1. |
The Diver
03:26
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THE DIVER (DADGAD) capo 3
© Bob Wright
I am a diver and I walk beneath the sea
It’s a place that you must learn to move about in carefully
I see the fishes and the shipwrecks in the dark
And I glory in the pressure and the circling of the sharks
I came for the adventure and for riches and for gold
It’s a story you have heard before a story that is old
But I heard the sirens singing and the choruses of whales
And I learned to love their beauty and I came to know their tales
I soon gave up on treasure that had dropped down to the sand
From the fragile boats above me that had ventured far from land
Cause it couldn’t match the beauty of the places I had found
And I felt a sense of freedom every time that I went down
I know the turtles and the mermaids all by name
And I know it is a privilege to be back with them again
Cause I’m tethered to the surface and I feel the heavy sea
And I wish that I could stay there but it isn’t meant to be
I know my time to spend with them is coming to an end
Cause my bones ache from the nitrogen the cold and from the bends
I’ll end my days a crippled man I knew the dangers all
But it’s never been my nature to ignore a siren’s call
I am a diver and I walk beneath the sea
It’s a place you learn that you must move about in carefully
I see the fishes and the shipwrecks in the dark
And I glory in the pressure and the circling of the sharks
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2. |
Cold Clear Water
01:32
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COLD CLEAR WATER
©Bob Wright
(ACCAPELLA)
stick your feet in the creek
even if they’re muddy
stick your feet in the creek
it’ll cool your brain
stick your feet in the creek
even if they’re bloody
stick your feet in the creek
it’ll keep you sane
(chorus)
cause there ain’t nothing better than
cold, clear water
cold, clear water
cold, clear water
ain’t nothing better than
cold, clear water
to make you feel allright
Johnny fell in the well
And they lowered him a ladder
Johnny fell in the well
And they said climb out
Johnny fell in the well
and he asked if he hadda ‘
Johnny fell in the well
And he’s in there now
(chorus)
There’s a snake in the lake
And he swims all crooked
There’s a snake in the lake
So we all got out
There’s a snake in the lake
Where the devil put it
There’s a snake in the lake
And it makes us shout
(chorus)
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3. |
The Keeper
04:35
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THE KEEPER (dropped D- capo 2nd)
© Bob Wright
Darkness on the water and the wind begins to roar
The harbors in the distance just beyond a rocky shore
The ship is running with the wind the captain scans the night
Looking for the way inside looking for the light
High upon a lonely cliff the keeper struggles on
Fighting through the pain to do the things that must be done
As long a he’s been stationed there he’d always done his chores
Not a single ship had ever broken on his shore
But earlier that evening he slipped upon a rock
Bent his leg beneath him and he passed out from the shock
When he had awoken there the sun had left the sky
And out upon the water he could see their running lights
The captain searched with practiced eye and bearings that were true
Waiting for the harbor light to come into his view
His vessel was committed he was out of room to turn
He cursed a keeper of the light who couldn’t make it burn
The crew could hear the crashing waves above the howling gale
Got the anchors ready and they shortened up the sails
The captain he was staring through the darkness off to port
Just a few more minutes and their lives could all be lost
The keeper took the lighthouse stairs once step at a time
It was all that he could do to drag his busted limb behind
The higher that he got the more determined he became
The last thing that he managed was to reignite the flame
The captain saw a burst of light and then he saw the rocks
Turned the wheel a quarter turn and slipped in by the docks
Above them they could see the light as bright as any star
Shining through the dark of night to tell them where they are
They found the keeper later he was dead beside the lens
Sacrificed himself to save the lives of other men
And later in the pubs that night they raised their glasses high
Here’s to those who choose to be the keepers of the lights
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4. |
L'il Banjo Song
02:09
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THE LITTLE BANJO SONG
© Bob Wright
One by one the 2x4s reach up to the sky
Building bones for a home
Someone starts a life
Every time the hammer falls
A nail bites deep and hard
What was once an empty lot
Soon becomes a yard
(chorus)
Keep in mind
That everything must change
Some blame man and some blame god
But nothing stays the same
Try to find
A way to let it be
Learn to turn those changes
Into possibilities
Crawling turns to walking
Turns to dancing if you dare
Learning how to make a sound
Becomes a song to share
Songs turn into memories
Turn around and they are gone
Or just for fun they might become
A little banjo song
(chorus)
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5. |
Immigrant Dream
03:23
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IMMMIGRANT DREAM
© Bob Wright
A
Who are you Annie Kiley
D
With your hard calloused hands
E D A
And a husband who works as a riverboat man
A7
You’re taking in laundry
D
You’re pregnant again
A E A D
But you’re proud of the life you have made… here…
A E A
You are proud of the life you have made
(Chorus)
E A D
Hearts and hands… hopes and plans
A E
That’s what an immigrant brings
E A D
Thoughts of homes and families grown
A E A
Are only an immigrant dream
D A E A
They are only an immigrant dream
You can walk to St’ Patrick’s
And the river is free
It could be the Shannon, the Liffey, the Lee
It reminds you of Ireland
So far cross the sea
But you’re proud of the life you have made… here…
You are proud of the life you have made
(Chorus)
It isn’t all good
There are people who hate
And at times you miss home
With such pain that it hurts
But you married for love
And you have food to eat
And you’re proud of the life you have made… here…
You are proud of the life you have made
(Chorus)
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6. |
Walking on Watermelons
01:29
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7. |
Wild Woman of the Hills
04:48
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WILD WOMAN OF THE HILLS (DADGAD)
© Bob Wright
She’d lost track of the wars they’d won and suffered those they’d lost
The very ground she walked upon was bloody with the cost
Yet things still grew when planted there if sun and rain were right
She didn’t know how that could be and didn’t pray at night
Now those who saw her in the hills assumed she’d lost a son
A husband or a father maybe all or maybe one
With eyes as wild as winter clouds she sang to those who came
A wordless song so sad and true they never were the same
They heard the guns they heard the screams they heard the cannons roar
They saw the bodies piled upon a cold and lonely shore
They tasted blood and innocence torn from the soldiers true
They left her food and left her there with all the things she knew
Then I received a letter and it said that I must serve
It said a war was being fought they needed men with nerve
I hiked beyond the village where the air was cool and pure
Walked up to her cabin and I knocked upon the door
She said I tell no fortunes here and no spells do I cast
But you can see the future just by looking at the past
And then she sang her song to me it filled my heart with dread
To see how little things had changed despite the many dead
So I ignored my summons and my friends went marching off
The people in my village wouldn’t talk to me no more
They drove me out upon the road and left me there to roam
And pass the caskets of my friends as they are coming home
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8. |
The Galway Swans
01:49
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9. |
The Hot Corn Girl
03:26
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THE HOT-CORN GIRL
© Bob Wright
Hot corn! Hot corn!
Here’s your lily-white corn
All you that’s got money
Poor me that’s got none
Come buy my lily-hot corn
And let me go home
They say I sing like Jenny Lind though I have never heard her
I just sing songs to sell hot-corn so have to take their word there
This Spring will mark my 13th year I feel I’m so much older
For the streets they seal the child in you
And force you to be bolder
Like Jenny Lind I’m Nordic born but came here as a baby
The magic of my father’s hands then made for me a cradle
He worked in wood on ships so grand they danced upon the ocean
But never could they ever match
My cradles gentle motion
He’d tell me stories of the sea while one hand gently rocked me
And when he’d seen me off to sleep he’d just sit there and watch me
My mother often tells me that, when I come home with pence’s
She says that if he hadn’t died
We’d all be in a mansion
My brother’s they both run the streets I fear that it will kill them
For both of them are little boys without a hope between them
They steal whatever they can take their knives right there beside them
Their blades are sharp as father’s tools
Without a hand to guide them
When summer comes I sell my corn and sing whatever moves me
I wrap myself in mother’s shawl and hope the men ignore me
My favorite songs are lullabies the ones you sing to babies
I sing them to the rhythm of
My father’s rocking cradle
Hot corn! Hot corn!
Here’s your lily-white corn
All you that’s got money
Poor me that’s got none
Come buy my lily-hot corn
And let me go home
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10. |
Buckdancers Moon
03:06
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BUCKDANCER’S MOON
© Bob Wright (key of G)
G C G D
when the airs too full of fiddle tunes and the dancers are worn out
G C G D G
you need some old buck dancers to dance those fiddles down
cause fiddle tunes don’t disappear and they don’t stay in the room
they keep on risin’ upwards till they bounce right off the moon
the moon it turns an eerie blue and sends the tunes back down
and all the old buck dancers rise back up from the ground
(chorus)
they hike their pants and begin to dance
at the edge of the sleepy town
and their high-topped boots flatten out the roots
of the trees for miles around
those spirits start to stompin’ when they hear those fiddle tunes
and they dance all night in the pale blue light
of the old buckdancers moon
it happens every year or so and the tunes are extra hot
and they hold a ghostly contest to see what all they got
there’s a one-armed man who leads the dance
and even Old Joe Clark
and when they start to movin’ all the dogs begin to bark
the people in the village think they’re howlin’ at the moon
but if you listen close enough they’re howlin’ right in tune
(chorus)
they boil that cabbage down boys and do the chicken reel
they do si do in a ghostly show rockin’ toe to heel
and when the tunes are over and the air is sweet and clear
they’re slappin’ backs and makin’ tracks until they disappear
so fiddlers rosin up your bows and do what you do best
fill the air for another year while the old buckdancers rest
(chorus)
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11. |
Instant Banjogh
01:04
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12. |
Lamonts Song
03:50
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ON A BRIDGE BY A BRIDGE (Lamont’s Song) capo 2nd
© Bob Wright
D G D
well he said that he lived on a bridge by a bridge
A D
by and by I would find it was true
G
and the people who passed by that house
D A D
on a bridge by a bridge came to him for his views
A D
so he’d give them a poem that he wrote or he owned
G D
dusted lightly with spice and with wit
D G D
and he lived on a bridge by a bridge all his life
A D
and he never got tired of it
you would think that to live on a bridge by a bridge
would be crowded and noisy for sure
but he felt that to live means to live
on a bridge by a bridge with the world at your door
and he wasn’t afraid to be seen or be heard
on a bridge by a bridge by the bay
and if you listen close when you’re crossing a bridge by a bridge
you can still hear him say
that he’ll give you a poem that he wrote or he owned
dusted lightly with spice and with wit
and he lived on a bridge by a bridge all his life
and he never got tired of it
so if you ever come to a bridge by a bridge
just take what you find there in stride
cause someone who lives on a bridge by a bridge
is someone with nothing to hide
and he’ll give you a poem that he wrote or he owned
dusted lightly with spice and with wit
and he lived all his life on a bridge by a bridge
and he never got tired of it
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13. |
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THE WAVES COME SWEEPING IN (capo 2nd/dropped D- key of E)
© Bob Wright
E A E
Sunlight on the water and the wind is nearly gone
A E
A father and a daughter
B
Walk the shores that they have known
A B E A B E
Toes in sand, hand in hand
E
Their footprints fade behind them
B E
When the waves come sweeping in
(Chorus)
A E
The world turns water flows
B E
Anywhere it wants to go
A B
It’s always been that way
A E
Hurricanes ice and tides
B E
They don’t ever compromise
A B E A
So we just go on with our lives
B E
Hoping things will change
They say the waters rising and the beach will disappear
And we’ll have to move the lighthouse
Again in a few years
We take a chance when we build on sand
That shifts and spins beneath us
When the waves come sweeping in
(Chorus)
Down the beach a yellow dog is running in the surf
Seagulls eye a blanket but the people get there first
Another man lies in the sand
And lingers in the water
When the waves come sweeping in
(Chorus)
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14. |
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THE DAY THAT BIG MON DIED
© Bob Wright
G C
My radio was busted I hadn’t hear the news
D C G
I was stuck among the truckers with some forty miles to do
G C Am
Tony met me at the door as soon as I arrived
D C G
And told me in a quiet voice that Bill Monroe had died
(Chorus)
D C G
He left the world his music and he lived by his own rules
D C D
Now they play it all around the world, they’re teaching’ it in schools
G C Am
When we sat there with our banjos we could feel the songs inside
D C G
So we played through some bluegrass tunes the day that Big Mon died
It doesn’t matter what they were they came from deep within
We coulda played a thousand that had all come down from him
We’d play as fast as we could play and then we’d slow it down
Just the way that he would do when he came into town
(Chorus)
There are those who make a difference there are those who never do
Cause they haven’t taken chances or had faith in what they do
Or they haven’t got the talent or they haven’t got the drive
To rise above the rest of us and touch so many lives
(Chorus)
I’d like to think he listens in… from a mansion in the sky
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15. |
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WHEN BILLY THE KID LIVED IN NEW YORK
© Bob Wright (capo 3rd- play these positions/ actual chord in parentheses)
Am(Cm)
Billy the Kid was an outlaw
Em (Gm) Am(Cm)
Billy the Kid fought the law
F(Ad) C(Ed) G(Bd) Am(Cm)
He learned evil ways some people say
Em(Gm) Am(Cm)
When Billy the Kid lived in New York
Billy’s mama cried for her babies
Billy’s mama hated what she saw
Most of the kids were carrying shivs
When Billy the Kid lived in New York
F(Ad) C(Ed) G(Bd) Am(Cm)
The 40 Thieves and Rabbits were the teachers that he knew
Em(Gm) Am(Cm)
They carved their way to power they were cold and bloody crews
F(Ad) C(Ed) G(Bd Am(Cm)
Murder and survival were the lessons that were taught
Em(Gm) Am(Cm)
When Billy the Kid lived in New York
Billy was a charmin’ Irish Boyo
Billy was the one the girls adored
But everywhere he looked there were thieves and crooks
When Billy the Kid lived in New York
He saw the bloody riots when they tried to have a draft
He saw the politicians with their power and their graft
Every lawman that he saw could always be paid off
When Billy the Kid lived in New York
Billy loved his pistols and his horses
Billy loved his whiskey and his whores
Nothing seemed as cheap as life back on the streets
When Billy the Kid lived in New York
The five points on a sheriff’s badge reminded him of home
Where gangs became your family so you didn’t fight alone
Every Irishman was treated like a dog Em(Gm) Am(Cm)
When Billy the Kid lived in New York… when Billy the Kid…. Lived in New York
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16. |
Boot Hill
01:37
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17. |
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I STILL HAVE FAITH IN YOU ( drop D- capo 2nd)
© Bob Wright
E A E
everyone tells me that you’ll never stay
B
everyone swears that it’s true
E A E
everyone tells me that you’ll go away
A B E
but I still have faith in you
we’ve had our differences over the years
we’ve had to dance with the truth
we’ve had to deal with the worst of our fears
but I still have faith in you
I’ve heard you crying at night in your room
I’ve heard he told you it’s through
I’ve heard you say that you’re leaving here soon
but I still have faith in you
you’ll hear the whispers and rumors and lies
you’ll hear some things that are cruel
you’ll start to heal with each day that goes by
A B D D
and I still have faith… I still have faith…
A B E
I still have faith in you
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18. |
The Low Road
03:18
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THE LOW ROAD (key of D)
© Bob Wright
D G
He buried his soul in a hole in the desert
D A
And headed up north for a while
D G
He figured the cold would be a mixed blessing
D A D
So he shrugged it all off with a smile
A G D
A woman had driven him out past the town
G D
To the edge of a future unknown
D G
So he stuck out his hopes as a pickup passed by him
D A D
And slid to a stop up the road
(CHORUS)
G /D A D
And it’s always the same It starts out for real
A G/D A
And it ends with a game And his heart feels strange
G A D
So he’s back on the low road again
He’s seen the whole country now several times over
So he doesn’t hurry about
And all of the places he’s laid down his guitar
All hope that he comes back around
And the women all say that he’s welcome to stay
But they tire of him pretty soon
So he puts them in songs that he keeps in his pocket
And leaves them in vagabond rooms
(CHORUS)
And if you were to ask him if his life is empty
He’d answer with travelers eyes
And tell you he always thought staying was easy
But going keeps going for miles
And the women still fall for the man and his music
Then leave him off outside of town
And the next time they hear him
They tell all their girlfriends
They once got to keep him around
(CHORUS)
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19. |
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THEY’LL BE TRAINS IN THE FUTURE (key of G)
© Bob Wright
(chorus)
They’ll be trains in the future
When we run out of gas
They’ll be people at the depot
Waiting for the train to pass
Everyone will be downtown
Instead of at the mall
They’ll be trains in the future
When we run out of oil
Stoke a locomotive with another load of coal
Stoke a locomotive with another load of coal
Stoke it, stoke it, stoke it…
You can get on in Milwaukee and get off in Alabam’
Ride a sleeper car from Baltimore
Straight out cross the land
People will be waving at you
When you’re rolling through
They’ll be trains in the future
And buddy that’s the truth
(chorus)
You’ll have time to read the paper
You’ll have time to read a book
You may even meet a neighbor
That you somehow overlooked
You can sit back and relax
And let the world go slidin’ by
They’ll be trains in the future
So get aboard and ride
(chorus)
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Bob Wright/ Harbortown New York, New York
He is a multi-instrumentalist, an award winning songwriter and Bob Wright songs are often mistaken for traditional songs because their immigrant roots run deep beneath the surface of America and back to the places they came from for nurturing and inspiration. They surface in a modern world, constructed with a modern sensibility and a comforting resonance with the past. ... more
Contact Bob Wright/ Harbortown
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