Down that dusty trail

Robert Earl Keen - Vocals
Tom Van Schalk - Drums
Bill Whitbeck - Bass Guitar, Vocals
Chorus  Rich Brotherton - Acoustic Guitar, Electric Lead Guitar, Vocals
Gurf Murlis - Acoustic Guitar
 

When I was a young boy
The only things that really mattered were
Making friends and having fun
Walkin' down the railroad track
'Til you reached the river
Turn around and head on back
When the day is done

Chorus
Ain't it like they always say
Everybody goes their own way
Nobody knows no one can tell
It's always been the same for me
Guess it's just the way it must be
Headin' down that dusty trail

When I was a young man
The only things
that got me goin' were
Gettin' high and chasm' love
Lyin' down beside my girl
On the banks of the river
With nothin' but some mustang wine
And all the stars above

It's a  twistin' turnin' windin' road
I get lost and broken down
I'm a stumbler and it won't be long
'Till stumble back around
Since I became my own man
Everything that matters to me is
Making sure I'm staying true
To my friends and the ones I love
'Till cross that river
All alone I'm movin' on Until my time is through
 
 
 
 
 

Travelin' Light

Robert Earl Keen - Vocals
Tom Van Schalk - Drums
Bill Whitbeck - Bass Guitar
Rich Brotherton - Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar
Bryan Duckworth - Fiddle
Gurf Morlix - Acoustic Guitar, Regal Octafone, Electric Guitar, Lap Steel Guitar, Vocals
 

You've been standin' on the corner for a thousand nights
Ifs the slowest corner known to man
Watchin' strange faces passin' 'neath the lights
With a bottle wavin' in your hand
You got just enough money for some nothin' to go
It ain't exactly what you planned
So lonesome that you can't even say hello
And no one seems to understand

Chorus
So you're a mixed up kid, come on and join the crowd
The ones that only fit where they're not allowed
Out on the streets and you're feelin' blue
travelin' light
With a hole in your soul where the wind blows through
A hole in your soul where the wind blows through

You wandered away from your childhood home
Nobody cared to trace
the tracks you laid You traveled by night
and you traveled alone
Came to rest at a penny arcade
Well, the last shots over
on a Saturday night You wake up in the beam
of a cop's flashlight
He asks you who you are as if you
knew or you cared
He asks you where you live
and you say nowhere

Chorus

I don't know where I got it
but, I got it the same
It's a feelin' that'll rip you apart
It follows me around
like a part of my name
Like I'm born with a time bomb
instead of a heart

Chorus
 
 
 

Feelin' good again

Robert Earl Keen - Vocals
Tom Van Schalk - Drums
Bill Whithbeck - Bass Guitar, Vocals
Rich Brotherton - Acoustic Steel String and Classical Guitars
Bryan Duckworth - Mandolin
Lloyd Maines - Pedal Steel Guitar
Ian McLagan - Hammond B3 Organ
 

Standin' down on Main Street
Across from Mr, Blues
In my faded leather jacket
And my weathered Brogan shoes
A chill north wind was blowin'
But the spring was comin' on
As I wondered to myself
Just how long I had been gone
So I strolled across old Main Street
Walked down a flight of stairs
Stepped into the hall
And saw all my friends were there
A neon sign was flashin' "Welcome come on in"
It feels so good feelin' good again

My favorite band was playin'
An Otis Redding song
When they sang the chorus
Everybody sang along
Oan and Margarita
were swayin' side by side
I heard they were divorcin'
But I guess they let it slide
And I wished I had some money with
which to buy a round
I wished I'd cashed my paycheck
Before I came to town
But I reached into my pocket
Found three twenties and a ten
It feels so good feelin' good again
There was old man Perkins
Sittin' on his stool
Watchin' Butch and Jimmy John
Talkin' loud and playin' pool
The boys from Silver City
Were standin' by the fire
Singin' like they thought
they were the Tabernacle choir
And I wanted you to see them all
I wished that you were there
I looked across the room
and saw you standin' on the stair
And when I caught your eye
I saw you break into a grin
It feels so good feelin' good again
 
 

That buckin' song

Robert Earl Keen -Vocals, Steering Wheel
Tom Van Schuik - Drums
Bill Whitbeck - Chorus Bass Guitar
Rich Brotherton -Electric Guitars
Bryan Duckworth -Electric Mandolin
Lyle Lovett - Vocals
 

I had a horse
named Bad Luck
She weren't good lookin'
but she sure could buck

Chorus
Yahoo hey hey
Yippee yi cy yey

I put my mama on her
She threw her in the air
My mama said son
"that's a mother buckin' mare"

Chorus

Took her to the rodeo
She won second place
She was really buckin' good
in the buckin' barrel race

Chorus

She won a thousand dollars
I put it in my hat
Bought a brand new saddle
She bucked me out ofthat

Chorus

She bucked me on the
pick-up truck
She bucked me on the fence
My daddy said
son, you got no buckin' sense"

Chorus

So if you gota bucker
Oon't ever buck around
That buckin' mother bucker
will buck you on the ground

Chorus
 
 
 
 
 

I'll be here for you

Robert Earl Kneen - Vocals
Tom Vat Schaik - Drums
Bill Whitheck - Bass Guitar
Rich Brotherton - Acoustic Guitar
Bryan Duckworth - Octave Violin
Gurf Morlis - Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar
Lloyd Maines - Pedal Steel Guitar
 
 

Good times come and then they go
The rain will fall the wind will blow
Through it all you gotta know
I'll do what I can do
To protectyou right or wrong
Heal the hurt 'til the hurt is gone
I'll be right where I belong
I'll be here for you

Chorus
I'll be her
when the sky turns gray
The sun goes blind
and the moon won't stay
I'll be the light to guide your way
onto some place new
I'll be here
when the crowd is gone
The last note fades on the very last song
I'll be the road to take you home
I'll be here for you

When your star falls from the sky
And your wings don't want to fly
Just remember I'm standing by
To help to see you through
'Cause better days
will come again
Clouds will break,
your heart will mend
I'll be where I've always been
I'll be here for you

Chorus
 
 

Billy Gray

Robert Earl Keen - Vocals
Tom Van Schalk -  Bodhran
Bill Whitbeck - Bass Guitar
Rich Brotherton - Acoustic Steel, String and Classical Guitars, Vocals
Bryan Duckworth - Mandolin
Gurf Morlix - Pedal Steel Guitar
 
 

Billy Gray rode into Gantry back in '83
There he did meet young Sarah McCray
The wild rose of morning that pale flower of dawning
Herald of springtime in his young life that day

Sarah,  she could not see the daylight of reality
In her young eyes, Billy bore not a flaw
Knowing not her chosen one was a hired gun
Wanted in Kansas City by the law

Then one day a tall man came riding cross the badlands
That lie to the north of New Mexico
He was overheard to say he was lookin' for Bill Gray
A ruthless man and a dangerous outlaw

Well, the deadly news came creepin' to Billy, fast sleepin'
There in the Clarendon Bar and Hotel
He fled towards the old church, there on the outskirts
Thinking he'd climb that old steeple bell

But a rifle ball came flying face down he lay dying
There in the dust of the road where he fell
Sarah, she ran to him cursing the lawman
Accepting no reason knowing he was killed

Sarah lives in that same old white frame house
Where   she first met Billy some forty years ago
And the wild rose of morning has faded
With the dawning of each day of
Sorrow the long years have sown

Written on a stone
where the dusty winds have long blown
Eighteen words to a passing world say:
"True love knows no season, no rhyme nor no reason
Justice is cold as the Granger County clay"
 
 
 
 

Theme: Road to no return / Carolina

Robert Earl Keen - Vocals
Tom Van Schalk - conga
Bill Whitheck - Acoustic Fretless Bass Guitar
Rich Brotherton - Acoustic Guitar
Gurf Morlix - Mandocello
 
 

Out along the road to no return
Silence rules the day and knows no friend
The troubled past and all her tribe adjourn
To watch your dreams unravel in the wind

Chorus
But each new morning sunrise Is just as good as gold
And all the hope inside you Will keep you from the cold

Bare your soul let your spirit burn Out along the road to no return
 

Robert Earl Keen - Vocals
Tom Van Schaik - Drums
Bill Whitheck - Acoustic Fretleso Bass Guitar, Vocals
Rich Brothertun - Acoustic Guitar, National
Reunphooic Guitar
Bryan Duckmorth - Mandolin
Gurt Morlis - Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar
Ian McLagat - Hammond B3 Drgan
Ponty Bone - Accordion
 

The sweet smell of nighttime rides on the breeze
The river is winding through the hickory trees
The redbones are howling down by Wilson's Bridge
The lawmen stand waiting upon Deadman's Ridge

Chorus
Ooh Carolina so dark I can't see
Ooh Carolina won't you let me go free

I came here with Lily a year just last fall
We left her old daddy back in Oonegal
We made us a home place of Black Mountain stone
But one cold winter morning I woke up alone

Chorus

Oays full of silence are so incomplete
Nights without Lily I took to the streets
And in the streets of Asheville I channeled my pain
'Til one raging black night I slept in the rain

I dreamed of a refuge a red velvet world
And I swore my sweet Lily was one of the girls
llovedhersomadlyllovedhersolong
I woke with my dream girl but her life was all gone

Chorus

Love has no boundary sorrow no end
And the lawmen of Asheville have no mercy in them

Chorus

Let me reach Tennessee
 
 
 
 
 

New life in old Mexico

Rohert Earl Keen - Vocals
Tom Van Schalk - Drums, Conga
Bill Whitheck - Bass Guitar
Rich Brotherton - Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Vocals
Bryan Duckworth - Mandolin
Gurf Morlix - Acoustic Guitar, Electric Lead Guitar, 6 String Bass Guitar
 

I crossed the Mississippi,
turned south at San Antone
A bowie knife, a woolen coat,
a grip bag on my arm
It's all somebody needs to make it through the land
Walk the night, travel light, cross the Rio Grande
Someone strums a mandolin, soft gulf breezes blow
My new life is waiting in old Mexico

I was once a married man livin' peacefully
Hard to say exactly when the devil blinded me
But there was some confusion when my sweet
wife left this world
Darker times, drunken crimes,
a dead young working girl
Left a jailer there in Caroline,
watching me from down below
My new life is waiting in old Mexico

Livin' in the shadows
Runnin' from my fame
Blowin' where the wind blows
Where no one knows my name

In the El Vaquero Bar in the town of Eagle Pass
Moments from my freedom warm whiskey in my glass
Some boracho took me for the man who stole his wife
He went for his forty-four as I reached for my knife
He never fired a second shot he was just too slow
My new life is waiting in old Mexico

I hear of hidden harbors south of Mazatlan
Where cool spring mountain waters
meet the warm Pacific sun
I praythe miles I've traveled and all the sins I bear
Burn away like mornin' fog and vanish in the air
Miles beyond the border now, but many miles to go
My new life is waiting in old Mexico
 
 
 

Still with you / Conclusion: Road to no return
 

Robert Earl Keen - Vocals
Tom aon Schalk - Bodhran
Bill Whitheck - Acoustic Fretless Bass Guitar
Rich Brotherton - Acoustic Guitar
Gurf Morlix - Regal Octafone
Ian McLagan - Piano

CONCLUSION:     ROAO TO NO RETURN
Robert Ear Keen - Vocals
Bill Whitheck -Acoustic Fretless Bass Guitar
Rich Brotherton -Acoustic Guitar
Bithyah Israel - Cello, Vocals
Reaiah Morgan - Vocals
Gene Elders - Violin
 

I climbed the mountains and I swept the plains
I crossed the border and I broke my chains
I walked the back roads 'til my shoes wore through
I'm still without you  without you
I lie awake at night and say your name
I paint your picture in a starlitframe
I try imagining a rendezvous
I'm still without you.... without you

Chorus
l thought I'd find
You would leave my mind
But my dreams they just don't know
They can't seem to let you go
I'm so sad I don't know what to do
Without you

I often wonder how it came to this
If I could travel back to our last kiss
If I had a different point of view
I'm still without you.... without you
The moon is sitting just beyond the hill
The wind is resting but my heart won't still
It happens every night right on cue
I'm still without you.... without you

Chorus
 
 

Happy holidays y'all

Robert Earl Keen - Vocals
Tom Van Schalk - Drums, Backwards Bells, Forward Bells
Bill Whitheck - Bass Guitar, Trombone
Rich Brothertot - National Resophonic Guitar, Tenor Banjo
Bryan Ouckworth - Fiddle
Christmas Choir - Tom Van Schaik, Bill Whitheck, Rich Brotherton,
Bryan Duckmorth and Zachary Knock
 

There is a Barbie doll in the gravy boat up on mom's TV set
An angel made of Styrofoam holds Rita's cigarette
Santa waves an empty beer in his plastic hand
Everyone is here this year, it's Christmastime again

You know the kids are in their sleepin' bags with every kind of toy
And Ken and Kay have hit the hay in dad's new La-Z-Boy
Fran has got a cozy spot beneath the Christmas tree
Simm' in his underwear drunk as he can be

Last night we stuffed our stockings and hung the mistletoe
When Santa Claus came knocking, he looked like Uncle Joe
Someone put the coffee on and find the Tylenol
Merry Christmas everyone, Happy Holidays Y'all

Of course old dad got mom a flannel robe and Ken a socket set
Mom got Kay a super value pack of Nicorette
And Kay got Ken a NordicTrack and a new guitar for me
Ken got sister Spanish speaking lessons on CO

Last night we all sang "Jingle Bells" and opened up our hearts
This morning our house looks like hell or possibly Wal-Mart
Someone clean the gravy boat and dress the Barbie doll
Merry Christmas everyone, Happy Holidays Y'all
We're makin' mimosas on the deck and packin' the U-Haul
Merry Christmas everyone, God bless us one and all
 

All songs written by Robert Earl Keen except
Travelin' Light and Billy Gray. All Robert Earl Keen songs
c 1998 Bug Music, Keen Edge Music (BMI)
Travelin' Light c 1989 Trumpet Blast Music, Dry Clam Music (BMI)
Billy Gray c 1975 Blake & Blake
 
 

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