1. |
Tennessee Valley Waltz
03:06
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She’s got the eyes of a dog that’s been beaten and left in the rain
When she does walk her hair flows like smoke from a train
The one man she needs is the one that ain’t willing to change
They sleep in the same bed but she may as well be sleeping
Six hundred miles away
She makes dinner every evening got the boy tucked in by nine
She’d never eject this movie just wishes sometimes to rewind
Thumbs her glass of Merlot looks off her back porch at the pines
Tries to pry herself loose of the unforgiving grip from the hands
Of cold, wasted time
I’ve seen the boy’s eyes yes I used to wear them myself
Angry at the man that’s always out fixing something else
Tell him You can’t buy these days back even if you outgrow yourself
So it’s time to come home your son needs a father
And his mother could use both of you as well
END
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2. |
Santa Fe to Burlington
04:36
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Think before you say that do you want to go there
She asked me and the question lingered in the air
Heard all the things you love all the things you can’t stand
What is it, then, that’s keeping you from takin my hand
Your passion has no discretion all your reasons temporary
She said to me abused like a dirty mine canary
I searching for a clue looked out across the field
The wind offered nothing like a fate long-sealed
A broken soul is still alive in pieces but the same
Reaching out in all directions for serenity or blame
I knew not what I’d found when your world came into mine
But I can find the words if you can make the time
With the back of her hand she hid the sun from her eyes
Looked up to me saw straight through my disguise she said
Santa Fe to Burlington every railroad has its end
Darlin with a one-way ticket I ain’t goin back to where I been
A spade wasn’t a spade till I learned to call it so
May you sing beneath the sun may you tumble in the snow
Santa Fe to Burlington my darlin you are on the move
I’ll find you again with nothing then to lose
END
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3. |
Son of Orphalese
03:19
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Oh son of Orphalese come speak to me please
I am down on my knees for you
Oh son of Orphalese
You grew up in these streets you grew up in these streets
You always kept the beat my love
But before you leave
Your ship is comin today your ship is coming today
And you know you cannot stay my love
Your ship is leaving today
END
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4. |
Ft. Sanders Blues
04:03
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Snapshot from your life like in a movie but is it really moving
Or is it just abusing and confusing you
Cigarette break at the backside of the restaurant first thought best thought
What you want you have never truly chased
Kickin bottle caps all the way home drunk and alone
The blurry city night atones for us all
Midnight gaze atop the shaky staircase the lines in your face
Map the mistakes and disgrace that you’ve seen
Let me be but a scene within your movie and I’ll keep moving
A shade of blue contusing you
The sun sets on the moral of your story what does it say of mourning
Or was it surely just for glory for you
END
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5. |
Era's Yard
04:46
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She don’t work on a street corner never worked as a nurse
Don’t talk much on time or the back of a hearse
Never photographed herself left scrapbooks on the shelf
I’d heard she was bad and getting worse
Chorus:
Era’s yard is empty ‘cept for a nineteen-fifty
Seven Chevrolet
With a picture of her on the dashboard fading
A little more each day
Her only baby died in Iraq Vietnam done her daddy in
She knows more truth of war than any newsman can pretend
But she never talked on the bombing or the rebels that’s a coming
For she knew there was no painless end
Chorus
Dusty dress sun in the West sweepin up lost time off the porch
Such a long race to run when you know you can’t hand off the torch
Her heart is attached to the anchor line memory is a field of patient landmines
But she’s never looked at lovin like a chore
Chorus
END
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6. |
16th & Valentine
03:19
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I won’t do you wrong tonight do you right until the end
When you feel this life is the one you just can’t live
When you got none to give and when you’re feeling spent
Leave a note babe and I’ll take a hint
When you feel as though you’re falling to whatever waits below
You can feel your love slowly withdrawing into change’s undertow
When you feel like a scarecrow among dead and dying crops
Take a nap and I’ll take a walk
What begins with a match must end with embers
Nostalgia sirens wailing Do you remember
I’m lost among the timber thinking how memory is history’s transient crook
Leave a match babe and I’ll take a book
END
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7. |
October Wind
06:10
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The wind blows down the street the lampposts stand lonely in a row
Underneath the crimson awning black clouds begin to roll
I know I have seen that face before in the chasm of abandoned memory
You were a friend of my sister’s, do you remember me
Chorus:
Blow wide blow true O October wind
And can you tell me where the one I love has been
Staring down the railroad tracks with that searching look for truth
Feels like it’s been so long since I’ve just been
But the decisions made lead me where they do
Have not been made mindless of you
Chorus
It is spoken casually but has such a piercing ring of pain
Have you seen her lately or heard how she’s been
I picture her riding with strangers on a dark and lonely road
Tell her I didn’t read the letter or whatever brings her home
Blow through me through me O October wind
And can you tell me where the one I love has been
END
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8. |
To Love Virginia
04:28
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I’ve been lovin Virginia for such a long, long time
Her Shenandoah Valley and the creases of her eyes
Don’t hold a candle to the preponderance of her superficial lies
I been lovin Virginia for a long, long time
Chorus:
I been lovin Virginia for such a long time
What is it in that girl’s heart that is never satisfied
What was it we were waitin for standing in that line
Righteousness or solitude or means to become blind
To the hardened truth that in the end all may not be fine
I been lovin Virginia for a long, long time
Chorus
Easily she came to me now easily I go
Nothing’s changed but everything is different just to know
That many more to her heart through her rivers row
And even more in her fields to be picked apart by crows
Chorus
END
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9. |
Heaven is Late
07:31
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A memorial rain falls on the highway in a pounding pour
The orange streetlamp exposes it like never before
Thunder shakes the windowpanes with a rumbling roar
As the lightning strikes blue
The darkening clouds head East across the racing sky
An eternal gap within them catches my eye
A last glimpse of the sunset like a truth among lies
Offers me silent hope
Across this light are dancing silhouettes by the looking to be seen
Innocent imaginations from the purest of dreams
They fade into each other and they fade into me
While their souls drift aloft
The colors are all encompassed and swallowed into night
The buckets are emptied and they’re coming down with all of their might
Put the book back under the bed my darling we don’t need last rites
For Heaven, my friend, Heaven is late
A memorial rain falls on the highway flooding memories
A skid mark a track mark and a constant vacancy
But I’ve seen the silhouettes and I know what they think they’ve seen
Heaven, my friend, Heaven is late
END
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10. |
Hillside
02:47
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There is something nagging at your mind
Begging you to leave behind
Troubles that in time
Have proven themselves
To your pain
There is something nipping at your heels
Reminding you what’s real
What it means to feel
The rolling of your wheels
Finding home
You’re hillside with a downtown view
One-way ticket to plan two
If you can make it through
The thorns of fear surrounding you
The world is wider
END
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Fate McAfee Murray, Kentucky
fatemcafeemusic.com
Hailed by American Songwriter as "A songwriter to watch in folk and Americana",
Fate McAfee is an independent musician, engineer, and singer-songwriter. He frequently collaborates with Midwestern acts like Leonard the Band and Melanie A. Davis.
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