silver spoon, no safety net, no insurance policy
My personal salvation lay in carrying a tune
What would Woody do
What would Woody do
What would Woody do
Write about it, talk about it, sing about it too
Hit the restless hobo trail under the skies of blue
What would Woody do
The days of hopping freight trains are all but past and gone
But there will always be a way to cross a distance that is long
All you need is gumption and a little howdy-do
What would Woody do
I'll bless the four directions with tobacco on the groun
I may be plenty lost right now, but tomorrow I'll be found
For the privilege of experience I wander fro and to
What would Woody do
What would Woody do
What would Woody do
Write about it, talk about it, sing about it too
Evidence was written on the soles of his shoes
What would Woody do
Now sprawl suburban wasteland now spans from shore to shore
The drone of advertisements tell us to consume more
While the inner city indigent stand waiting in a queue
What would Woody do
Turn off that old t.v. set, shut off the radio
Switch off that computer screen, just say it's time to go
To have a rare and wondrous live is something we can choose What would Woody do
What would Woody do
What would Woody do
Write about it, talk about it, sing about it too
How it feels behind the wheel with the lonesome ramblin' blues
What would Woody do
He'd say go find a thing that's wrong and put your finger on it
You don't have to be a poet to write a song about it
You're gonna get your point across if it's anywhere near true
What would Woody do
Tell me 'bout the things you know in an ordinary way
The dust and dirt and joy and hurt in every single day
Each and every person here has got a point of view
What would Woody do
What would Woody do
What would Woody do
Write about it, talk about it, sing about it too
How it feels to walk a mile in someone else's shoes
What would Woody do
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5. |
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Susquehanna
Running like a hilltown girl
Rolling down into the world
Over creek beds and cobblestones
Moving easy, then you're gone
Susquehanna honey babe
Through the woods your path I trace
Lines of laughter on your face
Crows feet on your muddy banks
Meet me down in Marysville
Where Miss Liberty is standing still
Bless the floodplain, and the Rockville Bridge
And the coal cars on the edge
Susquehanna sugar babe
With you I would go all the way
All the way to the Chesapeake
Before you wander out to sea
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6. |
This Town
03:12
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This Town
This here town don’t have no stoplights
This town’s got just one bar
Through this town the Burlington Northern
Tears through the night coal in the cars
This town built a three block main street
All the essentials all in a row
Grain feed, land titles, and groceries
And a theater for the picture show
Tonight I sleep in an old motel room
Circa 1950‘s, got an awful smell
The bed I lie on is tilted sideways
Threadbare bedspread worn to hell
This town’s full of vacant houses
Missing shingles broken dreams
Rain blows through the empty windows
Like a vagrant whistle screams
Pigeons roost on elevators
Sentinels of a grain fed land
Rain became the revelator
And grew the food into our hands
This here town don’t have no Wal-Mart
But I seen stars & stripes come nigh
Bearing down with every trucker
Rolling over sand hills high
This town is either drunk or sober
This town’s neither sweet nor young
This town’s made of love and trouble
And of drifters on the run
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7. |
Ain't No Cane
04:29
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Dana Robinson
Ain't no cane on the Brazos my boys
No more for me
Ain't no cane on the Brazos my boys
In my country
Take me home sweet chariot, Take me home sweet chariot
Go down Hannah, don't you rise no more
No more for me
Go down Hannah, don't you rise no more
In my country
Take me home sweet chariot, Take me home sweet chariot
One of these mornings and it won't be long
No more for me
You will look and know that I'll be gone
I'm bound for glory
Take me home sweet chariot, Take me home sweet chariot
Ain't no cane on the Brazos my boys
No more for me
Ain't no cane on the Brazos my boys
I'm bound for glory
Take me home sweet chariot, Take me home sweet chariot
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8. |
Hoosac Tunnel
04:21
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Hoosac Tunnel
October fifteen 1867
The tree were ablaze on the tops of the hills
We were hired to dig deep into the stone mountain
So goods could be brought from further west still
There were many ways to die in the Hoosac Tunnel
By the water soaked rock, by the black powder in the seams
Now what I would give for a minute of daylight
Me and my boys, we are not going to live
We fell down the shaft after the explosion
And when we hot bottom there was no air to breathe
Tending our wounds, and clung to the pieces
In the cold water we gathered debris
We sat in the rift of our own crude making
And called up for mercy but help couldn’t hear
I’m six hundred feet down this Hoosac Mountain
I’ll not see my home nor the snowfall this year
Goodbye to my love, goodbye my sweet darlin’
Goodbye my faithful now don’t shed a tear
Cause when the train runs through this cursed tunnel
A whistle will blow and call to you dear
Cause when the train runs through this cursed tunnel
A whistle will blow and call to you…
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9. |
Safe Home
04:01
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Safe Home
Postcard on the table and a cat upon my lap
Safe home, safe home
Dishes in the cupboard and a couch to take a nap
Safe home, safe home
A paper in the morning, there’s sun upon the stairs
Safe home, safe home
A kind word is a’waiting for to take away my cares
Safe home, safe home
I’ve been away for so long I don’t know how it feels to be
Safe home, safe home
Been bumping down the road with my head in jigs and reels
Safe home, safe home
All I want to do is lay my head down in your hands
Safe home, safe home
To dream a little dream of my feet upon the land
Safe home, safe home
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10. |
Island
03:06
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Island
I often forget the things I’ve asked for
Mysteriously they’ll show up at my door
And say here am I you may believe it
Well I blink and I stutter as I wonder what to do
The situation blinks right back and says it’s up to you
Well I always have wanted an island
A very fine place with sunlight and breeze
And plenty of space and lots of quiet
But now there’s too much quiet here
I cannot hear my mind
And the light that is my soul seems to blind me
But no, no, no I’m not an island
I breathe your voice your smell your touch
And beckon close to you
I’ll walk back to the world of many people
And I will wear my colors plainly and I promise not to hide
The errors that I’m bound to make were tough enough to try
And if you’ve had the hands of a Midas
You know it might take many lives to find
What you should and should not touch
Gold would be like sand through your fingers
As plentiful as water ‘round that island should you loose
Forever would you be my love that I would ever choose
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11. |
Talkin' Ditch Weed
06:46
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Talkin' Ditch Weed
One September day a couple years ago
On a rural route in Ohio
Out of the corner of my eye
Something took me by surprise
It was tall and green
Nicely shaped, and quite illegal
Later that week in Wisconsin
Saw it again and I had to grin
Those serrated leaves from high school days
That put me in a purple haze
I was getting curious
I wonder what if…Nah…bad idea
Well, the spirit is strong but the flesh is weak
I couldn't help but to take a peek
I pulled the car over to the ditch I went
Toward that vision that was heaven sent
Looked over my shoulder, nobody's around
Oh what the hell…
Broke off a bud it took awhile
The fibers are tough but it made me smile
It smelt all right, kind of sweet
Hung it from my visor for about a week
I was patient, waiting for it to dry
It made a nice air freshener!
It finally dried out and I rolled it up
I sat right back and I took a puff
Oh it made me cough and it made me wheeze
Made me retch and it made me sneeze
God it tasted bad, I got a horrible headache
And stayed stone cold sober
Well I swore I'd never do that again
but it made me think so I asked a friend
how this stuff all came to be
and why it grows so prolifically
you mean ditch weed, he said
why the government put it there in the 1940's
encouraged the farmers to grow it
Hemp for the war effort!
Then I got interested in the history
Learned how important it was to the economy
of every nation that ever was
because of all the things that hemp does.
Makes the best paper, cheap renewable fuel,
the finest clothing, irreplaceable medicines,
the most nutritious food, building materials,
plastics, paints, and recreation!
Our founding fathers all planted weed
why Henry Ford even sewed the seed
He built a car from hemp and wheat
the chassis, fuel, paint and seats.
Why the first drafts of our Declaration of Independence
were written on paper made of hemp fiber
- And Betsy Ross's flag!
From the invent of the wheel
To the 1930's hemp was everywhere, it was no big deal
Hemp ain't never hurt no one, leave that to folks with guns
Mmm… and the tobacco and alcohol companies,
Munitions industries - which leads me to my next point
Right around nineteen thirty came growth in hemp technology
DuPont feared they'd lose all profits
and Timber companies all'd go bankrupt
Gee, that means have to stop cutting down the forests
and strip mining coal - what a shame!
Enter William Randolph Hearst
and his yellow journalism at it's worst
and Harry Anslinger's bigotry and lies
put refer madness in the publics eye
They created a smear campaign
that effectively sent knowledge of the uses of hemp
into the dark ages- until now
So here I state without exception
hemp can be the earths salvation
as the single source of renewable fuel
that would make the oil companies look like fools
You see, hemp is the only biomass source available
that is capable of making the United States 100%
energy-independent.
So come on people it's time to see
those laws are based on fallacies
Based on shortsightedness and greed,
deception and hypocrisy
But it doesn't have to stay that way -
we may be small, but we've got our votes
in our billfolds!
So we can vote and we can run
for local office when the days begun.
If this world all goes to hell
we'll have ourselves to blame as well.
Meanwhile, buy yourselves some nice hemp hand lotion,
a cool hemp suit, some hemp granola
and send some delicious no-THC hemp seed cookies
to your congressman!
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Dana and Susan Robinson Cabot, Vermont
"From Cabot, Vermont – Americana-roots and folk duo, Dana and Susan Robinson combine vivid, songwriting with fiddle tunes, oldtime banjo, elegant melodies, and rich harmony singing."
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