COLD TEA BLUES (Michael Timmins)

If I pour your cup, that is friendship
If I add your milk, that is manners
If I stop there, claiming ignorance of taste,
that is tea

But if I measure the sugar
to satisfy your expectant tongue
then that is love,
But if I measure the sugar
to satisfy your expectant tongue
then that is love,
sitting untouched and growing cold

HARD TO EXPLAIN (Ray Agee)

[Brother Brown Music, BMI]

If it ain't one thing
I tell you it's always another
I wonder why
I started treating you like a step-brother

Love is hard to explain
I know my loss is someone else's gain

Sometime's love is like a bitter pill
But we just have to take it like it is
Sometimes life is the sweetest thing
and sometimes it's just naked pain

Oh, it's so hard to explain
I know my loss is someone else's gain

My troubles started when I found you
But that's when I (wrapped?) my world around you
And now my living ain't so easy
I thought that's what a woman was supposed to do

You see, it's so hard to explain
I know my loss is someone else's gain

I went to see my doctor
`Cause I thought I had a hole in my heart
but he said "Girl, you're just wasting my time
Because some man messed up,
went and messed up your mind"

It's so hard to explain
I know my loss is someone else's gain

Oh, love it's so hard to explain
It'll make you forget your name
It'll turn you upside down
It'll make you wish that you'd never been found

HUNTED (Michael Timmins)

Emma's in a part of town
where she doesn't recognize the streets
named for famous native sons
and out of every crevice comes creeping
a threat in her direction
Lucy's outside her home
heading towards her corner store
she stays on well-travelled paths
and is always making sure
that she doesn't develop patterns

There are trap lines
running up and down Main Street
wire snares thirsting for your neck and feet

Susan doesn't like the way her curtains
are blowing in the wind
She swears she locked that window
before she went out dancing
she stands frozen in her doorway
Judy hears a sound coming from the other room
she knows she should be alone
'cause the kids left at noon
to go visit their father

Quick to your phone dial 911
invite a strange man into your home
who'll be carrying a gun

Leslie's working late
she's got a deadline to meet
In walks her boss,
upon her desk he puts his feet
and says alone at last
Reanne's got a new boyfriend
and they're getting along
until he locks the door and says don't struggle,
I'm stronger than you are.

Just one question I'm dying to ask, you said,
do you know what it's like to be hunted?

FLOORBOARD BLUES (Michael Timmins)

Look under his floorboards, Mama,
I don't trust his silly grin
He's got a beat-up Rambler, Nebraska plates,
and I ain't getting in
I don't like the way his pinky ring
picks up the dashboard light
or his short little piggy fingers
or the way his belt is cinched too tight

Check under his floorboards, Mama,
I don't like his suggestive tone
The way his words drip from his mouth
as he asks can I take you home?
I don't care how many miles I got,
I think I'd rather walk them alone
than to sit in the back seat
as his eyes in the mirror
reduce me to flesh and bone

Check under his floorboards, Mama,
'cause that razor's not just a threat to me
He'll be slicing tiny crescents from your heart,
without laying a sweaty palm to your cheek
Don't accuse me of running scared,
listen to what I'm saying
It's a fucked up ol' world, but this ol' girl
Well, she ain't giving in

SOMETHING MORE BESIDES YOU
(Michael Timmins)

One foot strands before the crib
the other by the casket
A question formed upon stilled lips
is passed on but never asked

I guess I believe that there's a point
to what we do
But I ask myself is there
something more besides you?

Two are born to cross
their paths, their lives, their hearts
If by chance one turns away
are they forever lost?

I guess I believe that there's a point
to what we do
But I ask myself is there
something more besides you?

This morning I awoke,
the bed warm where it once was cold
Small blessings laid upon us
Small mysteries slowly unfold

Yet I still wonder is there a point
to what we do?
'Cause I kind of doubt
that there is something more besides you

Although it's hard to find the point
to what we do,
do I dare believe that there is
something more besides you?

A COMMON DISASTER
(Michael Timmins)

A candle burning for everything I've ever wanted
A tattoo burned for everything I've ever wanted and lost
I had a long list of names that I kept in my back pocket,
but I've cut it down to one and your name's at the top

Won't you share a common disaster?
Share with me a common disaster
A common disaster

I found myself a friend,
but he's crooked as a stick in water
So now I'm writing fairy tales
to catch the spirit of revenge
He's got a plan to steal my little sister,
but I'm not too concerned
'cause I will get him in the end

Won't you share a common disaster?
Share with me a common disaster
A common disaster

Going to find me someone to share
A common disaster
Run away with me from a life so cramped and dull
Not worry too much about the happily-ever-after
Just keep the Caddy moving
'til we're well beyond that hill

Won't you share a common disaster?
Share with me a common disaster
A common disaster

LAY IT DOWN
(Michael Timmins)

He left his dead in the cottonwood trees
the ground grown too hard with the years
Falling down was not what it used to be
the ground grown too hard with the years

He told his children those little white lies
the truth would only paralyze them
He told himself those little white lies
the truth would only paralyze him

Lay it down, lay it down

He sold most of what he cherished,
the rest he let them steal
Shot his dog out in the open field,
the rest he let them steal

He broke all of his promises,
under a sea green sky
They never thought to ask him why,
under a sea green sky

Lay it down, lay it down

Please bury me in the cottonwood trees
the ground grown too cold for me
Going to sleep tonight in a warm feather bed
the ground grown too cold for me

Lay it down, lay it down

HOLD ON TO ME
(Michael Timmins)

If you offered me a shade of blue
would I return it saying that it was too
dark or light?
Or would I see it for the precious thing
that it might one day be?
Hold on to me

If you offered me a point of view
would I dismiss it saying that it was too
black and white?
Or would I see it as the special thing
That it would no doubt be?
Hold on to me

I'll hold on to this gift we share
it is as slippery as it is rare
I'll hold on to that feeling
of waking and finding you there
I'll hold on to you and you hold on to me

If I asked you for a simple thing

Would you do it without too much thinking or fuss?
Would you see it for the precious thing
that it would surely be?
Hold on to me

Hold on to me
Hold on to me

COME CALLING (two versions)
(Michael Timmins)

The stillness here,
like what he sometimes finds inside her,
hits so hard it can steal your breath forever
He sometimes wonders
is the sum of their lives together
him on the floor and her lost to a mind in tatters

These days he's drinking for the pleasure of falling
and he's falling for the pleasure of pretending
that she's sitting by the window waiting
for him to come calling

If I could fix me up a week of twilight hours
we'd sit on the point
and watch the sun continually flounder
Bathed in gold we'd plug into some kind of power
and connect with those days
back before all of this went sour

'Cause I'm drinking for the pleasure of falling
and I'm falling for the pleasure of pretending
that you're sitting by the window waiting
for me to come calling

Odd how the darkness always makes us whisper
and with the last of the sun
you can feel the approach of the winter
Now is the time of each day
that I Desperately miss her
I suppose I will learn how to live my life without her

So you're drinking for the pleasure of falling
and you're falling for the pleasure of pretending
that I'm sitting by the window waiting
for you to come calling

JUST WANT TO SEE
(Michael Timmins)

I don't want to be no patch on no quilt
(I just want to see...)
Tear-stained stitching linking memories to guilt
(I just want to see...)
I don't want to be no hair on no wall
(I just want to see...)
Blood-stained note saying fuck you all
(I just want to see what kills me)

Tommy, are you ready we better head to town
J.D.'s box is waiting to be lowered down
and you know how he hates to be kept waiting 'round

I don't want to be no chalk line drawing
(I just want to see...)
Toe-tagged question mark, until identifying
(I just want to see...)
I don't want to fuse with no economy seat
(I just want to see...)
fuel some fireball at 30,000 feet
(I just want to see what kills me)

Tommy, did you catch his face
before they closed the lid?
I swear I saw him wink once and flash me that old grin
Oh, you know, that would be just like him

I don't want to face no hollow-eyed ending
(I just want to see...)
Loved ones buried, empty days of waiting
(I just want to see what kills me)

Tommy, darling, come to bed
we'll try and sleep away this sadness
These memories, too, are bound to die
so our dreams will have to serve us
Tomorrow may be the day that our love betrays us