Side A

NEON SIGN

Go westward toward the Mississippi
On a whim, without a route
Windy wild road you’re traveling
Curious to find what might be found

With a singing blue-eyed boy
Convinced you he should tag along
Said he liked your face up close
And that was all it took to start you up

Now you’ll start up a fire
When you got nothing to burn
Now you’ll read into every letter
When there is nothing to learn

(On a) neon sign you can’t miss
Half way down to Memphis
Reality slipped through the cracks
(On the) short ride down, long ride back
Oh now get you home

Lost on Beale until the morning
Hiding from the knowing light
Bears out all the signs and warnings
That you didn’t want to see that night

Now you’ll hear what you want to hear
When nothing’s there to be heard
Now you’ll read in between the lines
When there’s nothing there to be learned

(On a) neon sign you can’t miss
Half way down to Memphis
Reality slipped through the cracks
(On the) short ride down, long ride back
Oh now get you home

(On the) neon sign you can’t miss
Half way down to Memphis
An outdated map in your hand
Half in love by Graceland
You’re driving blind in the rain
And a no-good siren’s calling out your name
Reality slipped through the cracks
(On the) short ride down, long ride back
Oh now get you home x3

PRODIGAL

When you hear what the neighbors are saying
You’ll come back x2
When you see what a mess they’re making
You’ll come back x2

When you read about the economy
You’ll come back x2
When you run out of friends and money
You’ll come back x2

And when you think of family
And their faces make you sad
You’ll come back

When it feels like a foreign nation
You’ll come back x2
When you run out of conversation
You’ll come back x2

And when you feel a person apart
And all your charms are fading fast
You’ll come back

When the lines around your eyes grow deeper
You’ll come back x2
When the end of the line draws nearer
You’ll come back x2

And when you read your name
Among the dead in the local rag
You’ll come back

BAR THE DOOR

Katy bar the door, it’s near
Comes the same time every year
Ever creeping in as spring begins
To thaw the icy eaves again

And it’s got a face I know
Perfect for the radio
Leans in awful close, that awful ghost
And drags its heels, hangs off my coat

And whispers of the days
Still to come when all the silver fades to gray
Then fear of ticking time
Takes the place of all the loveliness I find

Came in through the window there
Left open for the morning air
Now it tails me around this Southern town
Echoes the sirens blaring out

That warn of troubled times
When if you lose your dreams then you will lose your mind
About the time you realize
All you ever gained is all you left behind

Keeps me up to nothing good
Not living as I know I could
Should take that northbound line, go back in time
Rebury the bones that will not die

Before there comes a time
When first I lose my way and then I lose my mind
Before I realize
All I ever had is all I left behind

So Katy bar the door, it’s near x3

NO GOOD REASON

When there’s no good reason left
When the voice in my head is louder than my pounding chest
When the choice to go is clear and I know what to do
I will still want you

When I’ve run all out of luck
When the only good I’ve got is as good as given up
When I’m in the push-and-shove and turning black and blue
I will still want you

When I’m blinded by the light
When I’m blindsided by bad dreams in the night
When I wake up in a stranger’s bed, one time maybe two
I will still want you

And when time has done its part
When I’ve sewn up all the pieces of my broken heart
Standing on the other side, feeling so brand new
I will still want you

When the pines have called me home
When there’s only one thing left to do and it’s on my own
Staring down the valley deep and ready to walk through
I will still want you
I will still

ONE OF THE GOOD ONES

Wonder what it’s like to be a bright light
No edge of fists and guns
Hope for everyone
I’ve tried to play it off, to be an open book
No busy lines or walls
No sighs or dirty looks

To be one of the good ones
Kind and self-assured
To hold myself together
Unravel afterward
And struggle to return

Wonder what it’s like to love someone right
No suitcase on the floor
Both feet in the door
I had it once before, I tried my very best
I held the flowers tightly
Trembled in my dress

And I played a good woman
I said the little words
I held myself together
Unraveled afterward
Never have I learned

Wonder what it’s like to sleep through the night
No worries in my head
No phantoms in my bed
I had it once before I made these little lives
Who wake me in the nighttime
Whose cries cut like a knife

But I play a good mother
I cradle and secure
I hold myself together
Unravel afterward

I play one of the good ones
Kind and self-assured
I hold myself together
Unravel afterward
And never quite return

FULL WELL

I know full well why you’re calling
A lightning bolt in the valley
Bone-dry from years in a drought
A fire breaks out

Old flames alive with new power
Fueled by too much firewater
Burns out by this time tomorrow
Our hearts go cold

Shouldn’t have that third glass maybe
Shouldn’t call me up now baby
Shouldn’t raise that flag
I shouldn’t call you back

But I know full well why I play along
I’m a fool for heat and an old song
A wildfire voice on the radio
And I’m overgrown

Shouldn’t sing me all those songs
Shouldn’t let it go on so long
Shouldn’t bang that gong
I shouldn’t play along

Shouldn’t have that third glass maybe
Shouldn’t call me up now baby
Shouldn’t call it love
Shouldn’t fire it up
Shouldn’t call it love
Shouldn’t call me up

Side B

BACK AROUND

Coming around with stinging eyes
Long way down the mountainside
Listening to your old cassettes
And I’m trying to make the best of it

Finally where my head can breathe
Alone is all I want to be
But forward my mail to me
And I’ll read it oh-so carefully

As I’m off to another town
They’ve got the scene
And I don’t have the sound
But I’ll be back around
Not yet down for the count

Tap the wheel to keep the time
Following the dotted line
Focus those heavy eyes
Or the headlights will hypnotize

Barely thinking of you now
Finding truths from town to town
But send me a photograph of you
Knee high in the summer grass
Was it taken on the Fourth of July
When we said the long goodbye

And I’ll keep it like a wedding gown
Meant something once
But in time has turned brown
But I’m not stripping down
Not yet down for the count
All hatches battened down
Yeah I’ll be back around

I CAN ONLY SEE

I can only see in you what you see in me
And when it leaves it’s gone, won’t come back easily
And a new ring for our time
Won’t grow in this old bark of mine

And I can only see as far as the headlights can reach
On the nightly ride to rile up the dark side of me
But a strange car in your drive
Won’t spark a new light in my eyes

I can only reach in you what you’ll feed to me
But if you leave me hungry I won’t be too angry
And no bluebirds in the air
Will find a new nest in my hair

I can only see in you what you see in me x2

CENTER OF THE WHEEL

Center of the wheel
Place where time stands still
Place where nothing ever grows
Old love never goes cold
Spent a million years
Climbing through the gears
Pushing out and pulling in
Trying to start it again
Trying to start me again

So I journey to the edge
That old rebellion
Brought it out, reminded me
There’s a center of me
But I get caught in no time
And the bath of bright flood lights
Brought it out for all to see
There’s a sinner in me
At the center of me

Me and time we move the same
Stand still or while away
Tried to move the wheel inside, I tried
But I’m a hostage of time
So I just fall back in line

So until it comes again
That strange adrenaline
Complicated story but
I’m already in love
All alone inside an old love

BUTTONED-DOWN DAYS

One-by-one they pair off in-
-to their houses and begin
With the kids who come in threes
All that forest full of trees

Busy bees in busy hives
Have it all at one low price
Swallow that former self down
Stop off after work and drown in

Bottles of wine for the passing of time
Bottles of gin to begin it again
Bottles of rage at the buttoned-down days

Then the ones who stayed outside
Made their own plans for this life
Now it’s a race to the ground
Turn the TV up and drown in

Bottles of wine for the passing of time
Bottles of gin to begin it again
Bottles of rage at the buttoned-down days

TEN YEARS OUT

Ten years out, ten years on
Older then than now somehow
Felt that anchor drifting down
Felt I found all to be found

A road worn out, a light left on
A home built up, a will worn down
I am the clock, I am the sound
Ticking toward the setting out

When the sunlight goes to hide
All winter I’ll drive across state lines
Through nights that last one thousand hours
And roads that last one thousand miles

How will you remember me
With loving lines wrote tenderly
Or with pity wrote so bittersweet
For one undone and hard to read

When the pages are all torn out
Will you read them once more or toss them out
When it finally comes unbound
Will the stories remain in your mind somehow

STILL OR AGAIN

Still or again
What’s the difference in the end
Told my heart to forget
But it wants you still or again

But I can’t tell you so
No I can’t let you know
Would we still be friends
If I love you still or again

Stayed quiet for a while
But was it gone or was I in denial

Still or again
Doesn’t matter in the end
Told my heart to forget
But it wants you still or again

Still or again x3