The Ginsangers | Lyrics

GENTLE GRACES

1. IT’S A BANJO PLAYIN’

© Harvey Reid, Quahog Music, BMI

It’s a breeze on a summer evening
It’s a firefly on a July night
It’s an old Chevy truck parked in the drive
It’s big oak tree it’s a love that’s alive

It’s a song stuck in your mind
It’s a child learning nursery rhymes
It’s a fiddler’s foot on the kitchen floor
It’s an old love song you never heard before

Chorus:
It’s a freight train whistle in the night
Singing like a mournful dove
It’s girl leaving town without looking back 
It’s a banjo playin’ it’s a boy I love

It’s your momma calling on the phone 
It’s a dog run away come home
In the bottom of the ninth it’s a big homerun
It’s the love we have it’s the morning sun

Chorus

2. DARKER SHADES OF BLUE

© 2001 C. Townsend & D. Parker, Wild GinSang Music, BMI

This is a funny, funny, funny kind of love.
I can’t tell who’s been doing what to who.
And the only way I see theyou these days
Is in darker, darker, darker shades of blue.

This is a funny, funny, funny kind of love.
If I was seeing stars it might be true.
But all I see are endless days
In darker, darker, darker shades of blue.

This is a funny, funny, funny kind of love.
You sulk and pout no matter what I do.
If I hung the stars and sun they’d be
Darker, darker, darker shades of blue.

Blue…….

Bridge
It’s been good to know you babe.
But spring comes and goes and flowers fade
Into darker, darker, darker shades of blue.

It’s a funny, funny, funny kind of love.
I’m glad I’m packing up and leaving you.
And I finally stopped talking, ‘cause the words came out
In darker, darker, darker shades of blue.

3. GENTLE GRACES

© 2001 C. Townsend & D. Parker, Wild GinSang Music, BMI

You look at me with your jeweler’s eyes
and I shine like a diamond.
I give to you all the sweetness I can find
You give me your strong arms to lie in.

We have seen the deepest places
of one another’s hearts
and live with just the gentle graces
when we’re together and apart.

Chorus:
Baby I love you.
No one else will ever do,
It’s you and only you for always.

We came into each other’s lives
like shadows mingling in the night,
and now we’re woven, tied together
like the darkness and the light.

In this love we find sweet freedom,
moving like the river flows,
touching, laughing, lightly dancing,
ever growing as we go.

Chorus

4. THERE YOU GO AGAIN

© 2001 C. Townsend & D. Parker, Wild GinSang Music, BMI

There you go again 
You make me think about when
Every day was the first of June 
Every night was a big full moon
And every song had a happy tune
Oh there you go again

Gonna drive to Third and Main
To see the girls again
Remember when the good times rolled 
We were kids and feeling bold
And all the streets were paved with gold
Oh there you go again

Then I’ll go someplace warm 
Sit on the beach and burn
I’ll drink Marguaritas in the setting sun
Dance with strangers have some fun
And I won’t feel like a fox on the run
Oh there you go again

No I’m gonna stay at home
Like a bee in a honeycomb
I won’t go out and party anymore
But whose wearin’ out the bell on my front door
Grinnin’ like a cat who wants some more 
Oh there you go again

5.WHO WILL REMEMBER

© 2001 C. Townsend & D. Parker, Wild GinSang Music, BMI

Who will remember the coal miner’s widow?
These long long years, he’s been in the ground.
Who will remember all of her hard times?
Will anybody walk with her, the road she’s goin’ down?

Who will remember all the coal dust dreams
Given up in darkness in the Pocahontas seam?
Who will remember, have we ever met?
Will it be your neighbor who covers all our bets?

Who will remember Coalwood and Keystone
Where the ghosts of miners in the quiet night still moan?
Who will remember, who will light the lamps
In these and a hundred other spirit haunted camps?

Who will remember the passion and the pain
Of being ground into the dust for a rich man’s gain?
Who will remember? Speak to me his name.
Will it be your neighbor who says never again?

Who will remember the hopes that filled this life
A woman for her family, a husband for his wife?
Who will remember? Or should we all forget
All of God’s dear children who in these coal camps met?

6. FREIGHT TRAIN

© Elizabeth Cotton, Sanga Music, Inc., BMI

Chorus:
Freight train freight train run so fast
Freight train freight train run so fast
Please don’t tell ‘em what train I’m on
They won’t know what route I’ve gone

When I’m dead and in my grave
No more good times here I’ll crave
Place them stones at my head and feet
And tell ‘em I’ve gone to sleep

Chorus

When I die Lord bury me deep
Way down on old Chestnut Street
So I can hear that ol’ number nine
As she comes rollin’ by

Chorus

7. TELLING A STONE

© 2001 C. Townsend & D. Parker, Wild GinSang Music, BMI

I’m sitting here listening to the radio.
It’s Friday night and I’m watching it snow.
You’re two hundred miles on down the road
And prob’ly ‘bout as happy as a dog out in the cold.
My friends tell me not to love you baby;
It’s like telling a stone not to roll.

I don’t know what demons drove you ‘round the block
Or what voodoo magic kept your heart locked in a box.
I tried to make you happy, ah to make you smile,
But now and then I had to be a woman like me for a while.
They tell me not to love you baby;
It’s like telling a stone not to roll.

When I tried to reach you I poured out my soul.
Everything I gave you disappeared into a hole.
You’d talk, talk baby, all about you and me,
But even through a looking glass there was only you to see.
My friends tell me not to love you baby;
It’s like telling a stone not to roll.

I’m sitting here sinking in the Friday night blues
Don’t much feel like going out in my dancing shoes
It’s all over baby, no place to go away
And too many folks on the radio with nothing good to say.
My friends tell me not to love you baby;
It’s like telling a stone not to roll.

I was drawn to you darlin’ like you were my drug of choice
When I heard myself talking I didn’t know the voice.
Thought I was superwoman but I can’t take this load
Time to quit this crazy habit and get on down the road.
My friends tell me not to love you baby;
But I’m already on the roll.

8. DREAMERS

© 2001 C. Townsend & D. Parker, Wild GinSang Music, BMI

The finest kind of love’s 
When two dreamers come together
When two dreamers come together 
In the falling of the night

With their eyes they hold each other
More tenderly than moonlight
More tenderly than moonlight 
In the falling of the night

So afraid to hold each other 
Afraid their hope will shatter 
Afraid their hope will shatter 
Into a thousand lonely days

Their fingers touch so lightly
Light as an angel’s breath
Light as an angel’s breath 
Whisp’ring dreams of heaven

Chorus
Dreamers dreams are tossed and blown
It’s a short road to heartbreak
And a long, long way back home

Chorus

9. DEFYING GRAVITY

© Jesse Winchester, WV Music Corp. O/B/O 4th Fl. Music, Inc., ASCAP

I live on a big blue ball
And I never do dream I may fall
But even the day that I do
I’ll jump up and smile back at you

I don’t even know where we are
But they tell me we’re circling a star
Well I’ll take their word for I don’t know
And I’m dizzy so maybe that’s so

La la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la

I’m riding a big blue ball 
And I never do dream I may fall
But even the high must lay low 
So when I do fall well I’ll be glad to go

La la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la

10. DID ME IN

© 2001 C. Townsend & D. Parker, Wild GinSang Music, BMI

I said, Heavens no, I don’t need another
I’ve already had one crazy lover.
He had great big hair and a crooked grin
With the cutest little dimple in his chin.
It was that dimple that did me in.

I want a refined man in Italian suits
Not a guy named Junior wearin’ lumberjack boots.
Trucks and guitars wear me thin
Though I did know a drummer way back when…
It was his dimple that did me in.

He said, “Come on babe let’s give it a try,
I’m not your small town average guy.
I don’t have a truck or a crooked grin
But I’ve got a dog who’s man’s best friend.”
It was his dimple that did me in.

I said, “How am I going to tell my mother
That I’ve got another crazy lover”?
He said, “I’m not crazy, I’m a poet
The dog and I, we both know it.”
It was his dimple that did me in.
BREAK
Now he wears fine Italian suits,
They look pretty good with his lumberjack boots.
The dog is still his closest friend
They’ve both driven me ‘round the bend.
It was his dimple that did me in.

11. SUMMER SONG

© 2001 C. Townsend & D. Parker, Wild GinSang Music, BMI

Summertime lies hot and soft
Upon the ancient hills.
I tell my lover I love it less,
For there are no whippoorwills.

Fireflies, like Christmas lights, 
Decorate the trees.
I smell the scent of plants and earth
Captured by the breeze.

Stars are scattering God’s own light
Across the black of night.
They burn with holy patience 
And refuse to be less bright.

The moon has poured its silver smile
Out upon the ridge;
The frogs and peepers form a choir
Down by the little bridge.

My passion is refined to grace
By the goodness of this place;
My feet upon the earth below
My hands are reaching into space.

Venus rises to the west, 
Mars lies to the south;
Hushing up the noisy words 
That tumble from my mouth.

Repeat 1st Verse

12. LIFE'S A PENNY

© 2001 C. Townsend & D. Parker, Wild GinSang Music, BMI

Summertime lies hot and soft
Upon the ancient hills.
I tell my lover I love it less,
For there are no whippoorwills.

Fireflies, like Christmas lights, 
Decorate the trees.
I smell the scent of plants and earth
Captured by the breeze.

Stars are scattering God’s own light
Across the black of night.
They burn with holy patience 
And refuse to be less bright.

The moon has poured its silver smile
Out upon the ridge;
The frogs and peepers form a choir
Down by the little bridge.

My passion is refined to grace
By the goodness of this place;
My feet upon the earth below
My hands are reaching into space.

Venus rises to the west, 
Mars lies to the south;
Hushing up the noisy words 
That tumble from my mouth.

Repeat 1st Verse

13. COUNTRY MILE

© 2001 C. Townsend & D. Parker, Wild GinSang Music, BMI


With Irish eyes and hair down long
she is beauty soft but strong.
She will not stand for being wronged
by men who come on too strong.

Hope is the song she sings,
sunlight is her smile,
lightly go her footsteps
as she walks a country mile.

Not so many years ago
the road seemed dark and long.
then she reached inside herself
and found another song.

She would not give her hope away,
she would not lose her smile,
she held her head up, walking tall
for a long, long country mile.

Then one night ‘neath the August moon
they met to the music of a fiddler’s tune,
love came a callin’, oh so soon
now they walk a country mile.

Hope is the song she sings,
sunlight is her smile,
lightly go her footsteps
as she walks a country mile;
now they walk a country mile.

14. NOTHIN' IN RAMBLIN'

Joe McCoy

I was born in Louisiana raised in Algiers
And everywhere I go the people always say
There ain’t nothin’ in ramblin’ neither in runnin’ round
I’m gonna get myself a good man, ooh Lord and settle down

I was walking down the alley with my hand in my coat
The police stopped to shoot me over somethin’ I stole
There ain’t nothin’ in ramblin’ neither in runnin’ round
I’m gonna get myself a good man ooh Lord and settle down

Now the people on the highway is walkin’ and cryin’
Some is starvin’ some is dyin’
There ain’t nothin’ in ramblin’ neither in runnin’ round
I ‘m gonna get myself a good man ooh Lord and settle down

You may go to Hollywood try to get on the screen
But I’m gonna stay right here and eat more chowder and beans
There ain’t nothin’ in ramblin’ neither in runnin’ round
I’m gonna get myself a good man ooh Lord and settle down

Repeat 1st Verse