As the sun goes down again
And a prisoner of sleep I become again.
I turn away
I turn away
Cause there’s 27 ways to be strange today.
 

 The night owl is asking “who” I am.
 Lord knows I’d tell, if I could understand.
 It’s just night and day
 It’s just night and day.
 Cause there’s 27 ways to be strange today.
 

  I was born with a silver spoon.
  Lived on a mountain above the moon.
  But it slipped away
  Yea it slipped away.
  But there’s 27 ways to be strange today.
 

   Well who knows what all this means?
   This song is just a quiet scream..
   In the way
   In the way
   Cause there’s 27 ways to be strange today.

On a hill in Danville, he’d look out across the sky,
Slipppin’ on his Dobro, he’d make the Willows cry.
If I was lucky, he’d play my tune again,
“Pretty Boy Floyd the Outlaw” on his Gibson Mandolin.

 How I miss those Gibsons, singing me to sleep.
 I’d lay awake many a night, to the words that they’d speak.
 I wonder if they’re still in tune, the way I remember them,
 The 30 something 6 string, and the Lloyd Loar mandolin.

The best thing I ever learned wasn’t my ABC’s
It was the dancing of his fingers, playing G, C, and D.
I watched him like a buzzard as I grew up threw the years,
He’d drink that cool water, with the Sons of the Pioneers.

 How I miss those Gibsons, singing me to sleep.
 I’d lay awake many a night, to the words that they’d speak.
 I wonder if they’re still in tune, the way I remember them,
 The 30 something 6 string, and the Lloyd Loar mandolin.

What I thought would last forever, vanished over night.
We thought we ruled that mountain, but what gave us the right?
And when old Jeb was leaving, I only thought of him,
And let the dust take the 6 string, and the Lloyd Loar to the wind.

 How I miss those Gibsons, singing me to sleep.
 I’d lay awake many a night, to the words that they’d speak.
 I wonder if they’re still in tune, the way I remember them,
 The 30 something 6 string, and the Lloyd Loar mandolin.

It’s 9, 9 cries goodbye for you
9, 9 years I’ve shied for you
9, 9 ways I’ve tried for you.
Never to see it again.

My heart I gave, gave it all to you
My heart I gave, gave it all to you
My heart I gave, gave it all to you
Never to see it again.

 Chorus

You swore you swore you’d always be mine.
Swore you swore, you’d always be mine.
Swore you swore, you’d always be mine.
Never to see it again.

 Chorus

It’s gone it’s gone, what I had for you
It’s gone it’s gone, what I had for you
It’s gone it’s gone, what I had for you
Never to see it again.

 Chorus

Well I think I’ve found her, I just hope I’ve got her.
Burning sparks in my eye.
You know it’s funny cause I’ve known her
All my life.

 But I know that times a wasting away
 For each second lost, there goes another day.
 And if something doesn’t change, I’m afraid to wait behind,
Cause each time I start up I leave a piece behind.

She’s away now, and I know somehow
Its forever this time.
If she would come back, I’d take her right back.
In my arms.

 Chorus

Time to get rolling, singing and strolling.
Going down Papermill Road.
When I get home, If I’ve got one
I’ll let you know.

 Chorus

Is it all washed up, are you kicked around this town?
Could you be the only one coming up as we all go down?
I don’t know and neither do you.

But don’t give up so fast, cause this smoke has still got glow.
Just when you find the end and you’ve reached ain’t it wrong,
What you don’t know?
I don’t know, I’m asking you.

And now you’re looking at me, with your hand up at the sea.
And the emptiness is tearing you down, and dragging you down,
It’s got you on the ground, it’s plain to see.
I wish I thought like you.

After Time
1996
Van Wagner

After time, the poor man becomes numb to charity
And the rich man fat with pride.
After time confusion gets crossed with clarity,
It’s getting harder and harder to decide.

 But my dreams still go unanswered
 And my mind can never rest.
 And in the morning, I keep wondering lord
 Why I get the best.

After time we’ll run out of land to ruin
and the streams will all run dry.
After time we’ll have a man walking on the moon,
And a man will claim to own the sky.

 But my dreams still go unanswered
 And my mind can never rest.
 And in the morning, I keep wondering lord,
 Why I get the best.

After time we can start to live life for what it’s worth,
And let our faith come alive.
After time we’ll put our brothers and sisters first.
And put love back into life.

 But my dreams still go unanswered
 And my mind can never rest.
 And in the morning, I keep wondering lord,
 Why I get the best.

All I ever wanted was a house in the country
Facing to the West.
All I ever wanted was a woman to love me
And let the years do the rest,

 That’s not the way it is for everyone
 Not the way for everyone
 The wind blows so cold, when your backs to the sun.
 And you’re facing the day on your own.

I’ve got no lucky numbers, I have no favorite colors
They all suit me just the same.
I rarely read instructions, got dust on all the manuals
Make my own rules for each game.

Chorus

I’ve walked a bit on crutches, had my share of broken bones,
Took the pain with a grin.
I’ve stood outside a coal mine thinking “man I shouldn’t be here”
And yet I went on in.

Chorus
 

Alone
Van Wagner
Feb 17, 2004

Hey Mr. Mason cut me a stone, I’m gonna build me a wall so I can be alone.
Keep the world on the outside and keep me in.
I want no one to see the shape I’m in.

On my own, to moan and grown, hard as stone, in my tone, alone
You can call me a grouch cause I am in ands you are out of my wall.
But that’s how it’s gonna be no one but me, alone.

Take your chisel and hammer in your hand Cut me a block as quick as you can
There’s plenty of sandstone on the edge of the field.
Just grab some river mud to point and seal.

Chorus

Don’t try to understand there’s no one that can except for one lady with a ring on her hand.
She must have meant it when she said “thick and thin”
Cause it seems that thin is all it’s been.

Chorus
 

11:02 and the road is mine, I don’t know my speed but I’m making good time and I’ll find how far I’ve gone when I get to town.

As soon as I pulled into my peaceful environment I was planning on getting some relaxing retirement, but that’s not always the way it turns out.

Sure enough I pull on in, and up steps the bagel lady with bagel gravy down her chin and she says “hey, would you like a little gravy for yourself?”

Somehow I knew it was more than just bagels, and I had once again dug myself into one bagel of a hole.

She’s been bringing me bagels every day and every time I try and stand up to say, that I ain’t Romeo she steps up with more bagels, whole lotta stepping going on.

So to be polite and make her feel good I always eat as many bagels as I could until all that bagel gravy starts running and dripping all down my chin, running and dripping, dripping all over the place!

So back to that old “11:02” when I saw her coming I just knew that she had been prompted to eat at least a bushel or two of bagels.

Well I don’t know how many of you common folk know, but when some one eats a lot of bagels they best take it slow or they’re bound to get in over their heads.

So that’s what I did when I saw her coming, I stopped dropped and rolled then started humming, sure enough I tried to confuse her and confuse her I did.

As soon as I dropped, she flipped her lid, and all that bagel gravy slowed out quick, she got confused enough that she slowed on down.  I avoided confrontation.

The point of this story told, is to watch bagel women and the gravy they hold, if you know the precautions you’re bound to keep someone from getting hurt.

So have a nice day and an evening too, if you’re hungry for something then just eat your shoe because in the long run it’s the safest choice.

Ballad of a Broken Man
Van Wagner February 2002

30 years with the company
Most of the time, they were good to me.
Then again, I was awfully good to them.
I could’ve done many other things with those 30 years.

 Oh Mexico, that’s where my job goes
 Dividends, that’s where my pension goes.
 In the Army, that’s where my children go.
 Now tell me, where do I go?

I don’t care much from where I’m at
If you’re Republican or Democrat.
Don’t even start with the politics.
Too busy countin votes to notice it.

I had a good life, just like you.
Raised 3 children and loved them too.
I always told them they could always lean on me.
But you can’t lean too hard on a rotten tree.

 CHORUS

Now the Ballad of a Broken Man.
Pick up the pieces and try again.
And if you see me out on the broken road.
You’ll know it’s me by my heavy load.

I have to wonder if they even know my name.
As they shuffle digits in their numbers game.
I wish them well on their trip down south.
While they exploit another man and break him down.

 CHORUS

BALLAD OF A STRONG MAN
by Van Wagner 1998
 

His song was as strong as a tree’s branches
And his tune was as true as the life he lives
He never asked nothing that was more than you could give
More than you could give.

I met him down at the blue canteen
He was playin’ south paw in those old bluejeans
He’d pick “John Hardy” with the best of ‘em all
With the best of ‘em all.

Here’s to a man, here’s to those days
Here’s to the road that drove us crazy
Never met one like him and I probably never will again
Probably never will again.

Fiddlin Joe and Aunt Betty’s Dumplings
Driving in the Jeep with John Prine on the spin
We’d drop the top down and share him with the wind
Share him with the wind.

But those days are gone like sun in the fall
Melted away to support us all
But I know they’ll catch me if ever I may fall
If ever I may fall.

Battle Cry of Freedom Part II
Tom Flannery and Van Wagner July 2005

County Sligo was my home
to Americay did I roam
to escape John Bull's tyranny
and the cry of the banshee
off the boat...into the woods
finally found me a job that paid good
a puddler was my trade....and by the ton we were paid
to support a war we never understood

Yes, we'll rally round the flag, boys
Rally once again,
Shouting the Battle Cry of Freedom

Riots in New York in Pottsville
taking us all against our will
just come from one war...with buried dead
now more and more green...soaked blood red
Irish fighting irish....another civil war
I ain't so sure I can take it anymore
should I raise a gun...should I cut and run
'cause all that's dying is all that's poor

Yes, we'll rally round the flag, boys
Rally once again,
Shouting the Battle Cry of Freedom
We will rally from the hillside

Lost a brother at Fredricksburg
from Marye's Heights came the word
and from the Patch I could still see
the same musket pointing back at me
kissed my wife and kids goodbye
as I watched the flame from the furnaces grow smaller in the sky
the draft pulled my number...but still I had to wonder
if at the hand of a countryman I'd die

Yes, we'll rally round the flag, boys
Rally once again,
Shouting the Battle Cry of Freedom
We will rally from the hillside

It was spring of 65
and somehow I was still alive
from Fort Stedman they came
that damn rebel yell again
from the battle's smokey haze
I thrust my musket into the maze
when I withdrew the blade it was soaked in red...it was a Sligo man
fell dead
the circle closed in oh so many ways

You've been acting crazy you ain't speaking straight.
You go out when it's early and you come in when it's
late
You been rooting against the Yankees, man that used to
be our team.
I'm not the only one who sees what I mean.

It's all so confusing when you're easily confused
Your head gets heavy when you live like me and you.
Life is made of circles that roll on and on
Man you've been in the sun too long.

Lets talk priorities you've gottem all mixed up.
You've got ladies banging down your door and you ain't
called a one.
You waste your time with me building log rafts in the
mud
Log rafts ain't for bachelors quit hanging out with
us.

I must admit it I've been a little crazy myself.
The other day I went to Wal-mart and bought everything
on the shelf.
I thought about going corporate with my music an all
I could be my own vice president and start my own
accounting fraud.
 

Where I’m from there’s a place that’s seen,
Called Blue Mountain and it’s been home to me.
It’s got everything Mother Nature can give
It’s where I want my children to live
It’s just a few miles from where I live.
That’s the Blue Mountain Rag.

There ain’t no need to fret or gimp
Them mountains got it all from muskrat to shrimp
You just find the nearest stream and you reach on in
And you pull out a trout and be nice to him
Cause you’re the one who’s gonna eat him,
That’s the Blue Mountain Rag

If you go there looking to build a home,
Just a little advice from me well you better not go alone,
Cause the locals there don’t like to be messed with
if you got there you’re gonna be messed with
Come on now there’s no need to be pissed
That’s the Blue Mountain Rag

In 1812 when the war set on in,
Them mountains became home to many good friends
The squirrels and the rabbits all pulled together
They blew the red coats away like a feather
And they all went crazy and started chewing on leather
That’s the Blue Mountain Rag

At a poker game five years ago, I sat across a man.
His hair was gray and weathered, had black marks on his hands.
With a black scar that cut it’s way above his left eye.
I forgot about the poker game, and began to ask him why.

He said “Shamokin Pennsylvania, the great depression had come around.
But there was nothing great about it, picking coal underground.
And I had a stick of powder go off premature.
I was a bootleg coal miner in the years before the war.”

 So take me down underground take me down below.
 Oil up the buggy for its time to shoot some coal.
 When your family gets hungry, you’ll do anything for work.
 I carved out a living from the Pennsylvania dirt.

Bootlegin’ was different, for the coal wasn’t really ours.
We had to hide out from the company, and hope we didn’t get caught.
For if they found your workings, they’d cut your heisting rope.
They’d dump your coal back in the ground, and dynamite the slope.

But in those years the Anthracite fields, it was hard to find a job.
The company mines were shut down, the miners were laid off.
There was no such thing as welfare back in those days.
We worked our days in bootleg holes and in the evening we prayed.

 Chorus

  This man is still living, I still see him now and then.
But there’s many more just like him who have vanished in the wind.
A whole generation, who knows how it feels
To go to bed hungry and wake up with the chills.

Now and then in hard times, I think of this man.
And forget about my problems and try to understand.
For my troubles ain’t nothing, compared to the life.
For a bootleg coal miner, his children, and his wife.
 

I wish I could be so long ago
When time dripped like a frozen tear
And those that did wished they never had known
What turned the world into a year.

  Going so fast we might miss it all
  Making too much noise to ever hear the call
  It’s out of pitch but still in tune
  And I’m living this borrowed tune.

Street stretched horizon and pine pitched ports
I wonder how it ever got this way
Across all the bridges and behind the doors
Lies what could’ve been today

  We’ve gone and thrown it all away
  What was aqua blue is fading gray
  It’s out of pitch but still in tune
  And I’m living this borrowed tune.

We’ve worked our fingers right down to the bone
For what, I’m really not sure
And we live in numbers so we’re never alone
Though we don’t know the man who lives next door.

  We’re too concerned with ourselves today
  Too many fingers pointing the way
  It’s out of pitch but still in tune
  And I’m living this borrowed tune.

Bottle and Pipe
Van Wagner 1997
 

Mine is the bottle and yours is the pipe
My being wrong don’t make yours right
How can you tell me it makes it all free
As your life’s going nowhere and you’re lost at sea
Lost at sea.
 

Now I’m backed in the corner and my hand on a jar
It’s cold slow freedom don’t take me far.
I can hear your match light up
And the smell of depression has filled the dark
Filled the dark.
 

Now we’re counting days backwards and we’re both getting tired
We’re stuck on a mountain that can’t get higher
Let the ice blow, warm your soul
Cause freedoms worth nothing if you’ve grown too old.
Grown too old.
 
 
 

He pours a drink and looks at me
He thinks the liquor lets me see
I kick back, throw my hands in the air
While he shoots me full of holes with his eyes in a stare
I don’t know why he wants to but he does
I guess some other truth is what he wants

  CHORUS:
  Holding a glass full of blame
  Each time I drink I still feel the same
  And I keep walking sideways to the door
  While the bottle full of sorrow is being poured.

Gotta get out of this trap
Each stick I break feels like my back
The fire’s hot, but not in here
The frost is cracking through and whispers clear
I keep thinking of the past
Is it still to come, or am I too fast?

  CHORUS

He pours the drink and wonders why I’m drunk
He can’t think the things I’ve already thunk
I hope someday he will see
That deep inside he’s got a friend in me.
And why can’t I give up?
Maybe that’s just what he wants.

  CHORUS

20 years have gone since I’ve been dropped into this world
Half of them been wasted just fooling round with girls.
Ain’t no innocence in my first kiss, but never have met a woman like this.

       She’s my saber toothed, bushy tailed, cat eyes, wild mountain lion.
       But there’s something about those brown eyes,
       That leaves any good man a crying.

Going back home down highway 45
Heading back if I can get there alive.
90 miles an hour she’s shooting round a curve,
Gone 50 miles but she’s never left 3rd.

Chorus

Friday’s coming on and I’m shaking in my boots.
She’s got something brewing, down in her roots.
Like a cat at sea world she’s all wound up,
Cause the night won’t be over till the sun comes up.

Chorus

..this is a song about 2 people in love, trying to figure out what to do with life….the guy looks at his girl and says something like this…

Baby I never wanna go to California,
babe I never want to go to that shore.
Please say we’ll never go to California,
there’s things out there I’ve never seen before.

She said, Baby what in the heck are you talking about?
We’re too young to worry about those things.
I guess we’ll just take it day by day now,
And wait to see what the future brings.

But you know this has been on my mind now.
More and more every day we’re in love.
I get to wonder where we’ll settle down,
And I wonder if it’s a place I can love.

She said well I guess we don’t have to go to California,
There’s plenty of space out in the world.
We can settle down some where, when the time is right,
Somewhere besides the western shore.

But baby there’s so much out there I’ve never seen before…
It scares me just to think about it all.
I don’t se what’s wrong with this small town,
Where the world can stay outside of the wall.

And she said, baby this world is bigger than this old town.
It’s bigger than the county where we’re from.
For the sun is always shining somewhere,
There’s always some city under the sun.

I don’t get what’s wrong with Pennsylvania.
For 300 years my family’s lived in town.
I don’t se why I need to go out searching,
For something that I’ve already found.

Well I’m not sure if I’ve got the answer Van,
I’m not sure what the future may bring.
Just keep your eyes out on the highway,
And remember that I love you just the same.

Carl
Van Wagner March 24., 2004

Carl was a big fellow
Carl stood by the road
Local kids made fun of him
For reasons they don’t know.

He wore his hat down extra low
And moved kind of slow
He waved at trucks and buses
As down the road they’d go

Of course there were stories
How he’d lost his mind in rage
So they kept him near his house
The monster in his cage.

The truth is less exciting
He gentle and kind
34 years of rumors
take a toll over time.

The mocking just continued
Minds were all made up
Carl was made fun of
Everyday on Lake Road.

Then a friend afternoon
Cars raced home from school
A side-on collision
Out on Lake Road

One car burst into flames
The girl still trapped inside
Carl thought of steel
Carl thought of life.

He tore the metal open
To pull the girl from flames.
HE turned back to safety
An explosion shook the day

Paramedics got to the scene
The girl she was safe
But not the same for Carl
For him it was too late

Carl was a big fellow
Carl stood by the road
Local kids made fun of him
For reasons they don’t know.
 

CHESTNUT EYES
by Van Wagner 1998
 

He met her out in Tennessee, yea old Mississippi
He was told he could be free, just as soon as he forgets
In the Midwest wind blows hard, gets to stirrin’ things around
And the thoughts start blowin’ through your head,
And your feet get hungry for the ground.

Yeah now out here in Tennessee, witch’s wind bitin’ cold
He still ain’t seen the sun come up, and he don’t know which way is home
Well now his old guitar, it’s got a busted tune
Got slung over on a shoulder, hard to tell who’s strummin’ who.

He ought to write someone a letter, tell ‘em how things have been
Start it off with a blank line, and do the same thing ‘til the end
He’s got a string tied on his finger, scrap of paper in his vest
And the more he’s out here walking around, the more he starts to forget

Well when he finds her, and he can tell her how he feels
Cause all these weeks of foot step beats have made it all so real
He’s been seeing it over and over, running through his mind
Her long true hair and chestnut eyes keep driving him down the line

Strummin’ that old guitar in some old mountain bar
He’s starting some song for the girl he loved every note right from his heart
Well he starts to look up, catch a glimpse of who came in
And through the night are those chestnut eyes, staring right back at him

Church On the Susquehanna
Woody Wolfe and Van Wagner  Summer 2005
 

Em                                G                     C                           G
I was out for a walk one morning on the banks of the Susquehann
                   Em                          C                       G                        D
Watched the breath of God come rolling in, as the geese came in to land
          Em       D            G                             Em     D              G
Like a cymbal came the otter’s splash as the geese broke into song
G                          C                                       D
Hilltop steeples surrounding me, I felt like I belonged

Em                   G                           C                           G
I was out on the West Branch, I had run the Moshannon Falls
              Em             C                           G                       D
Spent the night underneath the pine, the railroad whistle called
  Em           D        G                   Em             D           G
It rang clear like a church bell, reminded me where I was
G                     C                                            D
It took me back years ago, like the river often does.
 

BRIDGE: Been to church on the Susquehanna
  A cathedral of trees
  The leaves whisper a gentle him
  Upon a holy breeze
The rhythm of the mighty water sooths the tension deep in me
The church on the suquehanna
  The place where I long to be

At times I think I understand That river and it’s ways
Till the skies grow dark, the rains come down And I’m reminded of my place
I can not contain it As a thimble can’t contain the sky
And in it’s raging wondrous fury I see the hand of the one on high.
 
 

  Bridge
 
 

Churches and bars
churches and bars
all I need is churches and bars
won't find me in a dry old town
not a drop of religion to be found

Folks round here don't need many things
just the shirt on their backs and a song to sing
Reverend Billy likes his wine
turns a feast day into a good old time
12 different languages; all speaking his praises
some kneel at church doors
some lay on bar room floors

chorus

Used to be that coal was king
round here it could buy anything
that was yesterday my friend
so set 'em up till I reach the end
communion 7 days a week
Yuengling to drink Mrs. T's eat
old time religion and lager beer
that's what keeps me living here
 
 

Circus Song
April 28th, 2004  the morning after the primary election.
Van Wagner

In a word owned by the dollar sensationalism rules.
Garbage like “The Spin Zone” is where we get our news.
So what has our attention, world hunger and needs?
Or the life or Michael Jackson and the skin of Brittany Spears

 It’s the world’s biggest circus hey hey hey
 Go on and get your ticket and line up at the gate.
 We must be doing something right, just look at all the grins
 It’s the worlds biggest circus hey hey hey come on in.

You’re in for quite a show the best on the Earth
Wait until you see our athletes and what we think they’re worth.
Their breakfast is chemicals I can’t even pronounce
With arms the size of Aardvarks and the jewels of a mouse.

Chorus

I don’t even now why I vote the best rarely win.
It’s who can sling the most mud color glossy photo grin.
Shake the hands of a few farmers call yourself the humble one
Then fluff up your feathers and dance for everyone.

CLIMBING TO THE TOP
by Van Wagner 1998
 

Now that the years stack up, can you tell me where you’re at
Crusin’ the middle at 65, or on the corner fixin’ a flat
You’re up in your Memphis Red lookin’ down at us
Sayin’, “Thanks you all for the help and all, but watch out for my dust.”

CHORUS:
At the top you’ve got to watch out you don’t fall
It’s a long drop to the bottom, you can hardly hear a call
And your whole world starts spinning round and time seems to stop
It’s twice as hard getting down as it was climbing to the top.

Now you’re at the top and your troubles they are done
But can your golden watch keep time any better than my plastic one
Now from where you are, can you see from where you came
Or does it hurt your neck to take a look back down memory lane?

CHORUS

It’s a rough world out there, you can’t make it alone
So no matter how high you may get, remember which way is home
‘Cause friends are friends for life, and that’s one thing that can’t change
So be true to your roots, and they’ll be true to you just the same.

Close your eyes, close your eyes
Let tomorrow come tonight
Let it all go, let it go tonight.

Drink the morning fog, drink the morning fog.
Take it in, let it fill up your heart.
Let it all go, let it go tonight.

Lay down your troubled soul, lay down your troubled soul.
Lay it down, you’re growing old.
Let it all go, let it go tonight.

Close your eyes, close your eyes
Let tomorrow come tonight
Let it all go, let it go tonight.

It’s mighty dark outside, mighty dark outside,
Mighty dark outside lord lord, there’s a cold wind blowin’ tonight.

The cold rain’s coming on in, the cold rain’s coming on in,
The cold rain’s coming on in lord lord, there’s a cold wind blowin’ tonight.

The fire’s burning low in here, the fire’s burning low in here,
Fire’s burning low in here lord lord, there’s a cold wind blowin’ tonight.

My blankets all got holes, my blankets all got holes,
My blankets all got holes lord lord, there’s a cold wind blowin’ tonight.

It’s time I rest my weary bones, time I rest my weary bones,
Time I rest my weary bones lord lord, I pray that cold wind don’t blow.

Now I’m standing in the room, where the old world became new
and I swear I can see him standing there.
No idea of what’s to come once he sails for the sun
it’s amazing how much a dream can tear.

Searching for gold it’s the cancer of the soul
It’ll eat a man for dinner and spit him out.
Now I know he ain’t the first, but he sure brought the worst
cause now the dollar is all we care about.

With the coming of the dollar, the heart grew smaller
and everyone just tried to get ahead
we forgot about our father, who put us all down here
and have compromised everything he said.

There’s so much we could learn, from the cultures we’ve burned
a connection with the world we share.
But we pushed it all aside, and knowledge all but died
and it seems hardly anybody cares.

 I want to cry out in anger and fall down in tears
 after all he’s the reason I’ve ever existed here
 but it doesn’t seem right that the world has such pain
 sometimes I wish Columbus would’ve stayed in Spain.

Now it’s up to you and me to look out on the sea
and decide the ending of this tale.
If not for the old, then for our children’s souls
lets turn this boat around and make her sail.

I had a dream last night, that I did something right.
And it all worked out o.k.
I wasn’t messing up like I do when I’m awake.

A dream is a gift my friend, a thread spun from the night
While it’s tied around your heart.
My heart is tied but free to go, out in the dark.

 I’ll dream a dream for you
It will be right on it will be in tune.
I’ve got nothing to hide
Like a far off star and a crescent moon.

In God do you trust or has your faith turned to rust.
Like the car that you drive.
You choose to believe what you want but I choose to be alive.

You’ve got to be so bold, to let go of the old.
And jump in to the new.
We’ve been given the gift of today and tomorrow can be yours too.

 Chorus

Crimson Sky
Written By:  Van Wagner and Brian Crane
January 17, 2004
 

Chorus:
Crimson sky to the West
Gentle Blue all the rest
 The winds of angels on my skin
 Half a dream I’ve fallen in
 The water’s a mirror of the other side
 Where the green and shadows duck and hide

Back to a time where the green water flows
And it took sweat to make the fields grow
Crisp and clean breath of air, I know a back in time place
That’s still there

Chorus

Thousands of years to make these rocks smooth
Hundreds of floods to make a channel true
The smoke from my fire, a bridge to the island
A boat full of coal picked by my hand

Chorus

Where fire flies fly as day turns to dusk
Throw on the grill the corn inside the husk
I don’t know how long it can last
The winds are changing and the sky overcast

The war was over Mr. Lincoln had won
I drew my navy wages and returned to my home.
Sullivan county where my grandfather came
Soil was rocky, the sky always rain.

I remember grandpa’s stories of when he was a kid
Bison in the valleys elk on the ridge.
Now it’s all gone a new hunt has begun
To find the Tiadoghton that make the sawmills hum.

    All I need is a crosscut saw.
    A double bit ax and 80 trees to fall.
    The spring is coming I can smell it all around.
    My soul’s being tempted by that high water sound.

Up on the Loyalsock it’s straight and it’s tall.
There’s Pine up there like you never saw.
Only brave loggers bare the winter cold.
Snow falls heavy on the Appalachian fold.

Up in the morning at 5 am
Thrown down some biscuits, coffee, and ham.
12 hour shift on the teamster crew
skiddin’ logs to the river in the ice and snow.
-
We lash the logs together with hickory and oak
No rope nor iron just pins and bows.
A sweep at the front and back, a shack for the crew
20,000 board feet ready to tie loose.

When the ice finally breaks and the water’s good and high.
We’ll head down the Loyalsock our crew of 5.
3 Days on the raft down to Montoursville
we hit the Susquehanna waters smooth and still.
-
Once we get to Marietta we sell off the logs
$100 split by the river hogs.
We head back north , Walking all the way.
One hand on your knife, the other on your pay.

If it’s a good season we’ll have 2 or 3 more runs.
Then the year is over and the summer has begun.
I’ll watch as rust builds on my tools
And long for the day I’m back with my logging crew.

It’s a cold dry Saturday Jack is at the bar.
Got a wife and kids somewhere, but he don’t know where they are.
He knows it’s getting late, and he knows he should go.
He’s got a backbone like a snake, and a heart full of holes.

He’s casting those wondering eyes at every girl he sees,
Hides the wedding ring on his finger like a dog hides fleas.
All those promises lies, and his life is one too.
His drink is his disguise, the smell of whisky is all that’s true.

 No I just don’t get it, how his conscience stands so still
And if lying how you get it, then I probably never will.
 I can’t fake it, like some others can.
 It’s just the curse, of the honest man

Well it seems more and more these days, with everyone I meet.
The value of a person’s word, has been tossed out in the street.
Either trying to get rich, or to break another heart.
Just throw it in a ditch, and walk out in the dark

Well this goes out to everyone, and that includes myself,
We all better start living right, instead of living in ourselves.
For when it’s all done, and our time is added up.
The only thing that lives on, are the lives that we’ve touched.

 No I just don’t get it, how his conscience stands so still
And if lying how you get it, then I probably never will.
 I can’t fake it, like some others can.
 It’s just the curse, of the honest man.

I turn around and I blink
I have to laugh as I take the time to think.
900 memories all in today
Doing nothing but nothing, as the daylight burns away.

Started off, mud up to my knees.
Tuff for logging but that ain’t up to me.
I got a craving for a saw in my hand
He says forget about working, let’s go pick the banjo Van.

 He’s playing soldiers Joy like he never has before.
 There’s truth in his smile and mud on the floor.
 Oh its days just like today, that make me live life again.

Just after noon we head to the woods.
In the month of August nothing feels so good.
He’s telling stories about a woman who ate goats,
In an ocean of ferns we’re fishing for cherries and oaks.

Then another storm rolls in
We fall back to the places we had been.
Hard cider cold and clean.
A belly full of venison and a young mind full of dreams.

Chorus

He’s still chasing his tail around the tree,
And he will until the sun goes down.
He can find a pound of joy in every ounce of time.
He’s even grinning when he’s lying down.

 I’ve got a dog who’s deaf and going blind
 But he’s still got enough to chase a deer.
 And I’ve got a friend who’s deaf and going blind
 But he’s still got enough to up and bite you in the rear.

Well I just went home to see him my last time around
And he’s still got that same dog breath.
He pounced on top of me and knocked me to the ground.
SO I acted smart and made like I was dead.

 Chorus

He’s walking in to tables and bumping in to walls
Cause he can’t see one darn thing.
And he just sits there smiling whenever someone calls,
But I still call him my best friend.

Diesel
Van Wagner Jan 9, 2003

Oh Diesel you can’t mistake that smell
Working class perfume, works you in a spell
It’s seeping in your pores, soaking in your skin
Oh Diesel, it’s diesel again.

Well the day was dry, and I mean dry
The sun did shine, I mean did shine.
He’s working the fields, soil like steel
But it’s something so real

 Chorus

The road is cold, and I mean cold
The hours long, and I mean long.
She drives it alone, teamster to the bone.
Her logbook heavy as a stone.

 Chorus

The bow dropped down, and mean down.
The waves did swell, and mean did swell
Salt burns his eyes, the deck rolls with ice
The ocean all his life.

 Chorus
 

So tired of trying to be what you wanted
So tired of lying, I’m just done.
Should’ve seen it right from the start
Your empty eyes and your hollow heart
This is it, you’ve won.

Oh to play the fool, everyone knows but you
I was young enough to trust your heart.
And oh so naïve, how could I believe
But you painted lies like they were art.

Well I did the best I could, convinced that life was good
I let you tell me how to feel.
And now years have passed, it’s so hard to look back
With no idea how much was real.

So chicken scratch another note, like all the rest you wrote.
This time I’ll pretend that I care.
I’ll move on just fine but I swear that I’m done trying
When you want me back I won’t be there.
 
 
 
 

Don’t Lie to Me
Van Wagner Jan 2002

You’d think she asked the world by the way he looked.
Jaw dropped open and his temper cooked.
But she asked him again.
Where ya been?  He said “with the boys all night
Go ahead and ask them, but it ain’t worth the fight”
Hell there’s still lipstick on his neck.

Don’t lie to me, that’s all I ask
Tell me the truth, take off the mask.
You’re not fooling me, just wasting time.
So brace yourself, while I say goodbye.

16 years old, staying out too late.
Cinderella license but my parents were out of state.
Told my sister I was at a friends.
2am and I was cruising like a king
Having a good time, until the cops brought me in
Only one I fooled was myself.

CHORUS

Flip flop the classroom now it’s my turn to teach.
Most of these kids, remind me of me.
They’re just trying to get by.
Halfway through a test and he’s cheating like a thief
As I walk closer, he’s shaking like a leaf
But when I ask him he denies.

CHORUS

Can you imagine how sweat it would be
If everyone was as honest as a tree.
 
 

I went to bed late last night, and had an awful dream.
The sky was boiling purple and the oceans were green.

There was chaos in our city streets, the whole world went mad.
The heavens were crashing down, no refuge to be had.

I dreamed I saw my parents there, with fear in their face.
“Prepare to meet your savior dad, I hope he’s on his way.”

Then I found myself all alone, with three glasses next to me.
In a forest covered mansion in a place strange to me.

I remember missing my true love, she was nowhere around.
Then I cowered in exhaustion and collapsed on the ground.

I woke up to meet the day, I was shaken to the bone.
Not a word through my breakfast, as I sat all alone.

If these are the final days, then it’s time to make a change.
For love in desperation just ain’t the same.

 She’s gone to the race track again
 She’s a blowing all our money to the end
 You can see her betting every breath
 The wind blows through her fingers as she’s placing every bet
 She’s my double or nothing dumplin none the less
 The race ain’t over till she bets

Well the sky caught fire as the rain moved in
I could feel her eyes a fixing on who was gonna win
Then a crackling shock of light made her understand
That life’s a rolling gamble through each and every hand.

 She’s gone to the race track again
 She’s a blowing all our money to the end
 You can see her betting every breath
 The wind blows through her fingers as she’s placing every bet
 She’s my double or nothing dumplin none the less
 The race ain’t over till she bets

Well guessing, shooting, hit or miss is the way she stumbles through
Betting down to the last dollar like a freight train ripping through
Her soul is like an engine and her money feeds the fire
But her train’s without a breakman, it ain’t never gonna stop

 She’s gone to the race track again
 She’s a blowin’ all our money to the end
 You can see her bettin’ every breath
 The wind blows through her fingers as she’s placing every bet
 She’s my double or nothing dumplin none the less
 The race ain’t over till she bets

I woke up and I missed you, sun breaking through my eyes.
I woke up to kiss you, and fall deep into your eyes.

  Elizabeth, I’d give it all for you,
 Give it all for you just for your smile.
 Hey Elizabeth, I’ve fallen for you,
 I fell back into life.

Good night, it’s all gone down but I find myself awake.
With my heart around your memories, I bet everything and chances take.

 Chorus

For the first time in my life I feel.
The reason for being here.
Elizabeth, please take my heart
And hold me through all the years.

Chorus

You can barely recognize him, from the man he used to be.
As I sit beside him, I pray that that won’t be me.
Too many days of ramblin’, too many nights without sleep,
Too many years of drinking, too many secrets to keep.

 He’s alone in his heart, it’s as empty as a 3am bar
 Here he demands, with a whiskey in his hand,
 That the world owes him something more,
 Yeah, the world owes him something more

He’s been down a thousand highways, and come back a thousand more.
Every mile that he’s traveled has left him a highway scar.
He wears is sorrows like ribbons, gotten’ buttoned on his chest,
And he’s told all his stories, but I’m still unimpressed

Chorus

My visions getting blurry or I don’t like what I see.
His face is like a mirror, and he’s looking a lot like me.
Ah but that could never be me, I’m too smart of a man
But who am I to criticize, I’ve got the same whiskey in my hand.

Chorus

I used to be rich, I used to have money.
I could buy happiness or so it did seem.
I had friends they stood right by me
Until my mansion burned and crumbled to the sea.

 I been England to Austin, Idaho to Spain
 No matter where I ramble the story is the same.
 It was all just a dream, though I was still awake
 Not what it seemed, or more than I could take

I’ve been down roads, I’ve been down hiways
I’ve been Enlgand to Austin and straight across the plains.
What I’ve found in all my travels
Is that I wasn’t rich at all, playing that game.

 Chorus

Now I sit alone and worried
Have I lost everything, I blame only me.
While I was young I planted poison
So I shouldn’t be surprised that my fields all went dry.

Chrous

I’ve come to tell you all about the guard who fell down.
With his fuzzy hat and red coat, he tripped all over town.
Slipping and a sliding he knew not where to step.
But seeing him fall on his ass that day, I never can forget.

He had several sharpened pencils in his pocket tucked away.
And a Candy coated notebook to carve the day away.
As each note passed he’d scribble down who’s up and who’s not down.
And he acts as though he’s taller than I am as he looks up from the ground.

But he’s the one, who’s getting back up now,
That’s more than I can say for myself now.
As I’m lying here, with epitome squirrel
He’s my friend the squirrel,
No there’s nothing like a squirrel
To hang out when you’re down.

I’ve come to tell you all about the guard who fell down.
With his fuzzy hat and red coat, he tripped all over town.
Slipping and a sliding he knew not where to step.
But seeing him fall on his ass that day, I never can forget.

I feel like I’m falling down, that’s the way it feels.
My life trapped and tightly bound, just spinning my wheels.

Everybody’s got scars somewhere
some let it rule them, while others don’t care.
My scars are just as thin as the air
that we breath.
But like the year the air can change
bring in the cold and freezing rain
and scars I guess can be just the same
it seems to me.

(chorus)

It seems to go from bad to worse,
better known as “history’s curse”
It just repeats itself from the first
sunrise
Even at night a shadows there,
hanging over me with a choking stare.
Cutting off what little good air
I may find.

(chorus)

Now I wonder how long it will be
until it gets the best of me.
It’s the kind of pain you just can’t see
with your eyes.
What I’d give just for one night,
to lay down and feel all right
but even a lady who stays the night,
says goodbye

(chorus)

Four O’clock in the morning
and the frost is stinging the dew.
The leaves are softly blowing
and the wind is hiding with you.

 Don’t you look back now, if you’re looking for something you lost.
 Standing at the crossroads, breathing just to feed the frost.

We head up-town with our feet on the ground,
but our heads up in the clouds
And the later it gets counting cigarettes,
we’ve lost track of the time gone by

 Don’t you look back now, if you’re looking for something you lost.
 Standing at the crossroads, breathing just to feed the frost.

Good night good night the moon isn’t bright
And the sun will conquer the day.
And the peace I find as I rest my mind
Is yours in no other way.

 Don’t you look back now, if you’re looking for something you lost.
 Standing at the crossroads, breathing just to feed the frost.

Through thoughtless acts of habit
She comes walking back to me.
Though I reach out I still can’t grab it
I’ve lost all security.

I can’t even tell you, which way I came from
Or if those footsteps are mine.
But I sure as hell can feel the weight.

 My mind is hurting me so
 I can’t take it no more
My mind is hurting me so much I’m begging you to
 Shut the slamming door.

You know I’m gonna be here
When you come back to me tonight.
But please don’t call my name,
It just don’t sound right.

No more can I tell you, you and your words
The sounds just overlap.
But I sure as hell can feel the weight.

Felt the soul of Woody Guthrie as I sit on the canyon wall.
Felt the hearts of those before me, every note of their pilgrim song.
I went flying’ across the ridges, though my body’s set like stone.
Like the canyon out before me, my spirit roams on and on.

 Canyon Walls that lie before me.
All the visions of the past.
 Ride like grains of sand before me
 On the wind and back again.

Hey out there can you hear me, 2 miles down the canyon floor.
Like your songs are you still out there, rambling on for evermore?
I give thanks to the creator just to share this common ground.
All the souls of those before me, singing out a peaceful sound.

Chorus

Ride the wind up to the heavens then sour down like an eagles pride.
Honing in on the Colorado, the sun is my guide.
I bow down to this vision, this might be heavens door.
With All the land here before me, my heart thirsts no more.

Figured Out
Van Wagner
For Pam and Karl
Sept 2005
 

Ah they live their life
Ah they do it right.
No wasted days or nights
No wasted lager pints.

Always since their start
Always with all their heart
In J-4’s choking dark
Ah they live their life.
 

 See their eyes see their souls
 They treat each day like it were gold
 The rest of use live with doubts
 While these 2 got it Figured out

First fell in Danville town
The place where everything goes down.
They haven’t stopped their traveling round
Since there love was found.

A few times to the western hills
And many times back to Danville.
They’ll always be finding thrills
As they live their life.

chorus

Someday long from now
When we’re all slowing down
They’ll still be camping out
They’ll still be painting towns.

They’ll be running Moshannen Falls
They’ll see all the state parks
And if hard times call
They’ll have each others heart.
 

I heard that the other day Danville had a terrible blaze
Smoke filled the streets they say and flames filled the sky.
Mill street was lined with folks, hypnotized by the smoke
Did their best not to choke as tears filled their eyes.

    Remember when the fire came and swallowed everything
    With the helpless feeling, it’ll never be the same?
    I swear there’s nothing colder in this whole world
    Than standing by a fire as it takes it’s toll.

Was the summer of 93, the hills of Centre County
The fire just missed me on the Piney Woody Hill.
In the ashes of the blaze a bible with open page,
“Not a flood but fire God says” a revelation filled.

Chorus

I think of the Kremser farm, the fire reached out it’s arm
Took the house and the barn, flames icy cold.
But good neighbors rallied in, helped build a home again
They didn’t let destruction win, now that’ll warm your soul.
 
 
 

FLAT BOTTOM TOWN
Van Wagner
(Spring 1998)

Well, just about an hour’s dream from here
Only 40 winks away
There’s a town on the river banks that’ll carry you away.

  CHORUS:
  I’m going down to a flat bottom town
  When the river comes up
  And the people they go down
  Flat bottom town

Talked to an old friend today, she stopped by for some words
Talked about a long lost friend who now lives in Gettysburg
We were from the same neighborhood, and we all grew up with him
But he’s forgotten where he’s from I guess we’re too “small town” for him.

  CHORUS

Train still runs every day, up on the North Shore line
And the clock by the court house is still 10 minutes behind
Not much has changed here, except the people passing through
They’ll never forget you, the denying is up to you

  CHORUS

Well we’re all from somewhere, towns big and small
They may not be perfect, but they’ve made us who we are
These people and places carry us through life
If you turn your back on them, you’re just turning out the light.

  CHORUS

I am flesh and I am bone, party mud mostly stone
Cold as echoes in an empty room, I am flesh and I am bone.
I am ashes I am dust, breathe on metal call it rust
So go boom I go bust, I am ashes I am dust.

 I won’t stay very long, just a moment then pass on.
 Call me by my name and I’ll be back again.

I am ivy I am Oak, I heard the woods where white-tails spoke.
I watched the May Flies when they woke, I am Ivy I am Oak.
I am water I am sand, run through the fingers in your hand.
Sometimes ocean sometimes land, I am water I am sand.

Chorus

I am war I am peace, from the West to the East
To some a famine to some a feast, I am war I am peace.
I am here and I am gone, I said that I’d be passing on.
I declared that I couldn’t stay long, I am here and I am gone.
 
 

 Been a whole long time since I’ve been flying again.
 Got my arms up towards the sun and I’m drinking the wind.
 As long as it’s this good, I ain’t never coming down
 It seems my time has come around.

There’s a war being waged between the sun and the wind
I could hear it last sunset and I hear it again.
Branches clawing and cold running in,
I light a candle and check it again.

chorus

I’m the sun’s captive when I’m out on the road
The wind’s my backbone in a makeshift sailboat.
Fire’s just fooling if you’re thinking of a break,
No there won’t be any mistakes.

Chorus

Early morning sunrise, the air just didn’t feel right.
I was breathing out the memories I choked on last night.
But the bad air came and my vision strayed, and my day was starting weird.
I need a way to get away, just get me out of here.

 Get up Jim, roll again, get me out of town.
 The winds of change are blowing, trying to know me down,
I need that highway sound.

So I’m camped out on bad luck, and the rain's coming down.
My blankets soaking hard times, from the Centre County ground.
The news I got that Sunday just ain’t sitting straight.
Thought it was what you said, but it must be what I ate.

Chorus

I’m calling on my lucky stars to shine down on me.
Bring my “Ferris Bueller” back, put me back on my feet.
I’m lost without my good luck, on a chickens broken wing.
It’s hard enough to write a song, but it’s harder to sing.

Chorus

She came from the middle of winter
Short days and blustery winds
She fell to her knees and was begging please
For someone to take here in.

I gave her the chance and I gave her a dance
But it wasn’t me she desired.
Just a place to hide to harbor her life
From a truth she was trying to find.

 Give her some wind to fly on
 Give her a broken breeze
She comes from the Union County
And soon she’ll be ready to leave.

With the Spring I found myself tangled
I was now part of her mess.
But at the time I paid no mind
There was nothing to forget.

That all soon changed as she rearranged
Her hoped and plans for life.
I was like some kid who didn’t know what he did
Just a broken look in my eyes.

 Chorus

6 years have passed since that summer
and I still got the same look in my eyes.
I’m more confused than ever
But somewhere I stopped asking why.

I hope she goes far with her broken heart jar
And fills it with stories like mine.
She’ll stop in your town and drag you down,
Then head back down the line.

 Chorus

It was a warm July night, couple years ago
I just got back to Danville from a weekend on the road.
I was feeling pretty beat, I was feeling pretty tired,
When my dad came to me with that bad look in his eyes
Said “The weather's been rough, in the days that you’ve been gone
We lost part of the family in the winds of that storm.”

 Come back Robbie, come back Ben
 Call up David and Brian.
 Come back RJ, Mike, and friends
 We’re going back to Bald Top Mountain.

It took the loss of a very good friend
For me to wake up and look at my life again.
It was like a diesel train, hit me right between the eyes
21 tons of steel, 21 years went by.
I was living in myself, too busy to look back
Now I finally got it right and I’m back on track.

Chorus

Well life’s too short to dwell on things like this.
You could drive yourself crazy just thinking what you’ve missed.
The days when you were young, the days when you dreamed
The bag of tomorrows was busting at the seams.
It’s not too late to make another ride,
Fire up that 3 wheeler one more time.

Chorus

God and Woody Guthrie
Van Wagner Aug.  14, 2000

Bob Dylan once wrote “You'll find God in the church of your choice You'll find Woody Guthrie in the Brooklyn State Hospital”…
and he went on to say that you can find them both in the Grand Canyon at sundown.
 

Hey Grand Canyon I’m trying to find 2 men.
I’m told that at sundown, I could find both of them.
But all I hear is a jackhammer and a lonesome wind.

Hard times back east so I took the western road.
Hoping for something, something more than hope.
But I hear a jackhammer and a lonesome wind.

Now I’m wondering why I came here, am I chasing’ a ghost?
Am I looking too deeply, or not deep enough?
All I hear is a jackhammer and a lonesome wind.

Then I’m taken back to a Woody Guthrie song.
The tune of a man named jackhammer John.
I can hear a jackhammer and a lonesome wind.

The hammers getting louder as God’s canvas comes to life.
Desert reds of the canyon, begin to flood my eyes.
I can hear a jackhammer and a lonesome wind.

Now I finally get it, it’s ringing like a bell.
Both God and Woody Guthrie are alive and well.
And I hear his jackhammer and God’s lonesome wind.

I’m going to Colorado, my fortune there to find
I’ll be panning for that gold dust to free away some time
Lord free away some time.
But there’s more than gold dust, drifting through my mind.

Out in Adams County, it’s floating around like leaves.
I’ll be doing all that raking on my hands and knees.
Lord on my hands and knees,
I’ve found in this world, you’ve got to be low to be pleased.

Life’s richer than a dollar, and this I know is true,
But I’m sick with that fever, and I hope it don’t get you
Lord I hope it don’t get you.
It’ll blacken most of your life and paint what’s living blue.

God bless my great grand dad, he tried to warn me so
Left it Written in his will not to go for that gold
George, looking for that gold.
He walked that road in his time, did it all alone.

It’s time for me to be leaving, and start my digging days
I got a rusty old steel shovel to dig the dirt away.
Lord, to dig the dirt away.
I’ll send the world a postcard and have gold pay it’s way.

Don’t tell me you’re gone away
Don’t tell me you’re gone away
If you go, I know, you’re gone, gone to stay.
 

I once loved a girl from Spain.
She tied knots in my brain.
But that too, faded away
Now she’s gone, gone to stay.

So you tell me how to be
Said “if I were you” , but you ain’t me.
I’m too old, to remain
My youth gone, gone to stay.

    Chorus

I’m told time fades away
And all that’s left are faces and names.
But the truth from each day,
Is gone, gone to stay.

So I’m falling to my knees
And I’m kissing your both your feet.
Anything to make you stay,
Or are ya gone, gone to stay?

    Chorus

Walking down the freedom trail
Back the farms and the fields he failed.
Only takes one look in his eyes
To know he’s on the losing side.

When he gets back to his home,
Will he be alone?
With all the dreams he’s carried around,
Will they ever bring him down?

 Grey coat soldier heading home,
 Forced to fight for something he don’t even own.
 Grey coat soldier heading home
 Forced to die for less, and now he’s on his own.

He smells the smoke from his powder gun.
Now it’s empty and the fight is down.
But all the lives he left behind,
Ripped a hole in his firing line.

And now it’s time to forget,
All the loss, and regret.
For now the winter melts away.
The warm air will show the way.

 Chorus

Can you see the pain in him?
Reflected back on your peaceful skin.
You’re just like him and he’s like you,
Just a man living life trying to get through.

 Chorus

Green Bridge
Van Wagner / Robb Bomboy
Started 1904 by the King Bridge Co., finished July 2000
 

A shimmer on the river draws my eyes to the bridge.
Flooded memories as a kid
Eyes on the left side, faith on the right.

Countin’ pigeons from the pillars below
Feeling older as they go.
All my life I heard it, but never like tonight.

 And tonight you sing your lullaby
 Goodnight my ribbon in the sky
 96 years in the blink of an eye
 Goodnight ribbon in the sky
 Goodnight sweet lullaby, goodnight

Here I am thinking of the nights gone by
Climbing arches in the sky
Holding breath as the diesel dared me.

Tonight her song fills the air
Hardly half the town cares.
She was as strong, as the century.

 Chorus
 
 

Hard Coal
By Van Wagner   Spring 2002
 

First day at the mine they handed me a bulldog shovel.
They had me down on my knees in that tunnel muckin’ away.
Down these it’s all the same never see the seasons change.
No sun only rain day after day.

All for Friday’s pay
Hard wood, hard coal it’s hard on a man.

Now and then the lucky few got to work on the timber crew.
Cuttin’ props to hold the roof out in the woods.
Droppin’ oak in the morning sun couldn’t be no branches on
Got to be straight and strong to be any good.

All for Friday’s pay
Hard wood, hard coal it’s hard on a man.

When it came to the head miner honkey eggs at the diner
He’s given his share of shiners to men in his days.
But now his bones are old, I bet half his weight is coal
Spent his life in a hole, coughing’ away.

All for Friday’s pay
Hard wood, hard coal it’s hard on a man.

Have A Kid
Van Wagner December 2004

You've got to have a license if you want to catch a
fish
Pages of paperwork if you want to dig a ditch.
Inspections and permits if you're gonna built a house
But when it comes to procreating' go ahead and pop em'
out.

They'll let anybody have a kid
The crazier the better who cares what you did.
So come on, hurry up, before your time is up
We'll let anybody have a kid.

To be a coal miner I need 40 hours of books
Lectures, permits, exams for proof.
The same to be a hunter so I could kill varmints
You can't shoot a squirrel without a license.

Chorus

If you want to drive a car if you want to own a boat
If you want to park on campus or even breed a goat.
Start a business, go on the radio, or serve someone a
beer
But if you don't have the paper work they'll boot you
outta here.

Head For The High Ground
Van Wagner July 9, 02

High on the mountains clear I can see so far
It’s been the same for all my years
When I’m searching, when I’m searching
Deep in my heart.

Down in the valley low, it’s good and it’s bad
There’s no way to know for sure
If you’re searching, if you’re searching for something you had.

 Have you been down this same road
Has it been up and down.
Head for the high ground
Leave you’re worries
Leave your worries on the ground.
 

A twist of fate can beat you up, leave you black and blue.
Your head gets piled with questions
And you’re asking, and you’re asking
What to do.

I feel so free way up here, now I weed through my thoughts.
All these mountains far and near
Bring me back, bring me back to my heart.

Chorus

Help me See When I’m wrong.
Joe McMonagle and Van Wagner Summer 2005

Give me a good woman and a piece of land
Let them teach me how to be a man.
Teach em patience and make em strong
Help me see when I’m wrong.

Used to push my friends around
Built them up just to knock em down.
But they’ve all moved along
Help me see when I’m wrong.

If time is the teacher than life is the lesson
And our eyes are the windows you know.
And the stories you tell, will tell stories as well
If you love em enough let em go.

Chasing money instead of chasing dreams.
End up missing all the in betweens
Found the job lost the song
Help me see when I;m wrong.

Chorus
 

Here’s a Song
Van Wagner
Feb 17, 2004

Here’s a song for those who never had one
Here’s a tune for those who need a tune
It’s all I have to offer to you
That is true.

Fame and fortune belong to a few
The rest are quiet and low
I got nothing but a bucket of truth
Unless there’s something, something I don’t know.

Chorus

Some like it fancy expensive and loud
I’ll take simple and dry.
Some put a price on feeling proud
I can’t buy that look in your eyes.

 Chorus

So adios I’m off down the line
Like a coyote I am gone
Hope I can stay longer next time
Till then I’ll leave you with a song.

 Chorus
 
 
 

Hey Hey world what’s on your mind.
You just keep on spinning all the time.
You can be so cold on a young man’s soul
You can take his body down and swallow him whole.

Hey Hey world, what will you do
I should stumble and fall onto you.
Would you feel my pain could you taste my tears,
Can you see my face, and smell my fears.

 Slow it down, slow it down
 This world just keep spinning around.
 I just need to catch my breath
 Before I go down to my death.

I’d give my all just for a day,
I could catch my breath in this old rat race.
Just to have you stop spinning around,
I’d rest my soul and kiss the ground.

So bring that bottle down off the shelf
Let me drown in my sorrows by myself.
It’ll warm me up from this bitter cold,
Let me forget I’m growing old.

 Chorus.

Hometown
Van Wagner July 2- 2002

Do you remember 1st day of school
Didn’t know anyone, and no one knew you
But Mrs. Baylor brought us around
Then you’ve been to my hometown.

Do you remember swimming the elephant rock
Susquehanna river where adventure never stops.
Dodged poison ivy to build our forts underground
Then you’ve been to my hometown.

Do you remember Mr. Johnny Lahoot
His church was the field, orange and purple his suit.
Your batting average and every touch down
Then you’ve been to my hometown.

Now get down to Pappas’ before it’s to late
Belly up to the bar get yourself a hot dog plate
Familiar faces as you look around
Then you’ve been to my hometown.
 
 

I know you knew Jesus, I know you knew him well.
 You lived your life for others, until the day you fell.
  But the bullet from a bigot, stole your final breath,
  the brightest of lights, rose up from his death.
 

Martin Luther King, his message is still the same
 Martin Luther King, I just want to say your name

A long name and detailed, but humble in birth.
 It sounds real official, the tail of his worth.
 His last name was King and that says a lot
 A leader of peoples, and battles he fought.

(CHORUS)

And Junior that says he was cut from the mold
 His daddy before him, he did as was told.
 Martin Luther, reformer and protester too
 It’s time for a change, is there a change in you?.

(CHORUS)

Reverend, is a name for the truest of true.
 A prophet so brave with God as his glue.
  So now you know why we’re singing his name,
 Each piece says something a link in the chain.

(CHORUS)

I Let Him Down Again
Van Wagner 2005

The guidelines are so simple
But I can make them so complex.
Making deals with nobody
Hoping that nobody ever checks.

 But I let him down again
 I let him down again

So many times I’ve promised
So many times I’ve said it all.
Staking claim to the “Last Time”
While the last time was really so far.

Chorus

BRIDGE
Can we really ever fool ourselves
To belive we’d actually quit the sin.
Once temptation settles in
It’ll always do me in.

Oh so up an at em’ kid.
Get back on that horse again.
Well I’m not sure what else to do
So I’ll keep making promises.

Chorus
 
 

Can you hear, can you hear the thunder roll.
Like a phone call from heaven, soothing my heart and soul.
Can you hear, can you hear that rock and roll.
It was a nuisance most of the night, but now seems to make me whole.

Can you see, can you see where I’m coming from.
All these things went by unnoticed, for far too long.
It’s the same, it’s the same with you and me.
I was too busy to notice, when I had you just last week.

 I’m sorry for not seeing, your eyes clear through.
 Times not worth a thing, unless it’s spent true.
 If time is only money, I’m a rich man thanks to you.

When you wake up, when you wake and see the sun.
I’m seeing it with you, until the day is done.
And with the night, with the cool night sky above.
Find the brightest star, and you’ll find my love.

My heart is with you, my heart is yours to hold.
In cool sun or thunder, and in rock and roll.
So goodnight, goodnight in a whisper slow.
In the crickets choir, out your window.

 I’m sorry for not seeing, your eyes clear through.
 Times not worth a thing, unless it’s spent true.
 If time is only money, I’m a rich man thanks to you.

I’m Going Home
Van Wagner
1994/95

I’ve seen her there, beyond the sky
With the thought of loss and a tear in her eye
She needs not say that she’s alone,
Cause I can see that she is on her own.

 All she needs is a place to call home.
 All she’s done is roamed and roamed.
 She can follow me, if she’s alone
 Cause I’m going home.

It doesn’t make a difference if your chips are cashed in
and it doesn’t matter if you ain’t got friends.
There’s a lot of people out there in the world today
Who ain’t got a home or a say.

Chorus
(all they need)

Now let me tell you friends just what I’ll do
I’m gonna set a table with a seat for you.
And we’re gonna sit there and share some smiles
and we’re gonna laugh off all our miles

Chorus
(all we need)

I saw a tank buried in the snow so deep
That no spring could unwrap it’s sleep.
What a perfect place for a war.

That’s got to be what it’s all about
When it’s all inside you’ve got to let it out.

 I’ve got to get it all outside
 Where only darkness can hide.

You know that’s just the way it is
No matter how they try they can’t keep us in.
Cause our hands are with the wind.

 I’ve got to get it all outside
 Where only darkness can hide.

Nobody’s gonna be without a step to take.
We all have the choice to make.

 I’ve got to get it all outside
 Where only darkness can hide.

IF GOD WAS A COLOR
by Van Wagner 1995

CHORUS:

If God was a color, what would it be
As green as the hillside or blue as the see
Well it ain’t on a dollar and it ain’t on your skin
God’s greatest color lies within.
 

When you’re down on your luck and your cries sound lost
Remember your brother who carried the cross
For you’re never alone when he’s in your life
Through the brightest of days and darkest of nights

CHORUS

Reach out our hand and never turn back
Let your soul hitch a ride on a straight railroad track
Don’t let the breakman cut your ride short
For as long as there’s fire the engine is hot

CHORUS

When it’s time to be called away
I hope he knows me to his very last day
Before I’m gone you can hear my life song
As my soul takes a stroll and whistles along.

There’s a dark cloud over Danville.
It’s just hanging there like a thought.
And if I can make it back to Danville,
I’ve gotta wonder if I’ll be caught.

If I could save one soul every time I sang a song.
 I’d be strummin’ and hummin’ the whole day long.
 And if I knew one way to change my life around,
 I’d probably find it’s right here in my town.

No one can write a song like Derrick.
He puts his life down on a page.
If I could write a song like Derrick,
I probably wouldn’t write my songs the same.

chorus

Tonight it seems my life is laid out,
As still as my grandmothers wind chime.
I’m taken my life as it’s been laid out
And playing it all back one more time.

Chorus

If Time Could Stand Alone
Van Wagner February 2002

If tonight I get called away, in the fog out on the highway
I’d have no choice but to go.
But I have to admit, I’m not quite cool with it.
There’s so much I haven’t done.

If time could stand alone, and carry my life on.
I just can’t say amen, lord I don’t want this prayer to end.

Some folks see a prayer, like a phone call in the air
But that doesn’t work for me.
My prayer began, when I was born into this land.
Give me a life, true and free.

CHORUS

(bridge)
I want to go to the mountains
I want to fish Kettle creek one more time.
Give me one more Christmas dinner,
I want to hear my dad say grace one more time.

CHORUS

I Took It Hard
Van Wagner December 2004

Saw it on a t-shirt “Times and invitation”
Took a closer look “Times and invention”
I’m always jumping in to things seeing what I want
It gets me in to trouble like moonshine at 1.

I hope I’m not the only one I hate to be alone.
Squandering my hours like water from a stone.
It’s often said I only listen to myself.
Ignorance is bliss, you ought to try it for yourself.

How did you take it
I took it hard.
Is there any other way you’d expect?
Is this still my hometown, won’t ya check.
I took it Hard.

Try, Try again, try one more time for luck
I’m so sick of trying it’s all for what?
Who am I impressing walking the walk?
Next time I’ll shut my mouth and let the guitar talk.

So come on little lady dance a step with me.
I’m not the greatest dancer but I’m tall as a tree.
A few pints and music all that matters now
All my life a song has never let me down.

Chorus

I wake up to no change in fact today seems worse.
Bad luck for breakfast, bad luck curse.
Bad luck in my coffee bad luck in my bread.
But that’s all been said before a bluesman said it best.
 
 

  Chorus:
 I’m going where I’ll be free
 Where nothing will hang on me
 And my tune will play so clear
 Where winter lasts all year
 

  And the curtains swayed while the guitar played
  And the wind blew into my room
  And the wind sped up and filled my cup
  With the wine of yesterday’s tune

CHORUS

And 2 men laughing to give it weight
While the road bent round the stream
And the waste of the waters ripping it down
Let me know that it wasn’t some dream.

  CHORUS

And the crashing thunder of fire in the sky
Turned the night into day
And the more we all burned, the more we all learned
This wasn’t our Independence Day

  CHORUS

Independent Miners are a breed apart
We got coal in our lungs, but we got powder in our heart.
It only takes a spark to make the powder fire
Government inspectors have us trapped like barbed wire.
But like David and Goliath, we’re standing all alone
To defend against a giant with a little black stone.
I just want to work, there’s no crime in that.
To make a living where the Earth is black.
But you shut me down so I can’t work no more
If we’re all gone then the big shovel reigns
They can rape these mountains with their big machines.
They won’t have to worry about independents in their way
For the government inspectors will have squeezed them away.
There’s only so much pushing us miners will take
Like when the roof starts sagging and the timbers break.
But one thing you should know about hard coal men
We don’t give up without a fight and we fight to win.
 
 
 
 

In  a land where the air is rare,
Dust off the golden hair.
Desire moves time so slow,
550 feet below.

 It’s all coming back to me, like it never has before.
 Figuring out just who we were, in a cave called J4

The man you’ll meet, you’ll meet him twice
Shares a land where the air is ice.
His friends share my brother’s years
Down in the rock I’ve faced my fear.

 Chorus

But what’s a mirror if dark chokes light?
What’s a ladder with fear of heights?
Oh it’s all there and I’ll be back,
Down that hole where time is black.

 Chorus
 

The night was filled with music, and the music filled with light.
I’m breathing my existence, knowing everything’s alright.
There’s a peace in kickin pebbles that can’t be put to words.
It seems I’ve kicked this one, for several miles or more.
I’m watching life drive past me in the middle of the night,
And there’s people spinning around me, no I don’t fit in right.

 Kickin’ pebbles, round and round again
 Keep it rollin’, I’ve got the corners wearing in.
 And it ain’t lonely, when the feelings back again,
 Because it only takes a shot from a pistol in the wind, to do you in.
 

Tamara’s in the moonlight, basking in the dark,
And we’ve been this way a thousand times, but we’re still at the start.
Half way to sleepiness, my foot’s in the door.
My head’s right where it needs to be, but my feet won’t leave the floor.
I guess I’m stubborn as a mule, when it comes to laying down,
But I’ve heard that it’s wrong to go flying on the ground.

 Kickin’ pebbles, round and round again
 Keep it rollin’, I’ve got the corners wearing in.
 And it ain’t lonely, when the feelings back again,
 Because it only takes a shot from a pistol in the wind, to do you in.

I’m almost to my room now, there’s a light on I can see,
And I can almost taste the window, as it’s coming into reach.
The next days not up yet, I think it’s gonna wait for me,
You see I made a deal with father time when I found the words to speak.
It’s written in our contract, right here in section eight,
“Tomorrow can’t come faster, if I’m getting in too late”

 Kickin’ pebbles, round and round again
 Keep it rollin’, I’ve got the corners wearing in.
 And it ain’t lonely, when the feelings back again,
 Because it only takes a shot from a pistol in the wind, to do you in.

Lattimer Massacre
Van Wagner 1997

1897, it’s a cold September morning,
There’s something in the air today that’s chilling me to the bone.
Looking out my shack window, up by old number 9,
I can see some man gathering, as the fog takes its time.

There’s wives and kids off to the side, waving as they go.
There must me 350 of them coming down the road.
So I hollered out to one of them “hey what ya marching for?”
He said “we’re marching out of this town and on to Lattimer!”

 Said “we’re marching on for liberty in this land of the brave and free
 I’m sick of living my life, like a piece of machinery.”
 He said “son I’m sick of living like a second class human being,
 We ain’t asking for charity, just a little equality.”

Well the fog has finally rolled away and the sun is to its peak.
Some have said 10 miles have passed beneath our feet.
We come from many countries, many foreign lands,
So we’re waving old stars and stripes to show we’re Americans.

Just around Hazleton, up stepped old sheriff Martin.
He said “you’ve gone far enough boys, go back to where you come from.”
But there wasn’t no stopping in these men’s eyes you could see right to their souls,
Their hearts filled with freedom, and their lungs filled with coal.

    CHORUS

The men marched on to Lattimer, believing all was fine.
Sheriff Martin had him a hundred men, waiting down the line.
Armed with the Sheriff’s rifles, he had deputized a hundred men.
While not a single marcher, had a weapon in their hand.

The Sheriff opened fire, and the flag fell to the ground.
It’s as if God went deaf that day amidst that dieing sound.
I ain’t ever seen nothing like it, and I hope I never do a gain.
It’s a sin that a dollar weighs more than a man.

 CHORUS

So for the 19 men that died that day, won’t you reach into your soul.
And tell me who are the real Americans in this story that we hold?
Is it the thugs with the rifles, and the badges on their chests,
Or those who marched for freedom, and lay in eternal rest?

The Leatherman is your best friend on your journey through life,
With it’s trusty pliers and its razor sharp knife.
The handle won’t fall apart like the generic brands
There’s only one true American Leatherman.

 All the ladies know that this tools for real
 Made of the finest steel, just see how it feels
 When you break a sting while you are performing
 To pull the peg, reach down to the top of your leg.

Have you ever been stuck in your harmonica holder?
And you couldn’t get it loose with a 2-ton boulder.
Just take that trusty tool to that stubborn bolt,
And you’ll bust out of that holder like a wild colt.

Chorus

When you’re on a date and the night is to it’s end.
And you walk her to the door and she invites you in.
Don’t hesitate, procrastinate just go on in,
When your stomach gets queasy reach for your Leatherman.

Chorus

Leave my Town Alone
Van Wagner Dec 2003
 

Good friends good friends come gather round
There's a storm coming in.
We've only but a moment
Before the winds begin.

It pains me to say it
But our whole town is at stake
A thousand years of heritage
Could wither in its wake

You can see exactly what I mean
In the counties to our south.
The cancer is a getting near
I can taste it in my mouth.
 

Leave my town alone
Leave my town alone.

They seem so many
And I just a one.
They're armed with their check books
And I just a song

Danville is my mother
My father Susquehan'
I hold my dearest loyalty
To this iron land.

This could be paved over
Our rural life all gone.
The only way to see it
Is through David Armstrong.

Leave my town alone
Leave my town alone.

To all of my neighbors
With whom I share this town.
Lets stand in solidarity
When this darkness comes around.

For we vote with our dollars
And every cent we spend.
We take our money elsewhere
As corporations grin.

The malls and subdivisions
Salivate like mangy mutts.
They see us as a flock of sheep
While they lick their chops.

Leave my town alone
Leave my town alone.
 

But this I know I swear it now
Progress this is not.
There's no place more lonely
Than a Wal-mart parking lot.

I'll sing to God's mountains
I'll sing to the fields.
But I'm preaching to the choir
At least that's how it feels.

In your prayers of confession
Just you and the lord.
Is it something that you mention
Our treatment of his world?
 

Leroy Ross went to the river, with a bucket of beer and a mind to clear.
The evening sky was tied like a ribbon, he’s trying to make his angel appear.
He knocked seven bottles, and he climbed in to a boat,
He’s pushing her full throttle, white water and white smoke

No don’t get hung up on this, it ain’t worth the worry.
Man how’d you get hung up on this, it must be some story.

It was yesterday morn he got a call from work, letting him know the plant shut down.
Leroy Ross, you’ve been laid off, don’t even bother coming in to town.
The phone went down like thunder and he sat down in the hall.
Six and one half-hours, white eyes starring at white walls.

No don’t get hung up on this, it ain’t worth the worry.
Man how’d you get hung up on this, it must be some story.

Now he’s running high and the waters low, he’s pushing his life tot he edge.
He’s just about to let it go, when his daughter’s face comes to his head.
Then just at that moment, he crashed that speeding boat.
Flying through shattered air, white angels and white ghosts.

 No don’t get hung up on this, it ain’t worth the worry.
Man how’d you get hung up on this, it must be some story.

Now Leroy Ross lies by the river as the sun come sup to warm his face.
He opens his eyes to a coal silt glitter, the night before all over the place.
He was searching for his angel, gambling with life.
But his angel is his daughter, and he sees it now clear as light.

 No don’t get hung up on this, it ain’t worth the worry.
Man how’d you get hung up on this, it must be some story.

Here’s my life, like an open door
I’ve given you all but you still want more.
Can’t you see there’s nothing, left in me?
Yet I’m the one who is on their knees.
Stooped to your pride that still cries mine,
I think I’ve given you plenty of time.

 I’ve got nothing why you still reaching out
 I’ve made up my mind beyond a shadow of a doubt
 Can’t you see what you’re doing to me?

Now I’m asking you to let me go
Hanging on is gonna kill me slow.
I can feel it all slipping right through my hands.
How we got here, I’ll never understand.
Looking back I want to close my eyes,
Hoping the darkness will heel these skies.

Chorus

In a drunken state, times creeps slow.
While my memories fade me so.
All the feathers going right down the drain,
In the same swirl confusing the pain.
Lay it down flat, lay it right in front of me
Out of your hands and washed to the sea.

Chorus

LIFE’S A SONG
by Van Wagner 1997/1998
 

It’s a long way to loneliness when sitting on top of the world
you have no fears holding you back and mind is on a girl
With each new waking day you say it don’t get better than this
Then the telephone rings, with the one you love saying,
“Man you won’t believe this.”

Gone long ago are the days you hate to begin
And at half past sunset you can’t wait to see the sun again
The air has never smelled so sweet and the trees look so green
And I can only wish you well and hope you see what I mean.

Don’t ever tell yourself that your road is to its end
‘Cause you can always turn around and go down that road again
Everything looks different looking from the other side
That’s the way life is, but it ain’t an easy ride.

Life’s a song my friend, it’s been written for us
You’ve got to live the verses and fall back on the chorus
So as the dew sets in and bats fill the sky
Remember that there are a million others out there feeling like you tonight.

Good night my sleeper I hope all your dreams come true
I hope my sleeper, that all is done for you
you make me feel so good
You’re the only one who could
Little Sleeper, little sleeper

Tonight when you lay your pillow down, lay it down.
Tonight when the pillow people come let them lay down.
Will you think of me and wonder
Do you see the spell that I’m under
Little sleeper, little sleeper.

Been around been around this town
only trying to keep her.
Been around been around this town
looking for my sleeper.
Little sleeper, little sleeper.

Goodnight to you I pray that tomorrow is bright.
I hope the sun is shining in your sleep, but not too bright.
can you hear me as you stand on down,
Can you see me waving yelling down?
Little sleeper, little sleeper

Been around been around this town
I’m not sure what I’m searching for.
Been around been around this town
you know I’ve seen it all before.
Little sleeper, little sleeper.

So go ahead ma, send your boys off to war
Cause it won’t be you that’s coming back again.
Send him proud to build your name, but don’t expect him back the same,
For a new man is born on that foreign shore.
War twists and it tangles and it hides what once was,
And all is lost except the cause.

 So my little tin soldier, don’t you cry too loud
 For if your home hears you, no more will they be proud.

With his pride on his chest and his family far away,
He counts his never-ending daily tide.
He answered the call and may not see home at all
To give his mother back all her pride.
With each new dying day, he can hear is maker say
“Do you see now the danger of pride?”

 Chorus

Silver jetted on an open page
Speed of light trying to spell my name.
Turning backwards round the same old time,
It’s now my turn to take a dive.

 I’ve been living in myself these days.
 Snow covered mountains and an icy haze.
 But it’s all the same,
 It’s all the same old days

Still you read about the news today
Is it worth your time to hear their say?
Do you see your life in black and white?
Don’t be blinded by what they write.

Chorus

I smell the smoke from his fire and I know he’s getting close.
Been on my trail since we left the coast.
I don’t know what he wants but I know it isn’t good
I just know.

Friends say I’m paranoid got monkeys on my back.
But I’ve seen him driving, wagon painted black.
He’s real as a rock he’s cold as a stone
I just know.

There’s a clean cut line of where I gotta go
If I want to shake his tracks and get back on the road
I’m going alone like a lonesome wind
It’s my lonesome valley and I’m going in.

You can’t buy heaven but you can spend your way to hell.
Worship the dollar and caught up in it’s spell
When it’s all said and done all you’re left with is junk
I just know.

I was called a yuppy just the other night
Judged and juried and it cut me like a knife.
If I could let go of my pride, it wouldn’t hurt at all
I should know.

 Chorus

She just kissed him, outside my window.
and I just cursed him with the silence that the wind blows.
I hope it chills him, as they go without their eyes now.
Cause I’m still holding hands with her shadow.

 If she could just look back.
 I wonder how I’d act.
 If she saw me, looking back.

It was all too fast when we tried it our way.
What’s right was passed, before the first day.
It sure ain’t easy when times not on your side.
And you’re running backwards just to keep up the slack line.

Chorus

Now I’m down to my last load of buck shot.
Clutching firmly with my hand to take my sure shot.
Chances passed and now it’s down to this one.
There’s no anger in my fist or the shotgun

Chorus

Driving by that same old spot now.
It takes much longer for me to swallow it all down.
Only the moment pushes you passed me,
Why can’t you believe that the blind really can see.

Loose Ends
1997
Van Wagner
 

I don’t know why but some times I find myself
kicked around like a stone on the ground.
And sometimes I find myself lost
and just spinning around.

 I’ve been chasing after hopes and dreams
 And been a while with my back to the sun.
 I’ve been grabbing at loose ends it seems,
 But you know, it’s just begun.

I’ve been thinking to deeply and I find
I just tie my thoughts in a knot.
And when I’m finally sobered up
I can’t tell if I’m breathing or not.

 I’ve been chasing after hopes and dreams
 And been a while with my back to the sun.
 I’ve been grabbing at loose ends it seems,
 But you know, it’s just begun.

I’m climbing the ladder of law
And the higher I get the further I fall.
So you feed your own damn mind
cause in your hearts there’s nothing at all.

 I’ve been chasing after hopes and dreams
 And been a while with my back to the sun.
 I’ve been grabbing at loose ends it seems,
 But you know, it’s just begun.

Now let me tell you friends about a girl I know
She’s the one I call Lorio.
I got mixed up confusion all in my head
And the doctor soon tell me I’m brain dead.

Lorio Lori, Lorio Lo
Lorio Lori, Lorio

It all started last week, when I pulled into school
Now I can’t even tell you who’s playing fool.
She chokes me with her long hair that's ruby red
Then she kicks me in the buttocks and rolls me out of bed.

Chorus

Well she’s worse than a gremlin from a cartoon,
She puts hot sauce on my toothbrush and bubble gum in my food.
She puts thumbtacks in my shoes and crazy glue on my chair
I’m only 19 and I’m losing my hair.

Chorus

Now I’m just trying to keep her hunger fed
And the doctor soon tell me I’m brain dead

Chorus

            Madiburg Root beer it tastes so fine
 If I didn’t know no better I’d swear it was divine.
 They brew it in barrels and they keep it out back
 And the taste of the whiskey puts hair on your back.

Well the folks they come for miles around
To get that jugged root beer and drink it on down.
hey slap it up to their lips and sip it once or twice
And if they're feeling frisky they’ll share it with their wife.

Chorus

There’s only one thing Uncle Sam don’t steer
Uncle Charlie's car and Madiburg Root beer
No one’s really sure what they’re putting in that brew,
But it’ll fill up your jug, and shine all your shoes.

Chorus

She’s so beautiful she means the world to me,
But I can’t tell is her answer lies within me.
She’s the one who’s been dancing in my dreams
But reality isn’t always what it seems.
Is she the one who I’ve been waiting my life for
Or is she just a girl who’s opened a new door.

 Magnolia sunset
 Going down in the west.
 Magnolia sunset
 Going down in the west.

She’s found a part of me that I never have set free
And for this freedom I’d hand her eternity.
I’ve waited 9 months but it seems like half my life
Through the wear and tear my doubts have felt the light.
Our love is strong and there’s no reason to step back
Cause floating free will only stab you in the back.

 Chorus

So when the one is found who belongs to your heart
Gently turn towards them and let the seasons start.
Turning once may never be enough,
So keep on reaching out no matter how tough.
If there’s someone who shares time with me,
I pray to God it’ll be the girl riding next to me.

Miners Wife
Van Wagner Fall 2003

My wife is a miners wife hey hey
My wife is a miners wife hey hey
My wife is a miners wife hey hey
Worried too much of her life, somebody tell the lord what’s going on.

He’s knees are spend and his lungs are going bad
He’s knees are spend and his lungs are going bad
He’s knees are spend and his lungs are going bad
Spitting image of his dad, somebody tell the lord what’s going on.

Then the breaker takes the coal and runs ah ha
Then the breaker takes the coal and runs ah ha
Then the breaker takes the coal and runs ah ha
Like the farmer with his profits gone, somebody tell the lord what’s going on.

Now we import our coal from China’s soil hey hey
Now we import our coal from China’s soil hey hey
Now we import our coal from China’s soil hey hey
Where they go through men like motor oil, somebody tell the lord what’s going on,
 

MINING TOWN
by Van Wagner 1998

I was born in a mining town in the hills of the North
I’ve lived here all my life and I’ll live up here some more
Had me some good times when the ore was running good
But the iron went down and took the town now it’s boarded up with wood

I spent some time on the riverbanks where I learned to sail the wind
My dad taught me how to catch breeze by the time that I was 10
He’d say, “Keep an eye on the center board and a finger to the wind.”
Best darn words that I ever have heard ‘bout how to be a man.

Well I had me the best of friends, we grew up on the hill
Stayed out long past dark until we got our fill
Playing games like Kick the Can then we’d sleep out by a fire
Dream about the years to come and the ones that passed by.

But we all got older and had to look for pay
The iron mill was closing down and the jobs blew away
I took to cuttin’ fire wood and sold it by the cord
Saved enough to buy some land down on the river shore.

Fixed up my dad’s old boat and took to sailing once again
Any time I got landlocked, I found freedom in the wind
I’d sail her day and night down on the Susie Q
My back to the wind when the waves come in and the sail pushin’ through.

Well now and then when times got tough and crops were going dry
I had myself a whiskey still making old Rock & Rye
Took to running Moonshine on the river by the night
Made my rounds from town to town, and my dollars by moonlight
 

Well when it’s time to bury me, you can lay me over there
Down where the mountains melt and river flows to the sky
I’ll catch a tail wind and ride ‘er up to the Lord
And sail out of this mining town into the next world.

Now as I’m leaving I’ve got one thing to say
Let the words of my father guide you on your way
He’d say, “Keep an eye on the center board and a finger to the wind.”
Best darn words that I ever have heard ‘bout how to be a man.

Moan at 21
1998
Van Wagner
 

Come all you friends, into my life
And hear the tale of a young mans life.
It’s one of truth, and one of length,
21 years of fading strength.

Both day and night see me awake,
I can’t find peace enough to take.
But what is peace if you’re alone,
Just 21 years out on your own.

The saddest song, I’ve ever heard,
Sung from the heart but without words.
The truth rang out like a rifle dream,
And drenched my soul with tears of green.

The longest road I’ve ever drove,
Stretched from my heart, to Shelter Cove.
900 miles of silent pain
Oh yellow line my only friend.

The sweetest wine, I’ve ever had
Brewed from tears, of a love gone bad.
Just one sip and I was done,
Left my heart passed out drunk.

The truest love, I’ve ever felt
Runs in my blood when the envy melts.
For none will fill your soul so full
As God above with hands unfurled

So fair thee well my weary friends
I pray there’s rest around the bend.
But every dog must have its day
So I tip my hat and fade away.

MOONLITE
Van Wagner
(July 1997)

I’m so tired Lord, this way of living’s got me inside out
I ain’t begging yet, but I think I’ll soon on that route
My head’s out here, but my heart is still back at home
And she’s a world away, I know I’m not alone.

  CHORUS:
  She comes to me through moonlite
  Through sunsets and cool nights
  In the words of a promise, it’s all right
  Yeah, I’m all right, all right tonight.

Last night when I laid down, I heard coyotes out in the black
And there they go again, and something inside me wants to answer back
But I could howl all night until I’m blue in the face
Cause no one hears me out here in this crazy place.

  CHORUS

It’s getting dark now, and I hope she knows I’m missing her
Cause a song ain’t the same as holding and kissing her
But there’s 6 days to go, and that’s one shy of a week
But a week ain’t nothing when there’s years up the street.

  CHORUS

Must’ve Been My Guitar
Van Wagner  Aug. 1998
 

Well it all started back in high school I was playing my guitar in class
When the teacher came back to my desk, and this question she did ask
“Mr. Wagner what makes you think, that you can get away with that?”
I said “your class is boring your voice is annoying and you smell like dead cat!”
Then I went to the principal and told him he was a freak
Next thing I knew I ended up in detention for a week…

(CHORUS)
 Well it must’ve been my guitar, yea it must’ve been my guitar
 Whatever the song it must’ve been wrong,
 Yea it must’ve been my guitar.

Then came my senior prom and I went to pick up my date,
But I was busy tuning my guitar that day and I got there three days late.
But I didn’t want to hurt her feelings so I took her out to Burger King
But I could only afford a water cause my guitar needed new strings.
Well then she had the nerve to dump me, and she gave me back her ring
She didn’t even give me a reason I guess she ain’t ready for that dating thing.

(CHORUS)

Then one day I stumbled into college and I was playing in a frat,
I met one guy named puker and another guy named rat.
Well we all had a good time drinking there till I asked what was on tap
“It’s imported triple stout lager bock ale” replied old frat rat
I said “well I only drink Yuengling, it’s what you call a working mans beer
But I guess that word ‘working’ ain’t spoke much around here.
Well they took my cup away from me my imported triple stout lager bock ale.
I suppose Penn State ain’t ready for me, maybe I ought to try Yale

(CHORUS)

Now I’m driving down the highway with my guitar in my hands,
Just put the car in cruise control and sit back and jam.
I ran over a Penn dot worker and through a Catholic Church,
I grabbed some bread off the communion table and flew out the back porch.
Now the cops are on my tail and they catch me if they can,
You know it just ain’t easy being a Presbyterian guitar man.

(CHORUS)

 My king was a poor man so I am told
 Riches not of this world, no silver nor gold.
 He fell to his knees so that others could stand.
 A King ain’t a King unless he’s reaching out his hand.

Who would’ve guessed 2000 years ago,
That the richest of the rulers still has no gold?
His crown was made of thistles, his robe tattered rag,
He rules over millions, yet his country waves no flag.

Chorus

Well his powers not in iron, fire, or lives.
His armies are the oceans, the land, and the sky.
He who walks beside him never walks alone.
Those who share their heart with him, always have a home.

Chorus