Is It Really Love At All   (Eric Andersen)   [Albums: Blue River, single--Pearl's goodtime blues, The Best Songs, So Much on My Mind, Owen Sound Summerfolk Festival, Live at the Mudd Club, Selected Songs]

Sitting here forgotten like
A book upon a shelf
No one there to turn the page
You're left to read yourself
Alone to sit and wonder just how the story ends
Cause no-one ever told you child
You gotta be your own best friend

Sunny days  cloudy days
Always seem the same
If love were made of clouds I
Almost wish that it would rain
Even when the skies are clear
The weather's always blue
Every day would be nice If I had
Someone I could come home to

Love  is it really love at all
Or something that I heard love called
Something that I heard love called

Now life can sometimes slip away
And love can pass you by
If only it had been another place another time
Maybe there'll be someone who likes to see you smile
Who will want to stay with you
And be your friend for a little while
Then wake up in the morning
Feeling so alive
Something you can hold on to
Not a shadow by your side
I guess that there'll be time to talk
Of things that we've been through
That special time when all is real
To feel reborn  when love is new

Love  is it really love at all
Or something that I heard love called
Something that I heard love called

Then sundown comes around again
You find yourself alone
Wander through a sea of eyes but always on your own
Was it really all you thought that it was suppose to  be
Or are you just another face
In someone's fading memory

Love  is it really love at all
Or something that I heard love called
Something that I heard love called

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Pearl’s Goodtime Blues   (Eric Andersen)   [Albums: Blue River, single--Pearl's goodtime blues]

Just a smile sit down awhile
with her feathers and her brandy
we’re just movin’ how ya’ doin’
how ya’ doin’ daddy
come on honey this one goes on mine

Pearl you know she could steal the show
get ya’ feelin’ crazy
get it on with you all night long
and make you feel amazing

Rag Mamma rag
ya’ got me off my feet
my heart just skipped a beat
won’t you rag Mamma rag ... Mamma

Feathers flyin’, she lookin’ fine
she just feelin’ dandy
she got her man and she holdin’ hands
and she just called him “Pappy”
and she can sing the blues
   right off your mind

Pearl you know she could steal the show
if she gets the notion
rockin’ on with ya’ all night long
man, she got some locomotion

Rag Mamma rag
kick away my blues
I just kicked off my shoes
won’t you rag Mamma rag

Her eyes are wide
she’s runnin’ scared
was it something she was seeing
but in a flash
then it passed
to somethin’ she was needin’
or was it something she was
   feeling at the time
something she was
   feeling at the time

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Wind and Sand   (Eric Andersen)   [Albums: Blue River, So Much on My Mind, Selected Songs]

All alone a father sits
thinking of his son
Far away a mother sleeps
her baby yet unborn

Chorus:
   Rain and wood and fire and stone
   magic all across the land
   Seasons come and times will go
   right through your hand,
   like wind and sand

In awhile a child will grow
a bird will learn to fly
Pretty soon a child will know
what it is to make a life

Chorus:
   Long before the river goes
   far from where it was
   Long before it meets the sea
   a child will know of love

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Faithful   (Eric Andersen)   [Albums: Blue River, Selected Songs]

Chorus:
   You said lovin’ you and leavin’ you was
   the hardest thing to do
   to give my foot another chance
   to try another shoe
   but every time I see someone
   I’m always seeing you
   though I have not always been faithful
   I always have been true

I’m sometimes seen at parties
just sittin’ by the phone
wonderin’ if I called you
would you be alone

When I see the looks of lovers
my heart sinks like a stone
wishin’ I could be there with them
‘stead of going back alone

Chorus

Have you ever walked the empty streets
until the break of dawn
and maybe hear that lonesome sparrow
sing his lonesome song
did it make you feel any better
like a stranger less alone
though he didn’t know you both had been
a thousand miles from home

Chorus

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Blue River    (Eric Andersen)   [Albums: Blue River, single--Blue River, The Best Songs, So Much on My Mind, Live at the Mudd Club, Ten Great Years at Kerrville, DFA & One More Shot (Molde bonus disc), Wildflower Festival, Blue Rain, The Cologne Concert, Selected Songs]

Old man go to the river
To drop his bale of woes
He could go if he wanted to
It's just a boat to row you know
   listen to me now

Blue River keep right on rollin
All along the shore line
Keep us safe from the deep and the dark
Cause we don't want to stray too far

Spent the day with my old dog Mo
Down an old dirt road
What he's thinking Lord I don't know
But for him bet the time must go so slow
Don't you know

Blue River keep right on rollin
All along the shore line
Keep us safe from the deep and the dark
Cause we don't want to stray too far

Young Rob stands with his ax in his hand
Believin that the crops are in
Fire wood stacked ten by ten
For the wife the folks the kids
All of the kin and a friend
  listen to me now

Blue River keep right on rollin
All along the shore line
Keep us safe from the deep and the dark
Cause we don't want to stray too far

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Florentine  (Eric Andersen)   [Albums: Blue River]

Florentine she’s been
around the world and back again
A heart as light as wings
made of sky, made of wind and things
She keeps things you don’t know
She shows things you don’t show
She never wants to see you alone

Something in her smile
tells you she will stay awhile
Something in her style
shines and sets the sun on fire
Every time she’s near
is like music to your ears
before you rise she waits
   inside your eyes

Chorus:
   If she were to say those words
   would you understand
   Wouldn’t it be easier
   to let her take your hand
   Love’s the song I sing
   Song to Florentine

Florentine she leaves
a trail of misty make-believe
You know she holds the key
and you follow her to mysteries
There’s hidden things inside
she leaves for you to find
To unlock the road you must
   say please

Love’s the song I sing
Song to Florentine
Love, love must be the song
Song to Florentine

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Sheila  (Eric Andersen)   [Albums: Blue River, single--A Fool Like You, One More Shot (Molde bonus disc), Blue Rain, Selected Songs]

There was a time I lived the life
of women, song, and wine
Spent my nights in loving rooms
where the ladies all were kind
Singing songs and spending all
and being no one’s slave
I still had style when the devil smiled
and he took it all away

Chorus:
   Sheila can you help me
   I cannot go no higher
   Sheila can you help me
   My head is all on fire

I laughed at all the truth I saw
in the life I had no more
For fame she was a one night stand
and fortune but a whore
In the good times we were riding high
til the good times all were gone
And I wasn’t sure what the bad times were
til the devil pushed me down

Chorus

Now it’s just a life of room to room
where my lovers come no more
In the dream that I could beat
the devil from my door
God it gets so lonesome
when the fire is in your veins
When all you got is one last shot
to get it right again

Chorus

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More Often Than Not   (David Wiffen)   [Albums: Blue River, single--Blue River]

Well, have I not been quite far enough
How many times do you have to die now
How many sets has it been
Not another one, oh no
And would you believe
That it happens more often than not
But here's to all the people
That I'm not with tonight
Wherever they are

Well, I rolled into town last night, I’m tired
And would you believe I would like to cry now
I saw my lady laying there with a man
Not another one, oh no
And would you believe
That it happens more often than not
And here's to all the ladies
That I'm not with tonight
Wherever they are

So I went on stumbling to the town
How many times do you got to try
Someone said that she would love me
Not another one, oh no
And would you believe
That it happens more often than not
But here's to all the ladies
That fell for me tonight
Whoever they are

So pass that bottle, now give it here
There’s so many reasons to drink it dry
Numb my pain maybe even kill me
Hey have another one let’s go
And would you believe
That it happens more often than not
And here's to all the bottles
That I’ve drunk in my time
Whatever they were

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Round the bend   (Eric Andersen)   [Albums: Blue River]

Chorus:
   Oh Jesus I'm falling please see where I am
   Help me to get around the next bend
   and if you can't save me then please send a friend
   someone who's been there and come back again

Like a bird on a lonely wind
looking for his own
He only dreamed of freedom, Lord
the one he's never known
Through the worried world he went
but always so alone
Like a stranger he will wander
always looking for his home

Chorus

I knew a man with a lonely mind
a prisoner so unfree
that all the beauty locked inside his soul
he never could believe
Through the frightening days he ran
stumbling hopelessly
Yes I knew that man well
for that prisoner he was me

Chorus

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Return to the Eric Andersen Page. Last revised: June 2011.