The Songs Of Country Medicine

Cocaine Stole Her Brain

She come down the mountain, she come down it's said.
She come down the mountain baby gonna wind up dead.
She come down to this town first time in the lights
Took out with the cocaine, baby stay out all night

Chorus
Cocaine, cocaine, messed up in the head Cocaine,
cocaine, baby gonna wind up dead

Hills of rolling Thunder, songs to bide my time
Another fallen soldier, whiskey don't cost a dime.
She come down to the mountain, last time she was seen
Took out with the cocaine, busted up all them dreams

Chorus
Cocaine, cocaine, messed up in the head
Cocaine, cocaine, baby gonna wind up dead

Bridge
Cocaine, cocaine, whisper out her name.
Cocaine, cocaine, baby gonna lose, her brain.

Leaving this Town

It's a story heard and it's a well bought myth and its a song sung good.
It all broke straight down, tried to turn it around A lot of shoulds and coulds!
Black Dog get old and if he get cold, you flash your teeth and he run
And if that dog could talk, He'd talk you up and down And you'd be down the road!

Chorus
And I've been thinking about leaving this town
And I've been thinking about leaving this town

You know the traffic barks and the the people mean, but there is a soft side too
You get your mind all bent on the money spent, you find the jokes on you!
When the deal goes down from a ten cent town, I'll be on my way,
And when we think on back to that shotgun shack and our store bought ways

Chorus
And I've been thinking about leaving this town
And I've been thinking about leaving this town

BRIDGE
And that's the way that the bones show through
And you can here the wind calling out to you
but we're holding in once upon a place gone wrong.

Joe's Bones

The night opens up like a lilly at mornlight,
broke in the light of the first rays of sun,
And I've been a watcher from the hills of my hiding
The last of the dead just running with crows.

The thieves crossed a line from water to water
And left us to burn between the two fires.
And the Buffalo Hills with their strychnine & sugar.
Seems the wolves are all gone from the road of the thieves.

Chorus
They're buried down there, They're buried down there, with Joe's Bones.
They're buried down there, They're buried down there, with Joe's Bones.

Well The Blue coats and the Red coats say the No coats are crazy,
Fighting to change a past long dead & gone
The fireboats come in the year of the deadgrass,
That river of fire will burn till it ends.

The dogs in these hills can fly with that moon,
And they've switched up their tongues to sing in the night.
Running the white dogs drunk on dime liquor
They've been torn from the fire of the Medicine Bird.

Chorus
Well they're buried down there, They're buried down there, with Joe's Bones.
Well they're buried down there, They're buried down there, with Joe's Bones.

So you talk with that tongue, and they'll cut out your blackheart,
And they'll leave you to die in the rivers of mud,
The blood from our hearts sings on in the Black Hills,
Where the Christians come to dig for their Gold,
and the Soliders come to bury Joe's Bones.

Sticks & Stones

Well the songs come down, down from the mountain,
And the swirled around in the busted towns.
You can hear em now out amongst the wounded,
Forgotten words seldom spoke by men.

Chorus
And they will lay this town in ashes
With the words that burn time and time again
Sticks and Stones and Names and Faces
They bring this fire down upon these broken men.

So the words they left us, just before the snowline,
And we held out throughout that storm
We had the night and it fell around us
As it come on down to fold us, in it's broken wings.

Chorus
And they will lay this town in ashes
With the words that burn time and time again
Sticks and Stones and Names and Faces
They bring this fire down upon these broken men.

Well the Raven knows the song your singing,
She holds your tongue when your walking in the rain
And the love gets lost between the whiskey and the water
and the blur that comes between the right and wrong.

Chorus
And they will lay this town in ashes
With the words that burn time and time again
Sticks and Stones and Names and Faces
They bring this fire down upon these broken men.

Country Medicine

Sometimes I feel like a two bit doctor from a town so far away,
Cut from the cloth and sewed up in stitches and patched up like yesterday.
Well you went your way and I went mine, there were no two ways to see.
Sometimes the cure tastes a lot worse than the disease.

Chorus
Down below where the firedogs go, They want nothing to do with me!
So have a slug on the Country Medicine and let the sleeping dogs be.

Well your like the woodgrain hidden on the door frame, long some painted and gone.
Like dirt from a small town circling the low ground down where the old dogs fall.
and here's a nickel for your troubles friend, best keep 'em tween you and me
Sometimes the cure tastes a lot worse than the disease.

Chorus
Down below where the firedogs go, They want nothing to do with me!
So have a slug on the Country Medicine and let the sleeping dogs be.

Bridge Some say the devil's waiting in the woodpile waiting out to be found,
Some say hell is waiting on the outskirts of that little town
Get in line it's time to be healed and leave those pitchforks in the field.

Chorus
Down below where the firedogs go, They want nothing to do with me!
So have a slug on the Country Medicine and let the sleeping dogs be.

Smells Like Rain

Well I was Up and I was Down and just trying to find a place to Sit down,
get out of this heat, maybe find a bench on the side of the street , catch me a little shade,
And I figured i just sit down and watch the homeless awhile,
cause around here the homeless are just a little easier to watch if you know what I mean!

And sure enough up comes this guy picking his teeth with the butt end of a hockey stick,
and he sets his little sack of cans down and has a seat next to me on the bench there.
Out of the Blue he says you know when you go that's it, your gone,
and the real rip off comes cause once you get to the light, you can't get back

Chorus
Oh Whooa I've been told the streets of heaven are made with gold.
What the hell do they need gold in heaven for?
And Oh Whooa I've been told the streets of heaven are made with gold.
What the hell do they need gold in heaven for?

So the guy jumps up and spins around, tips his hat & starts to laugh out loud.
He say "You know their gonna put our kids away for saying that's enough of this gasoline,
And that's enough of these trees and that's pretty much enough of this greed,
and you know they say they nailed a guy up on a cross one time for saying enough was enough
and that's Ok, they could have pepper sprayed him too!"

Chorus
Oh Whooa I've been told the streets of heaven are made with gold.
What the hell do they need gold in heaven for?
And Oh Whooa I've been told the streets of heaven are made with gold.
What the hell do they need gold in heaven for?

And getting bored and knowing it's leave the guy gets up,
But before he picks up his little sack of cans, he looks me square in the eyes and says
You know you best watch the sky today, ya you best watch the sky.... cause it smells like rain!
Ya It smells like rain, yah it smells like rain.....

Broke Wing Bird

The heron creeps the bankside, it'll shake this river clean.
On an icy night it'd cut you clear to see.
The river bleeding backwards, like those feathers in the snow.
As a song it's said and always best well worn.

Chorus

You can sweep those bones right under that rug,
From the eyes of the broke wing bird.
And just like you if we could fall to see,
Through the ashes of a brand new day.

Like tobacco in the circle, they found you in that field.
The raven night, she wears her silence well.
Your time here has been broken, like those feathers on the wind.
And with a final breath she sends 'em though the pines.

Chorus

You can sweep those bones right under that rug,
From the eyes of the broke wing bird.
And just like you if we could fall to see,
Through the ashes of a brand new day.

The night keeps growing colder, in that smaller prairie town.
And the lights go out and the wind picks up again.
Even dogs off in the distance, from that tobacco woodring field
Know the truth and lies get twisted in that wind.

Chorus

You can sweep those bones right under that rug,
From the eyes of the broke wing bird.
And just like you if we could fall to see,
Through the ashes of a brand new day.

Sleeping with Gold

Jacob Henry he works at the mill, 10 kids to feed, size 12 to fill.
He walks up the river, he don't like his shoes,
Kicked em into the water, Lord he loves the booze.
The trees are calling him, those city bent pines,
And those hills get as cold as hate if you're afraid to see.

He's Sleeping with Gold, He's Sleeping with Gold.
You put the penny in the dead mans hand, He's Sleeping with Gold.

On a frost burnt morn, he can't feel his toes,
And that Macadam road bites his heels like fiery coals,
But it makes him a smile and he gives it away,
he burns his money In a strangers stove, he's got nothing to say.

He's Sleeping with Gold, He's Sleeping with Gold.
You put the penny in the dead mans hand, He's Sleeping with Gold.

Blood & Ashes

Well we're West on one and the winds picking up again,
And we're rolling on through doubt and enemys.
Like sisters smiling when they catch your eye
They can read your heart just like yesterday.

Chorus
And it burns like Blood and Ashes, Blood and Ashes
Blood and Ashes and the blues from yesterdays songs

Well the Crickets hum their battle hymns,
And their songs of love for you and me.
And the moon looks good over the scattered coals,
Of that distant city and those dark hills we call home.

Chorus
And it burns like Blood and Ashes, Blood and Ashes
Blood and Ashes and the blues from yesterdays songs

Bridge
And this here Highway has seen us too many times,
And I can't stand those high beams ghosting up my eyes.
Chorus
And it burns like Blood and Ashes, Blood and Ashes
Blood and Ashes and the blues from yesterdays songs

Timber Road

Well I'm waiting out this fire, Morning never seems to come
Well the sky is slightly faded, One more night is almost gone.
These hills have never felt so crazy, I've never see the rain this way
She's calling to the trees tonight, The storm has crossed the other way.

Chorus
Well the devil's on the pathway and the sun is on the rise,
Ain't it funny how the smoke, it plays tricks within your eyes.
In your eyes, I have seen, the swirling, of the sun.

The rain has crossed the fieldbirds, And the dawn has shown it's face of gray.
The birches standing laugh out loud, But she's got nothing left to say.
The river runs a silty blue, Where the timber ends, The road goes though,
And this all fades away.

Chorus
Well the devil's on the pathway and the sun is on the rise,
Ain't it funny how the smoke, it plays tricks within your eyes.
In your eyes, I have seen, the swirling, of the sun.

.

Lookayonder Blue

It's the difference tween the passers and the givers.
Between the hungry and the poor,
You've got the written page and you can write a little more.

You Burn your bread to hold your sin, Try to breathe between the line.
You've seen it all and you've seen it done, Count your blessings for better times.

There's a fury in the rhythm of the sawdust, Ask an inch and you take a little more.
She's the best and the brightest on the highway, She's the sunshine riding out the storm.

It's rocks and rain that show themselves, The little things we never see.
The lies we had they broke us down, Bend it back and leave it be.

I never wrote a song for you, I never wrote a song for you.
I don't believe the world sometimes, Lookayonder, Lookayonder, Lookayonder Blue....

All Songs ©2004 Dave McCann, Old Man River Folk Music/Socan.