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Track Listing

1.Blowin’ Like A Bandit (2:40) 6.The Carpenter (3:13)
2.Better Days (3:02) 7.Uncertain Texas (2:27)
3.Homegrown Tomatoes (2:58) 8.No Deal (3:18)
4.Supply and Demand (3:14) 9.Tears (2:48)
5.The Randall Knife (4:10) 10.Fool In The Mirror (3:30)


GUY CLARK/BETTER DAYS

PRODUCED BY RODNEY CROWELL
A FREE FLOW PRODUCTION

GUY CLARK: Vocals & Guitars
VINCE GILL: Vocals, Lead & Electric & Acoustic Guitars
EMORY GORDY: Bass, Acoustic Guitar
LARRIE LONDIN: Drums
HANK DeVITO: Steel & Electric Guitars
GARY NICHOLSON: Acoustic & Electric Rhythm Guitar
TONY BROWN: Keyboards
JOHNNY GIMBLE: Fiddle & Mandolin
RODNEY CROWELL: Vocals
WITH
REGGIE YOUNG: Lead Guitar (Supply & Demand and Blowin Like a Bandit)
PAUL KENNERLEY: Bass Vocal (Homegrown Tomatoes)
RODNEY CROWELL: Vocal (Uncertain Texas)

Engineered by BRADLEY HARTMAN
Recorded at Bullet Recording Studio A, Nashville, Tennessee
Additional mixes at Woodland Sound Studios, Nashville, Tennessee
Assistant Engineers: Danny Mundhenk & Tim Farmer
Originally Masterd by Glenn Meadows/Masterphonics
Special thanks to Jamie Lupinetti, Gayle Goff, Arlene Katz & Arden Derstine
Photos - McGuire
Cover Art - Dick Reeves/John Wilson, Austin Texas



Blowin’ Like A Bandit

Lawdy mercy land o goshen
Shades of grey out on the ocean
Don’t you dare take that ship out to sea
For the high seas are runnin’
You will sure ‘nuff be done in
If you dare that that boat out to sea

‘Cause out there in the Gulf
The wind’s blowin’ like a bandit
I’m talkin’ ‘bout a hurricane
and your riggin will not stand it


There’s an ill wind a blowin’
You better get back to the mooring
Don’t you dare take that boat out to sea
You better take a weather warning
You’ll be shark bait in the mornin’
If you dare take that boat out to sea

You better give up on that shrimpin’
You just might come home a limpin’
Don’t you dare take that boat out to sea
You better not make one more drag
You gonna wind up in a bag
If you dare take that boat out to sea

Better Days

Standing at the window her face to the glass
As far as she can see the time has come to pass
As far as she can see the sky is all ablaze
And this looks like the first of better days

She’s takin’ charge of her life for a change
She’s takin’ it back that she’s lost
It’s just as clear as the window pane
She’ll survive at all cost

See the wings unfolding that weren’t there just before
On a ray of sunshine she dances out the door
Out into the morning light where the sky is all ablaze
This looks like the first of better days


Homegrown Tomatoes

Ain’t nothin’ in the world that I like better
Than bacon & lettuce & homegrown tomatoes
Up in the mornin’ out in the garden
Get you a ripe one don’t get a hard one
Plant ‘em in the spring eat ‘em in the summer
All winter with out ‘em’s a culinary bummer
I forget all about the sweatin’ & diggin’
Everytime I go out & pick me a big one

Homegrown tomatoes homegrown tomatoes
What’d life be without homegrown tomatoes
Only two things that money can’t buy
That’s true love & homegrown tomatoes

You can go out to eat & that’s for sure
But it’s nothin’ a homegrown tomato won’t cure
Put ‘em in a salad, put ‘em in a stew
You can make your very own tomato juice
Eat ‘em with egss, eat ‘em with gravy
Eat ‘em with beans, pinto or navy
Put ‘em on the site put ‘em in the middle
Put a homegrown tomato on a hotcake griddle

If I’s to change this life I lead
I’d be Johnny Tomato Seed
‘Cause I know what this country needs
Homegrown tomatoes in every yard you see
When I die don’t bury me
In a box in a cemetary
Out in the garden would be much better
I could be pushin’ up homegrown tomatoes



Supply and Demand

What is that sound what is that noise
I cannot figure it out for the life of me boys
Is it the coast guard or is it the wind
Is it the mother ship comin’ in

Convicted on charges of supply and demand
He was unloadin’ the American Dream
Caught in the middle of a bigger plan
It was a South American scheme
He is no smuggler he is a fisherman
All of his debts they are owed to the sea
Some call it justice but it just ain’t right
This ain’t live and let live and let be

(Chorus)

Layin’ in his cell and thinkin’ ‘bout Ulysses
How he picked up his oar and walked away from the sea
Until someone said you ain’t from ‘round here are you
And that’s how far away he feels
He thinks of his wife and he thinks of his children
He thinks about ‘em takin’ his boat
He thinks about the killer in the bunk below
And he’s tryin’ to keep his hopes afloat


The Randall Knife

My father had a Randall knife
My mother gave it to him
When he went off to WWII
To save us all from ruin
If you’ve ever held a Randall knife
Then you know my father well
If a better blade was ever made
It was probably forged in hell

My father was a good man
A lawyer by his trade
And only once did I ever see
Him misuse the blade
It almost cut his thumb off
When he took it for a tool
The knife was made for darker things
And you could not bend the rules

He let me take it camping once
On a Boy Scout jamboree
And I broke a half an inch off
Trying to stick it in a tree
I hid it from him for a while
But the knife and he were one
He put it in his bottom drawer
Without a hard word one

There it slept and there it stayed
For twenty some odd years
Sort of like Excalibur
Except waiting for a tear

My father died when I was forty
And I couldn’t find a way to cry
Not because I didn’t love him
Not because he didn’t try
I’d cried for every lesser thing
Whiskey, pain and beauty
But he deserved a better tear
And I was not quite ready

So we took his ashed out to sea
And poured ‘em off the stern
And threw the roses in the wake
Of everything we’d learned
When we got back to the house
They asked me what I wanted
Not the lawbooks not the watch
I need the things he’s haunted

My hand burned for the Randall knife
There in the bottom drawer
And I found a tear for my father’s life
And all that it stood for



The Carpenter

Let us now praise a carpenter & the things that he made
And the way that he lived by the tools of his trade
I can still hear his hammer singin’ ten penny time
Workin’ by the hour till the day he died

Chorus
He was tough as a crowbar quick as a chisel
Fair as a plane and true as a level
He was straight as a chalkline and right as a rule
Square with the world he took good care of his tools

He worked his hands in wood from the crib to the coffin
With a care and a love you don’t see too often
He built boats out of wood, big boats workin’ in a shipyard
Mansions on the hill and a birdhouse in the backyard
Chorus

He said anything that’s worth cuttin’ down a tree for
Is worth doin’ right, don’t the Lord love a two by four
If you ask him how to do somethin’, he’ll say just like Noah built the ark.
You got to hold your mouth right son and never miss your mark.
Chorus



Uncertain Texas

The crickets are singin’ the bluegills been bitin’
The fireflies are flashin’ with all of their might
Down on the river ol’ Reagan went fishin’
Layin’ for a big one on a full moon lit night

We get high on the lake then we float down the river
Get off on the backroads get lost in the woods
Very deep in the heart of uncertain Texas
I tried hard to leave there but never did could

Tomorrow we’re havin’ the world’s largest fish fry
Eat catfish and crappie til they come out our ears
Have it made in the shade of a very sleepy pine thicket
Get covered up in chiggers and drink ten tubs of beer

So give him his guitar and a long legged girl
Moonlight in Texas and a six-pack of Pearl



Tears

Who ever said the hand is quicker than the eye
Has never tried to brush away a tear
Quicker than a wink there’ll be something inf your eye
You can’t beat a tear if you try

Tears of joy have graced us all
Tears of sorrow sometimes and all
Some tears betray you just before you know
Some tears don’t ever show

Some tears are harder than stone
Some tears are better left alone
I’ve seen them kept in bottles
I’ve seen ‘em left to dry
You can’t beat a tear if you try



Fool In The Mirror

I wake up every mornin’ Lord and what do I see
I got a fool in my mirror and he’s lyin’ to me
He says aw man she’s comin’ back
You just hide and watch
That fool in my mirror singin’ the same ol’ song
But it still don’t change the fact that my baby is gone

I got wrinkles ‘round my eyes, I got grey in my hair
I’m puttin’ on a little bit of weight but I don’t seem to care
Fool say hey slick you lookin’ good
Lie Lie Lie
That fool in my mirror singin’ the same old song
But it still don’t change the fact that my baby is gone

I just figured out what she meant when she sid
She was not comin’ back so why don’t I drop dead

I can’t live with him I can’t live without him
I don’t believe a word he says but I don’t dare doubt him
He says aw man she just went off to get a loaf of bread
Don’t worry
Say you losin’ a litle bit of weight aren’t you
Lyin’ son a bitch