top of page

LYRICS - Thea is a Light Blue

Thea_Front.png

Songs:

​

  1. Ain’t It a Shame

  2. Thea is a Light Blue

  3. I’ve Been Riding Fences

  4. Cincinnati’s Going Home

  5. Just a Put On

  6. Old King John

  7. Mississippi Mama

  8. Orphan Train

  9. Babylon’s Falling

  10. Lonesome Whistle

  11. Towboat Blues

Ain't it a Shame

Traditional

Ain’t it a shame to go fishing on Sunday

Ain’t it a shame 

Ain’t it a shame to go fishing on Sunday

Ain’t it a shame

Ain't it a shame to go fishing on Sunday

You got Monday Tuesday Wednesday 

Thursday Friday Saturday

Ain’t it a shame

 

Ain’t it a shame to kiss the girls on Sunday

Ain’t it a shame 

Ain’t it a shame to kiss the girls on Sunday

Ain’t it a shame 

Ain't it a shame to kiss the girls on Sunday

You got Monday Tuesday Wednesday 

Thursday Friday Saturday

Ain’t it a shame

 

Ain’t it a shame to take a drink on Sunday

Ain’t it a shame 

Ain’t it a shame to take a drink on Sunday

Ain’t it a shame

Ain't it a shame to take a drink on Sunday

You got Monday Tuesday Wednesday 

Thursday Friday Saturday

Ain’t it a shame

 

Ain’t it a shame to be sinning on Sunday

Ain’t it a shame 

Ain’t it a shame to be sinning on Sunday

Ain’t it a shame

Ain't it a shame to be sinning on Sunday

You got Monday Tuesday Wednesday 

Thursday Friday Saturday

Ain’t it a shame

 

Ain’t it a shame to go fishing on Sunday

Ain’t it a shame 

Ain’t it a shame to go fishing on Sunday

Ain’t it a shame

Ain't it a shame to go fishing on Sunday

You got Monday Tuesday Wednesday 

Thursday Friday Saturday

Ain’t it a shame

Thea is a Light Blue

By: Martin Gilmore (Timtomtodd Music, ASCAP)

​
 

Thea is a light blue

White hair with a red hue

Lines of age showing through

With dark eyes that see right into you

Thea doesn’t have to speak a word

She listens to me when we confer

I know when she thinks I’m being absurd

And there in the silence I know I’m heard

​

   CHORUS

 

   She says oh you know I know you, I know what you’re going through

   Can't you see I see you, I see what you can do  

   This picture of you is a picture that you drew

   Thea is a light blue

 

 

Thea stares in a long gaze

While I wonder what I became

Cause here I am nearly middle age

Feeling like I wasted all of my younger days

She looks through a long veil

Back along my life’s crooked trail

All the things I did and the times I failed 

And she wonders if they’re in the proper scale

 

   CHORUS

 

Thea wonders if I could forgive

Back then I was just a kid

I didn’t know how hard life is

There’s no reason to think it would be different

It’s not black or white but some shade of gray

Pallets of color there on display

The spots and specks that illustrate

Who we’ve become along the way

 

   CHORUS

I've Been Riding Fences

Martin Gilmore (Timtomtodd Music, ASCAP)

I’ve been riding fences a cowboy in the cold

Alone out on the prairie, patching up the holes

Tightening the wires, setting posts out on the plains

I’ve been riding fences in the rain

 
It doesn’t seem that long ago you said you’d come out here with me

To this little prairie ranch house, where you asked where are the trees

You didn’t like the dust and wind, you said you felt alone

said you didn’t know if you could make this feel like home

But you really must have loved me because you chose to stay

The house took on your spirit, the grass took on your sway

And those trees that you planted grew perfect in that place

And you were right all along I do enjoy the shade

 

A rancher’s life is spent trying to control the wild range

Bringing order to confusion, fighting off the change

A master and protector, the man with the final word

Patching up the barbed wire to keep the herd secured

So I’ve been thinking bout that day the doc said your time had come to go

Now I understand why my old man said it’s better not to know

All these days and hours thinking of what reason there might be

That god would choose to call you home instead of calling me
 

I’ve been riding fences a cowboy in the cold

Alone out on the prairie, patching up the holes

Tightening the wires, setting posts out on the plains

I’ve been riding fences in the rain

Cincinnati's Going Home

Martin Gilmore (Timtomtodd Music, ASCAP)

Old Cincinnati said
I’m going back to Ohio
Sit out on my daddy’s farm
Watch the corn and tobacco grow
Farm the fields and feed the fold
I won’t have to fight no more
Spend my days getting old
I have seen enough of war
Cincinnati said
He’s going home

​

 Old Cincinnati said
I’m gonna sheath my sword
I’ll lay my musket down
Hang up my uniform
I heard the call and I did heed
Left my home and left my yield
Marched on down to Tennessee
With old Rosy Nose and James Garfield
Cincinnati said
He’s going home

​

Old Cincinnati said
In great deeds something abides
Times will pass and we disappear
But spirits carry on besides
All our children long to come
They’ll understand our cause was just
This suffering and these things done
I did because I thought I must
Cincinnati said
He’s going home

Just a Put On

Martin Gilmore (Timtomtodd Music, ASCAP)

Can’t you feel that ache

For heaven’s sake

It’s been so long

Still it isn’t gone

Night after night

All through the day

To fight this fight

To feel this way

 

That kind of pain is just a put on

I’ll admit that it’s a good one

It comes and goes it rolls and flows

It’ll bring you down

It can make you or break you

Inspire you or take you

And leave you lonely lying there

On the ground

 

Things were better then

Way back when

Those were better days

But how things have changed

We’re gonna pay the cost

We’ll all be lost

But you can all be saved

If you do what I say

 

But that kind of fear is just a put on…

 

Have you heard that song

How could that be wrong

With such a golden voice

Is there another choice

It’s shelter from the rain

Release from the pain

All our trials passed

If we do as it asks

 

That kind of love is just a put on…

 

It’s all just a put on…

Old King John

Martin Gilmore (Timtomtodd Music, ASCAP)

Old King John he sits upon his throne

On the hill above his people in his castle made of stone

They’re all poor and hungry and the season’s turning cold

While he’s wrapped in silk and satin with his crown made of gold

Old king john

 

Old king john wears a mask of piety

Declares that no other is as faithful as he

But he’s spiteful and he’s jealous, his faith is a facade

‘Cause he only believes in one kind of god

Old King John



 

Old king John rules with cruelty and fear

He’ll break you on the wheel or he’ll cut off your ear

If you’re thought to be dissenting, or should simply disagree

He’ll try you as a traitor, and hang you from a tree

Old King John

 

Old King John remembers every foe

He ne’er forgets a rival, he dwells on insults

He’ll spend all his gold and silver seeking some revenge

For words long forgotten that he feels he must avenge

Old King John



 

Old king John says he’s loved by all his people

They praise him from hill tops ring the bells in all the steeples

But he’s advised by men just like him who are waiting for their turn

To sit upon his throne they’d be glad to see him burn

Old king John

Mississippi Mama

Martin Gilmore (Timtomtodd Music, ASCAP)

   CHORUS

 

   Well my Mississippi Mama won’t be missing me no more

   I’m headed home no more to roam things will be like they were before

   We’ll be huggin’ and a kissin’, that’n and ‘a this’n on the river shore

   Cause my Mississippi Mama won’t be missing me no more


 

I’m a roustabout I’m a rambling man 

most of the time I ain’t got a plan

But I’m missin’ her kissin’ I found myself a wishing 

I’s sitting right by her side

My Mississippi Mama 

she keeps me satisfied

 

   CHORUS

 

New Orleans to St. Louis I seen ‘em all

I even made a run up to old St. Paul

The bayou, Ohio, thousands of miles

I’m tired of living this way

Going back to Mississippi 

And this time I’m gonna stay


  CHORUS

Orphan Train

Martin Gilmore (Timtomtodd Music, ASCAP)

Can’t you hear that whistle blow

There are children out in the cold

They’ve got no other place to go

Cause the shelters are all full

Will you take them by the hand

Won’t anyone take them in

Please tell us that you’ve got a plan

Or are they just left alone

 

Let’s put them on a train car

Send them west where things aren’t so hard

Maybe then they won’t starve

Or end up in some prison yard

Along the line we’ll stop and see

If anyone wants a family

At least we’ll get them off the street

And maybe find a home

 

   CHORUS

 

   And they rode the orphan train

   From New York City across the plains

   They dressed them up they toed the line

   They prayed to God the Orphan Train would leave them all behind


 

So they’d mill about the platform

Check their teeth and they’d gram their arms

Is his mid straight is his back strong

Can he work out on a farm

Given a new home or a broken heart

They tore brothers and sisters apart

And put the unwanted back on the cars

And sent them down the line

 

   CHORUS

Babylon's Falling

Martin Gilmore (Timtomtodd Music, ASCAP)

Hail the day so long expected 

hail the day full of release

Zions walls are now erected 

And her watchmen publish peace

Throughout Shiloh's wide dominion

Hear the trumpets loudly roar

Babylon’s falling falling falling

Babylon's falling to rise no more

Babylon’s falling falling falling

Babylon’s falling to rise no more

 

All her merchants stand with wonder

What is this that comes to pass

Murmuring like distant thunder

Crying oh alas alas

Swell the sound you kings and nobles

Peoples rich and poor

Babylon’s falling falling falling

Babylon's falling to rise no more

Babylon’s falling falling falling

Babylon’s falling to rise no more

 

Blow the trumpets on mount Zion

Christ shall come a second time

Ruling with a rod of iron

All who now as foes combine

Babyl’s garments we’ve rejected 

And our fellowship is o’er

Babylon’s falling falling falling

Babylon's falling to rise no more

Babylon’s falling falling falling

Babylon’s falling to rise no more

Lonesome Whistle

Hank Williams & Jimmie Davis (Peer International Corporation)

I was riding number nine

Heading south from Caroline

I heard that lonesome whistle blow

Got in trouble had to roam

Left my gal and left my home

I heard that lone some whistle blow

 

   Just a kid actin' smart

   I went and broke my darlin's heart

   I guess I was too young to know

   They took me off the Georgia main

   Locked me to a ball and chain

   I heard that lonesome whistle blow


 

All alone I bear the shame

I'm a number not a name

I heard that lonesome whistle blow

All I do is sit and cry

When the evening train goes by

I heard that lonesome whistle blow

 

   I'll be locked here in this cell

   Til my body's just a shell

   And my hair turns whiter than snow

   I'll never see that gal of mine

   Lord, I'm in Georgia doin' time

   I heard that lonesome whistle blow

Towboat Blues

Martin Gilmore (Timtomtodd Music, ASCAP)

Well the Tombigbee river runs crooked and deep

The water is muddy and the banks are steep

As it rolls to the bay of Mobile

A chug-a-lug tugboat towing and bargin’

From Columbus Mississippi to the gulf coast margin

And me, the captain at the wheel

 

   CHORUS

 

   I’m just an old river man, oh Susanna

   From the Tennessee River down to Alabama

   Sluggin and a swamping with a six man crew

   Singing these hardworking towboat blues


 

If you's a paying this boat's a'floatin’

We’ll tote whatever is needing totin'

Anything from asphalt, grain to shale

Keep her 'tween the buoys straight in the channel

Ain't no barge on the river we couldn't handle

If it floats, tie it to us and we will make it sail

 

   CHORUS


 

It’s hot in the summer, hot in the morning

Hot when it’s busy hot when it’s boring

Hot when the boys don’t do what they ought to do

Tow boat tugging, plugging away

Chugging and a tugging this barge all day

And the whistles singing these old towboat blues

 

My pappy was a tow-boater

Grand-daddy too

I was born to sing

The towboat blues

 

   CHORUS

  • bluesky-app-transparent-icon-free-png
  • Facebook
  • Youtube
  • Instagram
bottom of page