ASHGROVE
Dave Alvin
(Blue Horn Toad Music, BMI)

 
Well when I was a young boy
I used to slip away
Down to the ashgrove
To hear the old blues men play
There was Big Joe and Lightnin’
And Reverend Gary too
Well I’d sit and stare and dream
Of doin’ what they could do.

Well it’s been thirty years since the ashgrove burned down
And I’m out on this highway travelin’ town to town
Tryin’ to make a livin’	
Tryin’ to pay the rent
Tryin’ to figure out where my life went.

I wanna go back to the ashgrove
That’s where I come from
I wanna go back to the ashgrove
That’s where I belong.

Well you don’t have to go searchin’
Pretend to put on airs
‘Cause the blues are gonna find you someday, somewhere
Now my mother’s gone
Now my father’s gone
And all the old blues men have all passed on
And I’m out on this highway travelin’ town to town 
Settin’ up my gear and then I’m tearin’ it down 
Turnin’ up my guitar
Standin’ on the stage
I’m just tryin’ to raise the ghosts up out of their graves.

I wanna go back to the ashgrove
That’s where I come from 
Yeah I wanna go back to the ashgrove
That’s where I belong.

Well I can’t say I been all sinner
Can’t say I been all saint
I’ve done some good deeds and I’ve made big mistakes
I been in and out of love
Said words I regret
I been drunk, been sober
Smoked too many cigarettes
And I’m out on this highway travelin’ town to town
And the news on the radio just brings me down
Intolerance and fear
Ignorance and lies
It’s the same old same old I heard a million times
And I’m thinkin’ of friends and lovers
And how they come and go
Like look-alike houses on the side of the road
Full of everyday people tryin’ to get ahead
Tryin’ to find a reason just to get out of bed
‘Cause we all need somethin’ just to get us through
Well I’m gonna play the blues tonight man
‘Cause that’s what I do.

I’m goin’ back to the Ashgrove
That’s where I come from
I’m goin’ back to the Ashgrove
That’s where I belong.



RIO GRANDE
Dave Alvin/Tom Russell
(Blue Horn Toad Music, BMI/Frontera Music, ASCAP)

 
I guess she put her blue dress on
And walked out late last night
Left one silk stocking 
Dangling from the bedside light
I sobered up and called her name 
Just before the dawn
I saw her footprints in the sand 
And knew that she had gone
Down the Rio Grande.

I pulled out of Albuquerque 
Prayin’ I wasn’t late
I got a couple cups of coffee
At some joint off the interstate
Passin’ through Las Cruces
I swear I saw her car
She always said she’d go someday
But never said how far
Down the Rio Grande.

Maybe she’s in Brownsville
She’s got some family there
She was always talkin’ ‘bout
The salty Gulf Coast air
Where the river ends
Down the Rio Grande.

I saw an old grey heron
Flyin’ south against the wind
Storm clouds over Juarez
Rollin’ east to the Big Bend
I drove down Highway Ninety
Through a dusty desert wind
I didn’t know where it would lead me
Or if I’d find her again
Down the Rio Grande.

I lit my last cigarette
As the sky began to clear
Black mountains up ahead
A red sundown in my mirror
Lost all the border 
‘Tween the future and the past
One fading slowly
And the other comin’ fast
Down the Rio Grande.

Maybe she’s in Brownsville
She’s got some family there
She was always talkin’ ‘bout
The salty gulf coast air
Where the river ends
Down the Rio Grande.

I bought a bottle in Del Rio
And I parked on the side of the road
I stayed up all night 
Starin’ at the lights of Mexico
And I walked down to border bridge
At the break of day
And I threw that empty bottle off
And I watched it float away
Down the Rio Grande.

Maybe she’s in Brownsville
She’s got some family there
She was always talkin ‘bout
The salty gulf coast air
Where the river ends
Down the Rio Grande
Where the river ends.



BLACK SKY
Dave Alvin
(Blue Horn Toad Music, BMI)

Baby black sky 
Black sky is all I see
Yeah baby black sky 
Black sky is all I see
Please stand beside me baby
Shine your light for me.

Well I been all around the world
Ain’t nothin’ I ain’t seen
From the Mekong River to the
San Joaquin
I made it down to Helena 
But it’s just a ghost town
And I got to Jackson
But they tore old Jackson down.

Yeah I been around the world
Black sky is all I see
Why don’t you stand beside me baby
Shine your light for me.

Baby well I went to the graveyard
To see my friend one last time
People gathered ‘round
Some were prayin, some were cryin’
They were talkin’ about heaven
And the final judgement day
But all I could do was say goodbye to him
Turn and walk away.

Yeah I went to the graveyard
But black sky was all I seen
Please stand beside me baby
Shine your light for me.

I wake up every mornin’
Try the best I can
To make it one more day
In a world I don’t understand
Now the sun baby’s shinin’
But there’s darkness on the land
And I can’t find my way baby
Unless you take my hand.

Yeah I, I wake up every mornin’ baby
Black sky is all I see
Please stand beside me baby 
Shine your light for me.

Yeah black sky
Black sky is all I see
Please shine your light pretty baby
Take this black sky away from me.



NINE VOLT HEART
Dave Alvin/Rod Hodges
(Blue Horn Toad Music, BMI/Blowout Music, ASCAP)

His mama said “Baby, wait for me in the car,”
And she went lookin’ for his daddy inside a bar
So he sat and let the radio take him far away
Listenin’ to XPRS and KRLA.

Plastic silver nine-volt heart
You click it on and let the music start
And the radio was his toy
The radio was his toy.

Well Rachel was twenty and he was seventeen years old
Sittin’ in a parked car on a country road
Runnin’ his fingers through her long black hair
And the Staples singin’ “Baby, I’ll take you there.”

Plastic silver nine volt heart
You click it on and let the music start
And the radio was his toy
The radio was his toy.

Doin’ the dishes long after midnight
Talkin’ about the evenin’ news with his wife
The baby wakes up and starts to cry
So they turn the radio on for his lullaby.

Plastic silver nine volt heart
You click it on and let the music start
Plastic silver nine volt heart
You click it on and let the music start
And the radio was his toy
The radio was his toy.

Plastic silver nine volt heart
Plastic silver nine volt heart
You click it on and let the music start.



OUT OF CONTROL
Dave Alvin
(Blue Horn Toad Music, BMI)

I scored some speed in San Berdino
So me and baby could get a little bump
And now she’s in that motel room
Puttin’ on a show for some chump
Yeah, well baby’s gotta make a livin’
And I don’t mind waitin’ out in the car
‘Cause I got some nine millimeter muscle
In case things go too far.

You know I try to take it easy man
And just go with the flow
But sometimes things can get a little bit
Out of control.

Well my old man worked his whole life
In the Kaiser steel slag pit
And I worked there for awhile back when I was a kid
But I got tired of all their shit
But that was years ago man
Before they tore that Fontana plant down
And my old man smoked himself
Into a six-foot hole in the ground.

And I got the same bad habit
And it’ll probably take its toll
But sometimes it’s the only thing that keeps me
From goin’ out of control.

Well my ex-wife’s workin’ evenings
At a Sizzler makin’ minimum wage
And she’s cleanin’ up other people’s houses
Every day just like some slave
She’s livin’ with the kids in a mobile home
Just off the 60 freeway
Some nights I go to see her
And sometimes she lets me stay.

Since she found Jesus
She’s always tryin’ to save my soul
Yeah but every now and then she still likes to get
A little out of control.

I used to work a little construction
But I never got along with my boss
So I do a little import/export
Makin’ enough just to cover my costs
And I’m losin’ my hair and I’m losin’ my teeth
But I’m tryin’ to keep my grip
And live to see one more day
Without makin’ any stupid slips.

You know I could have played the game man
And just done what I was told
But I guess I was born just a little bit
Out of control.

When baby gets done in there I’m gonna 
Take her for a little ride
Cruise up into the mountains
Park the car and get a little high
‘Cause baby likes to look at the shootin’ stars
And make wishes as they fly by
And I like lookin’ down at the city
From way up there in the sky. 

Then I pull baby close to me 
When it starts gettin’ cold
Close my eyes for a little while and let the world
Spin out of control.



EVERETT RUESS
Dave Alvin
(Blue Horn Toad Music, BMI)

I was born Everett Ruess
I been dead for sixty years
I was just a young boy in my twenties
The day I disappeared.

Into the Grand Escalante Badlands
Near the Utah and Arizona line
And they never found my body, boys
Or understood my mind.

I grew up in California
And I loved my family and my home
But I ran away to the High Sierra
Where I could live free and alone.

And folks said “He’s just another wild kid
And he’ll grow out of it in time,”
But they never found my body, boys
Or understood my mind.

I broke broncos with the cowboys
I sang healing songs with the Navajo
I did the snake dance with the Hopi
And I drew pictures everywhere I go.

Then I swapped all my drawings for provisions
To get what I needed to get by
And they never found my body, boys
Or understood my mind.

Well I hate your crowded cities
With your sad and hopeless mobs
And I hate your grand cathedrals
Where you try to trap God.

‘Cause I know God is here in the canyons
With the rattlesnakes and the pinon pines
And they never found my body, boys
Or understood my mind.

They say I was killed by a drifter
Or I froze to death in the snow
Maybe mauled by a wildcat
Or I’m livin’ down in Mexico.

But my end, it doesn’t really matter
All that counts is how you live your life
And they never found my body, boys
Or understood my mind.

You give your dreams away as you get older
Oh, but I never gave up mine
And they’ll never find my body, boys
Or understand my mind.



SINFUL DAUGHTER
Dave Alvin/Shannon McNally
(Blue Horn Toad Music, BMI/Changeling Music, ASCAP)

Sinful daughter
Sinful daughter
Sinful daughter, sinful girl.

They call her shameless
They call her wanted
They say she poisoned every well
They call her Delilah
And Magdalena
And they call her Jezebel.

Sinful daughter
Sinful daughter
All alone in a sinful world
Banished and branded
Forced to wander
Sinful daughter, sinful girl.

Well the preacher in pulpit
Says hell and damnation
Is the destination she is bound
Livin’ in darkness
Lost and forsaken
Driftin’ town to town.

Sinful daughter
Sinful daughter
All alone in a sinful world
Banished and branded
Forced to wander
Sinful daughter, sinful girl.

Sisters and mothers
Fathers and brothers
They all shun her
Unless she atones
But let the one who is not sinful
Yeah, they can throw the stone.

Sinful daughter
Sinful daughter
All alone in a sinful world
Banished and branded
Forced to wander
Sinful daughter, sinful girl.

Sinful daughter
Sinful daughter
Sinful daughter, sinful girl.



THE MAN IN THE BED
Dave Alvin
(Blue Horn Toad Music, BMI)

The man in the bed isn’t me
Now I slipped out the door and I’m runnin’ free
Young and wild like I’ll always be
No the man in the bed isn’t me.

And these tremblin’ hands, they’re not mine
Now my hands are strong and steady all the time
They can swing a sledge hammer or soothe a baby that’s cryin’
These trembling hands, they’re not mine.

Now the nurse over there doesn’t know
That I ain’t some helpless old so-and-so
I could have broken her heart not that long ago
Now the nurse over there doesn’t know.

That the man in the bed isn’t me
‘Cause I slipped out the door and I’m runnin’ free
Young and wild like I’ll always be
The man in the bed isn’t me.

I’m the man I’ve always been
I’m the kid who rode the rails through the Great Depression
I fought in the big war and marched for the Union
I’m the man I’ve always been.

So don’t believe what the doctors say
They’re just makin’ things up so they can get paid
Yeah, and it ain’t me they’re talkin’ about anyway
So don’t believe what the doctors say.

‘Cause the man in the bed isn’t me
Well I slipped out the door and I’m finally free
Young and wild like I’ll always be
No the man in the bed isn’t me
No the man in the bed isn’t me
No the man in the bed isn’t me.



BLACK HAIRED GIRL
Dave Alvin
(Blue Horn Toad Music, BMI)

There’s a black-haired girl
Sittin’ behind the bullet-proof glass
And she takes my money
Before I go and pump some gas 
As the cold rain falls on the parking lot
The strip malls and housing tracts
I smile at her
But she don’t smile back.

Well the black-haired girl 
Is starin’ at the gossip magazine
And all the glossy pictures
Of today’s kings and queens
But it’s nearly three a.m.
And the whole world is dead, except for her and me
And the sound of the rain
And the smell of gasoline.

Well that black-haired girl
Looks like a woman I used to know
Back in some other world, several lifetimes ago
Yeah, we’d lay in her bed
Drinkin’ wine and makin’ love
And lettin’ time move slow
Well we lost touch somehow
But that’s just the way things go.

Well that black-haired girl
Catches me lookin’ her way
And I feel a little uneasy
Maybe there’s something I should say
Should I ask her name
Or just warn her about all the tricks time can play
But I don’t say nothin’ 
‘Cause she’s gonna find out anyway.

There’s a black-haired girl
Sittin’ beneath a flourescent light
Whatever fate has in store
Well I hope that she’ll be alright
I hope she finds real love
And all her dreams come true
Or at least she makes it through tonight
Then I drive away as she fades out of sight.



SOMEWHERE IN TIME
Dave Alvin/Louie Perez/David Hidalgo
(Blue Horn Toad Music, BMI/No Ko Music, BMI/Davince Music, BMI)

I hear a voice singin’ somewhere in time
A song I knew long ago
And it takes me back to places somewhere in time
And everyone I used to know
I see a face, I remember somewhere in time
Someone I loved who’s gone away.

Gone away somewhere in time
Gone away somewhere in time.

Another night on a highway somewhere in time
The darkness playin’ tricks on me
Far down the road in the shadows somewhere in time
Am I the man I’m supposed to be?
I see a light shinin’ somewhere in time
A lonely light to lead me on.

And lead me on somewhere in time
Lead me on somewhere in time.

I wake from a dream, a dream from somewhere in time
And rub my eyes so I can see
You’re standin’ there before me, somewhere in time
Waitin’ for me patiently
And I’ll take your hand, someday, somewhere in time
And forever I’ll be here with you.

I’ll be with you somewhere in time
I’ll be with you somewhere in time
I’m here with you somewhere in time.

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