Picture window

(Another new song, a blues in A minor.
One of these days I'll add audio.)

girl at her picture window
watching the clouds blow by
the sun and the stars, the boys in the cars
the road and the prairie sky

the prairie’s a place for leaving
here’s how you say goodbye
pack up your hopes and tune your guitar and kiss your mother
pick up your feet and fly

to the city, the blazing nights
the crowds, the crazy colored lights
that’s where she’s gonna go

girl wants a man to hold her
she won’t let him hold her long
she’s got a suitcase full of dreams and desperation
come morning she’ll be gone

somewhere a lover is lonesome
somewhere a baby cries
somewhere she’s singing her blue blue love songs
her sorrowful lullabies

in the city, her famous nights
the crowds, her name up in lights
she did what she had to do

girl in a dark motel room
radio turned down low
one of these nights she’ll be famously forgotten
someone you used to know

girl at a picture window
call her the prairie queen
no matter how sweetly she promises to love you
love isn’t everything
love isn’t everything
love isn't everything

photo: Max Church

New song

Michael Timmins on Townes Van Zandt: “What he taught me was that no matter how lyrical or poetic a song is, it should always be grounded in a place or an event.”

– A Deeper Blue: The Life and Music of Townes Van Zandt, Robert Earl Hardy


This April I was working in an arts colony in the mountains of Virginia. Everything was fresh and green, coming back to life; all you had to do was set foot outside and you felt full of possibility. One morning I woke up thinking about the spring my father died, nineteen years ago, and how my mother wasn't much older then than I am now. I tried to imagine how she might feel on a day like this.

Tender Green

in the hills it’s early spring
morning opens tender green
bluest sky, wish you could see it

with my hands I count the days
old men bring me tired bouquets
small talk, comfort when I need it

young and reckless for too long
we thought love would make us strong
why’d you leave me here alone
I still love you anyhow

you were the sleekest boy I’d seen
I said you were my own James Dean
and I the country girl who’d hold you

your dark car blazing in the sun
I saw the man you might become
a gentle man, I wish I’d told you

all the nights and all the days
all the miles that rolled away
all the things I did not say
I would say them to you now

robins sing, the mountains rise
I think of you and close my eyes
where did they go, our by-and-bys
I would cry if I knew how

headlong days and wasted nights
we lost our chance to make things right
I'm tired of being broken

all the hills are tender green
can you hear the robins sing
sad and bright the morning opens