Get all 9 Paul Lee Kupfer releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Solo Live, Mind Wanderer, Live at WDVX Blue Plate Special, Where the Wind Goes, Paul Lee Kupfer - Live EP, Halfway Between, The Bus Driver Tour, The Old Dirt Road, and 1 more.
1. |
Aparcero
05:17
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It was early in the morning in old Mexico.
The sun was rising high on the ridge.
Wake up little boy, it’s time to go.
Working for the farm is how we live.
The grass is cold in a field all alone.
Your hands they get tired to the bone.
Five cents and hour ain’t no wage,
but you learn to love the ways that don’t change.
When your Momma is an aparcero,
then your Daddy he’s one too,
they all want the same from you.
I don’t mind the smell of the ground in the Spring.
Or picking with the birds as they sing.
I don’t mind the dusty days and I don’t mind the rain,
so you learn you learn to love the ways that don’t change.
I remember mi Abuela, she was old as the sun,
and worn as a hard day when it’s done.
She always made her bed, she kept our family fed,
and wore and open heart for everyone.
It seems like yesterday, she was holding on,
now how I miss her that she’s gone.
I still see her standing in that old familiar way.
How you learn to love the ways that don’t change.
So roll up them tortillas, start soaking down them beans.
Stoke up that old stove, start cooking down them greens.
Pour a little wine, when you’re on siesta time.
Pull down that guitar, pick up your tired feet.
Laughing at the sunset, going out over the range,
You learn to love the ways that don’t change.
You learnt o love the ways that don’t change.
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2. |
Livingston
05:30
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You’re an old man working at the foot of the mountain.
Got the pedal down though you know you’ll never make it on time.
Been down so many roads that you haven’t ben counting.
But you know where you’re going, hope an honest man can survive.
Born in Fifty Five to the highway town of grand junction.
Your Momma was a winner and your Pappa had a wandering eye.
They couldn’t keep you home though you knew that they always loved you.
It was Seventy Three, you were heavenly bound and you waived them goodbye.
Hitched a ride that night and headed east into Nebraska.
Made a bed of stars sleeping covered up out in the night.
Met a pretty girl who took you home to Saint Louis.
The Mississippi river was the sight of the time of your life.
But time goes by when you’re walking the open highway.
Your eyes never shut and your gut never found the prize.
It was Eighty Five in a diner outside of Milwaukee.
On a pay phone your Pappa said that you Momma had died.
You made a stupid move, getting drunk in Green Bay Wisconsin.
They picked you up like a dead man out in the night.
The cop was willing and the blood was spilling,
and they carried you off instead of walking away from the fight.
Just one year in the state of Minnesota.
You kept your word and served your time.
Not a day goes by that you don’t miss that year,
your Momma and your Pappa and not getting to say goodbye.
Now you’re an old man working at the foot of the mountain.
Going home ain’t home when you know that you’ve missed your time.
But life ain’t bad out in Livingston, Montana.
When you know where you’re going even a broken man can survive.
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3. |
Silver and Gold
03:15
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American living in a dirty old town.
The sun comes up and the sun goes down.
You get out of school and you head on down
to make your living in a company town.
Times are tough, but the work goes quick.
You stay out of trouble hope you don’t get sick.
Work real hard, try to save a little bit,
maybe find somebody you can share it all with.
Pay’s ok and the hours are long,
but the days go by and the money’s all gone.
Found somebody but you can’t get along,
and you gave up dreaming of a better day.
A man comes up and a man goes down.
The fan keeps burning so the gas comes out.
The road keeps running on the trucking route,
and the well keeps pumping into Spring.
Summer came home ran away with the rain.
The money dried up and the job went away.
You got laid off still bills to pay,
so you go out looking for a better way.
You turn to the liquor and you turn to the pills.
Never get lucky and you think you never will.
All that you want is to get out of town.
Maybe make a little money before the sun goes down.
You walk along the road and you pick up cans.
Want to stay sober, but you know that you can’t.
Wind up sleeping in the county jail,
nobody’s coming for to pay your bail.
Your hair hangs long and your beard gets gray.
You’re bathing in the rivers and you’re sleeping in the hay.
People used to know you, don’t know what to say,
and they tell everybody that the time got away.
American living in a dirty old town.
The sun comes up and the sun goes down.
People keep thinking that they’ll never get out.
Kids grow up and the world goes round.
Kids grow up and the world goes round.
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4. |
Out on an Island
03:18
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When I was a sailor I would peer out on the deck at night,
thinking of the time when I was a little child.
I spoke with the prophets and the secrets that they gave me
were all set in motion when I discovered the ocean,
and the sea that was inside of me,
the salty tears ran down my cheeks
for elephants that cannot breath
the air we know we cannot keep
alive.
We found that there’s no resolution.
Ever flowing energies and failing walls of old polluted
melancholy memories of
people that were taken from the shores we left behind
when the ocean rose and swallowed up
the cities that we lived in.
Everyone is sitting now
the reading of the eulogy
is coming to an end and
we all must pretend that we’ll be
fine.
Now it is the end of seas and I’m out on an island.
I could not speak the answers, so we floated with the sirens.
Found the only peace of mind that made sense to us at the time.
The lonely unforgiving crime that hurts no one but we and all the
trees that have fallen
all but sunk into the waters
of our only sons and daughters and
the laughter of the ones that don’t
believe.
When I was a sailor I would peer out on the deck at night,
thinking of the time when I was a little child.
I spoke with the prophets and the secrets that they gave me
were all set in motion when I discovered the ocean,
and the sea that was inside of me,
the salty tears ran down my cheeks
for elephants that cannot breath
the air we know we cannot keep
alive.
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5. |
Hard Times
03:40
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The hard times are coming.
The hard times are coming.
Everyone knows, that’s just how it goes.
There’s better on down the road.
And the road goes on forever.
The highways are tar and feather,
oil and blood, cold water and mud,
and the highways are tar and feather.
The hard times are coming.
The hard times are coming.
Everyone knows, that’s just how it goes.
There’s better on down the road.
There’s only two ways to go.
A rattling sign with a bullet hole
says the sun can’t tell you what the wind don’t know,
the road goes on forever.
Your feet just shuffle on the ground.
The clock stopped ticking when it came unwound.
Noise can’t tell you what’s coming from the sound,
so you shuffle, you shuffle on down.
The hard times are coming.
The hard times are coming.
Everyone knows, that’s just how it goes.
There’s better on down the road.
The hard times are coming.
The hard times are coming.
Everyone knows, that’s just how it goes.
There’s better on down the road.
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6. |
The War
04:06
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I see the torches coming down the valley.
I wander what kind of change will come.
I know the reason and I want to shout it,
but afraid on me that they will turn their guns.
So I just run.
I feel the horses riding. I fear the men in sight and
don’t know what world is breaking in.
I see a light on and I trip into the water,
afraid that my time has come.
The current takes me down.
When I was a child she would hold me.
If I did wrong she would not scold me.
She taught me never to worry.
I hear the voices calling. Lightning and thunder rolling.
I can feel the bottom of my tongue.
Ripples on the banks are pulling, up onto the shores I’m crawling.
I can see the grass is turning red.
And now the dawn is breaking, all of the lives they’ve taken.
Covered up in mud and wearing thin.
The fire just echos in my head.
Out in the cold I feel the fog.
Slip into a dream and the wind reveals.
The war has come to an end.
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7. |
Comanchero
04:15
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She found her way out on the open road.
a stolen horse on a homemade saddle.
The sun don’t shine on the trail she road,
one hundred miles form a losing battle.
Prisoner of the Comanchero,
have no hope that death won’t follow.
She’s caught up in the white man’s war,
but she won’t be a slave anymore.
The missionary killers that own our home
they won’t take peace and they don’t take sorrow.
She’s been gone too long in the rain and snow,
the towns are burning it’s the smoke she follows.
From the Colorado river to the Ohio,
she rides the night and hides tomorrow.
She’s caught up in the white man’s war,
but she won’t be a slave anymore.
Is there healing power in the crops we sew,
if the land is taken and the seeds are borrowed.
Is a bridge on the river gonna take her home,
when the water ain’t clean in the Llano Estacado.
When the water ain’t clean in the Llano Estacado.
Caught up in the white man’s war,
but she won’t be a slave anymore.
She’s caught up in the white man’s war,
but she won’t be a slave anymore.
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8. |
End of the Rain
04:37
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When the days of cold are finally over wen will shine again.
They’ll be no more longing for another
we will go back home again.
And the light will bathe us in its beauty, the river will carry us away.
The hours of love will be upon us all
at the end of the rain.
I once was made to forget freedom, I once was cat astray.
With the help of truth and kindness,
I now have found my way.
So let the fires burn up all the embers
the sun will dry up all the pain.
Stand in truth to tell and free another
at the end of the rain.
To have and to hold is but a season, to live and to learn is but a frame.
The truth is out there in the distance,
shining through the ever flowing plane.
Take the arms of freedom when they find you, the pull of life’s refrain.
In the light I will come and guide you
at the end of the rain.
At the end of the rain.
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9. |
Song to Take You Home
04:41
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There’s something in the distance that you don’t really see.
The wind across the prairie in a long lost memory.
You’re praying up to Jesus but the answers never come.
You can’t go back to Married or the gold that wasn’t dug.
So you head out on the highway, it’s the only way you know.
You play just one more song to take you home.
Take you home. Take you home.
You play just one more song to take you home.
Where Summer lasts forever and the water’s always clean.
You know the ones who need you everyone’s just what they seems.
The money doesn’t matter much, just the color of your dreams.
The roads are all untravelled and the ways all find the means.
Take the simple things you need, keep the skin close to the bone.
And play just one more song to take you home.
Take you home. Take you home.
You play just one more song to take you home.
Now you’re not sure where you lost your way and you’re not sure where to go.
Now you think you might need somebody ad you’re tired of being alone.
And you’re thinking of the river as it’s running through the night.
The moon is looking silver and the air is feeling bright.
So you fire up the engines, put the radio in tune,
and you play just one more song to take you home.
Take you home. Take you home.
You play just one more song to take you home.
Take you home. Take you home.
You play just one more song to take you home.
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10. |
Rag Top Down
03:48
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It’s Friday night I’m gonna lay my money down.
Shining up the old car to take it for a ride into town.
Just me and my baby cruising with the rag top down.
People want to know when you’re riding in a coupe-deville.
Everybody’s got a chevy and they’re parking up on the hill.
If my baby wants to ride all night I know that she will.
She’s got the long tube frame with the fins hanging back in the rear.
I’ve got an automatic arm around my baby shifting into gear.
She says lean over Daddy, I want to whisper something in your ear.
Keep the radio tuned and cruise it to the rock and roll.
The town is jumping everybody is on the go.
Keep your eyes on the road I’m going down nice and low.
It’s Friday night I’m gonna lay my money down.
Shining up the old car to take it for a ride into town.
Just me and my baby cruising with the rag top down.
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11. |
Pictures
05:12
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When the leaves are scattered pictures on the ground,
and all the times that I’ve been coming down.
I cannot believe my eyes.
If I had to tell you the time, I would not be able to.
I cannot see the sky, even though it is
So blue.
So blue.
I passed the papers on the hill. Made an acquaintance in the hall.
Found some way to get outside
Of them all.
Of them all.
The grass is all but turning green now. Salamanders come to sleep.
In the sun. I am not the only one.
In the sun.
I found the records that you gave me and they still play.
On time.
On time.
On time.
Pictures are scattered on the table, I’m remembering you.
Tonight.
Tonight.
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Paul Lee Kupfer Knoxville, Tennessee
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