1. |
Night Man at the Depot
03:06
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Night Man at the Depot
Kenn Amdahl
I’m the night man at the depot
I work all alone every night
I keep those floors clean
Shine ‘em up till they gleam
And the boss knows I do my job right
But there’s a sign that keeps flashing its message
Looks like a clown who remembers the stage
Like a drunk man who’s forgotten his story
Like a dancer who’s forgotten her age.
I’ve been riding this mop and this vacuum
For years down the same lonely track
But there’s a place on the line ‘
Where you run out of time
And there’s no way to turn this train back.
But there’s cities that roll past my vacuum
There’s mountains that climb into view
There’s friends that I’ve had
There’s been good times and bad
There’s been ladies cause I dreamed me a few
They leave me alone to my sweeping
They tell me the place is mine
So I clean up the trash
Then I did out my stash
And go highballing down the line.
And there’s nothing quite as lonely
As a circus when nobody’s there
Or a depot at night when that last train has gone
Or a night man who’s going nowhere
They leave me alone to my sweeping
They tell me the place is mine
So I clean up the trash
Then I did out my stash
And go highballing down the line.
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2. |
Ain't Licked Yet
01:45
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3. |
My Love is a Lady
02:57
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My Love is a Lady
Kenn Amdahl
My love is a lady upon a white horse
She smiles and she nods and I love her of course
She’s my only true lover, my only true friend
I’ll love her until she rides off again.
I met my fair lover behind a gray veil
Of bittersweet smoke, her hands soft and pale
Come with me, she whispered, and I’ll show you more
Than any man’s seen in this world before
Stars we have sung to my lady and I
The phoenix we laughed at way up in the sky
Things she has shown me
The places I’ve been
Are marked on my life with needles and pins
Through forests and fields of flowers we rode
Past rivers of silver and meadows of gold
Her voice sweet as red wine, her dress made of lace
We kissed through her veil, I could not see her face.
Then faster and sleepily higher we’d fly
Like soft sleepy bats sailing up in the sky
I’ll love her forever and she will be mine
I’d do anything if she’d stay all the time.
But now she is gone, I lie cold on the ground
My eyes look around me my ears hurt with sound
My thoughts slow and heavy, my hands feel all wrong
I’m lonely as hell now my lady is gone.
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4. |
Gammon Dace
02:41
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Gammon Dace
Kenn Amdahl
All those times we’d sing til the sunrise
I’d find a tune and you’d harmonize
The music flowed from the mountains to the sea
How could you die and not say goodbye to me?
Gammon Dace, Gammon Dace
We wrote a book but lost our place
Gammon Dace, how can I replace a friend so true
I spoke to myself and thought I spoke to you.
All the times a poem seemed to write itself
All the half-finished songs we left up on the shelf
All the times we’d run from reality
Now you’ve gone and run away from me.
Now the years will go by and I’ll keep writing songs
I guess the time had just come for you to move along
But before I forget your memory there’s one thing that I must do
Write one last song that I can sing with you.
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5. |
Locomotive Sound
02:20
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Locomotive Sound
Kenn Amdahl
Don’t you ever get the feeling that you gotta step down
Gotta take a day and walk away, away from the town
You ever go down where the train rolls in
Hear the shuffle chugga shuffle right around the bend
You ever feel that locomotive sound?
Steel wheel hummin’ drummin’ in my brain
There’s a slow cool whistle in the falling rain
Fades in slow and then it fades away
Goes clickity clack along the track every day
You ever feel that locomotive sound
And when you get back, the sun will shine
Up and down the line
You got to move you gotta step on down
When you hear that locomotive sound
Get up every morning when the train goes by
See the steam a’ streaming up across the sky
Listen for the whistle blowing far away
See the sun a’rising on a brand new day
Don’t you ever feel that locomotive sound
Feel that locomotive sound.
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6. |
Song for Joni
02:43
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Song for Joni
Kenn Amdahl
Meet me for breakfast in France
We’ll drink wine all night and we’ll dance
The morning will find us alone
With the seagulls and the salty sea foam
Me and the girl who plays piano and sings
And is careful not to hold too tight
To too many things
You been playing the same gig so long
Running in airports and hiding in songs
Afraid if you ever slow down
Your merry go round might keep turning around
And all of your friends once you’re gone
Might not reach back and help you get back on
The crowd’s restless til you float into the room
Like a pretty but fragile perfume
You wait til that last drunk has grown still
You think maybe this time they’ll listen to the words
But you know they never will
And me, I’m backstage with the warmup band
I keep trying to warm up things
That I never can.
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7. |
Renoir
04:31
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Renoir
Kenn Amdahl
My father was a tailor, as a child I’d watch him sew
I’d watch the cloth go swirling and I’d watch the colors flow
He’d give me scraps of cloth to play with, colored gray and blue
I’d draw pictures on the floor with chalk, there was little else to do.
He’d say Peter, we’ve no money and very soon you’ll be a man
All the world will tell you just get by the best you can
But your life’s a piece of fabric, you can cut and stitch and fold
Make it something beautiful before you get too old
He’d say, “Sunshine, streaming through my window
That’s the way you lighten up my day.
I’m trying to paint you the sunshine
In colors that will never fade away,”
He left us in the winter but I’m sure he had no choice
In the stillness of his workroom I still can hear his voice
He’d say, “The money they may give you, how quickly it is gone
But the beauty of the things you do may live on.”
Now I’m working in the city in a porcelain factory
I draw designs on cups and saucers, draw them carefully
I watch the people’s faces, watch the children come and go
I watch their footprints disappear beneath the gentle snow.
Perhaps I’ll join the army, perhaps I’ll learn a trade
I might work my way through art school, I’m not sure they’d let me stay
We might fall in love and marry, if that’s what’s meant to be
But if I die tomorrow, who would remember me?
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8. |
Floating
02:19
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Floating
Kenn Amdahl
Floating, no controlling, slowly rolling round and round
Flying without trying and there is no light or sound
Time is just a box we travel through while we are lost
Life is just a place we visit on our way through space.
Falling, we’re all falling, no one calling out your name
Rising, realizing that the two are much the same
Time is just a box we travel through while we are lost
Life is just a place we visit on our way through space.
Sleeping, we’re all sleeping and we don’t know how to wake
Dreaming is just seeing all the choices we may make.
Time is just a box we travel through while we are lost
Life is just a place we visit on our way through space.
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9. |
Crazy Lover
03:39
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Crazy Lover
Kenn Amdahl
I don’t want to write you a sad song
Because thinking about you makes me smile
Like the sun on a lake in the summertime
The ducks want a drink of our wine
The ducks would like a drink of our wine
Morning will be breaking soon through my window
By this time tonight you’ll be gone
I can’t sleep for thinking about you
And this guitar keeps on writing you songs
Back home you got a crazy love
He helps you maintain your sanity
While you try to discover
If the pain is worth the being free
If the pain is worth the being free
I’m so tired of living here in this desert
But it doesn’t seem like there’s much I can do
Send me a jar of rain from your yard
For when I get thirsty for you.
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10. |
September Colorado
02:23
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September Colorado
Kenn Amdahl
September Colorado and the wild goose knows
The winter’s coming on and he’s leaving
Indian summer at the Sawhill Ponds
And the sun and me are leaning back and dreaming.
Take me in your arms once again I’ll hold you
Till the sun is rising on the prairie
I can feel the winter settling on Boulder
I’ll be leaving with the things I can carry
We’re caught in the middle of a magic circle
Waiting for a sign from the river
Watching all the leaves turn brown and purple
Hoping for a song I can give her.
Our days escape like running water
The nights slip past so gently
The daydream’s son, the full moon’s daughter
Listen to the music you sent me
We’re caught on the wings of a bird that’s flying
And doesn’t understand the wind that call him
Heading on south as the summer’s dying
Listening for snowflakes falling.
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11. |
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Little Bit Left in the Bottle
Kenn Amdahl
Ooh the little bit left in the bottle
Gonna make you feel alright
Oh, the little bit left in the bottle
Gonna make it last all night
Smoke and fire by the railroad track
Burns your eyes while it warms your back
Listen to the men in the ragged clothes
The stories linger, the faces come and go.
This morning’s news is pale and thin
Inside your shirt it helps block the wind
You watch the cars on the overpass
Driving home and they’re driving fast
You say the words you don’t believe:
“Appearances they can deceive”
Well, it’s true: they’ll think I’m you
How much bad luck could you stand
Before you shiver where I am?
Well you’ll see: they’ll think you’re me.
The darkness gives and the darkness steals
You never know what the night conceals
Live on edge and die alone
Spend your days reinventing home.
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12. |
Trombone Charlie
04:19
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Trombone Charlie
Kenn Amdahl (capo 2)
C G Am
I never understood the way he'd play
G C
His trombone in the park every day
F G C Am
People passing by would look annoyed or smile
C G Am
I remember Trombone Charlie was his name
F G C
And sometimes they'd stop and toss him a dollar
Dm G C
Half the time a kid would steal it from his hat
F G C Am
He'd just keep on playing or smile and say
C G Am
You're welcome son, I know you needed that
C G Am
You're welcome son, I know you needed that
C G Am
It doesn't really matter what they pay you
F G C
You got to do the thing you love
Dm Am
Til in that cold ground they lay you
G Am
With all your music left above
2 On a lazy Sunday afternoon I'd go
Down to the park and watch old Trombone Charlie blow
The Dark Town Strutters Ball or them Saint Louis Blues
I play the old ones a little better than the new
I had an inside job but I didn't like it
It kept me from the things I really need
So I left it flat and I won't go back
I laid this Trombone across my back
And I sort of let myself go to seed
I guess I sort of let myself go to seed.
3 Now I sung the blues when I was cold and lonely
I slept with secrets that I never told
I tipped a few with strangers who were heartbroke
And I sung along the only song they know
They sing the man'll take the pennies from your pocket
The ladies take your heart and then leave town
But this old slide-bone plays so sad it makes me mellow
And this park's a fine old place to settle down
I believe this park's a fine old place to settle down.
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13. |
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When a Woman Shines Her Love on You
Kenn Amdahl
If you think that you understand
You just don’t know how the game is played
She’ll turn and smile and touch your hand
There won’t be a word that you can say
You can say that you’ll use your mind
But it’s your heart that you’re bound to lose
Her kiss is gonna strike you blind
When a woman shines her love on you.
You can run around and spend your time
Chasing pretty faces in the crowd.
They’ll just laugh at you, they know your kind
They’ll watch you thrash and flail and let you drown
But when a woman sees a man she likes
That’s a horserace of a different hue
You’ll be on the floor without a fight
When a woman shines her love on you.
Doesn’t matter if you’re rich or smart
Young or old, it’s all the same
Read your lines and you play your part
And bow your head when she says your name.
You may think that you’re made of steel,
Immune to magic and too old to care
No feelings that you want to feel
No secrets that you need to share.
But there is someone who will see through that
Who’ll make you smile when you’re feeling blue
You just follow and don’t look back
When a woman shines her love on you.
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Kenn Amdahl Eugene, Oregon
Poetic songs and fine finger-picking. Kenn Amdahl is best known as the author of "funny books on dull subjects." His book “There Are No Electrons” inspired all the books for Dummies. A reformed guitar teacher, he's also been playing finger-style guitar & writing songs for over 50 years. His songs are accessible and hummable, but usually not funny. ... more
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