Violets Of Dawn    (Eric Andersen)   [Albums: Bout Changes, Best of EA, Violets of Dawn, Vanguard Visionaries, World of Folk 235, The Best Songs, Collection, So Much on My Mind, Songs of EA, Selected Songs, Broadside 59)]

Take me to the night I'm tippin topsy-turvy turnin upside down
Hold me tight and whisper what you wish for, there is no one here around
You may sing-song me sweet smiles regardless of the city's careless frown
Come watch the no colors fade blazin into petal sprays of violets of dawn

In blindful wonderment's enchantment, you can lift my wings softly to flight
Your eyes are like swift fingers reachin out into the pockets of my night
Whirling twirlin puppy warm before the flashing cloaks of darkness gone
Come see the no colors fade blazin into petal sprays of violets of dawn

So Prince Charming I'll be on two white steeds to bring you dappled diamond crowns
And climb your tower Sleepin beauty 'fore you ever know I've left the ground
You can wear a Cinderella, Snow White, Alice Wonderlanded gown
Come watch the no colors fade blazin into petal sprays of violets of dawn

But if I seem to wander off in dreamlike looks please let me settle slowly.
It's only me just starin out at you, a seemin stranger speakin holy
No I don't mean to wake you up, it's only loneliness just comin on
So let the no colors fade blazin into petal sprays of violets of dawn

Like shadows burstin into mist behind the echoes of this nonsense song
It's just a chase in whisperin trail of secret steps, oh see them laughin on
There's magic in the sleepiness of wakin to a childish sounding yawn
Come watch the no colors fade blazin into petal sprays of violets of dawn

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That's Alright Mama  (Arthur Crudup)   [Albums: Bout Changes]

Well, that's alright, mama,
That's alright for you
That's alright mama,
Just anyway you do
Well, that's alright, that's alright.
That's alright now mama,
Anyway you do

Mama she done told me,
Papa done told me too
"Son, that gal your foolin' with,
She ain't no good for you"
But, that's alright, that's alright.
That's alright now mama,
Anyway you do

I'm leaving town, baby,
I'm leaving town for sure
Well, then you wont be bothered with me
Hanging 'round your door
Well, that's alright, that's alright.
That's alright now mama,
Anyway you do

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Thirsty Boots    (Eric Andersen)   [Albums: Bout Changes, Best of EA, Violets of Dawn, Vanguard Visionaries, The Best Songs, Collection, Philly Folk Festival, Live at the Mudd Club, Folk City, Kerrville, Wildflower Festival, So Much on My Mind, Songs of EA, Selected Songs, Broadside 55]

You've long been on the open road
You've been sleepin in the rain
From the dirty words and muddy cells
Your clothes are soiled and stained.
But the dirty words and muddy cells
Will soon be hid in shame
So only stop to rest yourself
Till you go off again.

So take off your thirsty boots
And stay for awhile
Your feet are hot and weary
From a dusty mile
And maybe I can make you laugh
Maybe I can try
I'm just lookin' for the evening
And the morning in your eyes.

But tell me of the ones you saw
As far as you could see
Across the plain from field to town
A-marching to be free
And of the rusted prison gates
That tumbled by degree
Like laughing children one by one
They looked like you and me

So take off your thirsty boots
And stay for awhile
Your feet are hot and weary
From a dusty mile
And maybe I can make you laugh
Maybe I can try
I'm just lookin' for the evening
And the morning in your eyes.

I know you are no stranger down
The crooked rainbow trails
From dancing cliff-edged shattered sills
Of slander shackled jails
But the voices drift up from below
As the walls they're being scaled
All of this and more my friend
Your song shall not be failed.

So take off your thirsty boots
And stay for awhile
Your feet are hot and weary
From a dusty mile
And maybe I can make you laugh
Maybe I can try
I'm just lookin' for the evening
And the morning in your eyes.

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Cross your Mind (Eric Andersen)   [Albums: Bout Changes]

As I step my feet are dripped in sundown’s shadows
And the eyes that pass remind me that she’s gone
If my steps could only go back to where they started
To the only one I could call my own
But stars are hid familiar paths of pardon
As I find myself and evening drawing near
If only there was some way I could show her
How much I really felt – and I really cared

Chorus:
  But now I only stop myself and wonder
  If you ever think of all that's gone behind
  Yes I wonder just how things are going for you
  I wonder does it ever cross your mind

Now my days they could be easy going
Though the keeper of my cares is far away
Cause if there's someone somewhere out there waitin’
Just to let you know things are still OK
When my days begin to lose their number
And the silver dawn comes streakin’ from behind
From the night I spent in jokin’ and a laughin’
With my friends who tried to ease a troubled mind

Chorus

I guess we should I guess somehow we couldn’t
See it through and get along somehow
I wish we had a chance to start all over
But too many doors are closed to open now
Gal if it comes that our ways don’t touch together
Cause our roads ya know they just don't meet again
I’d be pleased to know that you still think about me
I’d be pleased to count myself amongst yer friends

Chorus

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I Shall Go Unbounded  (Eric Andersen)   [Albums: Bout Changes, The Best Songs, Collection, Songs of EA, Broadside 62]

Oh I see in your prison
Your chains how they cling, how they clang
Like fingers reaching in the darkness
Gripping on the bars in vain
Yes I would only like to help you
That is all and nothing more
But I will go unbounded
Standing outside of your door.

Oh you don't have to bend for me
I'm only watching, but I will not blame
And you don't have to send for me
My eyes can only mirror out your name
Yes I would only like to show you
That is all and nothing more
But I will go unbounded
Looking outside of your door.

Oh you do what you have to do
Right or wrong, weak or strong
And if you see me at the crossroads
Remember me before passing on
Yes I would only like to tell you
That is all and nothing more
But I will go unbounded
Listening outside of your door.

Oh I see in your prison
Your chains how they clamor, how they clang
Like fingers reaching in the darkness
Gripping on the bars in vain
Yes I would only like to know you
That is all and nothing more
But I will go unbounded
Waiting outside of your door.

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Champion At Keeping Them Rolling  (Ewan MacColl)   [Albums: Bout Changes]

I am an old-timer, I travel the road
I sit in me wagon and lumber me load
Me hotel is the jungle, a camp me abode
And I'm well known to Blondie and Mary
Me liquor is diesel oil laced with strong tea
And the old highway code was me first ABC
And I cut me eye teeth on an old AEC
And I'm champion at keeping them rolling

I've sat in the cabin and broiled in the sun
Been snowed up on scaffs on the Manchester run
I've crawled through the fog with me twenty-two ton
Of fish that was stinking like blazes
From London to Glasgow to the Newcastle quay
From Liverpool, Preston and Bristol City
The polons on the road give the thumb sign to me
But I'm champion at keeping them rolling

You may sing of your soldiers and sailors so bold
But there's many and many a hero untold
Who sits at the wheel in the heat and the cold
Day after day without sleeping
So watch out for cops and slow down at the bend
Check all your gauges and watch your big end
And zing with your lights when you pass an old friend
You'll be champion at keeping them rolling

So watch out for cops and slow down at the bend
Check all your gauges and watch your big end
And zing with your lights when you pass an old friend
You'll be champion at keeping them rolling

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Hey babe have you been cheating  (Eric Andersen)   [Albums: Bout Changes, Best of EA, Violets of Dawn, Vanguard Visionaries, The Best Songs, One More Shot (Molde bonus disc), Songs of EA]

Chorus:
   Hey baby you been cheating
   Whose time have you been keeping
   I'd like to know cause you don't care what I do
   Babe you ain't hiding nothing
   You don't have to talk to tell me something
   I'm on my way
   I'm leaving you
   Though I never wanted to

I've been awake all night wondering where you been
Then you come back home you wanna do it again
Can't stand playing your games any more
So I hope you find what you're looking for

Chorus

Can't really tell you honey
Just seems you're  looking funny
Don't quite know what I'm gonna do
Gonna start lacing up my highway shoes

Chorus

If by chance you pass me by
Turn my head you know why
Remember baby how I use to care
A little bit of loving didn't go nowhere

Chorus

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Blind Fiddler (Eric Andersen)   [Albums: Bout Changes, Broadside 54]

I lost my eyes in the Harlan pits in the year of '56
While pulling a faulty drill chain that was out of fix
It bounded from the wheel and there concealed my doom
I am a blind fiddler far from my home.

I went up into Louisville to visit Dr. Laine
He operated on one of my eyes still it is the same
The Blue Ridge can't support me it just ain't got the room
Would a wealthy colliery owner like to hear a fiddler's tune?

With politics and threatening tones the owners can control
And the unions have all left us a long, long time ago
Machinery lying scattered, no drill sounds in the mine
For all the good a collier is, he might as well be blind.

Was a time I worked a long fourteen for a short eight bucks a day
You're lucky if you're mining, that's what the owners say
And if you've got complaining, you'd better aim to keep it low
How come they took my food stamps, does anybody know?

My father was a miner's son, a miner still is he
But his eyes have took a fever, and there's a shaking in his knee
The holes are closing rapidly, he cannot understand
A machine has got a bigger arm than him or any other man.

Plastic for the windows, cardboard for the door
The baby's mouth is twisting, it'll twist a little more
They need welders in Chicago falls hollow to the floor
How many miners made that trip a thousand times or more.

The lights are burning bright, there's laughter in the town
But the streets are dark and empty, there ain't a miner to be found
They're in some lonesome hollow, where the sun refuse to shine
And the baby's screams are muffled in the sweetness of the wine.

With a wife and four young children depending now on me
Whatever can I serve them with? My God, I cannot see
Through the Blue Ridge Mountains I am content to roam
I am a blind fiddler, far from my home
Yes, I am a blind fiddler, far from my home.

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Close The Door Lightly When You Go    (Eric Andersen)   [Albums: Bout Changes, Best of EA, Violets of Dawn, Vanguard Visionaries, The Best Songs, Philly Folk Festival, Live at the Mudd Club, Wildflower Festival, So Much on My Mind, Songs of EA, Selected Songs]

Turn around, don't whisper out my name
For like a breeze it'd stir a dying flame
I'll miss someone, if it eases you to know
But close the door lightly when you go

Chorus:
   Who was the one that stole my mind
   Who was the one that robbed my time
   Who was the one who made me feel unkind
   So fare thee well, sweet love of mine

Take your tears to someone else's eyes
They're made of glass, and they cut like wounding lies
Memories, are drifting like the snow
So close the door lightly when you go

Chorus

Don't look back to where you once had been
Look straight ahead, when you're walking through the rain
And find a light, if the path gets dark and cold
But close the door lightly when you go

Chorus

Turn around, don't whisper out my name
For like a breeze it'd stir a dying flame
I'll miss someone, if it eases you to know
But close the door lightly when you go

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My Land Is A Good Land   (Eric Andersen)   [Albums: Bout Changes, Best of EA, Broadside 41]

My land is a good land
Its grass is made of rainbow blades
Its fields and its rivers were blessed by God
It's a good land so they say
It's a good land so they say

My land is a rich land
Its hills and its valleys abound
Its highways go to many good places
Where many good people are found
Where many good people are found

My land is a sweet land
It's a sweet land so I've heard
Its song is made up of many men's hands
And a throat of a hummingbird
And a throat of a hummingbird

(instrumental on 'Bout Changes 2, 1st verse on 'Bout Changes 1)

My land is a free land
It's a free land so I'm told
Freedom is a thing money can't buy
And it's worth even more than gold
And it's worth even more than gold

My land is my homeland
My homeland is a strong land too
It starts where the sun is born each morn
And it ends where the skies are blue
And it ends where the skies are blue

My land is a good land
Its grass is made of rainbow blades
Its fields and its rivers were blessed by God
It's a good land so they say
It's a good land so they say

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Last revised: Jul 2007.