{"id":43,"date":"2011-09-09T15:46:14","date_gmt":"2011-09-09T15:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/garnetrogers.com\/site\/?page_id=43"},"modified":"2019-10-13T09:40:04","modified_gmt":"2019-10-13T13:40:04","slug":"album-firefly","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/garnetrogers.com\/?page_id=43","title":{"rendered":"Album: Firefly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Preview and Download tracks or the entire album at<\/strong>:\u00a0Bandcamp<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"1. Better Days 6:10 (lyrics<\/a>)
\n2. Underpass 5:31 (lyrics<\/a>)
\n3. Red Wing 4:26 (lyrics<\/a>)
\n4. The Girl from the Hiring Fair 6:04
\n5. Where’d You Get That Little Dress? 4:22 (lyrics<\/a>)
\n6. Blue Smoke 8:09 (lyrics<\/a>)
\n7. Lady of Spain 5:11
\n8. The Painted Pony 9:43 (lyrics<\/a>)
\n9. Nightfall\/Who Could Have Known 9:57 (lyrics<\/a>)
\n10. Firefly 6:27 (lyrics<\/a>)<\/p>\n


\n
\n
\n\"\"<\/form>\n

\u00a92001 Snowgoose<\/p>\n

Firefly<\/em> is Garnet Rogers’ ninth solo CD and features eight new original songs from a writer whose songs “give expression to the unspoken vocabulary of the heart” (Kitchener Waterloo Record). Like contemporaries Greg Brown<\/a> and Dave Alvin – on a path originally cleared by Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly – Garnet Rogers writes about how people live and cope, and how they find their way through an often imperfect and wearying world. “vivid, passionate writing, laden with the fears and courage of hard- hit ordinary people” (Boston Phoenix). The two non-original songs on Firefly, one of which is Ralph McTell’s wonderful “Girl From the Hiring Fair,” ably demonstrate why Garnet Rogers is considered “the greatest male interpreter and vocalist performing in the contemporary folk scene.” (Sing Out) Recorded at the private studio of singer-songwriter Scott Merritt, Firefly accurately reflects what talented people sound like working in a relaxed, un-pressurized atmosphere. Stark, unaccompanied arrangements rub shoulders with lush strings, traditional folk instrumentation overlaps electric guitars and drums, and all of it hangs on Garnet Rogers’ “sense of song, of melody and of story (which) separates him from musicians who add more production simply because they can. (Dirty Linen) This is mature, well-crafted work from an established artist, and Firefly will as well be a wonderful revelation for anyone who is new to Garnet Rogers’ music.<\/p>\n

\n

<\/a>
\nBetter Days<\/strong><\/p>\n

Clouds torn to rags in the western sky
\nSmell of rain upon the breeze
\nYou guide your old car down the gravel road
\nRiver shines beyond the trees<\/p>\n

Hills nestle close together
\nLike lovers in their sleep
\nOutline soft with willows
\nThe valleys dark and deep<\/p>\n

There’s a young kid with a fishing pole
\nHe’s watching painted turtles on a log
\nThere’s a smelly knot of restless boys
\nWith a shaggy grinning dog<\/p>\n

They call to him and they break his dreams
\nAs he lies there in the shade
\nHe leaps up and grabs his homemade spear
\nRuns off shouting through the glade<\/p>\n

You were that kid long years ago
\nBefore your world was stained
\nSome heartache and some lonesome years there
\nSomething inside you changed<\/p>\n

Too many years slip by too fast
\nWhile you’re fighting the good fight
\nSomething lurks inside your chest
\nIt’s like a clock spring, and it’s wound too tight<\/p>\n

And there comes a time when maybe money
\nIs like another way of keeping score
\nMaybe all this stuff’s just so much junk
\nWho needs it any more?<\/p>\n

So you’re looking for that quiet place
\nWhere no one locks their doors
\nNo asshole with a cell phone
\nIs ever going to find you anymore<\/p>\n

Could be better days ahead<\/p>\n

But these graceful and familiar hills
\nThey’re like a lover’s face
\nThey’re soft and gentled by the years
\nFar from the noise and race<\/p>\n

Your eyes grow soft and faraway
\nLines fade from around your mouth
\nYou watch the light slant through the trees
\nThe golden fading south<\/p>\n

Could be better days ahead<\/p>\n

There’s a half-crazed whitetail, he’s wild with rut
\nHe’s giving hell to some poor tree
\nWild turkeys running through the brush
\nThere’s a red tail on the breeze<\/p>\n

Smell of woodsmoke, pine and river mud
\nDrift sweetly past your nose
\nYou leave the years behind you
\nLike a small kid sheds his clothes<\/p>\n

So here’s a window you can dream beside, boy
\nClear stars above your head
\nThere’s silence, there’s darkness, there’s trees outside
\nMaybe a woodstove by your bed<\/p>\n

In that silent darkness
\nRed firelight like wine
\nThe wind blows through the branches
\nLord God can you feel that spring unwind inside of you?<\/p>\n

Better days ahead.<\/p>\n

back to top<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>
\nUnderpass<\/strong><\/p>\n

Slow down mister, would you please?
\nCold the wind and rain
\nWon’t you take me in now before I freeze?
\nI can’t go home again<\/p>\n

I’ve had my fill of this winter town
\nCold the wind and rain
\nIt’s pushed me back and it’s slapped me down
\nI can’t go home again<\/p>\n

So I’ve tried all day to outrun this storm
\nCold the wind and rain
\nFeels like years since I was warm
\nI can’t go home again<\/p>\n

Windows dark and the doors nailed tight
\nCold the wind and rain
\nNeon flickers in the gusty night
\nI can’t go home again<\/p>\n

Empty hands held to a trash can fire
\nCold the wind and rain
\nThe wind howls and it laughs in the singing wires
\nI can’t go home again<\/p>\n

Hopeless faces pinched and gray
\nCold the wind and rain
\nSaying “the meek shall inherit what we toss away”
\nI can’t go home again<\/p>\n

Slow down mister, would you please?
\nGive a boy a ride
\nI’m burning up with shame and need
\nI’ve nowhere left to hide<\/p>\n

So I stand beneath this underpass
\nCold the wind and rain
\nIn the dust and the cinders and the stink of gas
\nI can’t go home again<\/p>\n

Still the big trucks roll on through the night
\nCold the wind and rain
\nLike Chinese Dragons with a thousand lights
\nI can’t go home again<\/p>\n

Cold this wind, cold this rain
\nCold these outstretched hands
\nCold the days left to me now
\nRunning fast like sand<\/p>\n

So I smile at strangers but they turn away
\nCold the wind and rain
\nI’m dwindling with each passing day
\nI can’t go home again<\/p>\n

So slow down mister, please, I cry
\nCold the wind and rain
\nI’m as empty as this winter sky
\nI can’t go home again<\/p>\n

back to top<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>
\nRedwing <\/strong><\/p>\n

Lace curtains at my window
\nThe south wind blows them in
\nI heard the Redwing sing today
\nI think he brought the spring<\/p>\n

Winters so long leaving
\nSo shyly comes the spring
\nLie beside me darling
\nListen to him sing<\/p>\n

What a gift of sight you had
\nTo see into my heart
\nYou did not flinch or turn from me
\nThough you saw me from the start<\/p>\n

Likewise love I saw you
\nOh our love so rare a thing
\nThat redwing is one happy boy
\nWould you listen to him sing<\/p>\n

The ice broke on the river
\nI could hear groan and boom
\nIt thundered in the darkness
\nAs we lay there in our room<\/p>\n

We held each other sweetly
\nAnd we clung all through the night
\nAnd the redwing brought the south wind
\nBy the dawning of the light<\/p>\n

Well the fox cries in the moonlight
\nThe deer leaps in the wood
\nThe hawk circles o’er the valley
\nI would touch him if I could<\/p>\n

I was born to love you
\nAs the redwing heralds spring
\nJust lie beside me darling
\nListen to him sing<\/p>\n

back to top<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>
\nWhere’d You Get That Little Dress? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Where’d you get that little dress?
\nWhere’d you get that hat?
\nI’ve seen other women trying to wear that stuff
\nBut they don’t look like that<\/p>\n

I love the way it frames your face
\nIt sparkles up your eyes
\nAnd the dress just does one hell of a job
\nOf clinging to your thighs darlin’<\/p>\n

I had to take a second look
\nAnd a third look after that
\nWhere’d you get that little dress?
\nWhere’d you get that hat?<\/p>\n

I’m not one for fashion
\nI don’t care about gay Paris
\nThose sullen junkies on the runway
\nAll look like hell to me<\/p>\n

They pout they pose they curl their lips
\nThey miss too many meals
\nWith their implants and injections
\nOnly God knows what is real<\/p>\n

You come downstairs so sweet tonight
\nYou nearly knocked me flat
\nWhere’d you get that little dress?
\nWhere’d you get that hat?
\nI don’t want Boss or Calvin Klein
\nNo khakis from the Gap
\nHigh price junk from Polo
\nOr that yuppie sweatshop crap<\/p>\n

That bondage look from NYC
\nThe whole town’s dressed in black
\nI want your sweetness in a cotton dress
\nAnd a little summer hat<\/p>\n

Where’d you get that little dress?
\nWhere’d you get that hat?<\/p>\n

Well I know you wanted dinner
\nMaybe coffee and a show
\nWe could browse around the bookstore
\nLots of places we could go<\/p>\n

My vote is we hit the sheets
\nWe could stay there for a week
\nWe could huddle under cover baby
\nPlay some hide and seek<\/p>\n

I don’t know why your ensemble
\nGets to me like that
\nWhere’d you get that little dress?
\nWhere’d you get that hat?<\/p>\n

back to top<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>
\nBlue Smoke <\/strong><\/p>\n

Blue smoke across the stubble fields
\nRiver running slow
\nCharlie watched the moon rise
\nFat and pale an hour or so ago<\/p>\n

He heard the distant call of geese
\nIn the faintly glowing west
\nCircling low and falling fast
\nIn the distant fields to rest<\/p>\n

He pitched his cigarette past the front porch rail
\nWatched it glowing in the dark
\nThe night wind rose and stirred the grass
\nFanned the glowing spark<\/p>\n

It flared and caught the porch boards
\nTinder dry from drought
\nHe watched it grow and made no move
\nTo try and put it out<\/p>\n

Some shiny new guy down at the bank
\nWith a loud and booming voice
\nHe shuffled papers looked away
\nSaid ‘sir we have no choice’<\/p>\n

Charlie tried to reason with them
\nIt’s like they never heard
\nHe had no more to offer them
\nHe only had his word<\/p>\n

The wind increased, the flames blew up
\nThe porch grew black and charred
\nHe rose at length, picked up his gun
\nWalked out in the yard<\/p>\n

Where his truck was parked
\nAll piled with boxes, furniture and such
\nTwenty hears of pain and heartache
\nDon’t amount to much<\/p>\n

No idea where to go
\nNo way for him stay
\nHe turned the key, let out the clutch
\nSlowly drove away<\/p>\n

In the rearview mirror
\nHe watched the flames roar up the wall
\nSparks exploded skyward
\nAs he watched the front porch fall<\/p>\n

He pulled out on the highway
\nIn the distance saw the lights
\nHear the high and keening wail
\nOf sirens in the night<\/p>\n

He pulled a cigarette from his pocket
\nHit the lighter in the dash
\nCarefully thought of nothing
\nAs the fire trucks went passed<\/p>\n

He lies quiet in a motel room
\nHis hands behind his head
\nHe keeps his mind a perfect blank
\nWhile lying on the bed<\/p>\n

The timbers and the chimney rise up
\nBlackened ruined and charred
\nTo mark the spot where Charlie loved too long
\nAnd way too hard<\/p>\n

back to top<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>
\nThe Painted Pony <\/strong><\/p>\n

Draw close to me and hear my story
\nOh draw close and I will tell
\nOf a young and faithful soldier
\nAnd the girl he loved so well<\/p>\n

They met ’twas on a frosty morning
\nIn the autumn of the year
\nThey courted all that winter
\nUntil the winds of spring blew clear<\/p>\n

He brought her lily of the valley
\nFine silks and precious things
\nTheir love grew ever sweetly
\nAs the flowers bloom in spring<\/p>\n

They would roam the fields together
\nLaughing breathless as they’d ride
\nThey pledged their love together
\nForever side by side<\/p>\n

One day there came to them a letter
\nHer soldier boy was called away
\nHer face grew as pale as the moonlight
\nShe knew not what to say<\/p>\n

She said ‘oh love I am so fearful
\nIn some far off field you might die’
\nHe held her tightly and he kissed her
\nHe said ‘I’m not afraid’ but she knew he lied<\/p>\n

Then he smiled and he swung to his saddle
\nHe looked across the fields of green
\nHe said ‘I will return love
\nThough all hell should lie between’<\/p>\n

And I’ll bring to you a painted pony
\nAnd together love we will ride
\nAcross the flowered plains together
\nForever, side by side’<\/p>\n

‘Oh I don’t need your painted pony
\nI lack for nothing love’ she cried
\n‘Just come back to me darling
\nStay forever at my side’<\/p>\n

She stood silently then and watched him
\nHe touched his heels to his horse’s side
\nHe cantered past the far horizon
\nShe turned and went inside<\/p>\n

One day while waiting at her window
\nShe felt a cloud obscure the sun
\nInto her heart there came a stillness
\nShe knew her love was gone<\/p>\n

‘Hard fate hard fate’ she cried in anguish
\nHard fate has come to me this day’
\nShe withdrew into her chamber
\nNot another word would say<\/p>\n

One night while dreaming on her pillow
\nShe dreamt she heard her lover speak
\nHis soft kiss upon her forehead
\nHis warm hand upon her cheek<\/p>\n

She heard a tapping at her window
\nAt the tolling of the bell
\nShe raised her head, she saw him standing
\nThe dear one she loved so well<\/p>\n

‘Love how came you to my window?
\nMy heart told me you were dead’
\nHe smiled and said ‘don’t you remember?
\nDon’t you remember what I said?’<\/p>\n

He took her to the shadowed courtyard
\nIn the darkness she could hear
\nThe silver jingle of a bridle
\nHe touched her arm and drew her near<\/p>\n

‘I’ve brought to you a painted pony’
\nHe said and then the reins he untied
\n‘Oh come leave these earthly sorrows
\nLove, together we will ride’<\/p>\n

A saddle of the finest leather
\nAnd a bridle strung with pearls
\nThey wheeled their horses close together
\nClose together left this world<\/p>\n

They rode across the flowered prairie
\nAnd the sun rose red above the hills
\nThey rested by a stand of willows
\nLet the horses drink their fill<\/p>\n

Still they ride every night together
\nWhen the evening star is bright
\nThe faithful soldier and his lover
\nGuide their ponies through the starry night<\/p>\n

They ride together through the starfields
\nLaughing breathless as they ride
\nChasing down the stars of heaven
\nThe faithful soldier and his bride<\/p>\n

back to top<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>
\nWho Could Have Known <\/strong><\/p>\n

Who could have known
\nThe sky could turn so calm after a storm?
\nWho could have known
\nThat the evening breeze might feel this sweet and warm?
\nAnd the sky above the trees where the moon has hung its horns
\nHas faded to the palest shades of grey
\nThe starlings splash and chatter in the fragrant fields of corn
\nHow green it’s grown
\nWho could have known?<\/p>\n

Who could have known
\nThat I might finally shed some pain and start to live
\nWho could have known
\nI might finally find it in me to forgive
\nAll that lay between us through those bitter hurtful years
\nHas melted like dark ice beneath the sun
\nAnd the bitterness and the tears and the pain to which I clung
\nHave finally gone
\nWho could have known?<\/p>\n

Who could have known
\nThat I might look and finally tell gold from dross
\nWho could have known
\nI could accept now what was gained and what was lost
\nAll that seemed to matter grows lesser by the day
\nAnd a shadow has been lifted from my heart<\/p>\n

Like the clean rain falling on me this blessed peaceful day
\nLike diamonds shone
\nWho could have known?<\/p>\n

back to top<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>
\nFirefly<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two miles south of Mendocino
\nHarbour bell upon the breeze
\nCurled like dry beseeching hands
\nThere comes a gust of leaves<\/p>\n

Poplar gives a shiver
\nCasts its gold coins to wind
\nThe setting moon is like a fingernail
\nHanging pale and thin<\/p>\n

The sun is red behind the eastern hills
\nHe can see the morning glow
\nRed as winter cardinals
\nWriting haiku in the snow<\/p>\n

He shrugs on his shirt, he lights a fire
\nHe begins another day
\nHis heart and love fly eastward
\nThree thousand miles away<\/p>\n

He keeps a picture of a little girl
\nIn a faded Huntsville shirt
\nMid-stride in her baggy pants
\nHer knees stained with grass and dirt<\/p>\n

She’s turning by a haystack
\nHair bleached by wind and sun
\nLooking backwards at a scruffy dog
\nShe’s laughing as she runs<\/p>\n

He holds that faded photo
\nOf that happy skinny child
\nHe smiles at it and thinks about her
\nRunning free and wild<\/p>\n

Through distant sunlit fields of wonder
\nFlitting fast and far
\nBright and busy as a firefly
\nWith a tadpole in a jar<\/p>\n

So it was some twenty years ago
\nAs winter turned to spring
\nThat child grown to a woman now
\nStood gazing at a ring<\/p>\n

Her golden hair fell forward
\nAs she held it to her breast
\nShe changed his life forever
\nAs she quietly said ‘yes’<\/p>\n

Well the sea rolls in from China
\nBreaks against the distant head
\nThat cracked and faded photo
\nIs still beside him on the bed<\/p>\n

They will have no child to call their own
\nBut to him it’s all the same
\nHe will love the woman that she is
\nAnd the child that she remains<\/p>\n

back to top<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Preview and Download tracks or the entire album at:\u00a0Bandcamp 1. Better Days 6:10 (lyrics) 2. Underpass 5:31 (lyrics) 3. Red Wing 4:26 (lyrics) 4. The Girl from the Hiring Fair 6:04 5. Where’d You Get That Little Dress? 4:22 (lyrics) 6. Blue Smoke 8:09 (lyrics) 7. Lady of Spain 5:11 8. The Painted Pony 9:43 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":6,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-43","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P7qHGF-H","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/garnetrogers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/43","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/garnetrogers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/garnetrogers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garnetrogers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garnetrogers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/garnetrogers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/43\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27627,"href":"https:\/\/garnetrogers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/43\/revisions\/27627"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garnetrogers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/garnetrogers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}