Get all 9 Delmore Recording Society releases available on Bandcamp and save 20%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Shuckin' Sugar, They Don't Know, 38 MacDougal, No One Seems To Notice That It's Raining (Previously Unreleased Recordings 1970-75), The Kingston Springs Suite, Has Anybody Seen Our Freedoms?, l V (Intravenous), 1966, and 1 more.
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All the sailors are to port now
All of their ladies wait with flowers
For all of their men who have been warriors
Some have been waiting here for hours
No one seems to notice that it’s raining
The captain told us we had mercy
He told us all that we were saviors
He read from a book that he was holding
Everybody thought that it was holy
No one seems to notice that it’s raining
No, no one seems to notice that it’s raining
No one seems to know the skies are grey
The people here can’t seem to stop applauding
It sounds a bit like thunder to my ear
No one seems to notice that it’s raining
My head is filled with never-ending wonder
At all the masses gathered here before me
What do they come so far to offer
It will all forever pass my understanding
That no one seems to notice that it’s raining
All of the sailors are to port now
All of their ladies wait with flowers
For all of their men who have been warriors
Some have been waiting here for hours
And no one seems to notice that it’s raining
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2. |
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I’ve been outside your door when it was open
I’ve been inside your door when it was closed
I’ve seen your face when the sun was shining here
I’ve seen your face when the sun was low
Your plants they grow so green up on the windowsill
Your dog lies sleeping on the floor
The painting of the lady you are painting here
The colors seem so simple and pure
I re-read all the letters that you sent to me
Darling can’t you see
You sometimes seem so free and easy
You seem somehow confused
As though you somehow mixed the moon up with the sun
Don’t worry about winning what you’ve already won
Your lovers seem to come when all is going right
And leave you at the first sign of some wrong
Like a worker who is welcome when the grain is up
And shunned when the stubble’s on the ground
Your hair it blows so freely in the wind sometimes
You seem almost as gentle as a lamb
It seems a shame you always have to suffer so
Darling you’re not saved but you’re not damned
The sun is going to rise up in the morning
And the river flows
And I’m pretty sure the wind still blows here
You seem somehow confused
As though you somehow mixed the moon up with the sun
Don’t worry about winning what you’ve already won
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3. |
Canteen Of Water
03:34
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He carries his ideas in books bound in leather
With a change of clothing
And a picture of Anna when she was younger
Lest he forget her
And in among his papers
Is a list of all the people that he knew
And many unsent letters
Telling someone that he’d be there sometime soon
Hey stranger – it’s the tiredness that remains
When you think freedom can’t be measured
By the scuffles on your boots
Now he dreams a lot of Anna and the time they were together
He was hard and she was supple
When they lived out in country she thought gentle
Like his hands upon her body
But when Anna felt the cooling wind
David felt the threat to be blown down
And when Anna felt the cleansing rain
David fought the fear that he might drown
Hey Stranger – now you wander through the country
That you hope is much less frightening
When it’s quickly passing by
Now in southern Arizona at the Last Chance Diner counter
Being questioned by the waitress
He prepares for the desert with his freedom
And a canteen of water
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4. |
Traveler
02:40
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Yes all of us here
We admire your new boots and your satchel
We all think you make a noble figure
You are traveling – traveling
You’re a traveler – you’re a traveler
You’re the man on the right side of the road
You’re the one with all the daydreams of a home
It’s apparent where you’ve been
But so shady where you go
You’re a traveler – you’re a traveler
You’re the one who would much rather be the fool
Than the judge who offers arguments so cool
As to make it seem there’re answers
As to make it seems there’re rules
You gave your little sister
A god that you carved out of cedar
You said it would protect her
She hung it on a chain
And it flickered against her skin
She said she understood
You are leaving here again
You’re a traveler – you’re a traveler
You’re the blessed one who carries his own curse
You’re the gifted one among the absurd
You’re an angel of Truth
You’re as Silence is to thoughtless words
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5. |
Message To A Snowman
05:27
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Through the winded winter streets
He’s pulled his hat so low
Bright lights strung in silence
Make a strange and saddened show
All the windows closed and shuttered
Find a place to go
He wrote a message to a snowman
Hey you know I’m an old man
Don’t you go melting away
I’ve already gone through to many changes
Snowman
Time was when he sailed the ports
From Rome to Mexico
A brandy man - he’d belt a song
And drink away his woe
Now the down street women smile
He hardly laughs no more
He wrote a message to a snowman
Hey you know I’m an old man
Don’t you go melting away
I’ve already gone through to many changes
Snowman
Through the winded winter streets
He’s pulled his hat so low
Bright lights strung in silence
Make a strange and saddened show
All the windows closed and shuttered
Find a place to go
He wrote a message to a snowman
Hey you know I’m an old man
Don’t you go melting away
I’ve already gone through to many changes
Snowman
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6. |
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Linda lost a lover in the early part of autumn
And she moved out to the country hoping all would be forgotten
The last time that I saw her she was making sure the winter
Wouldn’t come through that old doorframe
Where the door is several inches from the ground
The cold hard ground
It’s hard to go down easy
It’s hard to keep from crying
It’s hard to lose a lover
In the early part of autumn
She learned to cook the meals and she learned to start the fire
And she learned to make jewelry out of beads and pretty feathers
She’d sit down to the table with her friends and several others
And she’d try real hard to never be alone
It’s hard to go down easy
It’s hard to keep from crying
It’s hard to lose a lover
In the early part of autumn
Now the winter wind blows cold upon her fairly gentle soul
She feels as though her time is passing easy
Her friend’s a sometimes lover though he knows that there’s another
She thinks about when nighttime lays on down
It’s hard to go down easy
It’s hard to keep from crying
It’s hard to lose a lover
In the early part of autumn
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7. |
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The leaves came swirling down
On some old New England town
With streets of a winding ancient nature
The farmers and the townsmen they gathered there
To speak of things they’d lately read in papers
The air was turning cold
And the wind was blowing bold
And there seemed to be some sort of autumn sale
They’d learned to pick and choose their garments well
And to stock and firm their shelters
Some stranger came on in
As though he blew there with the wind
He wasn’t lost – ah but neither was he found
This stranger stood out sharply in the crowd
These times they were perhaps not made for him
He went into some store
Just for warmth and nothing more
The lady there remembers him quite well
This stranger stood out sharply in the crowd
These times they were perhaps not made for him
The lady in the junk shop
Said he was the only one
Who asked about the foreign-looking picture
Some old and withered etching of a hero
About to slay a wicked-looking creature
She gave to him for free
She said it seemed to fill some need
And he’s the only one my memory retains
Who did not shun the picture for the frame
No he did not shun the picture for the frame
The leaves came swirling down
On some old New England town
With streets of a winding ancient nature
The farmers and the townsmen they gathered there
To speak of things they’d lately read in papers
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8. |
You May Live
04:06
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This is a snake
Some say he’s evil
But don’t harm him please
One must have Reason for evils to be
You may live
Child
You may live
Child
And this is a bird
Love him and watch him
Then let him fly south
Birds do not wander for reasons I doubt
You may live
Child
You may live
Child
And you are a man
A god and a lamb
And a tiger you be
I pray that your Reason will come to be free
You may live
Child
Live
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9. |
Puddles In The Sun
02:30
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Darling - dry your weeping eyes
Your toy is in your hand
Sometimes I hope you don’t grow old
Dry your eyes and sit beside me
Time – where does it go
The years they pass like puddles in the sun
Darling dry you r weeping eyes for me
I’d like to tell you what I’ve seen
You know that time she moves along
Years they pass like puddles in the sun
Darling dry your weeping eyes
We’ll sing a summer song
There’ve been so many that I’ve known
Dry your eyes and sit beside me
We’ll sing ever so loud
I’ll sing about an eagle – you sing about a dove
Darling dry your weeping eyes for me
I’d like to tell you what I’ve seen
You know that time she moves along
Years they pass like puddles in the sun
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10. |
The June Bug
02:00
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So all the windblown boys didn’t hear you crying
They tied a string around a June bug’s head
Watched it buzzing ‘round the summer sun
It flew in circles – perfect circles ‘round their happy heads
You said you’d get a knife and cut the string – yes you would
Because a circle’s not the course the bug would choose if it could
We’re all the ragged children of god
We’re all the ragged children of god
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11. |
Driver Driver
03:31
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Some bus pulled on out of a mid-western highway
Losing a race with the dawn
All of the riders were sleeping
All of the riders but one
And he had his face pressed on up to the window
Catching the warmth from the sun
He gazed over wheat fields and cornfields
And raised up his hand to his head as he thought
Driver Driver – I am but a rider
I put my only life in your hands
Driver Driver – I am but a rider
And here on this bus
You’re the god of all of us
And I honestly hope you are kind
There sat beside him a younger girl
With a soft and a pendulous breast
And a cross on a chain and a dream on her lips
Of a more righteous place in the West
There sat behind him an older man
Dressed up in an old baseball hat
And a list in his shirt of the homeruns he’d hit
And a full color picture of him up at bat
Driver Driver – I am but a rider
I put my only life in your hands
Driver Driver – I am but a rider
And here on this bus
You’re the god of all of us
And I honestly hope you are kind
The time of the year it was springtime
The time of the day it was early
The years of the rider were twenty and eight
As he turned to the lady beside him and he said to her
Lady I know I’m a stranger
Lady I don’t mean you no harm
But I will write you a rhyme if you’ll look in my eye
Tell me where we are going and what we will find
Driver Driver – I am but a rider
I put my only life in your hands
Driver Driver – I am but a rider
And here on this bus
You’re the god of all of us
And I honestly hope that you are kind
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12. |
Dime Novels
04:03
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Gazing at me wide-eyed like a child
I would sing my songs to her
To her
She must have heard them all
A hundred times or more
Or more
How long
Long ago
It seems
It seems
Lovers come and gone my hand to catch her tears
They fell like summer’s rain
Like rain
Seasons change she’s come again
To speak of when she slept only to dream
To dream
How long
Long ago
It seems
It seems
Our lives they read like novels
That we bought for dimes
And hid – hoping they wouldn’t find them
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13. |
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When Lester was a young man he was very tall and very strong
And his hands, lots of people said, had the grip on one of those constrictor snakes
Now one day he found a shiny coin and an old old book that was hand written
Now Lester, he knew the bible, cause his mother made him go to church
And then stay even after the Sunday service to go to bible school
So Lester knew that the book that he found was copied mostly from the bible
And yet things were changed – lines were scratched out and new lines were put in
And even those were scratched out and changed again
Enough so that Lester couldn’t even read most of it
And that that he could – he couldn’t make hid nor hair of
And that gold coin that he found – it had one year written up on one side
And another year written up on the other
At first Lester didn’t know what to make of that
Now he went on in life and he married a good woman
And her name was Cora and Cora grew to be a big fat woman
They didn’t have any children
Now both Lester and Cora – they worked for a white lady
And her name was Misses Plainfield
Cora did the work inside the house
And Lester did the work outside the house
And every so often when the sun was shining hot
And sweat was pouring down Lester’s face
He would take out that shiny coin (it always stayed shiny)
He’d take it out of his pants pocket and he’d hold it up in the sun
And he’d wonder real hard about what it meant
He had lost the book years ago and he was real sorry about that
Now when Cora died the church people buried her in the churchyard
Cause they said that she was an extra righteous woman
And rightfully ought to have her place there
It wasn’t soon after the funeral that Lester took out the gold coin
Now he knew that the year on the front was this very year
But it wasn’t right until then that he noticed that the year on the back
Was the year that dear old Cora was born
And now Lester’s just an old man
He’s too old really to work
But he still goes to Misses Plainfield’s house almost every day
And he finds something to do
It isn’t because he has to
And it isn’t even because he wants to
It’s because he’s scared of god
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Delmore Recording Society Nashville, Tennessee
Delmore Recording Society exists to expose singular artists that don’t quite fit in to the world. The pursuit and discovery
of lost tapes is another side of that mission.
We strive to bring something of value into the world…music that might enhance our appreciation of an artist that was under recorded, or whose recordings were never released due to some vagary of the business.
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