At The Ryman

(stephen foster)

Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears
While we all sup sorrow with the poor.
There's a song that will linger forever in our ears,
Oh, hard times, come again no more

'tis the song, the sigh of the weary.
Hard times, hard times, come again no more.
Many days you have lingered all around my door.
Oh, hard times, come again no more.

While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay.
There are frail forms fainting at the door
Though their voices are silent, their pleading looks will say,
Oh, hard times, come again no more.

'tis the song, the sigh of the weary.
Hard times, hard times, come again no more.
Many days you have lingered all around my door.
Oh, hard times, come again no more.

There's a pale drooping maiden who foils her life away
With a worn out heart, whose better days are o'er.
Though her voice it would be merry, 'tis sighing all the day,
Oh, hard times, come again no more.

'tis the song, the sigh of the weary.
Hard times, hard times, come again no more.
Many days you have lingered all around my door.
Oh, hard times, come again no more.

'tis the song, the sigh of the weary.
Hard times, hard times, come again no more.
Many days you have lingered all around my door.
Oh, hard times, come again no more

(steve earle)

Hey pretty baby are you ready for me
It's your good rockin' daddy down from tennessee
Well i'm just outta austin bound for san antone
With the radio blastin' and the bird dog on
There's a speed trap up ahead south of town
But no local yokel's gonna shut me down
Cause me and the boys got this rig unwound
And we've come a thousand miles from the guitar town

Nothin' ever happened round my home town
And i ain't the kind to just hang around
But i heard someone callin' my name one day
And i followed that voice down the lost highway
Everybody told me you can't get far
Now i'm smokin' into texas with the hammer down
And a rockin' little combo from the guitar town

Hey pretty baby don't you know it ain't my fault
Love to hear the steel belts hummin' on the asphalt
Wake up in the middle of the night in a truck stop
Stumble in the restaurant, wonderin' why i don't stop
Well i gotta keep rockin' while i still can
Got a two-pack habit and a motel tan
When my boots hit the boards it's a brand new hand
Put my back to the risers and make my stand
Hey pretty baby won't you hold me tight
I'm loadin' up and rollin' out of here tonight
One of these days i'm gonna settle down
And i'll take you back with me to the guitar town

(boudleaux bryant)

Like strangers, that's what we are
Darling how can lovers pull apart so far
Like strangers, how can it be
Only days ago, we loved so tenderly

I love you, truly i do
And i hope deep in your heart you love me too
Let's forget that we've been angry
Let's be lovers like before
And swear not to be like strangers anymore

Like strangers, that's what we are
Darling how can lovers pull apart so far
Like strangers, how can it be
Only days ago, we loved so tenderly

I love you, truly i do
And i hope deep in your heart you love me too
Let's forget that we've been angry
Let's be lovers like before
And swear not to be like strangers anymore

Let's forget that we've been angry
Let's be lovers like before
And swear not to be like strangers anymore

(johnny cash)

Well, you ask me if i'll forget my baby
I guess i will some day
I don't like it but i guess things happen that way

You ask me if i'll get along
I guess i will some way
I don't like it but i guess things happen that way

God gave me that girl to lean on, then he put me on my own
Heaven help me be a man and have the strength to stand alone
I don't like it but i guess things happen that way

You ask me if i'll miss her kisses
I guess i will every day
I don't like it but i guess things happen that way

You ask me if i'll find another
I don't know, i can't say
I don't like it but i guess things happen that way

(ray park)

For many long years i've played a lone hand
I rode my horse in many strange lands
Until one day i stopped for awhile
For two blue eyes and a sunny smile

So howl away you old coyote
I hear your sad and lonesome song
You're calling me back to old montana
Back to those hills where i belong

One day i rode away from home
I'm a' traveling back and it won't be long
I'll see you again in a little while
You're my darling sweet, my welcome smile

So howl away you old coyote
I hear your sad and lonesome song
You're calling me back to old montana
Back to those hills where i belong

So howl away you old coyote
I hear your sad and lonesome song
You're calling me back to old montana
Back to those hills where i belong

(bruce springsteen)

There's a place out on the edge of town sir
Risin' above the factories and fields
Now ever since i was a child i can remember
That mansion on the hill
In the day you can see the children playing
On a road that leads to those gates of hardened steel
Steel gates that completely surround sir
That mansion on the hill

At night my daddy'd take me and we'd ride
Through the streets of a town so silent and still
Park on a back road along the highway signs sir
Look up at the mansion on the hill

In the summer all the lights would shine
There'd be music playin' people laughin' all the time
Me and my brother we'd lie down in the tall cornfields sir
Sit and listen to the mansion on the hill

Tonight down here in linden town
I watch the cars rushin' by home from the mill
There's a beautiful full moon rising
Above the mansion on the hill

(richard holler)

I am a backseat driver from america
They drive to the left on falls road
And the man at the wheels name is shamus
We pass a the child on a corner he knows
And shamus says "now what chance has that kid got"
And i say from the back "i don't know"

He says "there's barbed wire at all of these exits"
There ain't no place in belfast for that kid to go
And it's a hard life, it's a hard life
It's a very hard life
It's a hard life wherever you go
And we poison our children with hatred
And the hard life is all that they know

At the dairyline in chicago
A fat man in front of me
He's calling black people trash to his children
And he's the only trash here i see
And i'm thinking this man wears a white hood
In the night when his children should sleep
But they'll slip to their windows and see him
They'll think that white hood's all they need

And it's a hard life, it's a hard life
It's a very hard life
It's a hard life wherever you go
And if we poison our children with hatred
Then the hard life is all that they know

I was a child of the sixties
When dreams could be held through tears
With disney and cronkite and martin luther
And i belived, i believed, i believed

Now i'm a backseat driver from america
And i'm not at the wheel of control
And i am guilty, i am worn, i am the root of all evil
And i can't drive on the left side of the road

And it's a hard life, it's a hard life
It's a very hard life
It's a hard life wherever you go
And if we poison our children with hatred
Then the hard life is all that they'll know

And there ain't no place in this world for these kids to go
Cause it's a hard life wherever you go

Has anybody here seen my old friend abraham,
Can you tell me where he's gone?
He freed a lotta people, but it seems the good die young
I just looked around and he's gone.

Has anybody here seen my old friend martin,
Can you tell me where he's gone?
He freed a lotta people, but it seems the good die young
I just looked around and he's gone.

Has anybody here seen my old friend john,
Can you tell me where he's gone?
He freed a lotta people, but it seems the good die young
I just looked around and he's gone.

Didn't you love the things they stood for?
Didn't they try to find some good in you and me?
And we'll be free
Someday soon it's gonna be one day

Has anybody here seen my old friend bobby,
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought i saw him walkin' up over the hill
With abraham and martin and john.