Nanci Griffith

[fox69]

"Saint Teresa Of Avila"

"Saint Teresa Of Avila"


Saint teresa, your patron childs come home
Were you there to greet her?
Did your angels know her songs?
And all of her sorrows
Did you lift them from her brow
Did you kiss her hand that took her soul
Back up to you... our patron saint
Of harmony and vow

[Chorus:]
Help me in this stillness
Tell me things I need to know
How we loved your patron child
We say, so long... and so along ago
Saint Teresa
Can you speak to me at all
Ah, from here where will we go
Saint teresa

Saint teresa, she was our sister of arms
Gone now the trio
To our lady, kate, and john
And fare to fare
Of the tears that cannot fall
We send this melody please help her sing along
Back up to our patron saint
Of harmony and song

Back up to her patron saint
Beyond our wood those lights
Saint Teresa of avila
Discalced De Carmelites
Back up to her patron saint
Beyond our wood those lights
Saint Teresa of Avila
Descalced De Carmelites
Saint Cecila to Saint Teresa,
"Your patron child is home"
(There are lights beyond these woods)
Repeat Saint Teresa of Avila...
Discalced De Carmelites
(lights)

 

[fox69]

"San Diego Serenade"

"San Diego Serenade"


Never saw the morning till I stayed up all night
Never saw the sunshine till I turned out the light
Never saw my home town till I stayed away too long
I never heard the melody till I needed the song

Never saw the white line till I was leavin' you behind
Never knew I needed you till I was caught up in a bind
And I never spoke I love you till I cursed you in vain
Never felt my heart strings until I nearly went insane

Never saw the East coast until I moved to the West
I never saw the moonlight till it shone off your breast
And I never saw your heart till someone tried to steal it away
Never saw your tears till they rolled down your face

I never saw the morning till I stayed up all night
Never saw the sunshine till you turned out the light
Never saw my home town till I stayed away too long
I never heard the melody till I needed the song

 

[fox69]

"Say It Isn't So"

"Say It Isn't So"


When you say I love you
Is it just because you know that's what I want to hear?
Lately friends are warning me
What they hesitate to tell me leaves a thread of fear
People talk around this town
And when the final truth comes down
There's only one thing left to do
It's come back 'round to you
(come back 'round to you)

[Chorus:]
Say it isn't so
Tell me that you're someone
I'll believe in
Am I the last to know
That you don't love me anymore?
Oh, if you ever did
Say it isn't so
Am I caught up in a web
That you are weaving?
Oh, the stories I've been told
Indicate that you're already
Reachin' for the door

It's just a lovers situation
Are you in or out of love?
I've heard those words before
I've had to face up to the truth
Cuz' staying and pretending
Would have hurt him more
Sometimes lovers stay too long
Sometimes they leave too soon
There's only one thing left to do
It's come back 'round to you
(come back 'round to you)

[Chorus]

Oh, the stories I've been told
Baby...Just say it isn't so

 

[fox69]

"Shaking Out The Snow"

"Shaking Out The Snow"


Snowing - through South Dakota I once drove
With the wife of my best pal
Who cloaks her heart from cold with gold
It was well into the winter
Of December in the cold
Off to see Mount Rushmore staring through the snow
And to gamble with the boys of Deadwood
As we drove

[Chorus:]
Snowing - I am shaking out the snow
Oh, the cold that is within my heart
I'm gonna shake out all that snow
Riding years ago
Through those South Dakota roads
When the laughter could thaw Enderby
And shake me from the snow
Like a hurricane through Florida
I'll shake out all this snow

Snowing - one Christmas morn' when I was four
My brother told me it was warm
So a swimsuit I adorned
Then he sent me to the weather
And behind me locked the doors
A four year old in a swim suit and brand new plastic skates
Out into the snow to catch this cold
I cannot shake

[Chorus]

Snowing - yeah, it snows in Tennessee
The place where I now make my life
Is still snowing down on me
I'd prefer Antarctica
Perhaps the land of Enderby
Where the weather is my heart and I'm closer to the sea
Since I cannot ever seem to shake the snow
Out of me

[Chorus]

And all across the states you see the tractors and the plows
Clearing out the roads
And the bridges north and south
Something they did learn
And I just don't seem to know
How to clear a passage
And shake out all the snow

 

[fox69]

"She Ain't Goin' Nowhere"

"She Ain't Goin' Nowhere"


She was standin' on the gone side of leavin'
She found her thumb and stuck it in the breeze
She'll take anything and that's goin close to somewhere
She can lay it down and live it as she please

[Chorus:]
She ain't goin' nowhere
She's just leavin
She ain't goin nowhere
She can't breathe in
She ain't goin' home and that's for sure

She's not sittin' down and crying on her suitcase
She has no second thoughts by the road
She's got feelings that need some repairin'
And she did not give a damn that it showed

[Chorus]

The wind had a way with her hair
And the blues had a way with her smile
And she had a way of her own
Like prisoners have a way with a file

[Chorus 2x]

She ain't goin' home... that's for sure

 

[fox69]

"Simple Life"

"Simple Life"


[Chorus:]
I want a simple life
Like my mother
One true love for my older years
I don't want your wars
To take my children
I want a simple life... while I'm here

The sun and moon walk hand in hand together
Trading places shining on the truth
The moon moves the bottoms of the oceans
So, the sun can bring a farmer's hands to you

[Chorus]

We all seek comfort in the light of day
And our tears can wash off in the rain
Everything we need is all around us
In simple time and simple ways

Mother nature talks
Whispering her thoughts
So the paths we choose to cross
Walk one more day

[Chorus]

 

[fox69]

"Sing"

"Sing"


I heard the music long ago, songs that rent the air
Fading in and out at night while I was lying there
Voices soft and lonely and later rock and roll
Flying across the Rio Grande, straight into my soul

Trying to find a reason, trying to find that rhyme
Rolling with the river trying to keep time
And in the end I wouldn't change a thing, I'd sing

Music is the life in me, it's the melody I breathe
It gives me strength in harder times and reason to believe
Endless miles of highway, every step hard earned
It seems like it was all mapped out, all the twists and turns

Still trying to find a reason, trying to find that rhyme
Still rolling with the river trying to keep time
And in the end I wouldn't change a thing, I'd sing
And in the end I wouldn't change a thing, I'd sing

 

[fox69]

"Sing One For Sister"

"Sing One For Sister"


Summer Sunday evening, around the old home place
Well, I would play my guitar and sister sang along
Sister's smile would always light up my Daddy's face
And when they'd get to dancing, well they'd dance all night till dawn

[Chorus:]
And I would sing one for sister
Play one for Papa, moan one for mama
Then I'd cry one for you.

Mama liked the slow ones and she'd shuffle 'cross the floor
Sister liked the fast ones, Lord she could step so high
And I'd see my Daddy dancing, till he could dance no more
And when I'd play a sad song, well he would start to cry

[Chorus]

Now it's just me and this old guitar
I've no place to call my own
Mamma and Papa have passed away and sister has settled down
Now you ran off and left me to live here all alone
So I will sing these sad old songs as I am leaving town

[Chorus 2x]

 

[fox69]

"So Long Ago"

"So Long Ago"


My daddy sent me off to Baton Rouge
In nineteen sixty-nine
He said our love was like a forest fire
And he'd end it with the miles
So you rode with us to Temple, Texas
Where I did catch the train
I remember waving back at you
Through a silted window pane

[Chorus:]
I said, "Fare thee well true love
Of mine"
I said, "Fare thee well sweet lips
Of wine"
And you said, "Fare thee well my
Texas rose"
And then you blew a kiss of
Innocence as the train began to roll
... So long ago

You'd gone off to fight the war when
I returned from school
I traded in my innocence when the
Springtime came to bloom
I married for my family... one night
I dreamed of you
And you were running from me in
The rain down on Congress Avenue

[Chorus]

I saw you once in a crowded bar...
It was Christmas time
I was frightened by the thunder of
Our hearts in sixty nine
Because I live my life in whispers now
And I choose to live alone
So I slipped back to the avenue and
Flipped my collar to the cold

[Chorus]

Where did we go?
That long ago?
So long ago

 

[fox69]

"Song For Remembered Heroes"

"Song For Remembered Heroes"


Well, it's that old time story
Of a new face to glory
Someone wanted my soul for their pride
What about the system
Of fools arranged for missing
Well, I can't lie, they all pass with time

Why do my people come and go?
I keep on leaving them behind
And Lord, I miss them so
I've watched my heroes change from
Silver into gold
As the time goes, only memories grow

It's your smiles that I remember
The dreams of the young and tender
Coming real, but now it seems
That highways are for foolish travelers
Always bonded, always shackled
By the prayer that they're remembered
In our dreams

Why do my people come and go?
I keep on leaving them behind
Lord, I miss them so
I've watched my heroes change from
Silver into gold
As the time goes, only memories grow

I am just a barroom child
Tried so damn hard to learn the style
Of your drunken tears, the way they smile
I guess I'll never learn the rules
I still play the simple fool
Who loves without the chains of lies

Why do my people come and go?
I keep on leaving them behind
And Lord, I miss them so
I've watched my heroes change from
Silver into gold
As the time goes, only memories grow
As the time goes, only memories grow