WATER TAXI

Hummingbird

Thought I saw you in a summer's night In the scent of a Georgia pine You were dancing in the starlight Underneath a moon so bright Thought I saw you in the afternoon A honeysuckle in the month of June You were dancing by the riverside Making patterns with the dragonflies

Soaring on the melodies you bring I swear I felt the whisper of your wings

Hummingbird, gone in a flash of blue without any word Tell me where you going to, my Hummingbird? I could be set loose above the earth, If I could fly like you my sweet Hummingbird

Thought I saw you in an angel's kiss In the Alabama morning mist You were dancing by the mountainside Making patterns with the butterflies Hummingbird you know I wanna be free too But you won't leave me any clues to find you I want to be dancing in the starlight underneath a moon so bright

Soaring on the melodies you bring I swear I felt the whisper of your wings

Hummingbird, gone in a flash of blue without any word Tell me where you going to, my Hummingbird? I could be set loose above the earth,

If I could fly like you my sweet Hummingbird Soaring on the melodies you bring I swear I felt the whisper of your wings

Hummingbird, gone in a flash of blue without any word Tell me where you going to, my Hummingbird? I could be set loose above the earth,

Hummingbird I used to do trips to Nashville in the hope of learning something from the talented songwriters there and it was a privilege to work with some of the great ones. The elusive country hit has thus far escaped me but I loved being in Tennessee, and I think my songs did get better as a result. I wrote the laid back 'Hummingbird' with Darryl Burgess on the balcony of the Universal Music Publishing building on Music Row in the heat of June. The inspiration came from the actual Hummingbirds I saw in the garden at the house down Granny White. Any garden with Hummingbirds and Fireflies (or lightening bugs as I learned to call them) is all right by me!

Stony Ground

Sun's up, Prairie burn Through cloudless skies Ain't felt breeze in weeks Fields cracked and dry Came here ten years gone Thrilled to my soul Can't go one more mile Roots taking hold

Tears that we cried babe They fell on a stony, fell on a stony ground The water we draw from the well Has been tasting sour The furrows I ploughed Have been left to turn fallow now And grow wild

First the spring flowers failed In cruel Arctic air Then the fire beat down No shade nowhere

Stony Ground A song about farmers and climate. I live in a farming area and don't think I could ever go back to living in a city. Searching for a lyric idea to go with one of Luke's great chord sequences, I simply looked out of the window and sung about the farm across the way. The line about the 'Water we draw from the well has been tasting sour' was suggested by Chris Stewart's book 'Driving over Lemons' and the plea, 'How we'll heal this hurting land, I'll never know' is in truth, a tribute to my own limited achievements as a landscape gardener in my own back yard!

Water Taxi

Take me to the water taxi Let the island slide from view Let the sea-fish make their pattern Let the long-tails bid adieu Let the porter take you bags man You know it's what he's paid to do Pouring oil on troubled waters And sometimes liquor too

It's any way you want it, it's any time you need it Cos I don't have no hand to play It don't take much to see, That you need it more than me So I guess I'll be on my way

Said my plane leaves in an hour I should see her circling soon The same old smell of gasoline Every time I'm leaving you Take me to the Crescent city I want to taste the Delta rain Let me see the Ol' Tom Bigbee And love the Southland once again

I've got 'Three Island' in my sights now I've got the East Eleuthera shore Take me on to Colorado Cos I'm not coming back no more Keep your eyes on the horizon Keep on running t'wards the sun Cos in this everlasting evening Tomorrow never comes

Water Taxi A very real form of transport where I lived in Harbour Island in the Bahamas. To get to Dunmore Town and visit the legendary Pink Sand beach, you have to get a water taxi from Three Island dock, near the airport at North Eleuthera, to the Government dock on Briland as it is known locally. Even the most jaded traveller would have to admit, to a frisson of excitement, as they cross the clear, glass calm water of Cistern bay, towards the tiny clap board village that looks like something out of the South Seas, but is only 250 miles from Miami. I went to Colorado twice from there and this song is about that journey but it took a chilly January morning in Dominic Miller's studio in France, to bring the story to life, as all the words came out in a quite serious attempt to conjure up the feeling of 'seep through the bones' warmth I missed so much!

Trouble Comes At Night

In a hotel room in Decataur Rain pouring down on the roof Late check out in a terrible state And I'm through with you By a mile marker sign back in Texas There's a woman who calls on my phone Saying 'Austin motel I'm feeling like hell And I need you home'

Trouble comes at night Down highways lit by showboat lights Trouble comes in pairs Rent by black clouds of pure despair

Which rules of love Are you playing by tonight Kansas City? Which bank ofthe river of dreams Do you want me to land? Down and out in Los Angeles waiting on you I've got the freaks and the chic and the Aztec elite But I need you too

Trouble comes at night Down highways lit by showboat lights Trouble comes in pairs Rent by blackclouds of pure despair

Dragged awake from some dream by the highway patrol Scattering flowers from the skylight Roads roll out like the synapses of country soul Can't be right

In the back of a bus down on Polk street Outside the red devil lounge A fading surmise in her chestnut eyes And the music's sound By a mile marker sign back in Denver There’s a woman who calls on my phone Saying 'Old Boulder Inn, Peaks cast shadows like sins And I need you home'

Trouble comes at night Down highways lit by showboat lights Trouble comes in pairs Rent by black clouds of pure despair

Will I know it? Will I feel it when it comes again? I made some friends down in Nashville beside a guitar shaped pool I said down Music Row They may reap what you sow But they are no-one's fools

Trouble Comes At Night A Dylan-esque travelogue covering the last band tour we did in America. Austin, Polk Street, Denver and LA all get a look in as the boys (all now in their forties of course) trudge, hungover, sun bleached and dusty, from one mythic song town to the next. Touring America doesn't just promote your music it re-invigorates it, and for British groups it reinforces a band spirit that is one of the true upsides of all this bizarre activity. Luke plays a great harmonica part in the middle 8 section, and his long drawnout bends on the reeds, mirror the whistle of the Santa Fe Chief or some such traveller’s romance! Now where did I put my Aztec elite...

Spanish Waters

Spanish Waters Another poem by John Masefield, in fact the next one down in my anthology, from Seafever. Along with those two and Sweet William, I am trying to get folky with other people's poetry. I love the long list of jewellry in the middle verse and the conversational tone of the pirate as he says 'there was gear there, make a beggar-man as rich as Lima town'. Luke produced a compelling guitar riff to go with it, which Jim then told me was called an 'ear worm’. Charming!

Watch The Well

Well, we used to bring in brandy And tobacco and port wine From Normandy to Cornish coves and land Like Drake I am a Devon man, A moon-raker am I

And at sword point I did join the smugglers band What the Red-Coats make illegal man We'll find away to trade Neither bayonet nor jail will call to halt The seas may run with blood tonight Or silver coins may fly But the morning air has still her taste of salt

Better watch the wall my darling While the gentleman go by For it is easier to sleep tonight and lie And some things never change in life, all the while

In Alice town in '26 There were women wine and song And the lights of South Beach showing in the dark We'd load the rum and whisky kegs And be upon our way And race against the dawn's early start The tale it ends in Norman's Cay in 1989 Under moonlight that would stun the evening star Firearms and landing lights And our product standing by And D.C.3 in neutral all the while

Watch The Wall From Kipling this time, I believe, another tale of smuggling and daring do. Across two hundred years and four thousand miles, one chap tells of his exploits in the waters of the channel and the Gulf Stream. Rubbing shoulders with Hemingway and the Scarlet Pimpernel in Bimini and Normandy respectively, he gets his come uppance in the notorious Normans Cay of the 1980's. Written with Toby Tyler in the wonderful Landing Hotel.

Delta Rain

Thunder’s up and the real live wires are talking Set me straight as the rain falls on New Orleans Silver bells ring for treaties made by starlight For Southern girls and their faces lit by fire-flies

And through the gutters there will be water Running wilder than the sea And as the rain comes down A thousand circles fade like you and me They call us lovers because our bony legs are tied Once more to seed, But there ain’t nothing I won’t risk To set this bird of love fly free

Shake your hair out and come and dance with me We are lonely with no good need to be Where the river grows wide to kiss the sea Floods the delta and lovers’ eyes can see

Tonight is hot and there’s no wind from the ocean I hear the drums as they bang across thewater Voodoo bells ring for treaties made by starlight Forgotten gold and greed and fear at midnight

And through the gutters there will bewater Running wilder than the sea and as the rain comes down A thousand circles fade like you and me They call us lovers because our bony legs are tied Once more to seed, But there ain’t nothing I won’t risk To set this bird of love fly free

Shake your hair out and come and dance with me We are lonely with no good need to be Where the river grows wide to kiss the sea Floods the delta and lovers’ eyes can see

Do you remember How we held each other tight in sorrow Does it haunt you still? And in a single raindrop I can see all our tomorrows Baby, can’t you too? Shake your hair out and come and dance with me We are lonely with no good need to be Where the river she grows wide to kiss the sea Floods the delta and lovers’ eyes can see

Delta Rain An old favourite of mine, this version with Dorie is closer to how I heard it originally than the Blessing version but it is so long ago that I wrote it Ic an hardly remember life before Delta Rain. In my early twenties I spent three weeks staying with a school friend in the French Quarter and the characters of the quarter still fascinate me. Fireflies (again), French soldiers and belltrees, a plantation bodice ripper of the old school!

I’ll Be Gone

The sun is sinking low in the canyon It turns your eyes orange and grey I'm gathering wood for our fire I’m longing to feel your embrace

And the crackling of the fire sings a lovers song I'll keep you warm tonight darling, but tomorrow you know I'll be gone

There's a sliver of moon in the night sky and the lantern light plays with the truth I can feel your heart pounding I put my hand out to you

And the crackling of the fire sings a lovers song I'll keep you warm tonight darling, but tomorrow you know I'll be gone

Watching the colours melt away Flames reaching up for the stars It's the end of the summer as dawn turns to day I'll keep a piece of your heart

And the crackling of the fire sings a lovers song I'll keep you warm tonight darling, but tomorrow you know I'll be gone Tomorrrow I’ll be gone, tomorrow I’ll be gone Tomorrow I’ll be gone

Written at Monestevole in Italy with Amber Rubarth, who is from Nevada. This camping trip romance is all about Western skies and kindling! Luke picks up a gut string Spanish guitar for his solo and all around the campfire, grizzled cowpokes are reduced to blubbing girls! 'I'll keep you warm tonight darling but tomorrow you know I'll be gone'. I think those are the mots juste.

Luck Don’t Change

One thing you learn by holding on Is luck don’t really change Won't be the last time I'll be lonely baby, yeah One thing you learn by rolling on Is time won’t ever heal Won't be the last time I'll be lonely baby

Luck Don't Change Acapella rules in this 58-second misanthropic mini moan! 'It won't be the last time I'll be lonely baby yeah'!

Don’t Do That No More

Did you ever spend too much time chasing down a dream, Just to get it in your hands and find it wasn't what it seemed? There's a picture in your mind of bright stars and beautiful lights But when you get up close it all turns to black and white And every time you think you got there, you are still standing outside the door And the battles that you thought you'd won, were never worth fighting for Well, I don’t do that no more

We all keep reaching for more of what we don’t need Cos way down deep there's a hunger that we've got to feed but everything that glisters is not gold And you can climb that ladder till it leads to a deep dark hole You find that your desire leaves you standing outside the door And whatever you end up with, is what ever you settle for WelI I don’t dothat no more

Well I don't play that game no more I got tired of keeping score I'm just taking it one day at a time I must do what I must do I may win or I may lose But whichever way the wind blows I'll be fine Because I don't do that no more

Don't Do That No More. Another Nashville song this time with Gary Nicholson and the redoubtable Delbert McLinton. Delbert taught John Lennon how to play harmonica in Hamburg and I always loved his song 'Giving it up for your love' so it was a real pleasure to spend the day with him and listen to his superb voice in the room as he experimented with lyric ideas. It was great to get together with Jim and Kevin to play the backing track and Luke and Dorie and I all enjoyed playing it live in December. NB Everything that glisters is not gold; check your copy of the Merchant of Venice, California.

Sweetheart

Well, will you always be my Sweetheart baby? Will you always be my Queen? Or will the rodeo come through our town And take you away from me?

Right now you paint my eyes and dress me In gold and take me to the carnival Love me in the early hours Like I don’t know

You know I’ve always loved you In my dreams But dreams, they won’t remain I’m walking like a blind man in the rain

One day the tenderness will leave us baby You won’t return my calls, I’ll ring of Coloured lights and music and abandoned dance halls

You know I’ve always loved you selfishly But it’s the only way I know And I could never bear to let you go

And I know I never gave you Any reason to believe me I am trouble and I see your blue eyes clearly But I’d follow you through any chosen door

Right now I only want to hurt you Now my pride is out of place I said I love you and the tearsran Down my face

And I know I gave you every reason To deceive me And I love you so much you may even Fear me But I’ll follow you through any chosen door

Sweetheart As we all know nostalgia is not what it used to be but looking back at old songs is sometimes allowed, in private, under correct supervision, with the appropriate safety procedures in place. In this case we have again gone back to the original idea and kept it simple, what I had feared was a somewhat bitter lyric now sounds like a perfectly normal declaration of love but that's just getting older I expect. Anyway as the great Noel Coward said in 'Present Laughter'. 'Come along Dear, away with melancholy, it's a quarter past eleven!'

Dawn

The deepest darkness is always right before the dawn That's the way it's always been, Miles of aisles strung and spread like stereo surround, Is all I remember seeing, But yonder breaks the light, in flashes from the east, I hope the dawn may bring you peace,

The light is on the water It ripples like a sound it's dancing on the bayou And it's shaking from the ground And we're rolling down the highway And the songs are getting sad And we sing of long lost lovers We never even had

I've been travelling from the mountains I've been dreaming on a friend Diesel truckers and old motel rooms Bring me back to earth again

But yonder breaks the light in flashes from the east I hope the dawn may bring you peace

The deepest darkness is always right before the dawn That's the way it's always been Miles of aisles strung and spread like stereo surround, Is all I remember seeing

The Sutler

I'm gonna make my way across to New Orleans I gotta flush a little poison, mama I gotta make a little change

Gonna make my way up the Natchez Trace Gonna roll right in to Nashville, mama And wipe the smile off some faces

I will be your shield the sutler says We are gonna rise above the wicked and defend the brave

Take this message to your cherished Take this drink my friend Even Eden is gonna have to change

Gonna make my way back down to Mobile I'm gonna ride along the levee mama I gotta forge a little steel

I will be your shield the sutler says How we would rise above the wicked and defend the brave

Take this message to your cherished Take this drink my friend Even Eden is gonna have to change

Gonna make my way to the Missouri line Give up my cotton and tobacco, mama And the best of times

I will be your shelter, the boss man sings He looks you right between the eyes, mama Blows a cold smoke ring

Take this message to your cherished Take this drink my friend Even Eden is gonna have to change

I remember the surrender in the freezing rain Just one Sunday, and the South had changed