Hem Album

(Dan Messe)

Wouldn't be the first time love made a fool of me
Wouldn't even care but now you're here to see
It comes as no surprise
Just leave the light on

What I wouldn't give if you could have it all
The sun that's going down the bed that breaks the fall
The cradle and the bow
So you can take comfort now
You can take comfort now...

Sometimes a heart can break and make its own relief
The way a cold dark night invites the fire thief
He wants to show us how
So we can take comfort now
We can take comfort now
We can take comfort now

Leave the light on...

(Dan Messe/Gary Maurer)

There's a man in a cutaway
Buying drinks for the room
All the cheer raining down on the day
Comes to nothing and leaves by the broom

On the streets named for presidents
Where the kingfishers blew
All the cornflowers sewn in the fence
Keep the memory from tearing in two

But if I should lose
I'd wake up feeling lucky
If I should take a fall
Or throw it all away
I wouldn't mind lying beside you
The rest of my days

The storms came down out of Mackinaw
As the weight stations closed
There was a terrible darkness I saw
Pulling up on the side of the road

But if I should lose
I'd wake up feeling lucky
If I should take a fall
Or throw it all away
I wouldn't mind lying beside you
The rest of my days

So I'll drink to the wealthy man
And I'll pray for the poor
And I'll hold onto you while I can
In the darkness just to be sure

That if I should lose
I'll wake up feeling lucky
If I should take a fall
Or throw it all away
I wouldn't mind lying beside you
The rest of my days

(Dan Messe)

Hey Dear,
you know I hate to go
Just lay here
listening to the radio
Upstairs
hiding from the world below
The day fading on the dial

Downstairs
wait for the mailman
On lawn chairs
spread across the tableland
Somewhere
flowerbeds to lay your hand in mine
If you stay then I will
Time fading on the dial

I will always love you like I do
I'll always love you like I do
The song is fading still it's true
When I'm here beside you

You said
you want a wing to fly
A loose thread
hanging from the gingham sky
We knew that
we would have to say goodbye
C'mon, if you would then I'd stay
The sun pulling in the driveway

I will always love you like I do
I'll always love you like I do
The song is fading still it's true
When I'm here beside you

I will always love you like I do
I'll always love you like I do
The song is fading still it's true
When I'm here beside you

The song is fading...

(Dan Messe)

Hey, was that you floating past the tree-line?
Hey, was that a feather in your hand?
No I don't mean to ask these questions
No I don't mean to rush your heart
I swear I saw this accidentally
No I don't mean to start

Hey, the rain falls straight into the sidewalk
Hey, the clouds hang heavy in the sky
But I don't want to still believe in
The gravity of solid ground
The world below is not so big
That it can keep us down

We are standing on the rooftops
We are circling like sparrows
We are tiny, we are trembling,
Scared of everything
But the heart is still a red wing

Fly above the houses and the schoolyards
And fly until you cannot feel the Earth
No I don't mean that it's so easy
And I don't mean that it's so small
But the world below is not so mean
That it can make us fall

We are standing on the rooftops
We are circling like sparrows
We are tiny, we are trembling,
Scared of everything
But the heart is still a red wing

(Dan Messe)

Forty years since you washed ashore
Carried out of the sea
On the mast of a man-o-war
That once brought you to me

Throw your overcoat over a chair
And lay all your lazybones down
May this night keep you here
til tomorrow

(Steve Curtis)

Sometimes when I lay down at night
I swear I can see to heaven
For it's in dreaming that the things
I always knew
are the only thoughts I have
And when I look up at you, love
Handsome as a magazine
Wild as the sun, like nothing below
could ever pull you down

But it's a hard road that we follow
The saddest cities, and the darkest hollows

People cross this world
Over and then back again
Never even one time lift their eyes
Or think of what they say

But I hear it in your voice, love
Like someone sweetly willing
The hope of all these years,
the prayer of a time
that we don't even know

But it's a hard road that we follow
The saddest cities, and the darkest hollows

But I hear it in your voice, love
The strongest sound
I've ever heard
Like water from a well
so deep in the ground
I'll never thirst again

But it's a hard road that we follow
The saddest cities, and the darkest hollows

And everything that's far away
And was lost from me
I see it all from here in you

(Dan Messe/Steve Curtis)

Overland
Through the rye
Gun in hand
Bird in sky
Calling out to the world below
A-hunting we will go

Every field
Ripe and fine
Every man
A friend of mine
On the trails that we name or know
A-hunting we will go

Throw some light on me
Tell me what you see
Every mystery grows like a vine
Reaching out to the sun for a while
And holding the soil
forever and ever

Now the sun
Has not stirred
Rusted gun
Fallen bird
Side by side in the world below
A-hunting we will go

(Dan Messe/Gary Maurer)

Here's an easy one
Since it's getting late
Since you're half asleep
And I couldn't wait
For the tired sun
With its tired light
To wake up the world
Just to see you tonight

I know you don't believe me
But I have something to tell you
I know it's not so easy
But Baby, hold me now

If I have to leave
Like I always do
Will you look for me
As I look for you
In a passing glance
From a passerby
I could cross the world
To be near you tonight

I know you don't believe me
But I have something to tell you
I know it's not so easy
But Baby, hold me now

(Dan Messe)

In the summer of my wedding
As the corn burned in the field
Oh I lay down for my Baby
And let the sweet smoke stain my heels

Well I lay there til the midnight
When the dogs, they run through town
And I rose up just to listen
And I never lay back down

Then the morning, it came upon me
And I set my soul to search
From the tall grass down the main road
To the stained glass at the church

Lord my shepard help me pray
Though I left my heart to stray
Though I left my heart untrue
I can follow
I do
I do

And I can name them in my dreaming
I can set my soul to rest
I can chain them to my body
Let them settle at my breast

Now see them coming to my wedding
Where I will teach them not to stray
Oh they'll carry my salvation
Oh they'll carry me away

(Dan Messe/Steve Curtis)

In the sawed off light
Shooting down across the quarrel
Onto Lee

They will rise and fight
On the Bay and on the Sorrel
To the North and Cincinnati

Riding low in the roll-eyed burr
Charging out from 'neath the soldier's spur

As a Traveler turns
From the darkness in the valley
Toward the fire from Cincinnati

(Jerry Lieber/Billy Edd-Wheeler)

We got married in a fever, hotter than a pepper sprout,
We've been talkin' 'bout Jackson, ever since the fire went out.
I'm goin' to Jackson, I'm gonna mess around,
Yeah, I'm goin' to Jackson,
Look out Jackson town.

Well, go on down to Jackson; go ahead and wreck your health.
Go play your hand you big-talkin' man, make a big fool of yourself,
Yeah, go to Jackson; go comb your hair!
Honey, I'm gonna snowball Jackson.
See if I care.

When I breeze into that city, people gonna stoop and bow.
All them women gonna make me, teach 'em what they don't know how,
I'm goin' to Jackson, you turn-a loose-a my coat.
'Cos I'm goin' to Jackson.
"Goodbye," that's all she wrote.

But they'll laugh at you in Jackson, and I'll be dancin' on a Pony Keg.
They'll lead you 'round town like a scalded hound,
With your tail tucked between your legs,
Yeah, go to Jackson, you big-talkin' man.
And I'll be waitin' in Jackson, behind my Jaypan Fan,

Well now, we got married in a fever, hotter than a pepper Sprout,
We've been talkin' 'bout Jackson, ever since the fire went.
I'm goin' to Jackson, and that's a fact.
Yeah, we're goin' to Jackson, ain't never comin' back.

Well, we got married in a fever, hotter than a pepper sprout'
And we've been talkin' 'bout Jackson, ever since the fire went...

(Steve Curtis)

Dance with me, now darling - make me late
I've been hanging 'round this barroom, and I can wait
I can wait, now darling, don't you know
Dance with me, now darling, sweet and slow

I've been here in the corner, playing it cool
But I could hang off your shoulder like a fool
Like a fool, now darling, all night long
Dance with me, now darling, to this song

Take me home in a big car - drive it slow
And if we turned off the highway, who would know
Who would know in the morning's yellow light
Where these two lost lovers were last night

(Dan Messe)

Me I imagine places
That I have never seen
The colored lights in fountains,
Blue and green

And I imagine places
That I will never go
Behind these clouds that hang here,
Dark and low

But it's there when I'm holding you
It's there when I am sleeping too
It's there when there is nothing left of me
It's hanging just beyond
the burned out factory
Out of reach but leading me
Into the beautiful sea

And I remember something
It feels a lot like fear
Some kid is wild and shouting
Coast is clear

And it's there when I'm holding you
It's there when I am sleeping too
It's there when there is nothing left of me
It's hanging just beyond
the burned out factory
Out of reach but leading me
Into the beautiful sea

[No lyrics]

(Dan Messe)

Let's go out walking, I know where to meet
The corner of Pacific Street
Because I feel restless and I can't sleep
I need to show you something

See where we stood
There are oceans in our neighborhood
And for leaving things they're just as good

Well I don't know you except in the way
A traveler knows a traveler
The way a station can tempt you to stay
And spend some time inside it

Stay where we are
We'll wash up at the corner bar
Because leaving things is just too hard for me

Stay where we are
Washed up in some corner bar
But I swear I've never been this far before
I swear I've never been this far before
No I swear I've never been so far before

(Dan Messe)

We were raised in the nettles
And they showed us how they grow--
Where a poison comes to settle
And what a poisoned man comes to know

So me and Jessie, we left Ohio--
Left him bleeding on the valley floor
I felt so dirty I could hardly stand it--
Carrying Jessie on my back

She said, hold on, I know you'll bury him for me
Hold on, I know you'll bury him for me
Hold on, I know you'll carry me and carry me and
Carry me home

Tell me nothing's wrong there
Tell me nothing's wrong there
Tell me nothing's wrong there

Nothing's wrong there
Nothing's wrong there
Nothing's wrong there

(Traditional)

Now the day is over,
Night is drawing nigh,
Shadows of the evening
Steal across the sky.

Now the darkness gathers,
Stars begin to peep,
Birds and beasts and flowers
Soon will be asleep.