Shawn Mullins Album

I've got a suitcase packed full of memories
And evening's drawing near
The mountain smiles upon me now
It's all down hill from here
An anchorage of silence, a port of serenity
I had to bow and kneel before I ever
Knew the real me but I understand for
The first time why I call you my home
Like a free man running from himself
I had nowhere left to roam
There upon your mountains wading in your streams
Like a distant star the city's far behind me


(chorus)
And I ask you now will you take me in
Because I never knew what I had till it was gone
I have to sing my song there's no letting go
Just can't stop the show this is where I belong

Now it's 0500 on a monday morn
Under a starry sky with old iron mike looking
Over me and the sleep still in my eyes
So wrap yourself around me now and hold me
Till the sun rises and another day's begun

My time is your time after all that
you've been through can you hear me calling
you and this line that I'm walking time it's
pointing write to you I'm living my life with
you so call on me I'll guard myself just wait
and see I'll start a brand new now This time
is the last time for me my life is in your
hands you can take me all the way this
religion in war torn lands the world has seen
its better days

You've got your mind made up
Your heart's in a song
No pot to piss in
But a voice of your own
You can take it anywhere
This road leads you down
Any old ghost town
I hope it's all that you want it to be
Sometimes it is for me
Sometimes it ain't
Life's a lot like a ferris wheel
It's a hell of a thrill
But it just does the same old thing
You paint yourself a picture
That only you can see
Where the blue of the sky
Melts into the green of the sea


Let the wind fill your sail
And carry you along
Sail on
Sail on
Just remember that you've chosen this way
That's the price you pay
You're living your own life
No destination has been set for you
So take your green and blues
And sail on our of sight
They'll try to get you caught up
In your own little web
Spinning out your demons
With a price on your head
They'll try to take your faith away
You got to stand tall
Keep on singing your song

Sometimes it's hard to stay sane
Dogtags like shackles on my brain
We've got a language of our own
You learn to talk bad
When you're far from home.

Dusty books on my shelf
It's kind of like running from yourself
Five years between the two extremes
I lived my life in books,
Or so it seems.

And all I could see was an older me
I had to reach down inside


Before life took me for a ride

I lie awake at night,
I don't know wrong from right
And no one realy knows who you are
But they're all telling you
That you're gonna go far

And all I could hear
Was a ringing in my ear
Boxes of words
Locked in my room
But I never wrote the tune.

Don't tell me about the nature of desire
I sit and watch you
Twisted, tangled in the wire
I'm on the road now
And you're glad to see me go
I guess you'll sit outside
And watch your flowers grow.

Oh, I never knew the rounds
I'd take for loving you.
I hope you're happy with your life
I guess you'll sleep along tonight.

I used to wonder
How you kept me down so long
I'm glad to say
That now I'm back where I belong.
I'm on the road now
And I'm wishing I was fast asleep
I thinking of the promises
You never seem to keep.


Oh, I never knew the rounds
I'd take for loving you.
I hope you're happy with your life
I guess you'll sleep along tonight.

Don't try and change my mind.
There's nothing left to say.
Yea you've been buying time
But now you're gonna pay.
So don't tell me
About the nature of desire
I sit and watch you
Twisted, tangled in the wire.
I'm on the road now
And I'm glad to see me go.
I guess I'll sit outside
And watch the flowers grow.

Oh, I never knew the rounds
I'd take for loving you.
I hope you're happy with your life
I guess you'll sleep along tonight.

[No lyrics]

What I'd give to be you for an hour or two
Oh tell me a story of fortune and glory things i
Never knew for I am the hungry and I am the
Poor I've got one foot outside where the
World is alive and the other foot nailed to
The floor but it's always the one with the
Terrible past who surprises me most


Who puts himself last - five nights in hell and
A forty day fast I remember her well tho
I don't know her name her touch was a
River so cold made me shiver and shake with
Disdain and I'll never know why you chose me to
Haunt but I'll say what I can hoping you'll under-
Stand that it's not you I want.

A young man sits by the riverside
watching the sunset over the blueridge
And the mountain laurel reminds
him of his bride so he flings himself
over the burning bridge

You and I together till we die
We dream of a place that we used to know
but we cannot go with you girl in this
Everchanging world living learning loving
you is all I have to know
all I have to know

It seems sometimes that I've lost my way
The sweet sweet sound of the lost and found
makes my soul rise
And the nursery rhymes of my childhood days
Reminds me of a girl
I used to know I used to love oh I used to love

You and I together till we die
Watching the sun set over the blueridge
And the mountain laurel
she picks reminds her of a guy
So she flings a bouquet over the burning bridge

You and I together till we die
We dream of a place that we used to know
but we cannot go with you girl in this
Everchanging world living learning loving you
is all I have to know
All I have to know

She seemed almost demented
as she frantically repented
for the crime in which she filled her empty bowl,
it was empty like her soul
She kneeled inside the confession booth,
and she told that holy man the truth
but the booth was empty,
frozen black as coal,
it was damp and cold.

Where are you gonna run to now?
You lost what faith you had somehow
Your show is over,
it's time to take a bow
Where are you gonna run to now?

She spends her nights with lonely men
and she goes too far every now and then.
But it's her longest running show
and the oldest job around,
they say she's the best in town.

Where are you gonna run to now?
You lost what pride you had somehow
Your show is over,
it's time to take a bow
Where are you gonna run to now?

Now in 5 more years she'll be 23
And in a lot of ways she's just like me
She gives away her body,
I give away my soul.
We're always searching for life's treasures to unfold.
We give it all to you
yet we have no pot of gold.

So where are we gonna run to now?
We lost what love we had somehow,
we're on this one way highway
until the bitter end
but where are we gonna run to then?

I'd like to hike the appalachian
I've tossed it around in my mind
But then I say to myself
Boy you must be crazy
Don't you know you'll never have the time
I'd like to go into the city
Maybe travel for a while
Hitch a ride, now there's something I can do
But I've never been more than a mile
And it might take forever
But I am all I have to show
There is a missing piece
To find before I go
Three words away from a masterpiece
Ten thousand miles from my home
And all my greed
And three hungry mouths to feed
I don't know if I can make it on my own


And yet it's raining up on sharp top
My spirit's molding me like clay
I guess we should have built further from the river bank
It's trying to wash us all away

And it might take forever
But we are all we have to show
There is a missing piece
To find before we go
This morning's battle, population
On the city street below
And lord I dread to get up out of bed
Five million footprints in the snow
And it might take forever
But I am all I have to show
There is a missing piece
To find before I go

Here I am
And once again I've come this far
For everywhere you go
You never know
You're right there where you are
I thought by now
You'd surely shoot a different line
Your tracks still on my back
But I'm feeling fine.
You're not the angel you make out to be
The road you think you're on
It blinds you tell me can you see
And did you ever make it clear for me
Fear for me
Did you shead a tear for me?

I see you
And hear the things you say you are
I see thru
We all do
But it's gotten you this far
What you do


And what you say
And what you feel
Is meaningless until
We all allow it to be real
You're running reckless
Rampant around in rage
You keep yourself so high
Your feet never touch the stage
And do you ever stop to think
About the mess you've made
Or do you wait until
You find a war wage

There you are
And once again
You'll never know where you are
You're never far from where you're gonna go
You know I thought by now
You'd stumble on to better things,
The thing is now
I don't know why you don't know what it means.

Casey joins the hollow sound of silent people walking down
The stairway to the subway in the shadows down below;
Following their footsteps through the neon-darkened corridors
Of silent desperation, never speakin' to a soul.
The poison air he's breathin' has the dirty smell of dying
'cause it's never seen the sunshine and it's never felt the rain.
But casey minds the arrows and ignores the fatal echoes
Of the clickin' of the turnstiles and the rattle of his chains.

"oh!" she said, "casey it's been so long since I've seen you!"
"here" she said, "just a kiss to make a body smile!"
"see" she said, "i've put on new stockings just to please you!"
"lord!" she said, "casey can you only stay a while? "


Casey leaves the under-ground and stops inside the golden crown
For something wet to wipe away the chill that's on his bone.
Seeing his reflection in the lives of all the lonely men
Who reach for any thing they can to keep from goin' home.
Standin' in the corner casey drinks his pint of bitter
Never glancing in the mirror at the people passing by
Then he stumbles as he's leaving and he wonders if the reason
Is the beer that's in his belly, or the tear that's in his eye.

"oh!" she said, "i suppose you seldom think about me,
"now" she said, "now that you've a fam'ly of your own";
"still" she said, "it's so blessed good to feel your body!"
"lord!" she said" "casey it's a shame to be alone!"