1. |
||||
|
I met a girl out in the hills who gave my lonely heart a thrill
Her beauty seemed just like a breath of spring
And when she looked into my eyes I thought of bluest summer skies
And when I held her hand in mine I heard the bluebirds sing.
CHO: They sang of wondering (wondering if you love her)
Will she marry (marry if you ask her)
Will her heart beat (heart beat true for him)
For then and ever more.
And when she’s lonely (lonely is he near her)
And when there’s sadness (sadness will he cheer her)
Will they always (always be together)
Until in death they part.
I courted her for months on end until she promised we would wed
We planned on being married in the spring
All thru the long cold winter months it seemed that spring would never come
And every gloomy winter day I heard the bluebirds sing.
CHO: They sang of waiting (waiting for the flowers)
And of counting (counting every hour)
Till the bluebird bluebird chirps its welcome)
Into the world once more
And tho we’re waiting (waiting for the sunshine)
We keep hating (hating every storm cloud)
That has gathered (gathered o’er the mountains)
To keep us far apart.
And when at last spring touched the earth we were married in the village church
Our wedding seemed just like a dream come true
So many years have come and gone, our love is still as true and strong
As when I found her long ago, and still the bluebirds sing.
CHO: They sing of loving (loving every hour)
That I’m married (married to my flower)
We’ll be happy (happy ever after)
As since the day we met.
Tho we’re older (older love is sweeter)
We grow fonder (fonder of each other)
We’ll be sweethearts (sweethearts close together) / Until the end of time.
|
||||
2. |
||||
|
I don't blame you for I know you want her
That your love for me was never real
I could hold you but you'd be unhappy
But it's alright if that's the way you feel
I know that I will always go on caring
And my feelings now I must conceal
I still need you and I want you with me
But it's alright if that's the way you feel
I always knew some day I would lose you
When those lies about me were revealed
Its plain to see sweetheart you believe them
But it's alright if that's the way you feel
I know that I will always go on caring
And my feelings now I must conceal
I still need you and I want you with me
But it's alright if that's the way you feel
|
||||
3. |
Cotton Mill Girls
02:02
|
|||
|
I worked in the cotton mill all my life
Aint’ got nothing but a barlow knife
It’s hard times cotton mill girls
Hard times everywhere.
CHO: It’s hard times cotton mill girls
Hard times cotton mill girls
Hard times cotton mill girls
Hard times everywhere.
In 1915 we heard it said
Move to cotton country and get ahead
It’s hard times cotton mill girls
Hard times everywhere.
From Gilmer to Bartow’s a long long way
Down Cartecay from Ellijay
It’s hard times cotton mill girl
Hard times everywhere.
Us kids worked 12 hours a day
For 14 cents of measly pay
It’s hard times cotton mill girls
Hard times everywhere.
When I die don’t bury me at all
Just hang me up on the spinning room wall
And pickle my bones in alcohol
It’s hard times cotton mill girls.
|
||||
4. |
Tear Down the Fences
02:42
|
|||
|
Sunday morning, sun’s a-shining
Flowers blooming everywhere
Birds are singing, soft winds blowing
Whispering a message in the air.
If I could have 1 wish and know that it would come true
I’d wish that God would give us strength to know just what to do
Then we could tear down the fences that fence us all in
Fences created by such evil men
Oh we could tear down the fences that fence us all in
And we could walk together again.
Sunday morning, dark clouds rising
Oh there’s no sunshine anywhere
Strong winds blowing, God give us wisdom
To grasp the message in the air
|
||||
5. |
Someone I Never Knew
02:36
|
|||
|
Hear that lonesome whistle blow
Train is about on time
Someone who's on that train will be
Home when it comes tonight
Three long years ago today
We held each other tight
And I'm wondering now what that train will bring
Home when it comes tonight.
CHO: Will it bring my sweetheart back to me
Shining with love so bright
Or will it someone I never knew
Home when it comes tonight.
You’ve got both arms and you’ve got both legs
And your eyes they can see the light
But oh Lord it's your mind I'm wondering about
As you come home tonight
Will you bring the rage of battle home
And the fallen left behind
The cries of the wounded wracked with pain
Home when you come tonight.
|
||||
6. |
||||
7. |
Tramps and Hawkers
02:17
|
|||
|
Ah, I’ll never forget, I can still see her yet
As she sings her song all alone
How many have passed as she sits there and asks
For a friend to help her get home.
How many nights does she give up the fight
To a bottle in her shopping bag
Drop her a dime, but don’t pay her no mind
Just tramps and hawkers, you say.
In her pleading eyes I saw the pain and the lie
That society serves on a few
Who went on the bum, believing no more’s to come
Although a great deal more is due
The frustrations just words that will never be heard
What good are rights without any means
Sentenced to roam with no friends or a home
Just tramps and hawkers you say.
But the gypsy in me was just learning to be free
I had my own songs and places to go
So I left her there as if I didn’t care
I really did, she’ll never know.
Oh I’ll never forget, I can still see her yet
As she sings her song all alone.
|
||||
8. |
Train on the Island
03:00
|
|||
|
Train on the island, thought I heard her squeal
Go tell my true love how happy I do feel.
Train on the island, thought I heard her blow
Go and tell my true love, sick and I can’t go.
Train on the island, boys she’s making time
Go tell my true love, coming down the line.
Steam from the whistle, smoke from the stack
Gonna catch that 5:18, never coming back.
Train on the island, lord I heard her cry
Go tell my true love so lonesome I could die.
Train on the island, moaning mighty low
Go and tell my true love as far as I can go.
|
||||
9. |
Handsome Boy
03:47
|
|||
|
Brio was a good dog
Susanna’s faithful friend
A rascal and a wanderer
Her buddy til the end.
His coat was black and shiny
Legs so long and lean
They took him far into the hills
And brought him back again.
CHO: They gave each other love
They brought each other joy
Thru good days, bad days, every day
He was her handsome boy.
One of Brio’s ears went north
The other pointed south
A sort of goofy look for sure
But we loved this silly clown.
Brio loved to run and chase
He loved to gather rocks
Could have built me a mile long fence
With all the stones he brought.
Then one day Brio left us
So sad to see him go
But he’s free to play and ramble
Forever gathering stones.
All up and down those Spanish hills
He runs so fine and free
Still forever watchful
Susanna in his keep.
Sometimes at dusk you’ll hear him
Barkin’ at the night
Callin’ out I’m doin’ fine’
Susanna don’t you cry.
And when his busy day is done
Tired and run his course
He settles down beneath his tree
Safe with all his toys.
|
||||
10. |
Last Chance
01:28
|
|||
11. |
Stay All Night
02:50
|
|||
|
Chickens crowing in the old pine tree (3)
Down in North Carolina.
River’s up and I can’t get across (3x)
Down in North Carolina.
Waterbound and I can't get home (3)
Down in North Carolina
Stay all night and don’t go home (3x)
Stay with me till morning
|
||||
12. |
||||
|
Leaves are falling and turning to showers of gold
As the postman climbs up our long hill
And there’s sympathy written all over his face
As he hands me a couple more bills.
Who’ll watch the home place
Who’ll tend my heart’s dear space
Who’ll fill my empty place
When I am gone from here.
There’s a lovely green nook by a clear running stream
It was my place when I was quite small
It’s creatures and sounds could soothe my worse pains
But today they don’t ease me at all.
In my grandfather’s shed there are hundreds of tools
I know them by feeling, by name
And like parts of my body they’ve patched this old place
When I move them they won’t be the same.
Now I wander around touching each blessed thing
Chimney, the tables, the trees
And my memories swirl round me like birds on the wing
When I leave here, oh who will I be?
|
||||
13. |
||||
|
Well I called you to breakfast at half past 8
You’s so drunk you put your nose in your plate
Ain’t that a shape to get yourself in
Gravy drippin’ right off of your chin.
Spilt your coffee all over the floor
There ain’t no use to house clean no more
If some of the neighbors was to drop in
They’d think my kitchen was the old hog pen.
Last summer when I was hoeing corn on the hill
Thought it was to make bread but it went to the still
Better get some cornmeal in the bin
Gonna warp you with a rolling pin.
All these years you said you’d drink no more
I’d like to bust you with a 2 by 4
Yesterday I found a bull’s eye quart
Where you hid it till you needed a snort.
But the wrong one found it and poured it out
And you wanta know where, in the little outhouse
Next time you have to be excused
Just raise the lid and smell the booze.
Now if God should decided to call you away
You’d be bound to fill a drunkard’s grave
Don’t think I’d shed any tears
For I’d be the happiest I’ve been in years
But when Gabriel sounds his trumpet clear
You’d better get away we don’t have drinkin up here
St. Peter will say “go back down the hill
The devil’s waiting for you at the old still,
Yeah, the devil’s waiting for you at the old still.”
|
||||
14. |
Too Late, Too Late
03:41
|
|||
|
I met those dark eyes on the street
I bowed my head but I could not speak
For there was another by her side
I thought someday she’d be my bride
Too late, too late
CHO: I saw those dark eyes fade away
Beneath that old ellum tree
In heaven I know that I can say
A dark eyed angel waits for me
Too late, too late
Although you’re gone I can’t forget
The happy hours when first we met
It seems so very long ago
When you said I love you so
Too late, too late
When twilight falls I feel the same
Although I know that I’m to blame
Last night I prayed that you would wait
Up there beside the golden gate
Too late, too late
|
||||
15. |
Come Into Your Own
03:50
|
|||
|
I give up on sleepin and I turn the light on
Turn an envelope over and I write til you’re gone
The porch light’s still burnin because you never came
Who was I expecting, looks like nothin has changed.’
But I’ve been to that crossroads and I’ve cleaned off that shelf
It’s just something you have to admit to yourself
Don’t count on me darlin cause I’ll be up and gone
And I’m waiting on you to come into your own.
Everything’s showing but nothin gets said
Good love goes wasted and we both go unfed
I take your love when it finds me and the evening is fine
And then the morning reminds me I was wasting my time.
But I’ve been to that crossroads and I’ve cleaned off that shelf
It’s just something that you have to admit to yourself
Don’t count on me darlin cause I’ll be up and gone
And I’m waiting on you to come into your own.
All things to their season and I won’t mourn you long
But I’m counting on you to come into your own.
|
||||
16. |
Gloryland
03:46
|
|||
|
If you have friends in gloryland
Who’ve left because of pain
Thank God up there, they’ll die no more
They’ll suffer not again.
CHO:
Then weep not friends, I’m going home
Up there we’ll die no more
No coffins will be made up there
No graves on that bright shore.
The lame will walk in Gloryland
The blind up there will see
The deaf in gloryland will hear
The dumb will talk to me.
There’ll be no sun in gloryland
The moon and stars won’t shine
For Christ Himself is light up there
We’ll live on love divine.
|
||||
Alice Gerrard Durham, North Carolina
A singer and songwriter, Alice’s recordings with Hazel Dickens during the 1960s and ’70s influenced a generation of women musicians from Laurie Lewis to the Judds. Nominated for a Grammy in 2015, she was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Assoc. Hall of Fame in 2017. A documentary film about Alice, "You Gave Me a Song" premiered at the Full Frame Independent Film Festival in 2019. ... more
If you like Tear Down the Fences, you may also like:
The Flowers That Bloom in Spring
by Kieran Kane & Rayna Gellert
Kieran Kane & Rayna Gellert offer up a stunning minimalist country record, conjuring huge emotions with little more than vocals & guitar.
go to album
Michelle Stodart’s folk music captures hope in melancholy, addressing the transformational aspects of the most challenging times.
go to album
The Edge of the Land
by Katie Spencer
Spencer's indie folk sophomore album was recorded live in the studio over the course of two days.
go to album
Mbavaira
by Ephat Mujuru & the Spirit of the People
featured on Bandcamp Radio Jun 29, 2021
go to album
Sweet Moments of Confusion
by Sweet Moments of Confusion
featured on Bandcamp Radio Jun 11, 2013
go to album
Father and daughter team up to make pretty folk music inspired by the day she was born and the day she'll leave home.
go to album
Stunningly beautiful songs wrought with pedal steel and nylon-string guitar that cast mesmerizing melodic shapes.
go to album
