Blanco County Lights Lyrics (PDF)

When You Come to Me

Oh, the rain is coming down; it's a welcomed changing scene

And the grass has been greener, it's been a while since it's been green

Now it's tapping out a rhythm against a leaded window pane

My mind is dancing through the gray sky to a song without a name

Sometimes I let go and I'm driving down that highway

Between the cedars and the oak trees, in and out of all their shadows

Against a sun that is setting in a fall's crisper breeze

And the future is endless, it seems

That's when you come to me

Now the streets are lined with gold cast from yellow Main Street lights.

All the hustlers and the bustlers have faded with the night.

And a breath of air escapes me -- an old familiar friend

One that left a long, long time ago but still burns deep within.

I guess it hasn't been as easy as I had hoped that it would be

And the wins don't come as often as the many mercy pleas

There're things I could do better, things I better do today

But overall I'm doing okay,

I said overall I'm doing okay.

Doing Well

Crazy girl, it’s been so long,

How’ve you been? Same old song

Lately you’ve been on my mind.

I heard you found a brand new place

God, it’s good to see your face

These days I’m just passing time

I’ve been running around on empty

Falling down on my knees

Until I think I’m going to scream

Sleeping around don’t suit me

Drinking to drown is too easy

The rearview mirror’s full of dreams

Other than that, I guess I’m doing well

Found a stranger, found a friend

Feeling guilty once again

I know the comfort isn’t real.

Smoke-filled bars and empty smiles

Been my best friends for too long

Looking for some way to deal with how you make me feel

All these lies we’ve told

All these dreams we’ve sold

Now we’re left to play these games

There will come a day

When I won’t feel this way

And I won’t remember your name.

Drink (Drink Drink)

I read a book about a man who could change his mind

With distractions by design, he’d forget things over time

And so I thought about my mind and this matter over you

You flew away into the clouds for a different point of view

You said you needed something new

So I guess this is my cue

To drink, drink, drink a beer down at the tavern

And not think, think, think of where you might be now

And hope, hope, hope there’s freedom found in repetition

Maybe lose your memory before I lose my mind.

So far so good, everything has turned on a dime

I hardly think too much about you, except the rest of the time.

And there’s no need for you to worry, I’m making it just fine

I keep my head under the clouds, I keep my feet toeing that line

Trying something new each day

It’s just a lot more of the same

I know it sounds crazy to do these things again

Over and over to a different end

And I think that you’re right, I think that’s probably true

That’s why I’m on this barstool forgetting about you

Time I Walk Away

You know I hate the way your eyes look

Right before you break my heart

You don’t have to say a thing

And you can tear my world apart.

Another sad song about leaving

Another tired old cliché

About running from your demons

Or “chasing dreams,” as you would say.

Take a stand, I’ll hold you up with all my might

If darkness overwhelms, I’ll be a steady light

If you want to brave a fire-fight I’ll go down in flames

But if you want to keep on running it’s time I walk away.

Go and search the whole world over

But you’ll find it’s all the same

‘cause people are just people

And not a one of them’s to blame.

Blanco County Lights

A light comes on and I’m out again

at a filling station, put another five dollars on ten

I spend the day slinging paint on broken fences

and race the sunset home before tomorrow starts again.

It’s an endless cycle that I’m not much for talking about

But damned if some days -- some days I just can’t work it all out.

I’m left filling the spaces inside my head

With all the wrong things done and the right things left unsaid.

I’ll let it go tonight

And watch it all fade away into a flickering candle light

Letting go, I’m alright

Saying goodbye to the Blanco County lights

I’m not the best at letting the good things go

This ain’t the first night I’ve spent living in the past, I know

These empty glasses, head pounds like a drum

Not really that comfortable with how comfortable this bar’s become

Yeah, it’s true, some decisions change everything

And all the ones I didn’t make made a mess of me and you

But I’ve got a really good idea of just who I am

And I’ve spent too long listening to all the things they’ve said I’ve been.

Theodora

Raised up “right” on the mighty Mississippi,

She left that small town with a big dream at nineteen

Working in an oil patch town on the coast of Texas

She was the prettiest receptionist they’d ever seen

Molded from the red clay kin to the state of Georgia

He walked a mile for every inch of life he gleaned

Flying Douglas planes for an oil man in Texas

He met the prettiest receptionist he’d ever seen

Theodora, have a told you I love you?

I love you more and more, every single day

Theodora, I hope you know I love you.

I love you more than any words could ever say

And I will until my very last day.

Face to face at a church east of the Yazoo River

They made a promise on a clear September day

Hand in hand, wedding bands heading back to Houston

He kept that promise with these words he’d often say

Sixty years go by just as fast as a mighty river

It’s constant, strong and awesome, and still it thrives.

I’m just the wandering son of their first-born daughter

Listening to my granddad tell the stories of our lives.
 

Still the One

Heading down an old familiar road

Shifting through the places that we knew, stories we told.

Tonight I’m going out to the square

Knocking back shots, see a lot of really good people there

But it won’t be you

I never had a good time

I never had much fun

I never had a night I laughed so hard I swear I’d die -- that you weren’t part of

You’re still The One.

Everybody knows that you’re the one

It goes without saying I don’t need to write this song

Today we’re driving to the lake

Knocking back beers and all the sun that we can take

But it won’t be you

84 Boxes

84 boxes on the back of a truck

84 boxes to make another buck

84 boxes with a little bit of a luck

We’ll get these 84 boxes off the back of the truck

Eighty-thousand pounds of cargo and steel,

Eighteen-hundred pounds of torque at the wheel

Come on driver back the rig into the dock,

We’ve got a lot of work to do and we’re up against the clock

Grab a latch and swing the doors open wide,

Let’s take a better look at what we’ve got inside

From the floor to the ceiling from the wall to the wall

It’s a loaded down semi and we’ve got to move it all

It’s a hundred degrees, maybe hotter inside

On the surface of the sun there ain’t a place to hide

When the bell tolls three we’ll be walking through the flames

It’s a hell of a life, just a-tryin’ to make a name

We’ve made our choices and we’ve made our peace

There’s at least a hundred places that we’d rather be

But it’s a couple bucks an hour for the hours in the day

Ran a tab with the Devil, now it’s time to pay.

Free Will

Free to do what I want

Free to go where I please

And I’m not gonna love you anymore

I’m free to follow this road

I’m free to go where it leads

And I’m not gonna love you anymore

I won’t go back where I’ve already been

It’s too far gone and it’s over now

I won’t run back to a burning bridge

I won’t go back on my own free will

I’m free to be who I am

I’m gonna be a good man

And I’m not gonna love you anymore

I’m free to make a new friend

Gonna smile again

And I’m not gonna love you anymore

When I come to the end of this road

I’ll find another or I will make my own.

Joie de Vivre

There’s another sad story on the radio

Another and another, on and on it goes

It might be in my head that it feels this way

But I swear it’s getting worse here everyday

I don’t know how much time we have in this world,

But I just want to spend it with you.

Through the toil and pain of life in this world,

I just want to spend it with you.

The weather’s a-changing, a collapse is on the way

A man can’t make a living on the wages he’s paid.

The crops are drying up and the debts are stacked high

There’s poison in the water, toxic smoke up in the sky.

Now the poor go to the pen’ and the rich get apple pie

A pastor makes a million while his members just scrape by

Some schoolyard bully shoves the loneliest kid

Nobody pays much mind, but someday we’ll wish we did.

Greenville Avenue

The wind blows cold tonight down Greenville Avenue

It’s warm inside

Under the neon lights, familiar friend or two

I like to hide

It’s not the same tonight

Something’s not right

Missing you

I raise my glass again to clear my, mind it’s won’t

But I pretend

Smile raise a toast to friends, I’m so together when your friends walk in.

But it’s not the same tonight,

No, something’s not right

Missing you

I’m the life of the party but I feel like I’m dying

Tell me what am I supposed to do?

So I fill up on whiskey and pretend I’m not empty

Hiding out on Greenville Avenue

The wind blows cold tonight down Greenville Avenue

It’s cold inside.

Under the closing lights I catch a glimpse of you and nothing’s fine.

But it’s just the same tonight,

Oh and it’s never right

I’m missing you and that’s all I can do.