Beneath This Gruff Exterior

Uncommon Connection

Well I do my best thinking sitting on my ass
Sittin' here waiting for things to pass
You got places to go and people to see
Well honey that's you, it ain't me

CHORUS:
Shit flying in my head
From every direction
I'm thinking about
An uncommon connection
An uncommon connection
An uncommon connection
An uncommon connection

Lot of people in a hurry, and they're goin' nowhere
I can see 'em all, sitting in my easy chair
Running to the future, running form the past
Well I thought about it once but it didn't last

CHORUS

You can say what you want, I'm not getting old
I've slowed down time, nearly stopped it cold
I jogged my memory once, then I shelved my plans
I'm tired of holding on to love's clammy hand

CHORUS

It takes every drop of energy just to run my brains
Took a long time to learn that it's only a waiting game
Some people call it depression, I call it a song
Don't worry about me, I'm not going to be around all that long

CHORUS

How Bad's The Coffee

How long you been workin' here?
Well what do you know about that?
Its been thirty years or so
Since I bothered lookin' back
It was right in front of me
But now I'm runnin' behind
To get my butt caught up well I need a cup
Of the nastiest shit you can find

CHORUS:
How bad's the coffee
How good's the pie
If you call me "honey"
Honey, I'm gonna cry
A whole lot of sugar
A little pinch of salt
You cut my bitter
With your sweet talk

I don't want no cappuccino
A whole lotta latte won't get me through
I got an iron will, and a gut like a still
I could use a stronger brew
One eye doubles my eyesight
So things don't lock half bad
Be twice as good, honey if I could
Even make you a little bit mad

CHORUS

I would call you an angel
But honey, you'd know better than that
Just a trucker's dream whit a coconut cream
And a nasty old cup of black
Not a word about faded glory
Not an trace of bitterness
You leave irony to the likes of me
Cause we don't share your finesse

CHORUS

Nagging Dark

How fast you gonna run?
Away from this one
Anywhere but here
You wanna disappear
To the next daylight
Where everythings right
It's always somewhere else
You're gonna fix yourself
Once shame and guilt
Have made their mark

CHORUS:
You can't run away from the nagging dark
Toy carry it everywhere in your heart
It finishes everything that you start
You can't run away from the nagging dark

How much it gonna cost?
When everything's lost
What a price you'd pay
Just to feel some way
'Cause you're heart is stone
Ground down to the bone
All your flesh and blood
Just ashes and mud
Feels like
Your soul's been blown apart

CHORUS

How far can you see?
Will you even be free?
Through the blackest night
You still hold on tight

Hope is your finest work
It's your finest work
Hope is your finest work of art

CHORUS

My Baby Blue

Minutes turn to days
Years just melt away
In the park at dawn
Just a flower on

CHORUS:
I keep callin' to you
My baby blue, my baby blue
I keep callin' to you
My baby blue, my baby blue

We discovered love
In the basements of
Some of my best friends
I've never seen again

CHORUS

Oh so young and oh so tender
Almost hurts too much to rememder
As if the weight of your head on my shoulder By itself would make us older

If I could time it right
I'd be with you tonight
Out among the stars
Is that where you are?

CHORUS TWICE

My Dog And Me

As she marked our trail
Up the Back Bone Ridge
How many times can one dog pee
She lifts me high as an eagle
When I'm on the skids
I guess you gotta come down eventually

CHORUS #1:
Buddy I coulda done that extra mile
An extra bark or an extra smile
'Cause I never felt so free
It was just my dog and me

Then she gives me that look
Like she'd lay down her life
No doubt she would in a minute, man
She'd face the bullet
Or she'd face the knife
Just to keep my butt from the fryin' pan

CHORUS #2:
Now she runs up ahead to chase some deer
Comes back to tell me that the coast is clear
And it's a different world I see
When it's just my dog and me

There's a rabbit on the run
Man and beast and sky and sun
Who's talking to the birds in the trees
Why it's just my dog and me

Now it looks like we've been makin' tracks
From the crack of dawn
To the end of the day
So it's nice and easy down the devil's back
She wouldn't know
Any other way

CHORUS #3:
But to carry us down that one last ride
'Til we're fast asleep by the fire side
Dreaming those dreams for free
Just my dog and me

Almost Fed Up With The Blues

I wake up with my head and hand
I wish I was another man
'Cause I almost fed up with the blues

I think about the kitchen sink
Then I just shudder to think
'Cause I'm almost fed up with the blues

CHORUS ONE:
If it don't let up, gonna get up
And get my life set up
'Cause I'm almost fed up with the blues
Have some coffee, 'fore I call it quits
Might even put jam on my biscuit
'Cause I'm almost fed up with the blues

There's a woman, a can, and an bank note due
But I'm gonna leave that up to you
'Cause I'm almost fed up with the blues

If I get up they'll knock me down again
But what are you gonna do, my friend
When I'm almost fed up with the blues

CHORUS #2:
If it don't kill me, it thrills me
But somebody always bills me
And I'm almost fed up with the blues
It's a gut check, a train wreck
With all of the usual suspects
And I'm almost fed up with the blues

If these blues don't stop hurtin' me
Its curtains for my misery
'Cause I'm almost fed up with the blues
Might get a job, or join a club
'Cause buddy I've whittled it down to the nub
And 'cause I'm almost fed up with the blues

CHORUS #2

Circle Back

Ward bond
Was his sidekick rowdy yates?
Drove that wagon train out west
Right along this interstate

Cross the high plains of Kansas
To the Colorado line
Spent a lot of sleepless nights 'round the campfire
They had mountains on their minds

Those higt plains people
They're different somehow
You spent your life leaning into a hard wind
I guess you're less likely to take a bow
All these stories buried out here
They're calling to me
Like the earthquakes in California
Like the hills back in Tennessee

CHORUS:
I gotta circle back
Touch something near
Find out which way to go
To get on out of here
I lost my thread
And I've lost some time
But it takes a lot of ground
For me to change my mind

Well its 99 in Topeka
The wind is blowin' hot
Blowin through my oldest daughter's hair
With everything else I forgot

I drove her out to college
Drove back through an empty space
Thinkin' back to when she was a baby
Tryin' hard to see that face

CHORUS

Two kids up and at 'em
One more left at home
She's a spark plug, a real fire cracker
And in four years she'll be gone

They just blow through your life
Like the wind on the plains
Like the dust that covers everything
'Til the rivers fill with rain

CHORUS

Window On The World

A broken promise I kept too long
A greasy shade and a curtain drawn
A broken glass and a heart gone wrong
That's my window on the world

A cup of coffee in a shaky hand
Wakin' up in a foreign land
Tryin' to act like I got somethin' planned
That's my window on the world

CHORUS #1:
That's my window on the world
Could you stand a little closer, girl
Don't let mama cut those curfs
That's my window on the world

In broad daylight that circus tent
Pulled up stakes
I don't know where it went
A close dark room with a busted vent
That's my window on the world
I think about you when I'm countin' sheep
I think about you, then I can't sleep
I think that ocean is just so deep
That's my window on the world

CHORUS #2:
That's my window on the world
Could you stand a little closer, girl
The queen of Sheba meets the duke of earle
That's my window on the world

Down on Indiana Avenue
Wes and Jimmy, man they played the blues
I guess they were only passin' through
That's my window on the world

CHORUS #1

CHORUS #2

Missing Pieces

I spent all day staring at a leaf
I know my time here is brief
I'd like to get some details down
Before I move on to another town

I met a man. He lost both arms
He got 'em caught up in her charms
She took the kids and the color TV
He said, "I wish she'd taken the rest of me"

CHORUS:
This traveling life, well it ain't no good
I quit it honey, oh if I could
A puzzle to me why I even care
The missing pieces are everywhere

He drove to Dixie to hush his mouth
She started talkin', like it wore him out
But they found love 'neath the Southern stars
And some bruises and some scars

He sees her on that back porch swing
And I believe he would do anything
Stand all night in the pourin' rain
To wash her memory from his brain

CHORUS

A false move here, a stumble there
A box of letters and a lock of hair
That's all that's left when I turn out the light
I count the missing pieces every night

CHORUS TWICE

Fly Back Home

Saw a red tailed hawk eatin' road kill
Said "Man, what happened to your dignity?"
He said "Subdivisions have taken my home
And there's no more pray to eat."
I said, "Where we gonna live?"
He said "Anywhere you want to, I guess
All you creature walkin' upright 'round here
Well you've really made a mess."

CHORUS:
I wish we both could fly back home
To the green fields of our youth
Where friends and family set the tone
With the hardcore language of the truth
I know times bent on destruction
The past is over every day
I wish we both could fly back home
But we can't, so I guess I'll just fly away

An owl swooped down
As I was drivin' my pickup through the creek
He said, "i was only tryin' to scare ya
But instead you scared the hell right out of me."
With three hundred forty-five houses
A locking differential and four-wheel drive
I guess you were livin' large there, country boy
I was just tryin' to survive

CHORUS

There was a rattlesnake up on the road
I ran him over and over 'til he died
Then his ghost rose up
And curled around this fear I hold inside
He flew on off to heaven
As I sat there in my instrument of death
I had to think what I was doin'
I had to think just to draw another breath

CHORUS TWICE

The Last Time

Time is runnin' out
Friends are too
The word is getting' out
It's all bad news

Scoundrels know my whereabouts
They recognize these pointy shoes
That's the last time
I turn my back on you

A friendly little game of cards
Aces wild
Your little life was just so hard
You had to act like a child
I recognize the queen of hearts
When she's sittin' in plain view
That's the last time
I turn my back on you

That's the last time
I turn my back on you
I kept waiting for a sign
That we could push it trough
There's a first time for everything
It was long overdue
That's the last time
I turn my back on you

I spent a lot of money
I spent a lot of time
Just to hear you call me honey
Sends little shivers up my spine

But after while it isn't funny
This twenty paces thing we do
So that's the last time
I turn my back on you

The Most Unoriginal Sin

What there was left of us
Was all covered in dust and thick skin
A half eaten apple
The whole Sistine Chapel
Painted on the head of a pin

A life long love's work
Gone up in a smirk
And you didn't even see her waltz in

CHORUS #1:
Now this love is a ghost
For having played host
To the most unoriginal sin

At the wedding we smiled
While some devil played wild violin
Soon after the chapel
She offered me that apple
One bite and I was gone with the wind

And you needed no proof
Cause the whole naked truth
Was wearing only an infidels grin

CHORUS #2:
And a proud schoolboys boast
For having left his post
For the most unoriginal sin

Now the jukebox is hummin'
All the venial shortcomings of men
But I found me this drink
That can finally sink
All this guilt I've been wallowing in

Buddy once you get started
Once true love's departed
You do it over and over again

CHORUS #3:
So tonight I will toast
Just who ever comes close
To the most unoriginal sin

CHORUS #3