LIVE in AUGHT-THREE
  James McMurtry 2004
 Compadre Records
 
   

 1   Saint Mary of the Woods  

 8   Choctaw Bingo

 2   Fraulein O.

9   Lights of Cheyenne

 3   Red Dress

10 Levelland
 4   No More Buffalo 11 Max's Theorem
 5   60 Acres 12 I'm Not From Here
6   Rachel's Song 13Too Long in the Wasteland
7   Out Here in the Middle 14 Rex's Blues
Thanks again to Tim!
* appears as a studio recording on earlier album


1

Saint Mary of the Woods
* Saint Mary of the Woods

 

Where you going
with your head hung down
Papers blowin' through the streets of town
They've already taken all
of your posters down
Didn't take 'em long once
the orders came down
Sunrise off the lake shining in your eyes
Shining on the wasted and the wise
All you hear ringing in your ears are
boldfaced lies
That scream like the gulls in that smoke stained amber sky

(chorus)
Fly back to the nest if it helps at all
Saint Mary of the Woods in the early fall
The leaves are turning on the Wabash now and children sing to you
They sing a song of your dreams come true

Where you goin'
brandy on your breath
Bottle's open spilled across the desk
Snifter's broken, smashed against the wall
Just the way your standin' says it all
You hung the sign out please do not disturb
Driver's waiting out front on the curb
Write it off as one more half sold show
Once they've seen your best they can forget about the rest don't you know

 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
       

 

 
2 Fraulein O.
* it had to happen

Last time I saw you
it could've been Christmas eve
it could've been someone's birthday
it could've been make believe for all I know
it could've been make believelast time I saw you
you had the room upstairs
I never knew for certain
what went on up thereno I never did know
what went on up there'course you had that boyfriend
with the Chevrolet
he never met Will Rogers
I'd be willing to sayyeah it's safe to say
he never met Will RogersI guess it must have been a thousand years
since I changed my number
does it mean a thing
when the phone don't ring
and I don't call back
can't help but wonder sometimesI never got to know you
like I wanted to
you never seemed to notice
how I looked at you for all I know
you never even noticednow that crowd's all scattered
to here and yon
everybody graduated
or they just moved onfor all I know
they just moved onI guess it must have been a thousand years
since I lost your number
gonna rest my soul
by this fishing hole
gonna watch that pole
'till that float goes underlast time I saw you
it could've been Christmas eve
it could've been someone's birthday
it could've been make believefor all I know
could've been make believe

 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
       
3

Red Dress
* Saint Mary of the Woods

Remember when we'd get together
Burn the candle don't you know
Smoke and drink and live forever
No on e there to tell us no
This time I'm gonna kill that bastard
This time I'm not gonna miss~ this time I'm not gonna miss
This time there ain't no doubt about it
Let me be quite clear on this
Out the back and down the alley
Gone to get your bucket spiked
Come back when you think you need me
Come back any time you like
Where'd you get that red dress
Where'd you get that red dress
Yes I'm drunk but damn you're ugly
Tell you one thing yes I will
Tomorrow morning I'll be sober
You'll be just as ugly still

Where'd you get that red dress

I don't know what you got going on
But You know I never seen you with that red dress on
Tell me where'd you get that red dress
Watching out the kitchen window
Right here in this old brown chair
Stack the empties on the table
Toss 'em down the basement stairs

Where'd you get that red dress
Where'd you get that red dress

Remember when we'd get together
Burn the candle don't you know
Smoke and drink and live forever
No one there to tell us no


  
 
   
   
   
   
   
   
       
 
4

No More Buffalo
* it had to happen

I guess we knew the cards were stacked
started out the best of friends
and we beat that highway 'till it quit beating back
it didn't mean much in the end some you win, some you lose
some you throw away
we headed South across those Colorado plains
just as empty as the daywe looked around at all we saw
remembered all we'd hoped to see
looking out through the bugs on the windshield
somebody said to me

(chorus)
no more buffalo
blue skies or open road
no more rodeo
no more noise
take this Cadillac
park it out in back
mama's calling
put away the toys

don't chase that carrot
'till it makes you sick
what do you think you're gonna prove
just let it dangle
'till it falls off that stick
that's when you make your move

don't go chasing after shooting stars
trying to make yourself a name
you could joust at the windmills
with that old Fender guitar
you'd probably do about the same

(chorus)

I never thought they'd ever doubt my words
I guess they were just too tired to care
I'd point to the horizon
to the dust of the herds
still hovering in the air
somebody said it aint any such
man you wish so hard you're scaring me
and those are combines kicking up that dust
but I guess you can see what you want to see
you can keep on chasing what used to be there
top that rise and face the pain

but man they were here
they were here I swear
not just these bleaching bones
stretching across the plain

(chorus)hey broke into your car last night,
took the stereo
No seen Elvis in a year or two
w		  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
       
 5 60 Acres
* it had to happen

 

Turned off the tv
sat down to dinner
phone rang, we were saying grace
grand ma died
left us sixty acres
the last of the old home place

sixty acres up on the cap rock
what am I supposed to do with that
uncle Claude got a eight wheeled tractor
plow it under in nothing flat
we could plant some maize
we could plant some cotton
we could plant some oats just to see if they'd grow
but I don't like farming
don't like the hours
don't like a life that goes so slow

(chorus)
glory glory
hallelujah
right back atcha
hope that'll do ya
don't look at me like theres something I shouldn't a'said
just cause that old bird's dead

now cousin Clifford
he got the good land
right on the highway out by Air Base road
looks like a Wal-Mart waiting to happen
I mean to tell you it's a pot of gold
It's in the city limits, zoned commercial
Got city water and a sewer line
What with the base expanding from consolidation
It's worth a fortune and it oughta been mine

(chorus)
glory glory
hallelujah
right back atcha
don't she look natural?
don't look at me like there's
something growing outa my head
just cause that old bird's dead

  
 
   
   
   
   
   
   
       
6

Rachel's Song
* Where'd You Hide the Body
Must be a cold front coming
Cause I saw the eastbound C&O
And the coal cars were dusted with a half inch of snow
And that boy'll drive me crazy
Don't know what I'll do with him
School will be out tomorrow if that cold front moves in

Calling out
To the dying daylight
The shadows of the mountains
Bringing on the night

The old folks like to whisper
He favors your side in his face
When he gets a little older
He's going to lead a merry chase

(chorus)
When I'm all alone it's all right
It Isn't going to wound my pride
If anyone can claim they're all right
So can I

I wrecked the El Camino
Would have been DWI
So I just walked off and left it
Laying on its side
The troopers found it in the morning
And they said it's purely luck I wasn't killed
I probably ought to quit my drinking
But I don't believe I will

(chorus)

He used to ask about you
About a million times a day
I got so tired of trying to answer
I just turned my head away
Now he don't pay me much attention
He's not asking anymore
I guess he'd probably know you
If you walked back in the door

Calling out to the empty night
Watching as the snowflakes
Come dancing round the light
Dancing up against the window
It's like they're peeking through the glass
And they hover for a moment
And then they fall on past
Calling out

  
 
   
   
   
   
   
   
         

 
7 Out Here in the Middle
* Saint Mary of the Woods

 
They broke into your car last night,
took the stereo
Now you say you don't know why
you even live there anymore
The garage man didn't see a thing,
so you guess it was an inside job
You made a reservation, a table for three
They said you'd have to wait,
somebody must have bribed the maitre'd
Boss got mad and he blamed it all on you
Food was bad and the deal fell through

(chorus)
Well out here in the middle
you can park it on the street
Step up to the counter;
you nearly always get a seat
Nobody steals. Nobody cheats
Wish you were here my love
Wish you here my love

We got tractor pulls and Red Man chew Corporate relo refugees that need love too
we ain't seen Elvis in a year or two
we got justification for wealth and greed~
Amber waves of grain and bathtub speed
We even got Starbucks
what else you need?

(chorus)
Out here in the middle
Where the center's on the right
And the ghost of William Jennings Bryan preaches every night
To save the lonely souls
in the dashboard lights
Wish you were here my love
Wish you were here my love

(chorus)
Out here in the middle
Where the buffalo roam
We're putting up towers for your cell phones
And we screen all applicants
With a fine tooth comb
Wish you were here my love
Wish you were here my love

  
 
   
   
   
   
   
   
       


9 Lights of Cheyenne
TOP
Look off down the highway
at the glittering lights
Like windshield glass
on the shoulder tonight
As the diesels come
grinding on up from the plains
All bunched up like pearls on a string

And I guess time don't mean nothin'
Not nothin' at all
And out on the horizon
the broken stars fall
Old broken stars they
fall down on the land
And get mixed together
with the lights of Cheyenne

Well I've been up all night
and I'm down on my back
Workin' the counter
to take up the slack
`Cause the money tree's light
and the whiskey stream's low
You ain't worked a week
since July

You say the gravel pit's hiring
After the first
But you don't have the
nature for that kind of work
You might get hired on
But you won't make a hand
And I'll still be here lookin'
at the lights of Cheyenne

You stand in the sky
with your feet on the ground
Never suspectin' a thing
But if the sky were to
move you might never be found
Never be heard from again

We go on good behavior when
our youngest comes home
She comes up from Boulder
but she never stays long
And that oldest still fights
me like she was 18
Stopped in for a 6-pack awhile ago

And she's got a cowboy problem
And this last one's a sight
All dressed up like Gunsmoke
for Saturday night
And they were off to the bars
for lack of a plan
Racing the stars to the lights of Cheyenne

And you've kept all that
meanness inside you so long
You'd fight with a fence post
if it looked at your wrong
Well the post won't hit back,
and it won't call the law
I look at your right,
or I don't look at all

Now take a crumpled up
soft pack and give it a shake
Out by the dumpster on a cigarette break
With one eye swelled up from
the back of your hand
And the other eye fixed
on the lights of Cheyenne

You stand in the sky with
your feet on the ground
Never suspectin' a thing
But if the sky were to
move you might never be found
Never be heard from again

Now there's antelope grazing
in range of my gun
Come opening weekend
you won't see a one
They'll vanish like ghosts
`cause somehow they know
But now they're up to the
fence in the early dawn

And it's warming up nicely
for this time of year
The creeks are still frozen but
the roads are all clear
And I don't have it in me
to make one more stand
Though I never much cared f
or the lights of Cheyenne


  
 
   
   
   
   
   
   
         

 
8

Choctaw Bingo
* Saint Mary of the Woods

Strap them kids in
Give 'em a little bit of vodka in a cherry coke
We're going to Oklahoma to the family reunion for the first time in years
It's up at uncle Slayton's cause he's getting on in years
You know he no longer travels but he's still pretty spry
He's not much on talking and he's just too mean to die
And they'll be comin' down from Kansas
and from west Arkansas
It'll be one great big old party like you never saw
Uncle Slayton's got his Texan pride
Back in the thickets with his Asian bride
He's got a Airstream trailer and a Holstein cow
He still makes whiskey 'cause he still knows how
He plats that Choctaw bingo every Friday night
You know he had to leave Texas but he won't say why
He owns a quarter section up by Lake Eufala
Caught a great big ol' blue cat on a driftin' jug line
Sells his hardwood timber to the shipping mill
Cooks that crystal meth because the shine don't sell
He cooks that crystal meth because the shine don't sell
You know he likes his money he don't mind the smel
lMy cousin Roscoe Slayton's oldest boy from his second marriage up in Illinois
He was raised in East St. Louis by his momma's people
Where they do things different
Thought he'd just come on down
He was going to Dallas Texas in a semi truck called from that big McDonald's
You know the one they built up on that great big ol' bridge
Across the Will Rogers Turnpike
Took the Big Cabin exit stopped and bought a couple of cartons of cigarettes
At that Indian Smoke Shop with the big neon smoke rings
In the Cherokee Nation hit Muskogee late that night
Somebody ran a stoplight at the Shawnee Bypass
Roscoe tried to miss 'em but he didn't quiteBob and Mae come up from little town
Way down by lake Texoma where he coaches football
They were two A champions now for two years running
But he says they won't be this year no they won't be this year
And he stopped off in Tushka at that "Pop's Knife and Gun" place
Bought a SKS rifle and a couple a full cases of that steel core ammo
With the berdan primers from some East bloc nation that no longer needs 'em
And a Desert Eagle that's one great big ol' pistol
I mean .50 caliber made by badass Hebrews
And some surplus tracers for that old BAR of Slayton's
Soon as it gets dark we're gonna have us a time
We're gonna have us a timeRuth Ann and Lynn come down from Baxter Springs
That's one hell raisin' town way up in Southeastern Kansas
Got a biker bar next to the lingerie store
That's got them Rolling Stones lips up there where everyone can see 'em
And they burn all night you know they burn all night you know they burn all night
Ruth Ann and Lynn they wear them cut off britches and those skinny little halters
And they're second cousins to me
Man I don't care I want to get between 'em
With a great big ol' hard on like a old bois d' arc fence post
You could hang a pipe rail gait from
Do some twisted sisters 'til the cows come home
And we'd be havin' us a time
Uncle Slayton's got his Texan pride
Back in the thickets with his Asian bride
He's cut that corner pasture into acre lots`
He sells 'em owner financed
Strictly to them that's got no kind of credit 'Cause he knows they're slackers
When they miss that payment
Then he takes it back
He plays that Choctaw Bingo every Friday night
Drinks that Johnny Walker at that Club 69
We're gonna strap them kids in give 'em a little bit o' Benadryl
And a cherry coke we're goin' to Oklahoma Gonna have us a time

  
 
   
   
   
   
   
   
       


10 Levelland
* Where'd You Hide the Body

Flatter than a tabletop
Makes you wonder why they stopped here
Wagon must have lost a wheel or they lacked ambition one
On the great migration west
Separated from the rest
Though they might have tried their best
They never caught the sun
So they sunk some roots down in the dirt
To keep from blowin' off the earth
Built a town around here
And when the dust had all but cleared
They called it Levelland, the pride of man
In Levelland

Granddad grew the dryland wheat
Stood on his own two feet
His mind got incomplete and they put in the home
Daddy's cotton grows so high
Sucks the water table dry
Rolling sprinklers circle round
Bleedin' it to the bone
And I won't be here when it comes a day
It all dries up and blows away
I'd hang around just to see
But they never had much use for me in Levelland
They don't understand me out in Levelland

And I watch those jet trails carving up that big blue sky
Coast to coasters watch 'em go
And I never would blame 'em one damn bit
If they never looked down on this
Not much here they'd wanna know
Just Levelland
Far as you can point your hand
Nothin' but Levelland

Mama used to roll her hair
Back before the central air
We'd sit outside and watch the stars at night
She'd tell me to make a wish
I'd wish we both could fly
Don't think she's seen the sky
Since we got the satellite dish and
I can hear the marching band
Doin' the best they can
They're playing "Smoke on the Water", "Joy to the World"
I've paid off all my debts
Got some change left over yet and I'm
Gettin' on a whisper jet
I'm gonna fly as far as I can get from
Levelland, doin' the best I can
Out in Levelland - imagine that


.

 
 
   
   
   
   
   
   
       

 

11 Max's Theorem

  

Special to the listener.

  
 
   
   
   
   
   
   
       
13

Too Long in the Wasteland
* Too Long in the Wasteland

 TOP

hear the trucks on the highway
and the ticking of the clock
there's a ghost of a moon in the afternoon
bullet holes in the mailbox
bullet holes in the mailbox
key holes in my mind

too long in the wasteland
too long in the wasteland
I've fallen behind

she said why don't you come see me
when the sun goes down
it'll be just like the old days
when I used to let you hang around
well I don't know
I might not speak the language anymore

too long in the wasteland
too long in the wasteland
will close some doors

the people in the village
watch their children play
at the sight of a stranger
they call the kids away
just leave that man alone
I hear the mother say

he's been
too long in the wasteland
too long in the wasteland
's what made him that way

well, I hadn't intended
to bend the rules
but whiskey don't make liars
it just makes fools
so I didn't mean to say it
but I meant what I said

too long in the wasteland
too long in the wasteland
must've gone to my head

jet trail in the sunset
a long way away
cutting 'cross the horizon
at the edge of the day
and it calls Jimmy
come fly away

but I've been
too long in the wasteland
too long in the wasteland
I believe I'll have to stay

yeah, I've been
too long in the wasteland
too long in the wasteland
I believe I'll have to stay

  
 
   
   
   
   
   
   
       
12

I'm Not From Here
* Too Long in the Wasteland

 TOP

I'm not from here
I just live here
grew up somewhere far away
come here thinking I'd never stay long
I'd be going back soon someday

it's been a few years
since I got here
seen 'em come and I've seen 'em go
crowds assemble, they hang out awhile
then they melt away like an early snow

onto some bright future somewhere
down the road to points unknown
sending postcards when they get there
wherever it is they think they're goin'

I'm not from here
I just live here
can't see that it matters much
I read the papers and I watch the nightly news
who's to say I'm out of touch

nobody's from here
most of us just live here
locals long since moved away
sold the played-out farms for parking lots
went off looking for a better way

onto some bright future somewhere
better times on down the road
wonder if they ever got there
wherever it was they thought they'd go

hit my home town
a couple years back
hard to say just how it felt
but it looked like so many towns I might've been through
on my way to somewhere else

I'm not from here
but people tell me
it's not like it used to be
they say I should have been here
back about ten years
before it got ruined by folks like me

we can't help it
we just keep moving
it's been that way since long ago
since the stone age, chasing the great herds
we mostly go where we have to go

onto some bright future somewhere
down the road to points unknown
sending post cards when we get there
wherever it is we think we'll go

  
 
   
   
   
   
   
   
       

 

14

 Rex's Blues
 ~Townes Van Zandt
* Walk Between the Raindrops

 TOP

ride the blue wind high and free
she'll lead you down to misery
leave you low come time to go
alone and low as low can be

if I had a nickle I'd find a game
if I won a dollar I'd make it rain
if it rained an ocean I'd drink it dry
and lay me down dissatisfied

tell my sister I said so long
tell my mother I did no wrong
tell my brother to watch his own
tell my friends to mourn me none

legs to walk and thoughts to fly
eyes to laugh and lips to cry
a restless tongue to classify
all born to grow and grown to die

chained across the face of time
feeling full of foolish rhyme
there aint no dark 'til something shines
I'm bound to leave this dark behind

ride the blue wind high and free
she'll lead you down to misery
leave you low come time to go
alone and low as low can be