Emmylou Harris

[fox69]

"Orphan Girl"

"Orphan Girl"



I am a orphan
on God's highway
But I'll share my troubles
if you go my way

I have no mother
no father no sister
No brother
I am an orphan girl

I have had friendships
pure and golden
But the ties of kinship
I have not known them

I know no mother
no father no sister
No brother
I am an orphan girl

But when he calls me
I will be Able
To meet my family
at God's table

I'll meet my mother
my father my sister
My brother
no more an orphan girl

Blessed savior
make me willing
And walk beside me
until I'm with them

Be my mother
my father my sister
My brother
I am an orphan girl

Be my mother
my father my sister
My brother
I am an orphan girl
I am an orphan girl

 

[fox69]

"Pancho & Lefty"

"Pancho & Lefty"



Livin' on the road my friend
Was gonna keep you free and clean
Now you wear skin like iron
And your breath's as hard as kerosene
You weren't your mama's only boy
But her favorite one it seems
She began to cry when you said goodbye
And sank into your dreams

Pancho was a bandit, boys
His horse was fast as polished steel
Wore his gun outside his pants
For all the honest world to feel
Well, Pancho met his match you know
On the deserts down in Mexico
And nobody heard his dyin' words
Ah but that's the way it goes

All the Federales say
Could of had him any day
Only let him any day
Hang around
Out of kindness I suppose

Lefty, he can't sing the blues
All night long like he used to
The dust that Pancho bit down south
Ended up in Lefty's mouth
The day they laid poor Pancho low
Lefty split for Ohio
Where he got the bread to gop
There ain't nobody knows

Well, the poets tell how Pancho fell
And Lefty's livin' in a cheap hotel
The dessert's quiet and Cleveland's cold
So the story end's, we're told
Pancho needs your prayer's it's true
But save a few for Lefty too
He just did what he had to do
And now he's growin' old
A few gray Federales say
Could have had him any day
Only let him go so long
Out of kindness I suppose

 

[fox69]

"Plaisir D'Amour"

"Plaisir D'Amour"



Plaisir d'amour
Ne dure qu'un moment
Chagrin d'amour dure
Toute la vie
Joys of love
Are but a moment long
Pain of love endures
The whole life long

 

[fox69]

"Pledging My Love"

"Pledging My Love"



Forever my darling
My love will be true
Always and forever
I'll love just you

Just promise me darlin'
Your love in return
May this fire in my soul dear
Forever burn

My heart's at your command dear
To keep, love and to hold
Making you happy is my desire
Keeping you is my goal

My heart's at your command dear
To keep, love and to hold
Making you happy is my desire
Keeping you is my goal

I'll forever love you
The rest of my days
I'll never part from you
And your loving ways

Just promise me darlin'
Your love in return
May this fire in my soul dear
Forever burn

 

[fox69]

"Prayer In Open D"

"Prayer In Open D"



There's a valley of sorrow in my soul
Where every night I hear the thunder roll
Like the sound of a distant gun
Over all the damage I have done
And the shadows filling up this land
Are the ones I built with my own hand
There is no comfort from the cold
Of this valley of sorrow in my soul

There's a river of darkness in my blood
And through every vein I feel the flood
I can find no bridge for me to cross
No way to bring back what is lost
Into the night it soon will sweep
Down where all my grievances I keep
But it won't wash away the years
Or one single hard and bitter tear

And the rock of ages I have known
Is a weariness down in the bone
I use to ride it like a rolling stone
Now just carry it alone

There's a highway risin' from my dreams
Deep in the heart I know it gleams
For I have seen it stretching wide
Clear across to the other side
Beyond the river and the flood
And the valley where for so long I've stood
With the rock of ages in my bones
Someday I know it will lead me home

 

[fox69]

"Precious Memories"

"Precious Memories"



As I travel down life's pathway
Know not what the years may hold
As I ponder, hope grows fonder
Precious memories flood my soul

Precious father, loving mother
Glide across the lonely years
And old home's scenes of my childhood
Infond memories appears

Precious memories, how they linger
How they ever flood my soul
In the stillness of the midnight
Precious sacred scenes unfold

 

[fox69]

"Queen Of The Silver Dollar"

"Queen Of The Silver Dollar"



She arrives in all her splendor
Each night at nine o'clock
Her chariot is the crosstown bus
That stops right down the block
Now the old piano minstrel plays her tune as she walks in
And the Queen of the Silver Dollar's home again

She's the Queen of the Silver Dollar
She rules this smokey kingdom
Scepter is a wine glass and a bar stool is her throne
Now the jesters flock around her tryna to win her favors
To see which one will take the
Queen of the Silver Dollar home

Now her royal dress is satin
It's shabby and it's torn
The royal jewels are rhinestones
The shoes are scuffed and worn
Of the many roads she's been down,
And the places that she's seen
Well they all look at her and say God save the queen

Now the Queen of the Silver Dollar
Is not as haughty as she seems
She was once an ordinary girl with ordinary dreams
But there's a man who found her
And he brought her to this world
He's the one who made a queen of a simple country girl

Yes I'm the Queen of the Silver Dollar
I rule this smokey kingdom
Scepter is a wine glass and a bar stool is my throne
Now the jesters flock around me tryin' to win my favors
To see which one will take the
Queen of the Silver Dollar home

Yes I'm the Queen of the Silver Dollar
I rule this smokey kingdom
Scepter is a wine glass and a bar stool is my throne
Now the jesters flock around me tryin' to win my favors
To see which one will take the
Queen of the Silver Dollar home

 

[fox69]

"Racing In The Street"

"Racing In The Street"



I got a sixty-nine Chevy with a 396
Fuelie heads and a Hurst on the floor
She's waiting tonight down in the parking lot
Outside the Seven-Eleven store
Me and my partner Sonny built her straight out of scratch
And he rides with me from town to town
We only run for the money got no strings attached
We shut 'em up and then we shut 'em down
Tonight tonight the strip's just right
I'm gonna blow 'em off in my first heat
Summer's here and the time is right
For racin' in the street

We take all the action we can meet
And we cover all the northeast states
When the strip shuts down we run 'em in the street
>From the fire roads to the interstate
Now Some guys they just give up living
And start dying little by little piece by piece
Some guys come home from work and wash up
And go racin' in the street
Tonight tonight the strip's just right
I'm gonna blow 'em all out of their seats
Calling out around the world
We're going racin' in the street

He met her on the strip three years ago
In a Camaro with this dude from L.A.
He blew that Camaro off his back and he drove that little girl away
But now there's wrinkles around his baby's eyes
And she cries herself to sleep at night
When he comes home the house is dark
She says 'Baby did you make it alright?'
She sits on the porch of her daddy's house
But all her pretty dreams are torn
She stares out alone into the night
With the eyes of one who hates for just being born
For all the shut-down strangers and hot rod angels

Rumbling through this promised land
Tonight my baby and me we're gonna ride to the sea
And wash these sins off our hands
Tonight tonight the highway's bright
Out of our way mister you best keep
Cause summer's here and the time is right
For racin' in the street

 

[fox69]

"Raise The Dead"

"Raise The Dead"



Hank Williams died when I was five
He sang I'll never get out of this world alive
Now it's been a long time since I was that kid
And I've seen a lot more than Hank ever did
I've done the down and out in every dark end dive
But I'll never get out of your love alive

Sam Coke met the woman at the well
She told him that his song was something he could never sell
And I think he knew a change was gonna come
Still he lived too fast and he died too young
Well dying young I have survived
But I'll never get out of your love alive

I got washed in the blood of Bill Monroe
When he sang about the the blues in the body and soul
He believed in a God that could raise the dead
Still it's a mighty dark night to travel he said
I've seen a mighty dark night and I made that drive
But I'll never get out of your love alive

Robert Johnson had a hellhound on his trail
Drove him to the coffin like a hammer and a nail
It takes a powerful man to carry that load
When your trying to beat the devil to the old crossroads
I wrestled the devil lived to testify
But I'll never get out of your love alive
I'll never get out of your love alive
I'll never get out of your love alive
I'll never get out of your love alive

 

[fox69]

"Red Dirt Girl"

"Red Dirt Girl"



Me and my best friend Lillian
And her blue tick hound dog Gideon,
Sittin on the front porch cooling in the shade
Singin every song the radio played
Waitin for the Alabama sun to go down
Two red dirt girls in a red dirt town
Me and Lillian
Just across the line and a little southeast of Meridian.

She loved her brother I remember back when
He was fixin up a '49 Indian
He told her 'Little sister, gonna ride the wind
Up around the moon and back again"
He never got farther than Vietnam,
I was standin there with her when the telegram come
For Lillian.
Now he's lyin somewhere about a million miles from Meridian.

She said there's not much hope for a red dirt girl
Somewhere out there is a great big world
Thats where I'm bound
And the stars might fall on Alabama
But one of these days I'm gonna swing
My hammer down
Away from this red dirt town
I'm gonna make a joyful sound

She grew up tall and she grew up thin
Buried that old dog Gideon
By a crepe myrtle bush in the back of the yard,
Her daddy turned mean and her mama leaned hard
Got in trouble with a boy from town
Figured that she might as well settle down
So she dug right in
Across a red dirt line just a little south east from Meridian

She tried hard to love him but it never did take
It was just another way for the heart to break
So she dug right in.
But one thing they don't tell you about the blues
When you got em
You keep on falling cause there ain't no bottom
There ain't know end.
At least not for Lillian

Nobody knows when she started her skid,
She was only 27 and she had five kids.
Coulda' been the whiskey,
Coulda been the pills,
Coulda been the dream she was trying to kill.
But there won't be a mention in the news of the world
About the life and the death of a red dirt girl
Names Lillian
Who never got any farther across the line than Meridian.

Now the stars still fall on Alabama
Tonight she finally laid
That hammer down
Without a sound
In the red dirt ground