The Stray Birds

(Maya de Vitry/Lindsay Lou)

All the gold and silver too
Shining in the distance
And all I wish to spend with you
Is it not time, is it not time

Like hanging fruit upon the tree
Shining in the distance
Between the orchard and the seed
Is it not time, is it not time

Is it not time
Is it not time

The sunlit house upon the hill
Shining in the distance
A prize to hold, a cup to fill
Is it not time, is it not time

When will my way, barely begun
Shining in the distance
And if my day should never come
Is it not time, is it not time

When bells of sorrow start their ringing 
Shining in the distance
Oh how can we keep from singing 
Is it not time, is it not time
    

(Oliver Craven)

You hear the sirens out on the street
You see the people up on their feet
This dusty road side ain't your home
It's just a place that you found to roam
You're all about it now, you always were
There's something out there for you to learn

Now it's the third day in a row
You've seen the sun come up
Some things take a lifetime to learn
So you make them up
You've got such a long way to go
No you can't give up
Don't give up

Lady Madonna, in borrowed clothes
She looks for boys at the rock 'n roll show
You tried to catch her, but she escaped
She didn't answer when you called her name
And now you're out there, on your own
Another dog without a bone

You see yourself walking on the street, on the street
Somebody is talking about the ways and the means
You put your hands in the pockets of your jeans

It's time for bed now, close your eyes
Picture the birds up in the sky
There they go flying, high and free
Without concern for you and me
It's probably alright, the things you did
No one was ever against you, kid
    

(Maya de Vitry/Oliver Craven/Charles Muench)

When the sun comes up
Sabrina's pullin' grapes from the vine
Another day another chance
To make another bottle of wine
Triple bill Tuesday
Federal Hill that night
She got a bottle in the backseat
Baltimore in sight

Sabrina
Drinkin' a Yuengling in the green room
All I had to do was stand up
And she gave me a beer
Cristina
Got a little busy in the bedroom
Waitin' at home on a baby
Aw she couldn't be here
In Baltimore

Cristina's got a little operation
out of her hometown
They drive the sexi-mexi food truck
To every festival around
Servin' up tacos and burritos 
In the heat of the day
And come the cool of the night
You can find 'em dancing' backstage

Up a couple flights of stairs
And around the bend
Behind closed doors
A party and a couple of friends
Nobody stops Sabrina
She knows just what to say 
Goin' anywhere she pleases
Lookin' like she knows the way

    

(Maya de Vitry)

Missing pages
forgotten ages
The wise men
tried to write the history of this town

Generations
of destinations
Time
rearranging footprints on the ground

But life is a radio
go on, change the station
The music is playing
even when you turn it down

Everybody’s swearing
by a different map
I’ve seen a few
just close their eyes and run

It’s a one way road
over a high mountain pass
Raise a glass and light a candle
for whoever you come from

Everybody has a friend
who left for good one day
This hometown has no way
of keeping anyone around

    

(Charles Muench)

Tell me what was your name again 
Where did you say you were coming from
Where will you go when tomorrow comes
In the morning sun

Where is the place that you call home
What is there that makes it so
How could you reap what you sow
When you live on the road 

Where you come from is where you go
Where you come from is where you go
Where you come from is where you go

Talk is cheap that's what they say
Walkin' is the honest way 
Why do you sing every day
Anyway 

    

(Maya de Vitry)

Stayed up all night thinking by the ocean
I’ve only ever seen this sunrise on a postcard
Across the pond the pubs must be getting busy
And up the coast, you’re wakin up alone in the city 

All the days come dancing off the water
Waking up the shadows and the lovers
Riding on the back of a wave on the tip of time
That’s the day I came out here to find 

I’m out here lookin for the fossil 
of the day I met you
I wanna hold it in my hand
And feel how little we knew
And how much we wanted to

Maybe if the tide never rose and never fell
I’d be lookin for the ocean in a shell
But I’m studying the color of the cliffs I’ve never known
Where the days just disappear into stone

    

(Oliver Craven/Maya de Vitry)

Dreams cast in a wishing well
Promises made in sand
The gold of heaven and the dogs of hell
Never in the hands of man

Rich man laying in bed in the shade
A wall around his land
But the hole is dug and the stone is laid
But the working hands of man

Ghost inside a prison wall
Coin in an empty can
The city burns, the towers fall
All at the hands of man

Watch the dice get rolled across the land
Dropped by time into the hands of man

Get up off your knees
Build a bridge in a broken land
Drop your pride roll up your sleeves
All the hands of man


    

(Oliver Craven/Maya de Vitry)

You were someone I used to love
Sometimes I'm dreaming of
Now you're somehow, someone far away

There was something we used to hold
Some nights against the cold
Now you're somehow, someone far away

The rushing wind and rain have never pitied
The fallen tree that breaks before it bends
Just as the candle burns
Just as the season turns
It's just the way the world intends

The setting sun must bow to the horizon
The rising tide upon the moon depends
Just as the river runs
Just as the morning comes
It's just the way the world intends


    

(Oliver Craven)

I been restless, you been helpless
We been stranded too
I been tired, you been hungry
Learning how to sing the blues
You can shout for change
And worry about the state of the world

But it'll take a little more than praying on a Sunday morning

I been running, you been hinding
We been carrying on
I been hollering, you been crying
Up til the break of dawn
You can shout for change
And worry about the state of the world

But it'll take a little more than praying on a Sunday morning

You get down on your knees
And you put your hands together
Leave it to the weatherman
To cry about the weather
Gonna take a little bread, a little blood
A little something from your sister, your brother
If this thing's gonna get any better.

    

Maya de Vitry/Larry Campbell)

Clara left town on the Natchez Trail to New Orleans
Says she’s gonna stay for a couple of days and then drive along the sea
But I never heard of anybody
Leaving New Orleans early

Shining like a Mississippi pearl
Hanging on the edge of the world
Shining like a Mississippi pearl on the edge of the world

Doesn’t it make you wanna dance just a little bit later
Papers say it’s a matter of days til you wash away
Way across Lake Pontchartrain
New Orleans sings it night and day

Clara doesn’t know I used to call it home there
Thinking how I could drive all night and meet her in the morning 
Close my eyes, hear those horns
Calling me home to old New Orleans



    

Hey all the news is bad
All the news is bad
The paper made me mad
Every picture that it had
All the news is bad

There's a riot in the street
There's a riot in the street
My papa's taking heat
My mama's losing sleep
A riot in the street

She got a birthday in July
She got a birthday in July
Doing her best not to cry
As she's serving apple pie
She got a birthday in July

Now she can't help feeling
Like it's time to do something to pick it up
She's tired of relying on things
Like destiny and luck

All the news is bad

See the shadow in the lane
See the shadow in the lane
The crook waves from the train
We gather what remains
See the shadow in the lane

Hear the crooked wind that blows
Hear the crooked wind that blows
The dove flies with the crow
The thorn hides the rose
The crooked wind that blows

    

(Oliver Craven/Maya de Vitry/Charles Muench) 
*with guest verse by Shane Leonard

When I die lay me down at the stream
By the tree with the deepest roots 
Bury my body in blue jeans
And a pair of my leather boots

Maybe sing a song, maybe carry a rose
Maybe listen for the wind on the day it blows
Don't tell 'em you loved me if you broke my heart
Leave the flowers above me now, don't tear 'em apart

*Some days we had it easy, sometimes trouble too
 Honey, I'd trade a good day alone for a bad one with you
 Will you miss my dark cloud, my stormy state of mind
 Somebody's gotta roll that thunder in the sky*

Take my guitar from the empty hall
Don't let it hang from some rich man's wall
That piece of wood is how I learned to pray
Just find some hands to play it every day

Take my body down Main Street, take me by my old school
Toast my name at the bar where we used to shoot pool
Take me past the graveyard where my family lay
I wanna be by the water on that final day