K Phillips Music

Amelia

Wont you lie me down

in your lap

darlyn, sing a song again

and I’ll light a Red

and slip to bed

as the snow covers the basin

Oh ameila

Shine for me

I took you for granted

I’ve gone astray

Oh, but tomorrow

In the morning light

It will still be that way

I found a picture

after the flood

of a sky blue nova

and a cotton queen

she wore her swimsuit

with a kiss for the camera

She wore my heart

like she wore my ring

Oh Ameila

shine for me

I took you for granted

I’ve gone astray

Oh, but tomorrow

In the morning light

It will still be that way

You’ll always keep

‘Nieth your cotton dress

and your satain sheets

It holds 2 portraits

they look upon each other

and they will

forevermore

******

Not My Baby

I called all your friends

I could hear their grins

but no one had a clue

stumbled through this town

so lit I burned it down

and in the ashes I found

you

know

who

Holy father,

I never thought I’d bother,

But your not my baby anymore

Now your not my baby anymore

Does he make you shine?

Like a diamond mine,

or just coal to keep you warm?

Is it still a home?

When you’re all alone

Or just a lean-to in the storm?

Holy father,

I never thought I’d bother,

But your not my baby anymore

Now your not my baby anymore

When you can’t hide it any longer

And you’re tired of all the lies

Just pick me up little Darlin

I’ll get you through the night

******

What I can’t have

I took that young thing to dinner

Yeah the one you don’t like

We got nothing in common

But she’ll do for tonight

cause It gets cold in this big house

and the winters coming on

I might need some help

to weather this storm

I only want what I can’t have

I only miss what’s gone

That guitar you gave me

I lost in pawn

Am I just like my father?

Am I just like my mom?

Will I end up a drunk?

Will I end up alone?

Yeah I got some songs about you

But who told you that?

well I think I’d remember

saying “this ones for Kat”

I know I’m getting skinny

and I know I’ve gotten pale

but If I look homeless

 I’ve been living in Hell

Chorus

I tried to damn it

But It rolls of my tounge

I cant change a thing

you don’t forgive anyone

So I took her to dinner

but not out of spite

‘cause it gets cold in this big house

and it gets worse in the night

Chorus

I can’t talk to her

like I can to you

I can’t tell her about music

or the fact I’m being sued

she just makes me feel older

and it’s not the same

I’m starting to see

who’s the one to blame

******

To Dance With You

 You’re the song I couldn’t write

The note I couldn’t hit

You are the metaphor

I didn’t get

Put my heart in your hand

And we played your game

I guessed right twice

and I lost the same

I dug to hell

and burned like a fuse

I dealt with the devil

to dance with you

I dove in your waters

and I drowned in booze

I delt with the devil

to dance with you

I delt with the devil

to dance with you

I borrowed from bankers

I gambled with goons

I got broken ribs

and cement boots

I built you a boat

with my bare hands

you crossed me like

the Rio Grande

I dug to hell

and burned like a fuse

I dealt with the devil

to dance with you

I dove in your waters

and I drowned in booze

I delt with the devil

to dance with you

I delt with the devil

to dance with you

******

Medicine Hat

 I came down from Medicine Hat

with a bedroll on my back

one good harp,

and a black dobro

I got a dry pair of socks

and your present in a cigarbox

but what matters most

I sent ahead with you

Keep it safe for me

’cause when your staring up

at the moon at night

I aint far behind

Say a prayer

Keep it safe for me

Hold it way down inside

I  ain’t  far behind

Keep it safe for me

There’s whispers in this town

’bout some kids that bedded down

In their van, last time it freezed

Naked as they came, and too cold for shame

a couple love birds wrapped up in their wings

Keep it safe for me

’cause when your staring up

at the moon at night

I aint far behind

Say a prayer

Keep it safe for me

Hold it way down inside

I  ain’t  far behind

Keep it safe for me

When I’m bludgeoned by the sleet

When I can’t feel my feet

I pull out your picture

to carry me through

The Devil can’t take ahold

of a man without a soul

and mine, mine belongs to you

Keep it safe for me

Keep it safe for me

******

Does it hold water?

 Now you want an artist?

Well darlyn what about me?

With out my art sugar,

how would ya serve your tea?

He can paint you a picture

of some happy trees

but when ya come home

those pictures are in the gallery

Colors fade and colors run

Cant put em in the rain

Cant leave em in the sun

Tell me now, before you go any father

Does it hold water?

Say you want an artist

Well darlyn what about me?

Without my art honey,

How did you serve your tea?

Howd ya make a birthday cake

Without my bowl to mix?

How’d you make a casserole

without my casserole dish?

Colors fade and colors run

Cant put em in the rain

Cant leave em in the sun

Tell me now, before you go any father

Does it hold water?

Say you want an artist

Well darlyn what about me

With out my art sugar

How did you serve your tea

Bob ross can paint you a picture

Of some happy trees

But I can make a planter

We can plant some seeds

********

The Sherriff’s Wife

Where ya goin tonight

All dressed like that

Who you goin out with?

When ya coming back?

Sure be a shame,

Something happened to you

The Sheriff’s Bride,

Miss Cotton too

where ya goin tonight?

where ya goin tonight?

where ya goin tonight?

where ya goin tonight?

Say I was working

And you were fast asleep

and you floated up to heaven

from a little gas leak

Or that drug lord found you

while I was on patrol

It’d take more than prayers

To save your soul

where ya goin tonight?

where ya goin tonight?

where ya goin tonight?

where ya goin tonight?

Button your lip

and bring me a beer

Stop cryin’ to God

Cause he ain’t here

Stop your sniv’lin’

and put yer dress on right

All I asked is “where ya goin tonight?”

************

 Get it

 You could defang the devil

with a clawhammer banjo

you could dance on my grave

while I scream

you could whisper sweet stories

into my ear

once you cleaved it from my head

you gotta get it,

when the gettin’s good

 you gotta get it,

when the gettin’s good

Didn’t your mama ever tell you

How to keep your man comin’ home?

Didn’t your daddy ever tell you

to run along?

You think your brother washed his car all day

Just to drive around at night?

He was going down, down to the river

where things get tight

you gotta get it,

when the gettin’s good

 you gotta get it,

when the gettin’s good

You and me were a dovetail joint

and tighter than 2 coats of paint

stealing black gun powder

and drug store matches

we was blue-blood criminals

walking clean

like jazz and heroin

like black and indigo

we was gettin schooled

hand over fist

hand over fist

this is the sound of sin on sin

this is the sound of skin on skin

this is the sound of sin on sin

and I

did it before

and I will do it again

you gotta get it,

when the gettin’s good

 you gotta get it,

when the gettin’s good

 

 

Earl ‘Eagle’ Cummings (The Rambler)

I’m a rambler baby

I got travelin’ in my blood

I didn’t come here to talk

I came here to *love

So slip yer apron off

let me come inside

I was born to ramble

You were born to ride

 

I will kill your boyfriend

If he shows up over here

I know it’s his house

But I just don’t care

So get on your knees

And swallow my pride

I was born to ramble

You were born to ride

 

Ill steal your silver spoon

Ill pull your golden curls

You can’t hide your mamma’s hips

Better hold on to nanna’s pearls

Leave your corset on

pull your cross aside

I was born to ramble

You were born to ride

 

******************

 

You Don’t Hafta

 

I went to school

I went to church

I read the lines

I know the verse

but next to you

they don’t seem so sharp

with your words taped up

in my heart

“You don’t hafta 

if you don’t want to

I won’t even ask ya

this is something that you get to do

this is something that you get to do

If the lids too tight

but you want the jam

give it here

I’m your man

it feels good

to play my part

with your words

taped up

in my heart

“You don’t hafta

if you don’t want to 

I won’t even ask ya 

this is something that you get to do

this is something that you get to do”

You take it all in

you’re a thundercloud

when my land is weary

you rain on down

with your words

taped up in my heart

“You don’t hafta

if you don’t want to 

I won’t even ask ya

this is something that you get to do 

this is something that you get to do”

 

“Southern Truth”

PAST THE PUMPJACKS

PAST THE LUTHERAN CHURCH

PAST THE HOUSE WHERE HE WAS BORN

NO RADIO IN THAT CHEVY LUV

JUST THE STORIES

HE ALWAYS TOLD

 

SAID “DID I TELL YOU

ABOUT BLUE LADY?

OK WELL, HERE’S ANOTHER ONE.”

THE MAN IS GONE

BUT THE STORY CARRIES ON

 

“OLD SAM HOUSTON

WAS KIND OF A HEATHEN

HIS WIFE, A BIG BAPTIST

OL’ SAM GOT WASHED CLEAN

SHE SAID ‘WASH AGAIN,

IN THE RIVER BY MY CHURCH’

MORNING NEWS

PAPERS READ

‘TOO MANY SINS

ALL THE FISH ARE DEAD’”

THE MAN IS GONE

BUT THE STORY CARRIES ON

 

“LYNDON JOHNSON

TAUGHT THE CHILDREN

IN CATULA WHERE THE COTTON GREW

COME PICKING SEASON

PARENTS WOULD KEEP EM

AND  MR. JOHNSON

TOOK EM BACK TO SCHOOL

EDUCATION WAS THEIR ONLY CHANCE

HE PUT A SKELETON KEY

IN THOSE CHILDREN’S HANDS”

THE MAN IS GONE

BUT THE STORY CARRIES ON

 

PAST THE PAWNSHOP

PAST THE STARBUCKS

PAST THE HOUSE

THATS NOW A STORE

HE TOLD ME STORIES I CARRY WITH ME

LITTLE SEEDS OF SOUTHERN TRUTH

HE GAVE EM TO ME

I GIVE EM TO YOU

*******************

 A Gen-Xer Looks at Forty 

 You were just a young thing

when the boys bid on you

hiding hard-ons

when they’d hand you a drink

you sent out invitations

to your pearl-white coronation

daddy bought your dress

but you were never ‘Pretty In Pink’

all your memories are classics on my shelf

you stole the scene but you lost yourself

Now you hold your hair and throw up

When your boy scouts don’t show up

 no one holds the door anymore

Don’t look around for a hand up

Just wipe your mouth and stand-up

Cause no one holds the door anymore

Stuck in school on a Saturday

with a clepto, a nerd & a jock

You lost your lines

when you met a star name Judd

you did that thing with your lipstick

Aw, Clair it was a good trick

when you called yourselves

‘The Breakfast Club”

Now you hold your hair and throw up

When your boy scouts don’t show up

And no one holds the door anymore

Don’t look around for a hand up

Just wipe your mouth and stand up

Cause no one holds the door anymore

No one holds the door anymore

They stood outside your window

With their boombox overhead

And they called you from pay-phones in the rain

And you lost it in the backseat

With his trenchcoat for a bedsheet

But when you cried love

They didn’t “Say Anything”

Now You hold your head and throw up

When your boyscouts don’t show up

And no one holds the door anymore

Don’t look around for a hand up

Just wipe your mouth and stand up

Cause no one hold the door anymore

**************

 Don’t Wish Me Well

I know for a fact

You didn’t call to see how I was

You never done nothing for no one

Just because

How am I?

That what you called to ask?

You better Get to the point

and do it fast

Don’t wish me well

Don’t wish me luck

Forget me please ya done enough

m’oublier moi madamoiselle

Don’t wish me well

Don’t wish me well

There was a time when I’d

given anything to you

But you change your boys

Like you change your shoes

Now ya wanna slip on some heels

and walts back in here

I’m not seeing your name

Don’t wish me well

Don’t wish me luck

Forget me please ya done enough

m’oublier moi madamoiselle

Don’t wish me well

Don’t wish me well

on the list my dear

The truth is I’m doin all right

infact I am, by chance, free tonight

you could bring yer zanex

and we could try that bordeaux

Just leave your key tomorrow when you go and…

Don’t wish me well

Don’t wish me luck

Forget me please ya done enough

m’oublier moi madamoiselle

Don’t wish me well

Don’t wish me well

*******

 

Coal Burner

These tracks were laid long ago

I was made to move, I was born to roll

purple mountains, diamond lakes

there was nothing I couldn’t move

there was nothing I couldn’t take

 

No one looks at the rust and sees the rain

no one blames the tracks, they blame the train

 

I used to live like a locamotive

traveling through them hills of gold

spitting steam & burning coal

but nothing moves me anymore

nothing moves me anymore

 

Rambling wasn’t nothing

I kept it inside

the good times were rolling

so I let it ride.

they told me to stop

but it was too late

every man has a job to do

every train has a fate.

 

No one looks at the rust and sees the rain

no one blames the tracks they blame the train

 

I used to live like a locamotive

traveling through them hills of gold

spitting steam and burning coal

but nothing moves me anymore

nothing moves me anymore.

*******************

 

It’s Not Forever

Sold my skin to make my rent

I can’t hide my pride anymore

But nobody’s impressed when I open my chest

they say they’ve seen it before

Got busted bones from standing alone

Of course they don’t connect

Kids want a line they don’t want a spine

They want a scar not a neck

It’s not forever…

 

Well gaht damn I’m drunk again

I know because I’m starting to rhyme

Its just, We Paved this road with all we sold

You think they’d give us a sign

its not forever …

It’s not forever

It’s not forever

It’s not forever

but I know what is

 

tore the veins from my wrist

and I made a fist

painted myself into a song

too weak to shout

and I’m bleeding out

this ain’t where I belong

its not forever…

 

It’s not forever

It’s not forever

It’s not forever

but I know what is

 

So light a candle for yourself

Before you go

& shine upon this path

I’m gonna burn everything that I don’t need

I’m gonna leave what I think will last

************

 

 

 

 

 

 

 ”K, lyrics are meant to be heard, not read.” – Kevin Welch