Dead Man's Coat

I left my shoes in Dublin
along with a dead man's coat.
Yes I left it all behind me
and stowed onto a boat.

I left it all behind me
to get swallowed up by time.
If they ever come to find me
may they pardon me my crime

Now they say I killed my father
but I only stole his name
He was murdered by a bottle
but I'll gladly share the blame.

He was murdered by a bottle
maybe death has set him free,
now if I could only lose his ghost
that's stowed away in me.

His ghost is in my mirror
and the ghost is in my mind,
it's living underneath my skin
and it won't be left behind.

I've tried my best to kill it
but the damned thing never dies.
It stands so hard above me
with whiskey in its eyes.

This is my confession
for whatever it is worth.
I'm haunted by my father
just like every man on Earth

I'm haunted by my father
like every ordinary jake
He hangs so dark above me
Like a storm about to break.

I'm sailing to America
to find what might be found,
and I'll throw these memories overboard...
I hope they stay drowned

Yes I'll throw this baggage overboard
to be swallowed by the sea
but I know I'll never lose this ghost
that hides inside of me.

I left my shoes in dublin
along with a dead man's coat.
Yes I left it all behind me
and stowed onto a boat.

I left it all behind me
to get swallowed up by time.
If they ever come to find me
may they pardon me my crime.

• Next Song

Moonlight Palomino

Rattlesnake waits in the shadow of a rock.
Field mouse hides from the eyes of a hawk.
Cactus stands like a statue of a man,
him and me and my horse named Dan
    on a dusty road

Indian watching from a switchback ridge.
Ghost riders running up a cloudy bridge.
Twilight stealing in the edges of the sky.
Riding along thinking by and by
    I'll put down my load.

There's a ghost town down where the creek
    ran dry;
buzzards circle in the hard blue sky.
Dusty old bar empty bottles on the shelf,
piano in the corner that plays itself
    it's a spooky sound.
I hitched my horse to an old fence rail,
fetched up water in a leaky pail,
gonna get out of town before the daylight fails,
    I don't want to stick around.

Jackrabbit runs from the scattering stones,
blackbird cries just to rattle your bones.
Cow skull laying by a watering hole:
Don't drink there or you'll lose your soul
    in the burning sun.
I left my home and I can't go back,
wildflower growing in a wagon wheel track.
Dry wind coming down from the hills,
I'm looking for a place where a waterfall spills
    when the day is done.

• Next song

The Cowboy from Boston

He played an old fiddle made over in Europe,
recited the poets and quoted the bards.
Rode out of the east on a sway appaloosa:
The cowboy from Boston with a sleeve
    full of cards.

A good man or bad depends on just who
    was talking.
He bluffed like a champion or he lied
    like a snake.
The ladies all swooned when he twirled
    his mustaches
and snuck out the back door to bring
    him some cake.

He rode down the coast to the west
    Texas border
to the Mexican desert where the summer
    was fierce.
He got all caught up in the good revolution
and he fought at the side of an old man
    named Bierce.

Not far from Houston he stopped a
    stray bullet,
the last words he said lifted right off
    the page:
It was something he'd learned from the
    poet of Avon,
how all men are players and life is a stage.

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