Second Wind: The Lyrics
Second Wind
October 2019 – Toronto
Day’s work had left me weary
Went home, got into bed
Wasn’t a long time later
I got my second wind
Went down to see the fellas
They cheered as I walked in
Poured me a drink of whiskey
I got my second wind
I had been feeling badly
Worries filled to the brim
Once I poured out my heartache
I got my second wind
I felt my luck start turning
I had to go all in
Suddenly I was living
I got my second wind
Tomorrow I’ll be hurting
I will be on the mend
Tonight it don’t much matter
I got my second wind
If your life has no colour
You’ll get to your deathbed
You’ll leave the window open
Wanting a second wind
Cassady’s Hill
May 2020 - PEI
On Cassady’s Hill, by the moonshine still
There’s a harvest fair, I’ll meet you there
On Cassady’s Hill
Let the country fair commence, time to climb the picket fence
The n’er do-wells are coming down the way
See the drifters riding in, for to get a taste of sin
It’s fare thee well to dark and dreary days
CHORUS
Come in from herring shoals, come out from shady groves
And bring a stick to heap upon the blaze
Come out from lumber camps, bring your winking whale-oil lamps
It’s fare thee well to dark and dreary days
CHORUS
Hear the warble of the thrush, see the maiden start to blush
As we reignite the rough and rowdy ways
Hear the traveller’s aching tune, see the rising of the moon
It’s fare thee well to dark and dreary days
CHORUS (x2)
It Slips Away
December 2020 - PEI
It slips away, The world we knew
It’s turning grey, Like old things do
If it disappeared, It wouldn’t be so hard to take
While the dark dust clears, It slips away
We can’t be sure, Of what’s to come
What made a stir, Has left us numb
Like a firework flash, Merriment ain’t meant to stay
And the smoke won’t last, It slips away
I saw a New Idea
It was rusting in the rain
Nothing that is treasured will remain
We can’t be sure, Of what we heard
Of who we were, Of what we earned
Sure enough we grow, Sure enough our feelings change
Like the springtime snow, It slips away
CHORUS
It slips away, The world we knew
It’s turning grey, Like old things do
If it disappeared, It wouldn’t be so hard to take
While the dark dust clears, It slips away
While the dark dust clears, It slips away
Autumn Rain
October 2019 - Toronto
He’s been listening to the pouring rain
Tears dripping down the window pane
Grey solemn sky
Watch the season die
Not the man that he used to be
Take a look, it’s plain to see
He seems so tired
He’s uninspired
And it’s an autumn rain
Lost souls are swirling around
Wind on the blow shaking leaves to the ground
Eyes dead ahead and his collar flipped up
Turning inside when the going gets tough
It’s an autumn rain
Last sun clinging like a dying leaf
Each lonely day is little more brief
Big clouds looming in a swollen sky
Highway gleaming with a devil’s smile
It’s an autumn rain
Early morning and the fog rolls in
Another chance to start again
Hand to the plow
Half-frozen ground
He’s been trying to reap what he sowed
Once swore he’d yield a-hundredfold
Claims unfulfilled
Land never tilled
CHORUS
Rain is gone and the sorrow is sealed
Wiper scraping on a dry windshield
Back on the road
Nowhere to go
Keeps on running away from the hurt
His old house sinks into the dirt
Seasons go ‘round
Leaves turn to brown
CHORUS
The Waltz of the Figurehead Maiden
September 2019 - Toronto
Heading home from a spree down in Rafferty’s cove
The strand looked so lovely t’was there I did rove
With my feet in the sand and the moon shining bright
I’d a belly of rum and was feeling right tight
Oh I saw the poor gal thrashing ‘round in the sea
Though her long robes were soaked she was fair and pretty
She’d a wooden complexion- all whittled and chipped
With her robes painted purple and ruby red lips
I waltzed with a figurehead maiden me boys
I knew not the vessel from which she embarked
The moon lit her eyes through the mist and the dark
I should have known it was a ploy
To waltz with that figurehead boys
I roved into the shoal for to meet this fair maid
And inquire if she required a drunken man’s aid
But the wind played a tune- it left me entranced
She grabbed hold of my shoulders- we started to dance
CHORUS
Now she whispered wild yarns of the places she’d seen
From Van Diemen's Land to Bermuda and Spain
Oh she said ‘round the world she would travel with me
If I only would follow her into the sea
CHORUS
So take warning by me before danger ensues
For I followed her in and my life I did lose
When you’re out on the drink near salt water beware
Lest you be drawn into a siren’s cruel snare
I waltzed with a figurehead maiden me boys
I knew not the vessel from which she embarked
The moon lit her eyes through the mist and the dark
I should have known it was a ploy
To waltz with that figurehead boys
I waltzed with a siren me boys
Tell Me What’s Changed
June 2020 - PEI
Tell me what’s changed from then ‘til now?
When wine was sipped by the river Claydee
The love they knew is here today
As sprite and fair as a blooming daisy
Tell me what’s changed from then ‘til now?
When ships sailed out on a bright May morning
The call to rove is here today
The fever burns in the face of storming
So lend an ear to what’s been said
And turn an eye to the pages written
All those who feel old ways are dead
Will twice be shy once they’ve been bitten
Tell me what’s changed from then ‘til now?
When whiskey flowed after long day toiling
That mirth and glee is here today
Stirring the pot, and the blood still boiling
CHORUS (x2)
Fiddle Playin’ Girl
November 2018 - Toronto
Fiddle playin’ girl don’t you move to the city
Summer sun lingers in your hair
Stick around with me and we’ll make sweet music
Just the two of us, that’s a mighty fine pair
If you leave the Island you’ll lose all your freckles
We’ll find love if you stick around
When you play your fiddle tunes I start crying
Knowing one day you’re gonna set your fiddle down
Gonna be a cold and a quiet winter
And I’d wish you’d change your plans
Gonna be a cold and a quiet winter
Gonna be a cold and a quiet man (x2)
Fiddle playin’ girl now you’ve moved to the city
Left your fiddle and you flew the pen
Guess I’m never gonna hear your sweet music
Guess I’m never gonna hold your hand again
CHORUS
Yours to Borrow
May 2020 - PEI
Take me round and round again
Waltzing on the parquet floor
Careful feet and careless hands
Wondering what you have in store
Is this deeper than a dance?
Will you feel this way tomorrow?
Guess I’ll have to take a chance
My love is yours to borrow
Take me round and round again
Now it all begins to blur
Evening soars, you say you love me
Morning falls, you’re not so sure
CHORUS
Take me round and round again
All this circling leaves me drowsy
Will you curtsy when it’s done?
Or succumb to dance floor frenzy
CHORUS (2)
Man with Stories
February 2019 - Ottawa
Quiet footsteps on the pavement
In the dusk I tread back home
Wondering about the stories
Father told so long ago
Father took a train to Bangor
When he was a young P.I
Felling spruce trees through the winter
Horse-drawn two-sleds passing by
I am not a man with stories
I just read them from a book
Father was a man with stories
Of his time spent in the woods
I forget my father’s stories
Of his logging days in Maine
I remember bits and pieces
Not enough to share his pain
Something about bunkhouse antics
Something about crackling fires
Something about dreadful whiskey
Something about friends who died
CHORUS
Tired-out porch is slumping sadly
Father built it, loved it well
Used to sit on summer evenings
Telling stories to himself
I recall the way he sounded
Deep and croaking, slow in pace
Wish that I had listened better
I cannot recall his tales
CHORUS
Blue hands warming in the kitchen
Ears still burning from the cold
Ears still yearning for the stories
Father told so long ago
CHORUS
The Song of 52
January 2020 - Toronto
Come and harken to my story ‘tis a tale of lonely sounds
From the depths of the Pacific and a singer never found
As ears were tuned to spying subs and hydrophones were placed
To keep secure “red, white and blue” the Reds in blue were traced
The Cold War then concluded and the ocean front was calm
The ears upon the ocean floor were turned from subs to songs
The Whidbey Island Station soon would be a witness to
A whale call like no other- The Song of 52
He sings for every lonely soul
The voices never heard
The outcasts and the wanderers
For every drowned out word
He cries with those who’ve lost their way
A foothold for the few
The lonesome legend of the sea
They call him 52
The mighty whales are said to speak in rumbles loud and low
Their humming reaching distances far ‘cross the great below
They purr to plan their passages, they moan to meet their mates
The Station tracked each murmur as they crept through seas and straits
A piercing call arose one day above the euphony
The pitch too high for other whales- it proved a mystery
Most strange of all this strange whale’s call met silence in the blue
There never was an answer to the Song of 52
CHORUS
The vastness of the ocean makes impossible to find
A friend for him to bandy with, another of his kind
So in the deep-sea darkness, in his own confounded tongue
The lonely whale glides onward as his stubborn song is sung
The singer in a crowded bar, the frantic futile flare
The message in a bottle and the unrequited prayer
The fight against a rising tide to share a point of view
The universal loneliness- the Song of 52
CHORUS (x2)
Life Will Settle Down
December 2019 - Toronto
Life will settle down in some time
Until then I’ll keep riding high
Life will settle down in some time
Until then I’ll keep riding high
Once I’ve done the things I’ve said
Warm wood stove and a comfy bed will welcome my retreat
I’ll put up my feet
Locked doors, unsettled scores
Candles flicker and die
These ruins, offering clues
Watch me wandering by
CHORUS
Burning through the seasons now
I can’t see things slowing down I’m living in a dream
I’m only losing steam
Locked doors, unsettled scores
Candles flicker and die
These ruins, offering clues
Watch me wandering by
CHORUS
