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1. |
Neon Sign
03:32
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Go westward toward the Mississippi
On a whim, without a route
Windy wild road you’re traveling
Curious to find what might be found
With a singing blue-eyed boy
Convinced you he should tag along
Said he liked your face up close
And that was all it took to start you up
Now you’ll start up a fire
When you got nothing to burn
Now you’ll read into every letter
When there is nothing to learn
(On a) neon sign you can’t miss
Half way down to Memphis
Reality slipped through the cracks
(On the) short ride down, long ride back
Oh now get you home
Lost on Beale until the morning
Hiding from the knowing light
Bears out all the signs and warnings
That you didn’t want to see that night
Now you’ll hear what you want to hear
When nothing’s there to be heard
Now you’ll read in between the lines
When there’s nothing there to be learned
(On a) neon sign you can’t miss
Half way down to Memphis
Reality slipped through the cracks
(On the) short ride down, long ride back
Oh now get you home
(On the) neon sign you can’t miss
Half way down to Memphis
An outdated map in your hand
Half in love by Graceland
You’re driving blind in the rain
And a no-good siren’s calling out your name
Reality slipped through the cracks
(On the) short ride down, long ride back
Oh now get you home x3
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2. |
Prodigal
02:34
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When you hear what the neighbors are saying
You’ll come back x2
When you see what a mess they’re making
You’ll come back x2
When you read about the economy
You’ll come back x2
When you run out of friends and money
You’ll come back x2
And when you think of family
And their faces make you sad
You’ll come back
When it feels like a foreign nation
You’ll come back x2
When you run out of conversation
You’ll come back x2
And when you feel a person apart
And all your charms are fading fast
You’ll come back
When the lines around your eyes grow deeper
You’ll come back x2
When the end of the line draws nearer
You’ll come back x2
And when you read your name
Among the dead in the local rag
You’ll come back
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3. |
Bar The Door
04:18
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Katy bar the door, it’s near
Comes the same time every year
Ever creeping in as spring begins
To thaw the icy eaves again
And it’s got a face I know
Perfect for the radio
Leans in awful close, that awful ghost
And drags its heels, hangs off my coat
And whispers of the days
Still to come when all the silver fades to gray
Then fear of ticking time
Takes the place of all the loveliness I find
Came in through the window there
Left open for the morning air
Now it tails me around this Southern town
Echoes the sirens blaring out
That warn of troubled times
When if you lose your dreams then you will lose your mind
About the time you realize
All you ever gained is all you left behind
Keeps me up to nothing good
Not living as I know I could
Should take that northbound line, go back in time
Rebury the bones that will not die
Before there comes a time
When first I lose my way and then I lose my mind
Before I realize
All I ever had is all I left behind
So Katy bar the door, it’s near x3
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4. |
No Good Reason
03:53
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When there’s no good reason left
When the voice in my head is louder than my pounding chest
When the choice to go is clear and I know what to do
I will still want you
When I’ve run all out of luck
When the only good I’ve got is as good as given up
When I’m in the push-and-shove and turning black and blue
I will still want you
When I’m blinded by the light
When I’m blindsided by bad dreams in the night
When I wake up in a stranger’s bed, one time maybe two
I will still want you
And when time has done its part
When I’ve sewn up all the pieces of my broken heart
Standing on the other side, feeling so brand new
I will still want you
When the pines have called me home
When there’s only one thing left to do and it’s on my own
Staring down the valley deep and ready to walk through
I will still want you
I will still
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5. |
One Of The Good Ones
03:27
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Wonder what it’s like to be a bright light
No edge of fists and guns
Hope for everyone
I’ve tried to play it off, to be an open book
No busy lines or walls
No sighs or dirty looks
To be one of the good ones
Kind and self-assured
To hold myself together
Unravel afterward
And struggle to return
Wonder what it’s like to love someone right
No suitcase on the floor
Both feet in the door
I had it once before, I tried my very best
I held the flowers tightly
Trembled in my dress
And I played a good woman
I said the little words
I held myself together
Unraveled afterward
Never have I learned
Wonder what it’s like to sleep through the night
No worries in my head
No phantoms in my bed
I had it once before I made these little lives
Who wake me in the nighttime
Whose cries cut like a knife
But I play a good mother
I cradle and secure
I hold myself together
Unravel afterward
I play one of the good ones
Kind and self-assured
I hold myself together
Unravel afterward
And never quite return
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6. |
Full Well
02:46
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I know full well why you’re calling
A lightning bolt in the valley
Bone-dry from years in a drought
A fire breaks out
Old flames alive with new power
Fueled by too much firewater
Burns out by this time tomorrow
Our hearts go cold
Shouldn’t have that third glass maybe
Shouldn’t call me up now baby
Shouldn’t raise that flag
I shouldn’t call you back
But I know full well why I play along
I’m a fool for heat and an old song
A wildfire voice on the radio
And I’m overgrown
Shouldn’t sing me all those songs
Shouldn’t let it go on so long
Shouldn’t bang that gong
I shouldn’t play along
Shouldn’t have that third glass maybe
Shouldn’t call me up now baby
Shouldn’t call it love
Shouldn’t fire it up
Shouldn’t call it love
Shouldn’t call me up
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7. |
Back Around
04:16
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Coming around with stinging eyes
Long way down the mountainside
Listening to your old cassettes
And I’m trying to make the best of it
Finally where my head can breathe
Alone is all I want to be
But forward my mail to me
And I’ll read it oh-so carefully
As I’m off to another town
They’ve got the scene
And I don’t have the sound
But I’ll be back around
Not yet down for the count
Tap the wheel to keep the time
Following the dotted line
Focus those heavy eyes
Or the headlights will hypnotize
Barely thinking of you now
Finding truths from town to town
But send me a photograph of you
Knee high in the summer grass
Was it taken on the Fourth of July
When we said the long goodbye
And I’ll keep it like a wedding gown
Meant something once
But in time has turned brown
But I’m not stripping down
Not yet down for the count
All hatches battened down
Yeah I’ll be back around
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8. |
I Can Only See
03:26
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I can only see in you what you see in me
And when it leaves it’s gone, won’t come back easily
And a new ring for our time
Won’t grow in this old bark of mine
And I can only see as far as the headlights can reach
On the nightly ride to rile up the dark side of me
But a strange car in your drive
Won’t spark a new light in my eyes
I can only reach in you what you’ll feed to me
But if you leave me hungry I won’t be too angry
And no bluebirds in the air
Will find a new nest in my hair
I can only see in you what you see in me x2
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9. |
Center Of The Wheel
03:24
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Center of the wheel
Place where time stands still
Place where nothing ever grows
Old love never goes cold
Spent a million years
Climbing through the gears
Pushing out and pulling in
Trying to start it again
Trying to start me again
So I journey to the edge
That old rebellion
Brought it out, reminded me
There’s a center of me
But I get caught in no time
And the bath of bright flood lights
Brought it out for all to see
There’s a sinner in me
At the center of me
Me and time we move the same
Stand still or while away
Tried to move the wheel inside, I tried
But I’m a hostage of time
So I just fall back in line
So until it comes again
That strange adrenaline
Complicated story but
I’m already in love
All alone inside an old love
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10. |
Buttoned-Down Days
01:55
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One-by-one they pair off in-
-to their houses and begin
With the kids who come in threes
All that forest full of trees
Busy bees in busy hives
Have it all at one low price
Swallow that former self down
Stop off after work and drown in
Bottles of wine for the passing of time
Bottles of gin to begin it again
Bottles of rage at the buttoned-down days
Then the ones who stayed outside
Made their own plans for this life
Now it’s a race to the ground
Turn the TV up and drown in
Bottles of wine for the passing of time
Bottles of gin to begin it again
Bottles of rage at the buttoned-down days
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11. |
Ten Years Out
03:07
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Ten years out, ten years on
Older then than now somehow
Felt that anchor drifting down
Felt I found all to be found
A road worn out, a light left on
A home built up, a will worn down
I am the clock, I am the sound
Ticking toward the setting out
When the sunlight goes to hide
All winter I’ll drive across state lines
Through nights that last one thousand hours
And roads that last one thousand miles
How will you remember me
With loving lines wrote tenderly
Or with pity wrote so bittersweet
For one undone and hard to read
When the pages are all torn out
Will you read them once more or toss them out
When it finally comes unbound
Will the stories remain in your mind somehow
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12. |
Still Or Again
02:36
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Still or again
What’s the difference in the end
Told my heart to forget
But it wants you still or again
But I can’t tell you so
No I can’t let you know
Would we still be friends
If I love you still or again
Stayed quiet for a while
But was it gone or was I in denial
Still or again
Doesn’t matter in the end
Told my heart to forget
But it wants you still or again
Still or again x3
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Alexis Stevens Nashville, Tennessee
Alexis Stevens is a Nashville-based musician and community radio DJ.
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