LYRICS - Thea is a Light Blue
Songs:
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Ain’t It a Shame
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Thea is a Light Blue
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I’ve Been Riding Fences
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Cincinnati’s Going Home
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Just a Put On
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Old King John
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Mississippi Mama
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Orphan Train
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Babylon’s Falling
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Lonesome Whistle
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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)
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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
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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