Right Now

by Doug Andrews

She said solar panels are pricey these days

We’re strapped for cash and leavin’ come May

A lot of good they’ll do us in the Portland rain

What else can we do?

What else can we do right now?

I said I know the world seems a mess

It gets me down too, I must confess

But we can’t run on idle, relyin’ on the rest

And say there’s not much we can do

Not much we can do right now

The past ain’t much good if you don’t leave it there

The future bears its teeth when you’re running scared

So take one step and don’t fret about the stairs

‘Cause that’s all we can do

All we can do right now

You’re tears are sayin’ it’s a hard row to hoe

Hard on your mind

Hard on your soul

It’s as hard as you make it

So, make it easy

A simple seed to sow

A simple seed to sow

Let’s make a deal with the piney breeze

Extend it through to the trickling stream

You start with you and I’ll start with me

‘Cause there’s so much we can do right now

Burn This Mountain Down

by Doug Andrews

Needles drenched in hopeless dew, sweating muffled moans

Cling to branches left unpruned these regretful trees I’ve grown

Like bitter marrow lacks the faith to crack its crippled bones

Selfish fears and ceaseless doubt can’t seed a dusty grove

I’ll never burn

I’ll never burn

I’ll never burn this mountain down

Burn this mountain

Burn this mountain

Burn this mountain

Burn this mountain

Burn this mountain down

My fathers’ hands my mentors’ charms have helped me many nights

Now only wisps of wisdom rise from coals of sound advice

Borrowed maps are hard to read beneath this dark timberline

Moss on a tree’s not the flint and steel I need to clear my mind

Help me to burn

Help me to burn

Help me to burn this mountain down

Burn this mountain

Burn this mountain

Burn this mountain

Burn this mountain

Burn this mountain down

With bottle caps and ticket stubs, useless to me now

My pocket hides a single match beneath the aching doubt

Its tip is caught beneath the seams, impossible to douse

The time has come to strike its head and lay it to the ground

I’m gonna burn

I’m gonna burn

I’m gonna burn this mountain down

Burn this mountain

Burn this mountain

Burn this mountain

Burn this mountain

Burn this mountain down

Absaraka Runoff

by Doug Andrews

The bulk of eighteen years spent planning an escape

The mountains to the west, just a wall I had to break

Collecting fancy papers to prove I don’t belong

Now they line my dresser drawers with scores of unfinished songs

Absaraka runoff

Where will I run next time

Absaraka runoff

What will I leave behind?

Where the rivers run north, I set my sights east

Dragging my roots behind to leave a trail to retreat

I’ve backtracked so many times it’s the only path I know

Picking up broken promises makes for a long walk home

Absaraka runoff

Where will I run next time

Absaraka runoff

What will I leave behind?

Years of wandering shook me ‘till I could hardly feel my feet

On a deep breath I packed my bags and flew home on a sigh of relief

The winters here don’t bother me, because the springs bring something more

A calming sip of something real at the Goose Creeks’ fork

Absaraka runoff

Where will I run next time

Absaraka runoff

What will I leave behind?

The Game We Came To Play

by Doug Andrews

Six days a week she’s cleaning

Dusting other people’s picture frames

She says, “It’s not a job really”

“Just what I do between coffee breaks”

She used to be a dreamer

Claims she doesn’t miss that now

As long as she makes the previews at the Sunday matinee

Is this the game

The game we came

Came to play?

She has a steady boyfriend

But he won’t let her call him that

He leaves his pickup idling

He won’t take off his cowboy hat

She hears another empty promise

As he walks out the back door

Jumps up on the bench seat of his beat up Chevrolet

Is this the game

The game we came

Came to play?

She leans back in her porch swing

Folds her arms across her breast

Hides the thrift-store stains fading

On her favorite summer dress

Says a prayer in whispers

To a God outside herself

Swinging in the shadow of a rusted weathervane

Is this the game

The game we came

Came to play?

The Weight of Dreams

by Doug Andrews

There was a time I wanted you to save me from myself

To tie up this tired ping-pong game of cat and mouse

It started by a railroad track in frozen autumn air

With an empty plan to take us anywhere but there

Our bag of beer and apples would have never lasted long

So we laid among construction cones and I admitted you were wrong

The weight of dreams

The weight of dreams

Naïve we were to guess the weight of dreams

It’s not that I smoke more these days I just hide it from you less

‘Cause I know you’re strong enough to love me through this tangled mess

A fool I am to hope a well can swallow all my shame

A loaded coin can’t keep it all from floating up again

I’ve lost my bucket’s bottom more than once, enough to know

Secrets get too heavy, so we need to let them go

The weight of dreams

The weight of dreams

A fool I am to guess the weight of dreams

We’ve been together long enough to learn a thing or two

To see illusions fade and leave a sketch of the truth

We are not the people in the People Magazines

We’re not our parents’ fear or hope of what we’ll be

We need not be reactions to all that’s come before

We need not be dissatisfied and pray for more and more

The weight of dreams

The weight of dreams

All we need’s to feel the weight of dreams

Here We Go Again

by Doug Andrews

Some days I wake up jaded

An alarm buzzin’ in my head

I’d like to open my eyes slowly

To a crisp, cool dawn instead

But the morning burns of quickly

And I say…

Here we go again

Here we go again

Here we go again

Why is everyone always laughing

When I reveal another plan

Well, at least I’m still tryin’

To play a better hand

They ask, “Isn’t it time you settle?”

And I say…

Here we go again

Here we go again

Here we go again

I suppose I could surrender

Just take what I can get

Forget about writing love songs

But I’m not ready for that yet

Sure, It’ll take some fine tuning

So…

Here we go again

Here we go again

Here we go again

Last Day In Vienna

by Doug Andrews

Round and round the ring I roll

I don’t need a window seat anymore

I know every click before the streetcar reaches it

I feel every clack rumblin’ in my bones

I’d best leave in December

Leave my breath minglin’ with the snow

If May rolls around and the Holunder blooms

I may never find my way back home

A flash bulb disconnects me

When I try to squeeze my memories through a lens

If you take too many pictures, then you’re never really there

To lay the camera down makes more sense

I swing my arms and smile

As I step back in the frame

Soak up the cobblestones loose beneath my feet

Shuffle through the allies for a change

I slip into the Kleines Café

Pretend to read a paper two days old

Eavesdrop on smoky conversations in the room

Sip away the hours on my own

Oh, the stories told here

Some of them resembling the truth

Philosophies debated, stirred by silver spoons

With bitter foam and melted sugar cubes

It’s a cold day, this last day

But I’ll stretch it as long as I can

‘Till the stools are on the tables with their legs in the air

And nothing’s running but the taxi stands

One last pint at Molly’s

Quickly turns to one for the road

A 3:00 a.m. sing-song begs me to stay

But in an hour I really have to go

Brother I’ll See You Again

by Doug Andrews

Last night I played “Imagine”

With a photo of you by my side

My finger were shaking, my voice was breaking

As I made my way through the first line

I thought of all the times I struggled

And you lifted me up with your songs

Sayin’, “Eat goddamn dog food, but play goddamn music

And the hard times won’t last as long.”

I could feel you in the chorus

I could hear you humming along

Like the times we’d play in a closing café

The coffee girls sweeping the floor

‘Round a baby grand from Chicago

On cold winter nights in Wyo

They’d mop through the encores, put a key in the back door

And say, “Be sure to lock up when you go.”

Brother I’ll see you again

Brother I’ll see you again

I’ll pull up my seat while you’re poundin’ those keys

Brother I’ll see you again

My foot wouldn’t lift off the pedal

When I released the final chord

Sustain was comfort when the tune was over

So, I held on a few moments more

I’d have crawled inside the piano

If I knew I’d find you there

In those hammers clingin’, the strings still ringin’

The overtones soft in the air

Brother I’ll see you again

Brother I’ll see you again

I’ll pull up my seat while you’re poundin’ those keys

Brother I’ll see you again

I can picture your hands on the keyboard

Your chin thrown up to the sky

The growl you’d let out when you opened you’re mouth!

The twinkle left in your eye

Brother I’ll see you again

Brother I’ll see you again

I’ll pull up my seat while you’re poundin’ those keys

Brother I’ll see you again