Bell In My Chest

This might be the best song I have ever written. Everyone else thinks so. What an experience. Never want to go through that again. Wouldn't trade it, though.

I usually start with a single phrase or idea. In the "Lovejoy" mystery series by Jonathan Gash. "Lovejoy" is a "antique savant" who, when in the prescence of a genuine antique, feels "a bell go off" in his chest.

Bell In My Chest

I do my best work while I’m waitin'
On You to find I’m home
The map I gave You
Was designed to keep You close
But the cards that I’m a-holdin’
Are all I got to show
You make Your hearts up
All alone

When we talk I bend back Your words
And I look all underneath
I work on all the ciphers
While the promises I keep
And I keep my promises
Like I know just what You mean
And I take it all
Real slow


(Chorus)
I got this Bell in my chest
And it’s keepin’ me alive
Good intentions, road to Hell
And all the rest is just a lie
I got this Bell in my chest
And it’s keepin’ me alive
Believe me when I say
You ring it every time

And You, You seem to know
More than I do
While I… I’m just a-hopin’
Things improve
You keep this slice of You apart
You got a pie chart for Your life and heart
And a bar that I can’t
Walk into

(Chorus)

(Repeat either the 1st or 2nd verse)

I do my best work while I’m waitin’…
On You… to find I’m home

© D. Dain, 1999.

Crispy...

Crispy

Crispy ‘round the edges
Ten years on the road
Use-ta drink and then I didn’t
Al's back an’ says "Hello"

Ruby’s out just south of Raleigh
Holdin’ down the fort
Sippin' front porch coffee
While I chart another course

Mornin's I be wishin' I be back there on that porch
But I'm loadin'-in a van outside a motel way up north
Evenin' come I'm burnin' down the house
Tear a three-piece band like Sherman through the South
Tear a three-piece band like Sherman through the South

'times it's like a fog up in my brain
Things use-ta-be so clear, get lost up in that haze
An' the bitch is that I only know to do just what I do
Chasin’ down that single shot at fame
By knockin’ back a bottle full of blame

Crowd or no, we play the game
Three chords, the forth is just for show
Shame’s an almost empty room, you forget the ones who came
Even when they call you by your name
An' the bitch is - even then it ain't the same

Mornin's dream is back home with my Ruby on my porch
'stead I'm climbin’ in a van in a parkin’ lot up north
Ev'nin' come I'm burnin' down the house
Tear a three-piece band like Sherman through the South

Oh, mornin's dream is out there with my Ruby on the porch
But I’m drivin’ through a drivin’ rain to a juke joint way up north
Ev'nin' come I'm burnin' down that house
Tear a three-piece band like Sherman through the South
Yeah, ev'nin' come I'm burnin' down that house
Tear a three-piece band like Sherman through the South
Tear a three-piece band like Sherman through the South
Tear a three-piece band like Sherman through the South

Little crispy ‘round the edges
An' ten years on the road

© D. Dain, 2009

Failed....

Failed

Red creek runs the hollow
Below the shotgun house on the hill
Next to the railroad trackin' toward the town
That like the mine done gone and failed
Failed, failed
Failed....

TV’s pickin’ up two channels
Charleston weak and Bluefield strong
The rest just went last winter
When the digital turned on

Molly left past two year now
Kinda put me in a crunch
Took the kid, the blame, and the free lunch
The truck is runnin' rougher
The ol’ John Deere needs a clutch
Money’s tight - hardly lasts the month
The Little One don’t write no more
The cards I mail come back
I miss her most, that crooked smile,
The light, the love the life I had
Had, had...

If there was gas to burn I’d turn the truck
On back the poacher path
Take a chance a fresh-cut Cherry'll pull me
Past this winter’s wrath

The Amish don’t ask questions
Furniture don’t talk
I’ll confess my sins in private
To Grandpa’s curly maple Cross

But there’s two beers, half’a bottle
Jim Beam on the porch
Rack of wood and coulda-shouldas in my mind
Hot Stove on the radio
Oh Lord, I miss ol’ Joe
Even Baseball failed us over time

An' the little one don’t write no more
The cards I mail come back
I miss her most, that crooked smile,
The light, the touch, the trust I had
Had, had...

Red creek runs the hollow
Shotgun house on the hill
An' the railroad trackin' toward the town
That like the mine done gone and failed
Failed, failed
Failed....

© D. Dain, 2008.

Star Spangled Banner

Star Spangled Banner (clik for audio)

A two-chord (Until the last four lines) take on our National Anthem.

Broken....

Broken

You took the path of least resistance
And made it all your own
I've never seen such bland indifference
To a life of chances blown
And you say, since you ended up this way
It's all God's fault
Anyway, you were much too busy drinking
To return The Call

‘cause nothing’s never gone unplanned
You Fortunate Daughter
It's all one big command performance now
Losing track of real and true companions
They're leaving notes on doors
Filled with Xs, Os, and questions
And vague threats to call your Mom
It's not that they don't know just where
To find you, 'cause we do
And all the drinking buddies
They don’t balance out the true

And you lay your fate upon the bar
And you practice on your wistful smile
So busy keeping all good company
You show up after closing time
A stray cat, only better spoken
Throw blame over your shoulder
Never looking back at luck

Find the shallow formed relief
Framed with soft blond innocence
Mirror-glanced the barfly moths fall
Drawn to vodka flame
And all of them still love you more
Than you would care to think about
It’s a thing you can’t return
And it leaves you shamed
And you scorn the best the best can give
And dodge the worst just being who you are
And use and use and use the users over

And you lay your fate upon that bar
And you practice on your wistful smile
The better to be all good company
You show up after closing time
A stray cat, only better spoken
Throw blame over your shoulder
Never looking back at luck

Go, you swear
That piece by piece it's all under repair
While we both know that
Everything is broken
You show up after closing time
A stray cat, only better spoken
Throw blame over your shoulder
Never looking back at love

© D. Dain, 2007.

The Ice Queen of Athens County....

This is a bluegrass song. Kinda. Or it should be, and would be if I could play bluegrass.
In honor of Terrell Road, a local road that has "No Ice Control" signs at both ends.

The Ice Queen of Athens County

She’s the Ice Queen of Athens County
Lives up the top of ol’ Terrell Road
Ain’t nobody gonna go and see her
Where it’s always winter, there’s no ice control

And I know this girl
I know this girl
She’s always out of control

Don’ know nobody gonna touch her soul
No Saturday, no rock-an-roll
No college guys, no doe-say-doe
Jus’ keep them all away

She gotta garden and she watch it grow
Sweet potatoes, corn in rows
Dig ‘em, pick 'em, tote 'em down
To town on market day

No matter, spring, summer, fall
Who come courtin’, who can call
Reach that road, look up that hill
They turn around an’ go away

So she’s the Ice Queen of Athens County
Lives up the top of ol’ Terrell Road
Ain’t nobody gonna go and see her
Where it’s always winter, there’s no ice control

But I know this girl
Oh, I know this girl
She’s always out of control

She be lookin’ for a real, real man
Somebody with that special plan
The one who finally climbs that hill
An’ stays

But she’s the Ice Queen of Athens County
Lives up the top of ol’ Terrell Road
Ain’t nobody gonna go and see her
Where it’s always winter, there’s no ice control

Oh, I know this girl
Oh, I know this girl
I know this girl

© D. Dain, 2009

White Noise And The Road....

White Noise And The Road

White noise and the road
Static on the radio
Blue cloud movin' in
I'm countin' all my sins
Thousands to go
Two mile from home
If the guilty conscience drives
He'll try to skate on by
Hummm...

Love averts her eyes
Smiles a slow, soft sigh
She don' know no lie
But she hears 'em all the time
Hears 'em from the road
They echo down the halls of home
In paper motel walled phone calls
Of dirty deeds denied
Betrayal wears real thin
Chasin' down and out had-beens
Further 'round the bend
Wave goodbye and hello again
Again, again, again, again
Hummm...

And Love, sweet Love
Does what she does
But needs to be believed

Ties you thought would bind
Seem to loosen, fall behind
Fading from the blood
That still sings in floods of memory
I can take my lonely home
Do supper on my own
Love is somewhere waiting up
But now She's not for me
Hummm...

And Love, sweet Love
Does what she does
But needs to be received

White noise and the road
Static on the radio
Blue cloud movin' in
Countin' all my sin
Hummm...