dream a highway back to you

There's some people I miss and love with a highway heart.   This song in some ways sums my feelings, but it is the refrain that evidences that I keep circling back to face the feelings I always carry.

I think the guy who made this video shortened the song by cutting out some choruses, but that's okay.  I kept them in place in the lyrics posted after the video.   Take a little Gillian Welch with your meandering mountain drive.



I Dream A Highway - Gillian Welch

Oh I dream a highway back to you love
A winding ribbon with a band of gold
A silver vision come and rest my soul
I dream a highway back to you

John he's kicking out the footlights
The Grand Ole Opry's got a brand new band
Lord, let me die with a hammer in my hand
I dream a highway back to you.

I think I'll move down into Memphis
And thank the hatchet man who forked my tongue
I lie and wait until the wagons come
And dream a highway back to you.

The getaway kicking up cinders
An empty wagon full of rattling bones
Moon in the mirror on a three-hour jones,
I dream a highway back to you.

Oh I dream a highway back to you, love
A winding ribbon with a band of gold
A silver vison come arrest my soul
I dream a highway back to you.

Which lover are you, Jack of Diamonds?
Now you be Emmylou and I'll be Gram
I send a letter, don't know who I am
I dream a highway back to you.

I'm an indisguisable shade of twilight
Any second now I'm gonna turn myself on
In the blue display of the cool cathode ray
I dream a highway back to you.

I wish you knew me, Jack of Diamonds
Fire-riding, wheeling when I lead em up
Drank whisky with my water, sugar in my tea
My sails in rags with the staggers and the jags
I dream a highway back to you.

Oh I dream a highway back to you, love
A winding ribbon with a band of gold
A silver vision come molest my soul
I dream a highway back to you.

Now give me some of what you're having
I'll take you as a viper into my head
A knife into my bed, arsenic when I'm fed
I dream a highway back to you.

Hang overhead from all directions
Radiation from the porcelain light
Blind and blistered by the morning white
I dream a highway back to you.

Sunday morning at the diner
Hollywood trembles on the verge of tears
I watched the waitress for a thousand years
Saw a wheel within a wheel, heard a call within a call
I dreamed a highway back to you.

Oh I dream a highway back to you, love
A winding ribbon with a band of gold
A silver vision come molest my soul
I dream a highway back to you.

Step into the light, poor Lazarus
Don't lie alone behind the window shade
Let me see the mark death made
I dream a highway back to you.
I dream a highway back to you.

What will sustain us through the winter?
Where did last year's lessons go?
Walk me out into the rain and snow
I dream a highway back to you.

Oh I dream a highway back to you, love
A winding ribbon with a band of gold
A silver vision come and bless my soul
I dream a highway back to you
I dream a highway back to you

Oh I dream a highway back to you, love
A winding ribbon with a band of gold
A silver vision come and bless my soul
I dream a highway back to you.

feeling good

So... which version do you like best?

Nina Simone - Feeling Good



Michael Bublé - Feeling Good



Muse - Feeling Good



George Michael - Feeling Good





I prefer Nina Simone's recording.

april poetry ponderings

April 8, 2010

"If I had a single flower for every time I think about you, I could walk forever in my garden."

- Claudia Ghandi

April 7, 2010

"This spring as it comes bursts up in bonfires green,
Wild puffing of emerald trees, and flame-filled bushes,
Thorn-blossom lifting in wreaths of smoke between
Where the wood fumes up, and the flickering, watery rushes."

- D.H. Lawrence, "The Enkindled Spring"

April 5, 2010
"It was late, late in the evening,
The lovers they were gone;
The clocks had ceased their chiming,
And the deep river ran on."

- W. H. Auden, "As I Walked Out One Evening"

April 4, 2010
"I want to mirror your image to its fullest perfection,
never be blind or too old
to uphold your weighty wavering reflection.
I want to unfold."

- by Rainer Maria Rilke (Translated by Annemarie S. Kidder), "I Am Much Too Alone in This World, Yet Not Alone"

April 3, 2010

"I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body."

- Pablo Neruda, "Sonnet XVII"

national poetry month

Last April, for National Poetry Month, I excerpted a line or two from a poem I like and linked to it in my facebook profile. Last year it was a hit, and so I will do it again this year, including my posts here as well. Click the link to read the entire poem. Enjoy!

April 1, 2010

"I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after."

- Wallace Stevens, "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird"

April 2, 2010

"Do not move
Let the wind speak
that is paradise."

- Ezra Pound, "Notes for Canto CXX"

house concert

I went to my first house concert of the year down at a friend's in Oklahoma City.  A lovely house with open doors, beautiful art, an inviting backyard, and an intimate setting to sit and listen to some good music sung right there to you and fellow music lovers.  Last night's concert was Brine Webb and Samantha Crain.

I'd heard Samantha play at the Conservatory just a week ago for Ali Harter's CD Release Party.  I hadn't heard Brine Webb before, and I sure was glad to get a peek at some of his songs last night!  His style has a little melancholy lilt that meanders through a meadow, a forest path, a city street at dusk.  I managed to get there in time to hear about 5 or 6 of his songs, including a lullaby.  I became entranced at his finger-picking style for "The Ghost Family" song, one had said he's written a long time ago.  Check out an interview with him by Sophie Zine and don't miss this video and this video, both from his song "Cigarette Tree."

Brine Webb, House Concert, OKC, OK, March 26, 2010

Samantha Crain played some of her well-known tunes and also some new songs, opening up her last set with "Lions" and closing with "Scissor Tales."  She has an openness to the audience, joking about brown and pink-red koozies and how they were ordered with a real customer service rep named Gregg.  Her song lyrics are full of emotion and no matter how many times she has sung the song, it still sounds poignant with fresh feelings and stories.  I think of sunny days with big fluffy clouds drifting along and midnight walks under constellations and meteor showers when I hear Sam's songs.  Check out some videos on youtube.

Samantha Crain, House Concert, OKC, OK, March 26, 2010

Having seen Samantha with a backing band and now flying solo for a small audience, I'm appreciative of the house concert venue.  I missed the first hour because I got lost (as usual) in downtown Oklahoma City looking for the main mail sorting post office to drop off some bills; By the way, that post office doesn't have a mail drop after hours.  So I was finally relieved to get to the Feuerborn house for the concert of the night.  Such a warm setting, potluck, a little wine and beer, and of course, plenty of other people who appreciate good music.  What a wonderful way to spend a Friday evening.

winter or spring

Today is the first day of spring, or so we thought.  During the night a winter storm came through with a few inches of snow, some slushy rain, and a lot of gusty wind.  I'm tired of winter and ready to plant some seeds in the four huge planters in my front yard and probably some spinach in my backyard.  But it was a beautiful sight to see the white reflection of snow through the windows behind my daisies in wine bottle vases.

I realized I was out of coffee, so I had to walk to the nearest store and purchase some so I wouldn't have one of those painful headaches I tend to get when lacking caffeine.  On the way there and back the big-breasted robins were hopping quickly from snow-covered parking spot to sidewalk and back again.  I managed to get a picture of one.

Here's to hoping that this is winter's last hurrah this season.  May spring arrive in its full glory and thrust of seedlings, birdsong, and bloom.  And spring breaking ground makes me think of a quote I cannot find, one that says something about the violence of spring, but this one by Whitman will do:

"The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks." - Tennessee Williams

red dirt music

Last night's Concert at the Cowboy was a pretty good success and I managed to get quite a few snappy photos of Brandon Jackson while he performed under the End of the Trail sculpture.  I also recorded one of his songs, so take a peek at this Red Dirt musician from Stillwater, Oklahoma.  By the way, he is recording an album in May, so be on the lookout for one hot off the press this Summer.