Angela Faye Martin: lyrics

Strawberry Roan 

If you love that girl with the golden hair 

I'll leave on my strawberry roan 

And I'll never come down from the chestnut stairs 

I'll leave you to your all night moan 

The ferryman put horses on your boat 

for crossing the flood so wide 

Could've told you t'was the devil's moat 

I cried on the other side 

The valves will hum and the fanblades sing 

when I finally see my boy 

The swallowtail hurdles on currents unseen 

the golden bough will roar 

Burning you into the hearts of men 

I'll spiderweb your wounds 

The spell will hypnotize their kin 

And haunt all their dining rooms 

Pictures From Home 

standing in full weight 

in front of you 

my cast-iron grate 

didn't you bring pictures from home 

didn't you bring pictures from home 

didn't you bring pictures from home 

ragdolls in dusty shops 

know there are boys at the top of the pops 

and they won't be calling home 

no they won't be calling home 

no they won't be calling home 

there is a house wants to be haunted 

there is house 

there is a house wants to be haunted 

there is a house 

she slept the way to monteagle 

to get away from all those people 

and she won't be calling home 

no she won't be calling home 

no she won't be calling home 

there is a house wants to be haunted 

there is house 

there is a house wants to be haunted 

there is house 

The Woods Get To Know Me 

 

Well the 'N' fell off my typewriter 

In the middle of the night 

And the rain made the rats 

Make umbrellas out of your neckties 

 

I awoke in the night to a light 

On the Mountain so lonely 

Help me with my coat and I'll go 

So the woods get to know me 

 

Film became necessity 

When Your chestnut eyes gave out 

But it's lost on the blind 

Who know when your running a red light 

I'll be guided to fires by the Big water spiders Of Jore 

I will stand by the creek till it whispers to me 

A new story 

 

Where the old magnolia blue and woad 

Give me over to mornings of gold 

And the tulip tree braids together my sky cold 

 

Oh the offering ridges send tree-line fringes to glory 

Help me with my coat and I'll go 

So the woods get to know me

Summer of Lightning 

 

He died in car crash on a dirt mountain road 

Moonshine on his belly 

Spilled on his clothes 

 

Into a summer's white sun afternoon 

Along the gravel 

The mourning doves croon 

 

The mother's son was named Tarleton 

His blood now runs cold 

Story been told 

 

we see the worst things under the sun 

under the summer of lightning 

 

Take him from this city and all that surrounds 

He won't need our pity 

Not where he's bound 

 

So just leave this place fine as you found it 

Carry his love over the mountain 

 

No One Can Wake You 

 

is there nothing 'can say to you 

change the weather or bring you your new shoes 

 

river ribboned pooled up and crying 

has made you holy just like the dying 

 

marble scarecrow indigo moon 

cold bell of morning coming too soon 

 

no one can wake you, no one can wake you when you're gone

goliath had you, don't let him take you for a song 

 

keep the hollow where i can sleep 

writing letters to the voices in the creek 

 

boy from the swinging bridge with antique eyes 

catching secrets before they run dry 

granite shelter ammo and wine 

appalachia hold the line 

 

no one can wake you, no one can wake you when you're gone 

goliath had you, don't let him take you for a song

Widow's Lament 

 

i once loved a soldier 

his family gunned down in the woods 

he stared out from a blanket and died 

and i took down the words 

i took down the words 

 

the essence of flowers at war 

alone with the progress of man 

a runaway pancake a nosebleed 

a sewing machine on the land 

a sewing machine on the land 

 

with snowkissed window sills 

and a newspaper wet with rain 

i think on the day that i met you 

never to come again 

never to come again 

 

brother i smell lightning 

sisters in the rye 

when they need water 

the leaves learn to claw the sky 

leaves learn to claw the sky 

 

crossed factory lots and cornfields 

cities dark with light 

where knife bearing phantoms found me 

i couldn't put up a fight 

i couldn't put up a fight 

 

now i grow checkerboard tulips 

neath a rusted out weathervane 

and peer through overhill spires 

lest you follow a friend 

lest you follow a friend 

 

the frogs will grow silent with bootfall 

my hound he will groan low 

with vision adjusted to velvet 

if you come around i'll know

 you come around i'll know 

 

brother i smell lightning 

sisters in the rye 

when they need water 

the leaves learn to claw the sky 

leaves learn to claw the sky

Adieu, Mr. Higginson

Adieu, Mr. Higginson
My last days are through
Farewell all your legions
Dirt of the daisy
To the ocean blue

Leave them to wonder
Why I was wont to capitalize
And why my visage
Evaded their eyes

They can look on my garden
With recognition I didn't know
When you get all my papers
Know the queen of calvary rode solo

Slate gray and a lithium white
Slant of light through the clouds
These are the kind of things I write

Called Back in marble
Isn't what it should've said
The quill was intact
When October fell
From the seedhead

Heliotrope and gentian
What I said about religion
Flapping bats and Gottschalk
The carnivals and the cakewalks

Farewell my family
The munitions the coats of lead
I'll go out one
Emily Dickinson instead

Slate gray and a lithium white
Slant of light through the clouds
These are the kind of things I write

Still Life With An Empty Bottle

still life with an empty bottle
six girls in a trance
i'm standing alone in high water
dreaming of paris france

the preacher he went fishing
to tell the river lies
my best friend she eat next to nothing
least nothin' with eyes

she always been the kind of woman
tell the world what she believes
and she never contribute to nobody's problem
no baby tugging at her sleeves

roll river roll
roll river roll
where you're going i don't know

well, whatever became of katie downs
her eyes as green as gold
like some immortal, autumnal warbler
she never will get old

and herbie played a tune caled, watermelon man
when no one would open their eyes
and the new york times wrote something about how he
never took his eyes off the prize

me i defend all the ridges
where apollo will touch down
i discovered the land with all the pitches
the only place i can drink from the ground

roll river roll
roll river roll
where you're going i don't know

The Ballad of Lolita Dean

I am a hundred and three years-old
My land's worth more than your weight in gold
And I never met the lover
Of my dreams

Bear paw prints and icy rocks
Abbreviate my winter walks
And summer gushes by
In the blink of an eye

There was a little boy with eyes of green
You never see things you wish you'd seen
Maybe you know what I mean

This is the ballad, the ballad of Lolita Dean

As sure as they lengthen your blessing
There's someone out there
Going to teach you a lesson
That you did not need to learn

So hold your lanterns way down low
Reflect them off the silver snow
The branches have written directions
On the starry sky

The branches have written directions
on the starry sky

This is the ballad, the Ballad of Lolita Dean

Land of the Noonday Sun

there's nothing more lonely than a house
when you're flying in a plane
when the people are away at work or playing

there's nothing more lonesome than the land
when the kids go away
it might as well freeze or it might as well sell
if no one here is gonna stay

leave it alone
land of the noonday sun
leave it alone
land of the noonday sun

there's nothing more holy
than a house of the dying in the rain
where nobody really needs you or is trying to appease the insane

where the holy tree is red and the beadboard hung
the day's work is done
where the holy tree is red and the beadboard hung
the day's work is done

leave it alone
land of the noonday sun
leave it alone
land of the noonday sun