Get all 15 Amy Annelle releases available on Bandcamp and save 20%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Distance Lullaby, The Darling Parts of May, Surgery, The Great Unveiling, Rocky Mountain High: Live on KRFC, The Cimarron Banks, Live on WFMU, Songs For Creeps, and 7 more.
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I'll pack my grip for a farewell trip
kiss Suzy Jane goodbye at the fountain
I'm goin' says I
to the land of the sky
way out on the mountain
where the wild sheep grow
and the buffalo low
and the squirrels are so many
you can't count them
and I'll make love
to some turtledove
away out on the mountain
oh leee oh lay hey hey hey...
when the north winds blow
and we're gonna have snow
and the rain and the hail comes a-bouncin'
I'll wrap myself in a grizzly bear coat
away out on the mountain
where the snakes are vile and the zebras wild
and the beavers paddle with walkin' canes
I'll patch my boot with a buffalo hide
way out on the mountain
where the whip-poor-will sings me
to sleep at night
and the eagles roost
on the Rocks of Spontane
I'll feast on the meat
and the honey so sweet
away out on the mountain
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all through the ages
you kept your songbirds in cages
but when you set one free
another song, it comes to be
and oh, how you long
for the liquor of her song
the trouble ain't the hangin'
it's when you tie the rope
too long
the muses coo and whisper
they come to sing a song through you
beside you rides a sister
the muse is singin' through her too
but you mistook, oh you mistook
a sister for sycophant
sycophants in circles 'round you,
what more could a body want?
oh, oh, oh I know
hang me oh hang me
I'll be dead and gone
hang me oh hang me
I'll be dead and gone
oh, the trouble ain't the hangin'
it's when you tie the rope too long
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4. |
Interview--Songwriting
01:44
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5. |
My Songbird live on KRFC
02:50
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songbird in a gilded cage
he'd prefer the blue
how I crave the liquor of his song
poor bird who has done no harm
what harm could he do?
he shall be my prisoner
his life long
my songbird wants his freedom
now don't you think I know?
but I can't find it in myself
to let my songbird go
no I can't let him go
oh love, when your jeweler's eye
peers into my soul
oh, I am overcome with shame
take me love, and purify
heal me with the word
I beg a gift I dare not claim
my songbird wants his freedom
now don't you think I know?
but I can't find it in myself
to let my songbird go
no I can't let him go
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his mama don't like me
no, his papa don't like me neither
and to tell you the truth
I don't much like them either
he's a good enough man
and he'd rather I stick around
than leave him
he tells me he love me
and most of the time
I believe him
I've given up hoping that
the man of my dreams I will find
yeah, the one that I got
ain't the marryin' kind
don't send for no preacher
don't make no ballyhoo
about the cottage in the valley
where I'll spend my life with you
'cause I ain't no fool
what's that you say, baby?
he said,
I don't say 'I do'
that don't mean that I don't love you
just that all I've been through
I don't have a clue
no diamond ring on my finger
no wedding bells are ringing for me
no, no, no
common law marriage
no diamond ring on my finger
no wedding bells are ringing for me
no, no, no...
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how many arms have held you
and hated to let you go?
I wonder
how many
I wonder
but I really don't want to know
how many lips have kissed you
and set your heart aglow?
I wonder
how many
I wonder
but I really don't want to know
so always make me wonder
always make me guess
and even if I ask you
oh darling
don't confess
let it remain
our secret
cause darling
I love you so
no wonder
no wonder
I wonder
but I really don't want to know
no I really don't want to know
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I heard you sing in tongues of silver
heard you cry on a summer storm
I loved you but you did not know it
so I don't think about you anymore
now you're gone I can't believe it
I don't think about you anymore
if three and four were seven only
where would that leave one and two?
if love can be and still be lonely
where does that leave me and you?
time there was and time there will be
where does that leave me and you?
if I had a buckskin stallion
I'd tame him down and I'd ride away
and if I had a flying schooner
sail into the light of day
if I had your love forever
sail into the light of day
pretty songs and pretty places
places that I've never seen
pretty songs and pretty faces
tell me what their laughter means
some look like they'll cry forever
tell me what their laughter means
if I had a buckskin stallion
I'd tame him down and I'd ride away
and if I had a golden galleon
I'd sail into the light of day
if I had your love forever
sail into the light of day
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the bird, oh he go lightly
but sometimes, a bird get lonely
oh, the birdie, does the birdie
birdie need some company?
I know you got a big cock
cause your girlfriend's got a big mouth
and I hear you'll be headed down south
by way of the High Desert Flyway
and I'll fly with you for a while, old friend
and know that this is no end,
but a lifetime of, "hello again, again"
hello again, hello again, my friend
low again, low again, old friend
I know you could do better
if you and I were together
but I ain't no homewrecker
no, I ain't gonna wreck no home
when I'm tryin' to build my own
yes, everybody needs a home, a home
and someday, I'll have you in mine
"maybe tomorrow, honey, someplace down the line"
so fly with me for a while, old friend
and know that this is no end,
but a lifetime of, "hello again, again"
hello again, hello again my friend
low again, low again, old friend
dear friend.
the bird, oh he go lightly
but sometimes, a bird get lonely
oh the birdie, does the birdie
birdie need some company?
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13. |
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14. |
Let Me Be live on KRFC
02:59
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house of cards
stones & sticks
hit a wall
made of bricks
now here I lie
too tired to fight anymore
trouble fill my days
trouble pave the way
how do you bear your cross?
how do you pay?
how do you pay?
I wouldn't let you help me
if you were the last man on earth, see
my troubles are so many
that I cannot see them through
and if you start to pullin' one
it pulls on all the others, son
and soon I will become undone
so please just let me be
the road that I took
was the long one
many times I seen it
fade to black
so what if it was
the wrong one?
only one thing I know
for sure is that
you can't go back
don't go back
I wouldn't let you help me
if you were the last man on earth, see
my troubles are so many
that I cannot see them through
and if you start to pullin' one
it pulls on all the others, son
and soon I will become undone
so please just let me
please just let me be
oh let me be
oh just let me be
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back through the years
I go wandering once again
back to the seasons of my youth
and I recall a box of rags
that someone gave us
and how my mama
put those rags to use
there were rags of many colors
and every piece was small
and I didn't have a coat
and it was way down in the fall
mama sewed the rags together
sewing every piece with love
she made a coat of many colors
i was so proud of
and while she sewed
she told a story
from the bible she had read
about a coat of many colors
Joseph wore and then she said
"I hope this coat will bring you
good luck and happiness"
and I just couldn't wait to wear it
mama blessed it with a kiss
my coat of many colors
that my mama made for me
made only from rags
but I wore it so proudly
oh it's true we had no money
but I was rich as I could be
in my coat of many colors
mama made for me
so with patches on my britches
and holes in both my shoes
in my coat of many colors
I hurried off to school
just to find the others laughing
and making fun of me
in my coat of many colors
mama made for me
and I just couldn't understand that
cause I thought I was rich
and I told them of the love
my mama sewed in every stitch
then I told them all the stories
mama told me as she sewed
and why my coat of many colors
was worth more than all their fancy clothes
but they didn't understand it
though I tried to make the see
one only is poor
only if you choose to be
oh it's true we had no money
but I was rich as I could be
in my coat of many colors
mama made for me
just for me
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Belle Star, Belle Star
tell me where have you gone?
since old Oklahoma's
Sand Hills you did roam
eight outlaws they say
knew your bitter refrain
Bandit Queen, Terror of the Plains
Cole Younger was your first
and the father of your girl
sweet Rosie Lee
but you called her Pearl
Cole did twenty for robbery
went free on parole
Pearl Starr did life
in an Arkansas bordello
'tis said that you loved
William Clarke Quantrill
that bushwhacker struck
from the Missouri hills
he burned Lawrence, Kansas
so much blood was spilled
that when he rode out
two hundred laid killed
you took Jim Reed
to your warm wedding bed
and from out of your love
was born the boy Ed
a friend shot old Jim
by the dark of the moon
and Ed was cut down
in a drunken saloon
your Cherokee lover
Sam Starr was his name
wed you in the Sandhills
before your great fame
I heard he stopped a bullet
in 18 and 85
so you married his brother
the young Jim July
then there was Bob Younger
you loved him well
he rode with the James boys
down the outlaw trail
the holdup in Northfield (Minnesota)
didn't go so well
and he died of TB
in a Stillwater jail cell
They that you could have
they whisper you might
have loved Frank James
on a couple of nights
in WInston, Missouri
he robbed the Rock Island Line
many died by his hand
but he never did time
they say that it could be
they say maybe so
that you loved Jesse James
that desperado
he married Zerelda
although she was kin
a Ford Brothers' gunshot
is what did him in
Belle Star Belle Star
your time's gettin' late
but what of Jim Younger?
did you hear his fate?
Jailed and paroled
despite all he'd done
blowed his own brains out
in nineteen-and-one
Belle Star Belle Star
met a terrible end
a shotgun blast to the back
down at Younger's Bend
eight outlaws they say
knew your bitter refrain
Bandit Queen, Terror of the Plains
Bandit Queen, Terror of the Plains
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Amy Annelle Austin, Texas
A prolific writer and interpreter of songs, Amy Annelle maps out the farther reaches of American music, while conjuring visions of our restless musical past. Over the course of ten albums & thousands of miles logged on the road, Annelle has cultivated a rarified voice and repertoire that "blooms with open-hearted, lustful vulnerability and a harrowing naturalistic solitude”(Crawdaddy). ... more
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