1. |
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I can hear the rumble of the evening train
Rolling through the weather not far away
That'd be the train that my best friends on
She's going back where she's been coming from
A lot of mothers out there, they started out young
Mary's in the dress that her mother passed on
She's been waiting on some money from her brother in law
She's gone pawn some medals from the vietnam war
Can a dream be had just to be ignored
where they're out of luck and they're unemployed
they'll all be talking 'bout things they can't afford
where all the boys get drunk and the girls get bored.
I'm going back then, when she left her land
for a room down the cold end of an alley
when we stayed up late in the quiet bars
and recalled all the days gone in the valley
but sure enough soon she had to run
back where she'd been coming from.
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2. |
Case's Blues
05:07
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Flowers in the valley get burned, when the summer embraced them
Soon they fell into the earth, and eventually they all return
Cold Case left on a Sunday, she crept out of a crowded room
While the ones around her wilted, cold Case, still in bloom
She can hang onto a thing or two because she knows
She can put it to better use where she goes.
She loved to watch the towns go by, riding on the passenger side
She sings along with Lucinda, on into an untold night
Underneath the highway stars, taking in a longer view
She romanticized everything that she’s get herself into
Cold Case lying on a mattress down beside her rider’s car
She pockets his money and keys, after he’s bared his scars.
She can hang onto a thing or two because she knows
She can put it to better use where she goes
She’s leaning on a broken down wagon
Steam coming off of the hood
She’s playing down paranoid feelings
She’d keep moving if she only could
Cold Case woke up interstate, before she called back home
“We’ve been trying to reach you since you’ve been gone”
Jim and got a gift anymore, why’d you have to leave him that way”
Cold Case, crying on a payphone, back behind the wheel at the break of day.
She’s going down feeling bad ‘cause she knows she’s returning to the place and people she owes
She’ll settle in fine back home, with a good friend of Jim’s
He’ll be selling everything, to buy her an engagement ring
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3. |
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On the dark side of the great dividing range
Black birds settle on the plains
In the low, low lands
And I’ve been riding around all day
And I found myself so far away
Riding through the remains
I’ve been waiting around for the weather to change
In the backwash towns while the sun was setting high
I saw it shine through the shame
I’m on the dark side of the great dividing range
It’s where I’m willingly bound to stay
Where the sad winds carry me off and away
And bring me home again
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4. |
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I gave my girl
Second hand , stolen pearls
That I found in a bottom drawer
In a bedroom I’d never been before
Down the end of a rich mans hall
On the wrong side of the law
I saw myself reflected in
The mirror there hanging on the wall
Down the end of a rich mans hall
In the dark, in the dim
I cut my knee, climbing in
And the floor broke my fall
Still my heart was aching most of all
My heart was beating hard
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5. |
the Butcher Tree
02:56
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Up until the time I was seventeen
We used to drink down by the butcher tree
We’d get so full we could hardly see
Our way back home
Until my brother found out where I’d been
Underneath the shade of the butcher tree
I never told the others what he told me
And I never did go back
Daddy went to prison in seventy three
I never saw him and he never saw me
And up until then I never knew
Exactly what a man might do
I’m looking at stain on my sleeve
On a shirt that was handed down to me
Stained by the blood of the butcher tree
Stained in the fibre of my dreams
And it’s spilling out and over
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6. |
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Mary and I went for a drive , for something to do on a Friday night
With a bottle or two and cigarettes, and a couple of boys I’d never met
Out on the north road, out of a dead town, we found them both waiting for us, as off in the distance all the houselights, soon would all go out.
Mary’s intentions were all but kind for the boys that she bought along that night. I had no idea what they’d done to deserve what Mary had in mind.
Things became a little strange, when we hit a dear on the mountain range. He poor thing barely alive, laying down in the headlights. Soon we decided something had to be done. With that the driver returned from the car, carrying a gun. I watched her as she laid that thing to rest, and we all agreed it was best, and as it struggled on one last breath we all stood in silence.
Standing there in my despair, staring up to the stars, as those two boys unaware, we’re calling me back to the car. Mary and I went for a drive, for something to do on a Friday night, but I would’ve stayed home, had I’ve known what she had in mind
I mean what would you do with a gun?
Out in the woods for the weekend
Bringing other boys along
We don’t even know where they come from.
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7. |
Sligo River Blues
01:50
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8. |
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Darling you and I’ve been barely doing fine
Living out here on the welfare line
In a place everybody is passing through
You figure out young, your choices are few
We became lovers in the cradle of June
And you rocked my soul for a year or two
We bought a little baby into the world
Then another and another little baby girl
Eleven years later how they flew
We raised them up the way we knew
We raised them up the way we knew
Here in the green grand dark valley of gloom
In the green grand dark valley of gloom
To raise them up good..it aint easy to do.
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9. |
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I’m just riding around
I’m down in the low lands
Waiting for the weather to change
I’m on the dark side of the great dividing range
Where bad days are buried underneath the sky
It’s nobody else’s business what I do with mine
I could be looking out the window most of the day
I wouldn’t see much coming my way
So I’m just riding around with the blues
The winds blowing steady on the plains
The sun goes down on the wrecking yard and the rain
And it shines through the shame
I’m on the dark side of the great dividing range
So I’m just riding around
I’m down in the low lands
rumaging through the remains
I’m on the dark side of the great dividing range
There’s a peaceful feeling in the valley bellow
When you get used to what you know
We’re living in the shadows of pioneers,
Underneath a curse that settled down here
I’m just riding around with the blues
What if my love should leave on a passenger train
Wouldn’t the sleepers tremble underneath the strain
Wouldn’t that ride steal away my brain
I’m on the dark side of the great dividing range
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Sean McMahon Melbourne, Australia
With a string of independent releases to his name and over a decade of non stop writing, recording and performing, Sean McMahon has honed an undeniably genuine voice as a singer/songwriter, His songs are laden with lyrical beauty, weaving vivid story telling, confessional narratives and abstract musings through timeless sounds inspired by classic vintage folk, rock and cosmic country, ... more
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