1. |
One Way or Another
01:51
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One way or another
Be still if you can
And just for a moment let things fall where they may
Nowhere to run from
In a hurry to
Up late again counting on coming alive
A little bit of trial by jury
Remember learning to crawl
As you stagger out under the weight of the world
One foot it starts to fall
Sometimes you get lucky
Sounds like a lullaby
And a whole other morning is blooming outside
I know, I told you otherwise
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2. |
Waltz
02:19
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Mention the weather
When you describe the town
How near it lays
To where you were born
How flat the sky
Covers all sleeping things
As dreamers we often see
Glory
Remember the light
That shines beneath doorways
How birds hang motionless
Beating their wings
And the words that are offered
Repeated, suspended
Between the new man
New women
And all living things
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3. |
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Let us pause in life’s pleasures and count its many tears
While we all sup sorrow with the poor
There's a song that will linger forever in our ears
Oh hard times come again no more
‘Tis a song and a sigh of the weary
Hard times, hard times come again no more
Many days you have lingered around my cabin door
Oh hard times come again no more
Though we seek mirth and beauty in music bright and gay
There are frail forms fainting at the door
Though our voices are silent, their pleading looks will say
Oh hard times come again no more
‘Tis a song and a sigh of the weary
Hard times, hard times come again no more
Many days you have lingered around my cabin door
Oh hard times come again no more
Oh hard times come again no more
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4. |
I've Got That Feeling
02:44
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Put your lips up close to mine
Kiss me, kiss me, cause now’s the time
I’ve got that feeling
Stealing through my heart again
Hold me baby, don’t let me go
Kiss me, kiss me, real soft, real slow
I’ve got that feeling
Stealing through my heart again
Talk to me whisper in my ears
All the sweet things I long to hear
I’ve got that feeling
Stealing through my heart again
Hold me baby, make me scream
Don’t let me wake up and find that this is all a dream
I’ve got that feeling
Stealing through my heart again
I’m helpless when I’m in your arms
My brain is reeling with all of your charms
I’ve got that feeling
Stealing through my heart again
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5. |
Once
03:55
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Once I was a woman, once I was a wife
Once I wrote a bible, and once I took a life
Way past conversation or a decent sleep or two
When I laid my hands upon you, you knew just what to do
You couldn’t see me coming, all the light was in your eyes
Half of what you think you know you hardly recognize
You know that little mirror, the one you always pass
It hangs inside the doorway
Well that’s where you saw me last
I haven’t worried for a long time
And here’s how I decide
When I come upon a crossroad
I always take the ride
Cheatin’ hearts grow lonesome
You can always tell
Diamond earrings glitter
From the bottom of the well
Come in from the airport, the moon is shining bright
Over the feathered fields of Newark things are flying low tonight
I never check my luggage, so I couldn’t say for sure
But what I carry with me might not be mine no more
Pale fingers reach from nowhere to catch the small soft face
But when they lifted out the baby
No one was there to take his place
Once I was a woman, once I was a wife
I wrote this in my bible
And then I took my life
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6. |
A Lazy Farmer Boy
02:42
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I have a little story, it’s not very long
About a lazy farmer boy who wouldn’t hoe his corn
And why this was I never could tell
For that young man was always well
That young man was always well
He planted his corn on June the last
In July it was up to his eye
In September there came a big frost
And that poor farmer’s corn was lost
That poor farmer’s corn was lost
He’d head to the field he got there last
The weeds and the grass were up to his chin
The grass and the weeds they grow so high
They caused that poor man for to sigh
Caused that poor man for to sigh
When his courtship it did begin
She said dear man have you hoed your corn
Well I tried I tried I tried in vain
But I don’t believe I’ll raise one grain
Don’t believe I’ll raise one grain
Why do you come to me to wed
If you won’t raise your own cornbread
Single I am and will remain
But a lazy man I won’t maintain
A lazy man I won’t maintain
He hung his head and he walked away
Saying kind miss you’ll rue the day
You’ll rue the day that you were born
For giving me the devil cause I wouldn’t hoe my corn
Giving me the devil cause I wouldn’t hoe my corn
Now his courtship has come to an end
As he walked away he did begin
Saying kind miss I’ll have another girl
If I have to ramble this big round world
Have to ramble this big round world
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7. |
I'm Gonna Lose Again
03:44
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All of the true believers
Ever on their way
Dreaming of the day
The sky it is hot and it’s raining
Little pencil rolls down to the sea
I saw and I copied, recalling
I’m gonna lose again
Longing for a river
At the end of the day
Trees fill with laughing birds
And the tears roll down my face
How you like to look
When you want to be seen
Slamming the door, the curtains pulled closed
And the room swept clean
Cover your head and you’re holy
Walk with the women who do
The story that ends with forever
Go over and over it’s true
I liked when you said it was simple
I thought that you already knew
Take all of the weight of the world off your shoulders
But it’s much harder to
It’s winter again and it’s raining
Little pencil grows cold in my hand
Come with a coin and a bottle
Inviting fortune in
Cast away everything empty
You win every time in the end
Four letter words that were sent but unopened
I’m gonna lose again
I’m gonna lose again
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8. |
Copper Bottom
01:54
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I should’ve said what I wanted
My cookpot has a copper bottom
A wheel that’s spinning, ordinary
has more than confidence to carry
A promise stuttering to pieces
Odd how everybody comes out even
A drifter comes to be my neighbor
and keeps on coming to the window
Set me up there with my daughter
I lost my voice around the corner
Don’t confuse me with my laughter
I won’t return the morning after
Don’t come looking for my blessing
I’m not coming back to the colony
no, never
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9. |
Rockabye
03:32
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Put pen to the paper and sign
The lines on both sides of your hand I can read
What settles out at the bottom of a bottle of wine
Are promises and lies you can choose to believe
When rumors won't leave you alone
Your words cast a shadow, try to fill in their form
Lay your hat on the table, I'll take your side
The mirror allows what the darkness divides
You'll never tell all that you know
In spite of the shelter the storm still will blow
Through the pastures of safety may you plow the straight line
Walk slow, with a swing in, the river will rise
Pass under my window and wave
Sirens yell at each other, I don't hear your name
Spin hard in a circle if you want to go down
Sing praises to the neighbor who is tending that ground
Rockabye, there'll be a blanket to cover you
When you go down
Rockabye, there'll be a blanket to cover you
When you go down
What you learn from the bottle is true
One is too many and two are too few
Line up the small glasses, tell me what have you heard
There's not a thing to laugh about tonight in this world
You made me call all over town
You're easy to lose when you want to be found
I remember a room lit by one brilliant light
Throw the windows wide open, we'll sit in the dark tonight
Rockabye, there'll be a blanket to cover you
When you go down
Rockabye, there'll be a blanket to cover you
When you go down
Put pen to the paper and sign
The lines on both sides of your hand I can read
What settles out at the bottom of a bottle of wine
Are promises and lies that you can choose to believe
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10. |
Shining
03:06
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You all should have seen me
When I was sixteen years old
My hair hanging free down my back
Used to shine in the sun like gold
Spent eight years of grade school
Four years of high school
Never was sick one day
And the friends who were with you from the first grade
They’re with you all the way
We’d go done to Atlanta for a ball game
Down to Daytona for the race
Go to the drive-in every Friday
Shine in the sun like gold
One cold winter morning, outside the school
The bell hadn't rung just yet
Stand outside the gate and smoke a cigarette
Brush the snow off our clothes, lean against the wall
Shining
And there wasn't no baby crying
There wasn't no laundry waiting for me on the line
If I didn't want to be alone, I didn't have to be alone
All I had to do was shine
Shining, shining
Lord there must be something better
Lord it just don't seem right
To cook the same breakfast for the same man every morning
Sleep with the same man every night
For the rest of my life
For the rest of my life
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11. |
Electrical Storm
03:44
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Woman with a child’s dress on
Long hair drapes the arm
That cradles a daughter who would sleep
Black eyes open and beating
But is afraid
Little cat, his hair set on end
Bolts from a sleeping coil
At a sound that you know you have heard in your dreams
O come to the window my darling
Your heart repeats my own
These long rooms are dark
The night not much brighter
From here we can watch the road
A small man is catching the hot knife that flies
O hush little baby your crying
And your tears taste like the rain
Woman with a child’s dress on
Long hair drapes the arm
That cradles a daughter who would sleep
Black eyes open and beating
But is afraid
Your heart repeats my own
And your tears taste like the rain
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12. |
Old Dog Tray
03:03
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The morn of life is past, and evening comes at last
It brings me a dream of a once happy day
Of merry forms I’ve seen, upon the village green
Sporting with my Old Dog Tray
Old Dog Tray he’s ever faithful, grief cannot drive him away
He’s gentle he is kind, I’ll never, never find
A better friend than Old Dog Tray
The forms I call my own, have vanished one by one
The loved ones, the dear ones, have all passed away
Their happy smiles have flown, their gentle voices gone
I’ve nothing left but Old Dog Tray
Old Dog Tray he’s ever faithful, grief cannot drive him away
He’s gentle he is kind, I’ll never, never find
A better friend than Old Dog Tray
When thoughts recall the past, his eyes are on me cast
I know that he feels what my breaking heart would say
And though he cannot speak, I’ll vainly, vainly seek
A better friend than Old Dog Tray
Old Dog Tray he’s ever faithful, grief cannot drive him away
He’s gentle he is kind, I’ll never, never find
A better friend than Old Dog Tray
A better friend than Old Dog Tray
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13. |
The Point of It All
02:49
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The point of it all
you shift until your bearing’s gone
between two eyes you fall
in love
The saint perseveres
with sudden ordinary tears
tourniquet the years
for love
Lay me back in my bed
cool hand upon my head
shake like the healer said
like love
For now I am through
need water I’m telling you
begin with all things new
o, love
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Robin Holcomb Seattle, Washington
Robin Holcomb’s music has been called “staggeringly beautiful.” by the New York Times. Through her times sharecropping tobacco as a young woman, as an improvising pianist on New Yorks’ downtown scene in the 80s, and three decades of creating an utterly idiosycratic catalog of songs, Ms. Holcomb has created a singular canon as a composer. ... more
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