1. Winter Grass
There is a thorn beneath my skin / Let the paying part begin / To remove what you put in / There is a thorn beneath my skin.
I hurt you so you hurt me / Little children and vanity / But all that hurt don’t come for free / I hurt you so you hurt me.
First come, first serve / First the need and then the nerve / From now, now on /The last time is gone / The last time is gone. /
Winter grass and summer snow / Some talk lasts and some talk don’t / Some friends fade and some friends show / Winter grass and summer snow.
The window shrinks but not the pane / The pictures inside remain. /
There is a warmth upon my skin / Let the healing part begin / To ignite what lies within / There is a warmth beneath my skin. /
2. Willow Bluff
Back on the prairie where the river runs slow / I met a young girl with the wheels to go / So I took her hand and went down the Willow Bluff / And I kissed her lips blood red and rough
My legs got loose and my head got high /And my will got weak when I looked her in the eye /So I charmed that girl for an afternoon /And I tried to make her laugh so she’d follow me home.
And when the time came / She said you’re really not that funny / When you gonna learn boy /It’s all about the money.
And you can be blind on your own time / If you want to / But I’ve got priorities / And I can’t waste mine.
Down at Lafitte’s where the roof hangs low / By the old stone wall, she talked real slow / “Can I kiss you boy, I like your stuff” / And sent time on the wind, back to Willow Bluff.
3. Come Along
On the 2 2 7 Anniversary / Of independence for the USA / I was thinking about another year / I was thinking it was so far away.
You just know that I can’t complain / Everybody has to walk out in the rain.
Come along, come along.
I went outside and called my boy. / I said come on Kyle let’s take a ride / Down to the US embassy / Where the stripes run straight and the stars collide.
Come along, come along.
This is no ordinary day / We are coming home but we were not away.
Well I know what’s wrong and I know what’s right. / It’s time to go to NYC / It’s time to go out to Los Angeles / It’s time to go down south to New Orleans.
4. Light the Match
You haven’t been that good to me / I haven’t been that bad / One day you’ll be longing for / The comfort that you had / Are you hungry? Are you hungry? / I don’t have much patience now / And you don’t have much peace.
So honey light the match, honey light the match / It all seems so far out of reach / Something I can’t keep / But I won’t be back so light the match / Honey light the match.
Now you’re looking good to me / I believe I’ve got it bad / Just can’t stop thinking about / The sweetness that you have / I’m so hungry, I’m so hungry / I don’t have much patience now / And I surely have no peace.
I may not know what’ good for me / I may not know what’s bad / One thing that I know for sure / Is something I must have. / I’ve been hungry, I’ve been hungry / I don’t have much patience now / But I will have my peace
5. (Total) Domination
There’s the phone I guess you’re calling / Want to know are we alright. / All last night I didn’t sleep / Guess that’s nothing newI meditate; I get afraid; what are we to do?
I’m not trying for total domination / No matter what you believe / So get a hold of your imagination / I’m just trying to breathe.
I work too hard for my own good and it’s not good for you /Although it’s late I’ll get it straight so it gets through to you. / Even though the bright lines are fading / The house holds beneath the beacon’s light.
I’m not trying for total domination / No matter what you believe / So get a hold of your imagination / I’m just trying to breathe.
Don’t you take my love for granted / It’s there for you, but don’t demand it
All alone feel like I’m falling / Want to know are we all right? / All this time I’ve kept the beat but what is there to show? / I’m movin’ on another dawn where’s it going to go?
I’m not trying for total domination / No matter what you believe / So get a hold of your imagination / I’m just trying to breathe.
I’m not trying to spin no evocation / No matter what you believe / So get a hold of your evaluation / I’m not trying to leave.
6. Half the Battle
Well I guess we’ve seen hard times, who has not / I guess we were looking for some things we never got. / Half of the battle is ending the fight / The best of the other part is doing what’s right.
Seems like everyday I’m trying to make do / And every night is one more to get through / The center of the universe should come as no surprise / It stumbles down the alleyways of compromise.
So let’s forget about winning for a while / Let’s take everything we owe and pay it with a smile. / The long days of summer won’t return / Our pages of history are fading as they turn.
Seems like everyday I’m trying to make do / And every night is one more to get through / What’s the point of promising if believing has no pain? / We pay the price; we pay it twice and pay again.
I guess we’ve been lucky; some have not / We measure the gains and loss but who knows what they’ve got. / Half of the battle is ending the fight / The best of the other part is doing what’s right.
8. Poor Man’s Train
If the mountain won’t come to you / Get on a poor man’s train / If the mountain won’t come to you / Get aboard Mohamed’s train / What one man give up on / Another man will gain.
Don’t ask for the doctor / If your health has gone astray / Don’t ask for the doctor / You’d be better off to pray / The doctor likes the money / It changes owners every day
I got the last to know, the last to know eyes / I got the last to know, the last to know eyes / When I reach for the prize / Another disguise.
If you want to take the measure / Know what you must scale / If you want to take the measure / Know what you must scale / But if you want to know the reason / Word is it’s not for sale.
If you want to cross the river / You must leave your bags behind / To dance upon the water / You must leave your bags behind / If you want to see the promised land / You must not be blind.
9. I Don’t Aim
Don’t let it be someone you know / Take care to watch where your friends go / This is no life on a mountain top / There’s a wind that will never stop / Take care to watch where your friends go.
Don’t let the blues get out of hand / We travel on because we can /This isn’t life on a TV show / There’s a part we will never know / We get back up because we can.
Because I don’t aim to be letting go / I don’t aim to be letting go / I will watch and fend though I’ve been afraid / I will mind your step though I’ve never passed this way / Cause I don’t aim to be letting go.
Don’t let them get away with it / We only come around bit by bit / Is there no dream on a summer’s eve? / There is more than you can believe / We only get there bit by bit.
I’ve got a friend who can endure / Most folks say they can’t be sure.
Don’t you forget to hold them close / Be unmoved when it’s needed most / There is no sun that will never set / And what you get is what you get / Be unmoved when it’s needed most.
Because I don’t aim to be letting go / I don’t aim to be letting go / I will watch and fend though I’ve been afraid / I will mind your step though I’ve never passed this way / Cause I don’t aim to be letting go.
10. Northbound
Outside Ft. McMurray I learned to throw the chain / Old men missin’ fingers drank to kill the pain. / I came for more than dollars but the dollars helped me stay. / Then one day an offer came, so I got on a plane.
It was windy on the North Sea, then the wells ran dry. / So I went down to Maracaibo, beneath the burning sky / Did some time in Saudi, waiting on the rain / Christmas in Samatlor, Northern Lights again.
Everything will change. Nothing remains the same. / For opportunity we all pay.
Ghosts ran through Angola, the scars of mines and wars / Rolling Gippsland Basin, I came back to shore. / Marlim, Reconcavo – got sick and missed my pay / I got a call from Horseshoe – I said I was OK.
Some look for something better, some are running from the past / Not much in my suitcase ‘cept memories built to last / I did blow in Cuisiana, I bought love in Canterell / Read a little Thompson and I came back to the well.
Everything will change. Nothing remains the same. / For opportunity we all pay. / This is my theory of everything.
I was seventeen in a bony two light town / Almost everyday the rail cars shook the ground. / Summer was just ending and the sky was edged in brown / Some boys I knew from school were northbound.
Gerry Wall – Vocals, Acoustic guitar, Electric guitar, Dobro, Bass)
Dave Draves – Piano, Bass, Keyboards, Loops, Accordion, Banjo, Melodica, Vocals
Jeremy Gara – Drums and Percussion
Ana Miura – Vocals
Additional performances:
John Higney _ Lap steel
Jens Lindemann – Trumpet
Mike Schmidt – Trombone
Graham Knight – Vocals
Produced and mixed by Dave Draves and Gerry Wall
Engineered by Dave Draves
Mastered by Ted Carson of MusicLane Mastering, Toronto
Recorded at Little Bullhorn Studio, Ottawa
All songs written by Gerry Wall (SOCAN) except “Northbound” and “(Total) Domination”
by Gerry Wall/Graham Knight