To get your copy from Jim Colbert, click here
Song sketches
To get your copy from Jim Colbert,
click here
Quiet Faith
* Scarf * Pale Green Eyes * Leaving in the morning
* Something this good * I don't know how (to watch you walk
away) * In Tears and Blood * I
am a Millworker * Thought He Was A Hero *
I Don't Think * Until someone hears
it, it ain't a song *
Quiet Faith
I asked him how he's doing
And was everything all right
I said that big house must get lonely
On these cold December nights
He touched the ring still on his finger
Brushed his shoulder free of snow
He said the hardest part is waiting
For the things that you don't know
chorus
He said quiet faith will get me by
Though it don't make sense to some folk
It's support I can't deny
It's a quiet faith that gets me through
Though I ain't much for preaching
And It might not be right for you
just quiet faith
He pulled the truck off of the highway
To watch the northern lights
It wasn't often this far south
They shined so clear and bright
He said my dreams were once just like that
Bold as neon, bright as day
And though they've turned to pastel colors
Things still turned out okay
He said quiet faith makes it all right
Though it don't make sense to some folk
It'll get me through the night
It's just quiet faith that gets me through
Though I ain't much for preaching
And It might not be right for you
just quiet faith
She stared out the hotel window
At the silent street below
Watched the cabs and sidewalks turning white
From the season's final snow
The coffee house was full tonight
With music, love and laughter
But sometimes she hears his missing chords
And the harmony unanswered
She said quiet faith...
(c) 2003 James P. Colbert
Scarf (DADGAD tuning)
It doesn't look like very much it's
Just a yard or so of cloth it's
Old and torn and worn and soft and faded
It doesn't keep you all that warm it
Will not keep you safe from harm it's
Just an old scarf my mamma made it
If I passed you on the street you
Wouldn't spare a glace at me you
Would not see the love beneath the fraying
And I am just a bum to you I'm
Just an orphan through and through I'm
Old and torn and worn and soft and graying
I may not look like very much I'm
worse for wear and out of touch but I
don't complain too much bout how God made me
There are pearls sometimes beneath your feet
Friends that take a life to meet and
Journeys I did not know would delay me
It doesn't look like much to you
It's something more to me
I have no great inheritence
It's my only legacy
The uniform that I once wore it's
Hanging in the Goodwill store it's
Dusty as a war that no one even mentions
And we don't look like very much we're
seldom seen or drunk enough we're
Invisible as all your good intentions
I have no expectations now I
never stop to wonder how I
The climb was long and hard the fall a fast one
I wrap the scarf much tighter now I
Will not let the wind allow
This evening's cold to cut me like the past one
The winters seem much colder now
Or maybe we're just older now
I hope that spring comes sooner than the last one
It doesn't look like very much it's
Just a yard or so of cloth it's
Old and torn and worn and soft and faded
It doesn't keep you all that warm it
Will not keep you safe from harm it's
Just an old scarf my mamma made it
(c) 2003 James P. Colbert
She never turned away and cried
And said I guess this is goodbye
Sometimes I think she never tried
Behind those pale green eyes
Pale green eyes, red tail lights
You took the train and half my life
Left me hear and that ain't right
Behind those pale green eyes
Got a letter a few weeks on
The postmark said she'd really gone
Sometimes I wonder what went on
Behind those pale green eyes
Pale green eyes, red tail lights
You took the train and half my life
Left me hear and that ain't right
Behind those pale green eyes
Sometimes I wonder but not too far
Sometimes I ponder at the bar
Where you were and honey, who you are
behind those pale green eyes
Pale green eyes, red tail lights
You took the train and half my life
Left me hear and that ain't right
Behind those pale green eyes
(c) 2003 James P. Colbert
I looked down the road a while, and all I could see
Highways and white lines calling to me
Seems kind of funny, seems kind of sad
Leaving in the morning never seemed so bad.
Turnpikes and toll booths, coffee to go
Cold FM static filling my radio
Seems kind of funny, seems so unfair
Leaving in the morning, and you're still there
Toll booths and road food, coffee to go
Cold FM static and rooftops in snow
Seems kind of funny, seems so absurd
Leaving in the morning without the words
And the rear view mirror shows the price we pay
For every dream we catch there's two that gets away
And all I could say
Was it looks like rain...
I looked down the road a while, and all I could see
Highways and white lines calling to me
Seems kind of funny, I wanted this so long
Leaving in the morning never seemed this wrong
(c) 2003 James P. Colbert
Something this good
(Dadgad tuning)
Who can tell where we're going or when we might fall
When the love that you find might be purest of all?
Love you might find might be purest of all.
I still see you then in that small college town
Faded sweatshirt, hair tumbling down
Framed by a halo of maple trees
Your hair was the color of autumn's leaves
Hair was the color of autumn's leaves
I needed you then but you never heard
It took 18 years just to find the words
18 years just to find the words.
Who can tell where we're going as years roll by
Like mile markers or highway signs
Mile markers or highway signs.
I see you now in the morning glow
And the words that I need I still don't know
Framed by your pillow and wrapped in sleep
Silence of dreams and cats at your feet.
Silence of dreams and cats at your feet.
Yeah I see you now and I can't believe
That something this good ever happened to me
Something this good ever happened to me.
(c) 2003 James P. Colbert
I don't know how (to watch you walk away)
He said words have always been my friends I know
But sometimes there are places they can't go
Mountains that they cannot climb
Comfort they cannot provide
Words can fail you when need them so
He said I wanted her when we were still in school
That small steel town had forged itself a jewel
But nights that were not mine to keep
Years that fell beneath my feet
Are etched into the memory of a fool
I don't know how to watch you walk away
Even though I try more every day
Seasons turn and people change
Some dreams just stay out of range
I don't know how to watch you walk away
I guess she needed more than I could be
Less emotion more stability
Her children do not know my name
I think about them just the same
Faces that I doubt I'll never see
I don't know how to watch you walk away
Even though I try more every day
Seasons change and people die
Some dreams just remain alive
I don't know how to watch you walk away
He said these memories are the ones I choose to keep
When morning thunder rolls across the deep
In the early morning rain my pillow turns to her again
I smell her hair and drift on back to sleep
I don't know how to watch you walk away
Even though I try more every day
Seasons fade and years grow cold
Some dreams were not made to hold
I don't know how to watch you walk away
(c) 2003 James P. Colbert
In Tears and Blood (Capo on 2nd Fret
)
I give these words Carlotta, to you in tears and blood
They sing of pain and glory we have known
I give these words Carlotta, I'm soon lost to the flood
Of seraphim and demons all my own
I give these words Carlotta, for words are all I've known
A lifetime's worth of suffering and pain
I give these words Carlotta, they cut me to the bone
For family and friends we can't reclaim
Chorus
I give these words to you
I give these words to you
I give these words to you in tears and blood
I give these words Carlotta, for you have seen inside
The hunger and the haunting burning still
I give these words Carlotta, for petulance and pride
For dreams and vision that they cannot kill
My hand it shakes Carlotta, and I can barely write
From whiskey or disease I cannot tell
My hand it shakes Carlotta, and I'm too weak to fight
This slow descent's a dark foretaste of hell
chorus
I give these words Carlotta, for you are part of me
And part of everything that's led me here
I give these words Carlotta, and pray they set me free
To still the ache of longing and of fear
I give these words Carlotta, to you in tears and blood
They sing of pain and glory we have known
I give these words Carlotta, I'm soon lost to the flood
Of seraphim and demons all my own
(c) 2003 James P. Colbert
I am a Millworker (edit)
I am a Millworker.
I do not wear this hat with pride
I do what I have to for my family.
And would you like a shake or fries?
I am a Millworker.
I am a Millworker
Shift my weight from side to side
Trying to relieve the boredom
Every week here in this line.
I am a Millworker.
I am a Millworker.
The hat I ought to wear is blue.
Working here with teenage children
This is not the work i do.
I am a Millworker.
I am a Millworker.
And late at night I drive alone.
Swerve my truck around the potholes
On these cracked and broken roads.
I am a Millworker.
I am a Millworker.
Cold iron city in my hand
Parked beside the gate at Franklin
I lift one to the working man.
I am a Millworker.
I am a Millworker.
And the steel is all I know
But now the skies are clean as silver
Now the river's white as snow.
I am a Millworker.
I am a Millworker.
I do not wear this hat with pride
I do what I have to for my family.
And would you like a shake or fries?
I am a Millworker.
(c) 2003 James P. Colbert
Michael brought some problems back from overseas
Morphine in his blood and metal in his knees
His marriage crumbled down
He never heard a sound
He thought he was a hero, not the enemy.
Michael's eyes could tell us all about the war
Except maybe what he was fighting for
No bands and no parades
he heard no fanfare play
He thought he was a hero, now he ain't so sure
Michael made it back from that foreign land
but Michael, he don't try too hard to understand
They killed the pain inside him
'Til the morphine crucified him
He thought he was a hero, he was just a man
Michael saw the world, but he died at home
Michael had a wife and kids but he died alone
No bugles mournful sounds
No taps to lay him down
He thought he was a hero, but he died unknown
Now there's a long black wall down in Washington
A monument to silent and forgotten sons
It don't show Michael's name
He was a victim just the same
He thought he was a hero, he was the only one...
(c) 2003 James P. Colbert
Well, I could teach you
A thing or two about crying.
I could teach you
A thing or two about pain
I could show you how
To turn around
And walk back in on me
But I don't think you'd listen anyway
I don't think you'd listen to my logic
I don't think you'd listen to the facts
I don't think you care enough to tell me
That you don't think you're ever coming back
Well I could teach you
A thing or two about giving
I could teach you
A thing or two 'bout how to share
I could tell you how my world fell down
The day that you walked out
but who am I to think you'd even care
I don't think you'd listen to my logic
I don't think you'd listen to the facts
I don't think you care enough to tell me
That you don't think you're ever coming back
(c) 2003 James P. Colbert
Until someone hears it, it ain't a song
A friend of mine told me before he passed on
"Until someone hears it, it ain't a song."
You can play in your bedroom from midnight til dawn
Until someone hears it, it ain't a song.
Transcription, notation, you've got it all wrong
Until someone hears it, it ain't a song.
In the air and the heart is where music belongs
Until someone hears it, it ain't a song.
Until someone hears it, it ain't a song.
Troubadors, songwriters, share where they've been
Tramps and the hawkers will sing what they've seen
Bring your old Martin or new Strat along
Until someone hears it, it ain't a song.
Simple or symphony, gentle or strong
Until someone hears it, it ain't a song.
The buskers will tell you as they move on
Until someone hears it, it ain't a song.
Until someone hears it, it ain't a song.
Ring from the rafters and rattle the walls
Drift through the doorways and on down the halls
Let the harmony echo, the voices be strong
Until someone hears it, it ain't a song.
So here's a toast to the living and those that are gone
Until someone hears it, it ain't a song.
In music and memory their spirits live on
Until someone hears it, it ain't a song.
Until someone hears it, it ain't a song.
(c) 2003 James P. Colbert
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