BLACKBIRD by Debra Clifford *written in memory of my mom, Blackbird Ruth Clifford (1923-2005) Blackbird she's flying an old dusty road she follows her heart, a promise of gold who lights her way one star at a time? where will she sleep tonight? Day is long, river's wide I'll empty my pockets on the other side Rock-a-bye baby how sweet the night Rock-a-bye, rock-a-bye Over the mountains angels do sing Stories they tell of how they got their wings I hear their voices line after line Or is it the wind in the pine? Day is long, river's wide I'll empty my pockets on the other side Rock-a-bye baby how sweet the night Rock-a-bye, rock-a-bye Just like the blackbird, one beautiful day Heaven will call me to come fly away Who'll light my way one star at a time? Where will I sleep that night? Day is long, river's wide I'll empty my pockets on the other side Rock-a-bye baby how sweet the night Rock-a-bye, rock-a-bye DEBRA CLIFFORD © 2006 ASCAP --------- BABYLON By Sarah Hawker *Dedicated to all those who die alone in an unfamiliar land Oh dear mother, what I'd give you'll never know to hear you say baby it's alright and comfort me while I go Can you hear me daddy? Can you find me and carry me home and lay me out on my dying bed? I don't want to leave alone Goodbye, so long I am leaving Babylon Goodbye, so long Close your eyes and I'll be gone I pray lord you're out there and I pray my soul you shall keep for I hear no angels, I see no wings and I'm so afraid to sleep It won't be long now will it be liquid or glass that breaks or drowns this poor heart and washes me away at last? Goodbye, so long I am leaving Babylon Goodbye, so long Close your eyes and I'll be gone SARAH HAWKER © 2006 ASCAP --------- FOLLOW ME DOWN By Sarah Hawker NEWS: "Follow Me Down" voted best original song in the Clifftop WV Appalachian Stringband Festival Songwriting Contest. August 2006. LISTEN TO CLIP I will melt like snow on your tongue And I will hold you like nobody's done And I will whisper the world undone Just follow me down Follow me down, follow me down Follow me down Lay your head into my hands You been found And I'll pull down the shades of time And I'll kiss every star in your mind And I'll be the night just to see you shine Just follow me down Follow me down, follow me down Follow me down Rest your long divided heart You're home now SARAH HAWKER © 2006 ASCAP --------- WHITE DOVE Stanley Bros. LISTEN TO CLIP In the deep rolling hills of Virginia There's a place I love so well Where I spent many days of my childhood In a cabin where we loved to dwell White dove will mourn in sorrow The willows will hang their heads I'll live my life in sorrow Since mother and daddy are dead We were all so happy there together In our peaceful little mountain home But the Savior needs angels up in heaven Now they sing around the great white throne White dove will mourn in sorrow The willows will hang their heads I'll live my life in sorrow Since mother and daddy are dead As the years go by I often wonder Will we all be together someday? And at night as I wander through the graveyard Darkness finds me where I kneel to pray White dove will mourn in sorrow The willows will hang their heads I'll live my life in sorrow Since mother and daddy are dead ------------- LIKE THIS By Sarah Hawker, from the poem "Like this" by Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks If someone asks you how the satisfaction of all our longings look like lift your face and say "like this" If someone mentions the night sky's gracefulness climb up on the roof dance like this If someone wonders how Jesus raised the dead don't try to explain just kiss me on the lips like this I'm a sky where spirit lives stare into the deepening blue while the breeze tells to you secrets like this When someone talks about how the moon's undressed by the clouds slowly loosen knot by knot strings of your robe just like this When someone asks you what it means to die for love just point here like this SARAH HAWKER © 2006 ASCAP ------------ ILLUMINATION By Sarah Hawker In blue moonlight stars burn and slide and catch in tangles of her hair with fireflies She tears the pages of books you have saved and builds them into paper boats and lets them float away A photo begun illumination a story come undone so close your eyes and you'll see why illumination time Float paper on the river let words disappear the beating of a thousand red wings can you hear? SARAH HAWKER © 2006 ASCAP --------- WHEN THE ANGELS CALL MY NAME By Sarah Hawker & Debra Clifford *dedicated to the memory of Margaret Hassan No more crying No more pain No more dying When the angels call my name No more sorrow No more I'll roam No more tomorrow When the angels lead me home No more grieving No more fear No more needing When the angels draw me near No more crying No more pain No more dying When the angels call my name SARAH HAWKER & DEBRA CLIFFORD © 2006 ASCAP --------- BLUE-EYED GIRL By Debra Clifford Rambling around this old one horse town twilight has faded the music away another new bed, stars overhead are they the same stars asleep where you lay? Oh my girl, come to me my blue-eyed girl Oh my girl, come to me my darlin girl The road is a ribbon that cannot be tied miles of new faces I've already seen tonight the highway leads back to you that long lonely ribbon a far away dream Oh my girl, come to me my blue-eyed girl Oh my girl, come to me my darlin girl Oh my girl, come to me my blue-eyed girl DEBRA CLIFFORD © 2006 ASCAP -------- ONE MORNING IN MAY Traditional, from Texas Gladden When I was a young girl, I used to seek pleasure When I was a young girl, I used to drink ale Out of the alehouse and into a jailhouse Right out of the barroom and into my grave Come papa, come mama and sit you down by me Come sit you down me and pity my case My poor head is aching, my sad heart is breaking My body's salivated and I'm bound to die Oh send for the preacher to come and pray for me And send for the doctor to heal all my wounds My poor head is aching, my sad heart is breaking My body's salivated and hell is my doom I want three young ladies to bear up coffin I want four young ladies to carry me on And each of them carry a bunch of wild roses To lay on my coffin as I pass along One morning, one morning, one morning in May I saw this young lady all wrapped in white linen All wrapped in white linen and cold as the clay --------- I'LL WAIT By Sarah Hawker A paper thin sky rolls above me the color of a dirty old dime shot through with airplanes and telephone wires and electric neon signs It's four in the morning in the city and the red brick is shadowed to brown and the tin cans and the footfalls and the plastic bags make a restless hollow sound I'll wait when dreams don't come easy and the night is sleepless and long without you I'm going crazy I'll wait for you to come home Tar paper curls at the edges on the rooftop where memories are hid and I whisper your sweet name to the winter sun steam rising from my lips If I could fold the umbrella of time that keeps us apart I'd let the rain forever fall on my face to be once more in your arms I'll wait when dreams don't come easy and the night is sleepless and long without you I'm going crazy I'll wait for you to come home SARAH HAWKER © 2006 ASCAP ------------ IT'S BETTER TO BE ALONE By Sarah Hawker They say every meeting ends in parting And that endings are enfolded in every starting Until someone thinks it's worth that just to hold me in their arms It's better to be alone than to be lonely It's better to just close the door Than to always be left needing more It's better to feel the tears than feel you gone when you're here It's better to be alone than to be lonely Desire is so bitter-sweet My heart between your teeth Leaving now is better than leaving slowly day by day It's better to be alone than to be lonely It's better to just close the door Than to always be left needing more It's better to feel the tears than feel you gone when you're here It's better to be alone than to be lonely SARAH HAWKER © 2006 ASCAP -------- GOING ACROSS THE MOUNTAIN Traditional, from Frank Proffitt Going across the mountain Oh fair ye well Going across the mountain Hear my banjo tell Going across the mountain Join the boys in blue When this war is over I'll come back to you Going across the mountain Oh fair ye well Going across the mountain Oh fair ye well Got my rations on my back My powder it is dry Going across the mount Crissie don't you cry Going across the mountain Oh fair ye well Going across the mountain Oh fair ye well Waitin' for it's good daylight If nothin happens to me I'll be way down yonder In old Tennessee Going across the mountain Oh fair ye well Going across the mountain Oh fair ye well 'Spect you'll miss me when I'm gone But I'm going through When this fighting's over I'll come back to you Going across the mountain Oh fair ye well Going across the mountain Oh fair ye well Going across the mountain Oh fair ye well Going across the mountain Hear my banjo tell -------------- REUBEN'S TRAIN Traditional, arranged by Debra Clifford. Note: Played on a Kevin Enoch Fretless Banjo LISTEN TO CLIP Oh Reuben's coming down the track and he's got his throttle back and the rails are a carryin' him from home If the boiler don't bust cause it's eat up with rust I'll soon be a long way from home If you don't believe I'm gone, look at the train I'm on you can hear the whistle blow a thousand miles I'm going down the track I ain't never coming back and I'll never get no letter from my home Well the train run so fast 'til I knowed it couldn't last for the wheels was a burnin' up the rail Old Reuben had a wreck and it broke old Reuben's neck but it never hurt no hair on my head. I got myself a blade, laid Reuben in the shade I'm starting me a graveyard of my own Oh me, oh my, I'm starting me a graveyard of my own -------- ROMANS By Sarah Hawker Well yes I guess it's true I'm not as good as some of you I may never wear a wedding dress of white And you may think you know my worth you keep his books down here on earth and you know the cost of that heavenly flight You may think you know the plan that you're the judge at his right hand you know His will, His wisdom, and His way You think you'll stand by old Saint Peter and whisper, "No not that one either. Just trust me and do as I say." But vengeance is mine said the Lord I do believe that means that vengeance isn't yours To heaven your vanity clings But you can't hide your pride in angels' wings You may think you have the right that you are bathed in holy light that you know who is lost and who is saved But you can't know that holy mind or know to Him which child's divine or on whose heart the light of glory is emblazed But vengeance is mine said the Lord I do believe that means that vengeance isn't yours To heaven your vanity clings But you can't hide your pride in angels' wings SARAH HAWKER © 2006 ASCAP --------- DARLIN DON'T YOU KNOW Traditional, from Addie Graham Darlin don't you know that's wrong Darlin don't you know that's wrong You love another woman and you don't love me Darlin don't you know that's wrong Can't get along with you Can't get along with you Work for my money, give it all to you What else can a poor girl do? Can't get a letter from home Can't get a letter from home Train's on the track, I can't get it back Can't get a letter from home Who's gonna shoe your feet who's gonna glove your little hands who's gonna kiss your rosy red cheeks when I'm in a foreign land? Papa's gonna shoe your feet mama's gonna glove your little hand her baby's gonna kiss your rosy red cheek when I'm in a foreign land Darlin don't you know that's wrong Darlin don't you know that's wrong You love another woman and you don't love me Darlin don't you know that's wrong --------- TONIGHT YOU'RE GONNA LOSE ME By Sarah Hawker Sometimes a kiss will make you see what is and what used to be so when he asks me "is it alright?" I know that you're gonna lose me tonight Tonight you're gonna lose me I want so that I can hardly see and I'll be wrong and you'll be right but you're gonna lose me tonight My own heart I once thought I knew I never thought that I could be untrue but the way he looks into my eyes I know that you're gonna lose me tonight Tonight you're gonna lose me I want so that I can hardly see and I'll be wrong and you'll be right but you're gonna lose me tonight There are things no one wants to say when the tide of love pulls away but this empty feeling I can't hide and I know you're gonna lose me tonight Tonight you're gonna lose me I want so that I can hardly see and I'll be wrong and you'll be right but you're gonna lose me tonight SARAH HAWKER © 2006 ASCAP ---------