Josh Ritter Album

All the other girls here are stars—you are the Northern Lights
They try to shine in through your curtains—you're too close and too bright
They try and they try but everything that they do
Is the ghost of a trace of a pale imitation of you
I'll be the one to drive you back home Kathleen
This party is made with the night air and the chance that a smile
Will wind its way from your face to one of the boys in your line
You act like you're hip to their tricks and you're strong
But a virgin Wurlitzer heart never once had a song
I'll be the one to drive you back home Kathleen
And I'll have you back by break of day
I'm going your way anyway
And if you'd like to come along
I'll be yours for a song
I know you are waiting and I know that it is not for me
But I'm here and I'm ready and I've saved you the passenger seat
I won't be your last dance just your last goodnight
Every heart is a package tangled up in knots someone else tied
I'll be the one to drive you back home Kathleen
So crawl up your trellis and quietly back into your room
And I'll coast down the length of your drive by the light of the moon
And the next time I see you—a new kind of hello
Both our hearts have a secret only both of us know
'bout the night that I drove you back home Kathleen

Picture they took of you in your cowboy hat
Makes you look like you are one of the boys
Out on a Saturday night, meanwhile on the outskirts of the dance hall
I'm a joke that you'd probably enjoy
On the outside of Memphis all the building look big
And the white picket fences all dare to charge around the lawn
And hold their heads up high when my headlights find them out
They'll be the first to put their hands in the air with my radio on
Singing a country song soft and low

Oh when I've got a worried mind I know
I hear the ghost of Patsy Cline
On the Grand Old Opry Show

Living on the edge of the city limit line
This is where the boundary finally ends
And I swear that we're the last living souls in a populated ghost town
All the billboards are our best friends
Which way did our last chance go and can we
Get out if we go right now?
It seems that with the malls and the mega-church stadiums
We would get out if we knew just how with the radio on

Standing in line to get my self-help book signed off
On by the reverend who shouts to the converted
Have mercy on this boy he did it all by the book
But still kind of has his doubts
Oh you look pretty good in that jonquil dress
But your smile is a wooden nickel's pride
and I know that it ain't worth much but I feels good to touch
And I think that I could dance if I tried with your radio on

Oh when I've got a worried mind I know
I hear the ghost of Patsy Cline
On the Grand Old Opry Show

Here I am standing at your window again
Waiting for you to say go away or come in
I'm your locked door's worst knocker
I'm your curtain's best friend
I'm trying hard to love you – you don't make it easy Babe
I'm trying hard to love you – I'm looking for an easy way
Your friends ask about me you say I can be found
With the cheap romance novels with their spines battered down
Oh the heart has no bones you say so it won't break
But the purpose of loving is the pounding it takes
I'm trying hard to love you – you don't make it easy Babe
I'm trying hard to love you – I'm looking for an easy way
The ropes that have bound me leave no marks by their knots
And though they're your hair that don't mean I'm not caught
I know the song of the handcuffs as they scrape across the floor
But that new thing you've got I've got no clue what it's for
I'm trying hard to love you – you don't make it easy Babe
I'm trying hard to love you – I'm looking for an easy way
With fortune's rocks millstones you hang round my throat
And a brick for my window weighted down with a note
I hope you find someone just as hard as you come
In this hard world sadly that's so easily done
I'm trying hard to love you – you don't make it easy Babe
I'm trying hard to love you – I'm looking for an easy way
I'm trying hard to love you – you don't make it easy Babe
I'm trying hard to love you – there's gotta be an easy way

Birds beneath my window dustying their wings upon the lawn
I hear them in the morning light giving last amen to a migratory song
They're never looking round for me—their eyes are on the sky or the ground below
But I'd rather be the one who loves than to be loved and never even know
Hello blackbird hello starling
Winter's over be my darling
It's been a long time coming
But now the snow is gone
You were beautiful when I first saw your feathers and confectionery airs
Like the earth it up and promised you the stars but you really didn't care
I sang in exultation pulled the stops—you always looked a little bored
But I'm singing for the love of it—have mercy on the man who sings to be adored
Hello blackbird hello starling
Winter's over be my darling
It's been a long time coming
But now the snow is gone
OOOOOOOOH!
I'm underneath your window now—it's long after the birds have gone to roost
And I'm not sure if I'm singing for the love of it or for the love of you
But I've flown a long way honey hear my confession then I'll go
I'd rather be the one who loves than to be loved and never even know
Hello brown one hello blue one
Last night's feathers exchanged for new ones
Hello blackbird hello starling
Winter's over be my darling
It's been a long time coming
But now the snow is gone