Jennifer Kimball

Joy to the World

April

We should have waited 'til April
when the flowers are in bloom.
We should have waited 'til April
We fell in love too soon.

It's a foolish seed that tries to grow
when the ground is still hard and covered in snow.
And I'm a fool to love you but how was I to know
its hard for hearts to warm up when the cold winds still blow

We should have waited 'til April
when the flowers are in bloom.
We should have waited 'til April
We fell in love too soon

Yesterday it was sunny. It was warm and clear.
We walked by the ocean and you held me so near.
But today it is snowing and I'm cold to the bone.
The wind it is blowing and I'm walking all alone.

We should have waited 'til April
when the flowers are in bloom.
We should have waited 'til April
We fell in love too soon.

Credits:

written by Ry Cavanaugh

Reedy River

Credits:

recorded live at club passim 4/18/09
Duke Levine, electric guitar
Kevin Barry, lap steel
Anne Heaton, piano and vocals
JK, acoustic guitar and vocals
words and music by Jennifer Kimball

Reedy River

Credits:

live at club passim 4/17/09 -
Duke Levine, electric guitar
Kevin Barry, lap steel
Anne Heaton, piano and vocals
JK, acoustic guitar and vocals
words and music: Jennifer Kimball

Chained to a Memory

Why am I chained to a memory
why does the thought of you still torture me?
When will I find someone to set me free
So I won't be chained to a memory.

Why am I chained to the hurt I knew?
Each day the thought of something so cruel to do
Where in this world will I escape from you
So I won't be chained to a memory.

Your letters, threw them on the fire.
Your pictures, out the window.
All I could find that reminded me of you
I threw them all away.


I get up in the morning, I'm pacing the floor
Like I'm expecting you to walk in the door
I keep forgetting I won't see you anymore
Guess I'm doomed to be chained to a memory.

Credits:

live at the Freight and Salvage, Berkeley, CA
Paul Bryan re-arranged this Dusty Springfield song which Jenn recorded in 2000 for a tribute called Forever Dusty.

written by K. Rogers and S. Altlert

(corrected from the copy on the cd)

Can't Climb Up

You can't climb up, you can't crawl down
Let your heart bring you around.

You fall down when I need someone
to stand up to me and set me straight
You let me run roughshod over all the livelong day
then you turn your back and walk away.

You can't climb up, can't crawl down
Drained your cup now you're all unwound.
 You never really could talk to me
 You're on the train and headed out of town
 I put a penny on the track.

So, your mama's gone but you're a rich girl now.
How could you say that to me.
What have you done to your own heart
That cruelty comes with such ease?

Can't climb up, can't crawl down
Pass the buck, turn off the sound.
 You can't get past no ring on my finger
 You'd really rather put a check in the mail
 I know this letter.

Father, father!
I'm lost in a dark wood
no golden thread to lead me back.

Can't climb up, can't crawl down
Left your joy in the lost and found.
Can't climb up, can't crawl down
Let your heart bring you around.

You lost your joy - you've got to find your joy

Credits:

Jennifer: vocals, acoustic guitar
Duke: electric guitars, Wurlitzer
Paul Bryan: bass, Kimball organ
Jay Bellerose: drums and percussion
Dennis Brennan: harmony vocals

Little Green

the Jumblies

Box Elder

Meet Me In The Twilight

Angel lives in the next one down.
She loves a boy the other side of town.
She says, take your time - but don't take too long.
I think I know where we belong -

Will you meet me in the twilight
for a moment, maybe two.
Will you meet me in the twilight
if you love me, say it's true -

that what came before is just what came before.
Nothing less, nothing more.
He says, meet me tonight at the Someday Caf.
We'll talk about what you did today.

Will you meet me in the twilight
for a moment, maybe two.
Will you meet me in the twilight
if you love me, say it's true -

that you'll steal away from the neighborhood
in the fleeting afternoon.
Will you meet me in the twilight
if you love me, say it's true -

He says, hold me like a child.
Feel my beating heart pressed up against yours,
pounding out a song I've never sung before.

Will you meet me in the twilight
for a moment, maybe two.
Will you meet me in the twilight
if you love me, say it's true -

that you'll steal away from the neighborhood
in the fleeting afternoon.
Will you meet me in the twilight?
If you love me, say it's true -
that you love me, darling.

Credits:

Jennifer - strumstick, vocals
Marc Shulman - electric guitar
Zev Katz - bass
Ben Wittman - drumset, percussion and keyboards
Duke Levine - acoustic slide solo and baritone guitar
Rick Hammett - trumpet
Denis Lambert - euphonium
Peter Cirelli - bass trombone
Lucy Kaplansky - harmony vocals
Meet me in the Twilight (G) strumstick G D G (the strumstick is a little dulcimer-broom kind of intrument with three strings) ( peaceloveandme.com/mall/cat_strumstick.asp)

It's a Long Way Home

from: Demo

Jingle Bells

Be My Baby

Last Monday night in a Jamaica Plain bar
a friend of a friend told me who you are
And would I mind very much giving you a ride
so we crossed the river to the other side
The other side, the other side
I wouldn't mind giving you a ride

Be my, be my baby tonight

So I drove you home and we got to your street
I turned to talk but you were out the door and on your feet
I thought I was after you but you were on my tail
left me with a smile put my heart in jail
My heart's in jail, my heart's in jail
Singing like a caged nightengale

Be my, be my baby
Be my, be my one and only
Be my be my baby tonight

It's midnight in Central but your face shines like dawn
Still at arm's length, we're falling headlong

One night you walked me home and then I saw
that one wool shirt between you and the cold
I know you knew I would have asked you to stay
So you said good night one street away
One street away, one street away
I know honey what you wouldn't say

Be my, be my baby
Be my, be my one and only
Be my be my baby tonight

Credits:

-Jennifer Kimball

I Still Miss Someone

Credits:

live at Toad, Sept. 06
Duke Levine and Kevin Barry, guitars
Kris Delmhorst, cello and vocals
JK, acoustic guitar and vocals
Johnny Cash

Don't Take Your Love Away

The street was a river, middle of June
a river that ran through our home
You were gone travelling a couple of days
so I dried out our things all alone

and I opened a box I'd never seen
full of old letters written to you
Don't take your love away, she said,
don't take your love away.

Page by page I laid them out to dry
what I knew I shouldn't read
How could you love somebody so much
knowing they've chosen to leave?

I miss what we were, I want what we had
your silence the cruelest reply
don't take your love away she said...

      Wouldn't it be easier in black and white
      I'm reading this too close to home
      I've got some letters and a box of my own
      That I've saved for all these years
      I've kept them for all these years.

The day's getting lonely, the sun's setting late
and now even your keys at the door
they never sounded this way before
don't take your love away...

Credits:

Jennifer: vocals, acoustic guitar
Duke: electric guitar, National guitar, harmonium, B3
Paul Bryan: bass, tack piano, Chamberlin
Shawn Pelton: drums
Kris Delmhorst: harmony vocals

lyrics co-written with Catie Curtis

Veering from the Wave

You and I, well we fell in deep
as a plumb line's true in the ocean of my sleep.

True is love when your heart takes aim.
In the silent depth nothing ever stays the same

So I left you here.
And I feel so alone,
veering from the wave to the fury.

When the storms roll in and they make me lose my place.
Slow and black I watch them creep across your face.

So you left me here.
You will drink to the midnight,
veering from the wave to the fury.

What you said to me then is what I say to you now -
Take it easy my friend, but take it somehow.
There's something between us I won't let it go.
Less than nothing, more than the universe can hold.

(You said, understand, we are blacker than sun -
but golden in the shadows, even coming undone).

You and I, we were meant to be.
Love and madness may run us out to sea.

So we'll leave them here
beating East on a tangent
veering from the wave to the fury.

Credits:

live at Juna's cafe in Ithaca, NY
Jenn solo

Kissing in the Car

I'm getting drunk once again, singing to the trees.
I'm laughing in the starlight with your letters in the leaves.
I'd say almost anything, or tell some kind of truth
To be wild again and hungry and trust you.

Kissing in the car again (where we could just be)
Kissing in the car again (where we could just...)

You drink too much love, you wear too much black.
You're looking up for true North as you lie on your back.
Well, you can take your lovely sermon and preach it far away
where you'll keep your hands to yourself when you pray.

Kissing in the car again (where we could just be)
Kissing in the car again (where we could just...)

I don't know what's the matter with the way I feel tonight
I don't know, but the stars are a canopy over me.

God help me, I've been bitter.
I hold the conversation from both sides.
I kneel at the altar of untimely forgiveness
where breathing the promise-laden air
is as easy as lying.

Kissing in the car (where we could just be)
Kissing in the car again (where we could just...)

I don't know what's the matter with the way this feels tonight
I don't know, but the stars are a canopy over me.



tuning: (G#-) guitar, capo 4, double dropped D tuning: D A D G B D

Credits:

Jennifer - acoustic guitar, lead vocal
Marc Shulman - electric guitar, baby electric guitar, and solo
Zev Katz - bass
Ben Wittman - drumset, percussion and keyboards
Duke Levine - acoustic and electric guitar
Lucy Kaplansky - all the other vocals

Kissing In The Car

from: Demo
I'm getting drunk once again, singing to the trees.
I'm laughing in the starlight with your letters in the leaves.
I'd say almost anything, or tell some kind of truth
To be wild again and hungry and trust you.

Kissing in the car again (where we could just be)
Kissing in the car again (where we could just...)

You drink too much love, you wear too much black.
You're looking up for true North as you lie on your back.
Well, you can take your lovely sermon and preach it far away
where you'll keep your hands to yourself when you pray.

Kissing in the car again (where we could just be)
Kissing in the car again (where we could just...)

I don't know what's the matter with the way I feel tonight
I don't know, but the stars are a canopy over me.

God help me, I've been bitter.
I hold the conversation from both sides.
I kneel at the altar of untimely forgiveness
where breathing the promise-laden air
is as easy as lying.

Kissing in the car (where we could just be)
Kissing in the car again (where we could just...)

I don't know what's the matter with the way this feels tonight
I don't know, but the stars are a canopy over me.

an Ordinary Soldier

from: Demo
It was easier when I let go.
It was easier than you will know.
Your lovely face, your deepest eyes -
you fade from me in this disguise.

But where is my cavalry?
Who's going to follow me,
who will fight by my side?

I'm standing still, I'm standing straight.
An ordinary soldier with my blind faith.
I hear the wind as I retreat.
It sings of when we two shall meet.

In the lee of the battle
my heart, heavy like rain,
beats slowly to the single drum
that sounds out your name.

But where is my cavalry?
Who's going to follow me?
Who will fight by my side and hold me when I fall?
Who will keep me from slipping into the past?
Who will help me remember I loved and lost well?

Snow Days

Little Live Things

All the snow is melting
the river's running high
robins on the green
their fledglings fly
the trees are sending out their buds
every limb has something new
But with all this beauty bursting
tell me how come you feel so blue?

All this rain, all this sun
it don't bring her back.

Tulips coming up
in bright yellow and red
the daffodil in faded white
sunshine, it's head.
The way she looked at you back then -
what you'll never regret.
Still, all the little live things
don't make you forget this blue.

She's gone this time
Flown for good
She meant what she said,
even as you misunderstood.

Never mind the blacktop yard
your garden now unformed
your rooftop perch a better view
than any flowers you could plant down below.
We'll wait all the livelong hours with you
'til we can drown our sorrows
in Tir na Nog
Tir na Nog
Tir na Nog
Tir na Nog

Credits:

-Jennifer Kimball

Can't Climb Up/Where is Love?

Credits:

live at club passim 4/18/09
guitars: Duke Levine, Kevin Barry and JK
words and music by Jennifer Kimball and Duke Levine
©2009 Jennifer Kimball

Eternal Father

Eternal father strong to save
Whose arm does bind the restless wave
Who biddst the mighty ocean deep
Its own apointed limits keep
Oh hear us when we cry to thee
For those in peril on the sea

Time, like an ever-rolling stream
Bears all its children soon away
To fly forgotten as a dream
Dies at the opening of the day
Oh, hear us when we cry to thee
For those in peril here with me

Oh let the darkness shine as light
Make endless nightime to be bright
When fear and sorrows all have passed
Then face to face well meet at last
Be still when tears are wiped from men
Whose eyes shall never weep again, weep again, weep again.


Credits:

Jennifer: vocals, acoustic guitar, blugle
Duke: electric guitars, backpacker guitar
Paul Bryan: bass
Jay Bellerose: drums
Kevin Barry: lap steel
Kris Delmhorst: harmony vocals
Russ Gershon: tenor sax, horn arrangement
Joel Yennior: trombone

the first verse comes from the hymn Eternal Father
and the second from Our God Our Help in Ages Past

Fall at your Feet by Neil Finn

I'm really close tonight.
and I feel like I'm moving inside him.
Lying in the dark
And I think that I'm beginning to know him.
Let it go
I'll be there when you call.

And whenever I fall at your feet
Won't you let your tears rain down on me
Whenever I touch your slow turning pain...

Don't hide it from me now
There's something in the way that your talking.
Words don't sound right
I hear them all moving inside you
Know - I'll be waiting when you call

And whenever I fall at your feet
Won't you let your tears rain down on me
Whenever I touch your slow turning pain...

The finger of blame has turned upon itself
And I'm more than willing to offer myself
Do you want my presence or need my help?
Who knows where that might lead.
I fall, I fall.

Whenever I fall at your feet
Won't you let your tears rain down on me
Whenever I touch your slow turning pain...

tuning: (Db) guitar, capo 4, normal tuning: E A D G B E

Credits:

Jennifer - acoustic guitar, vocals
Marc Shulman - electric guitar and solo
Zev Katz - bass
Ben Wittman - drumset, percussion and keyboards
Duke Levine - baritone electric guitar
Lucy Kaplansky - harmony vocals

Drafty

Credits:

live at the Espresso Garden cafe in San Diego, CA
Jenn and David Goodrich rock out on one of Jenn's instrumental tunes, as yet unrecorded

The Holly and the Ivy

Icarus

A fly on the window pane, I see the world outside.
I can stand with arms outstretched but I will never reach the sky.
I can let you near me. I can't let you inside.
I can let you hear me, but I can't let you see my eyes.

Every time I look at you I'm afraid of what I'll find.
Afraid of what I'm looking for and what I've got to hide
I can stand here before you. I can lay by your side
I can't let you see my eyes

I know I hurt you. I keep you guessing all the same.
All this deception is nothing but a painful game
I tore the picture that was you and me
I put it back together but now the tear is all I see

Every time I look at you I'm afraid of what I'll find.
Afraid of what I'm looking for and what I've got to hide
I can stand here before you. I can lay by your side
I can't let you see my eyes

Fly toward the sun, though your wings may come undone.
Fly toward the sun, what was lost must first be won.
Fly

Credits:

-Ry Cavanaugh

Funeral in My Brain

I felt a funeral in my brain
and mourners to and fro
kept treading treading 'til it seemed
that sense was breaking through

and when they all were seated
a service like a drum
kept beating beating 'til it seemed
my mind was going numb

and then I heard them lift a box
and creak across my soul
with those same boots of lead again
then space begain to toll

as all the heavens were a bell
and being but an ear
and I and silence some strange race
wrecked solitary here

Credits:

live at the Lizard Lounge, Cambridge, MA
Jenn and Michael Rivard cavort their way through Emily Dickenson's lyrics and Matt Glaser's changes. Matt wrote this for the Wayfaring Strangers - and you can find it on Shifting Sands of Time.

Is He or Isn't He?

Is he or isn't he?
Is he or isn't he?

He had a story to tell
but Art keeps insisting
(one part shy, two swell)
that he's just no good at stories

So, Artie buys you a drink
Autumn's left him for another
Then he drops it discrete
so and so's his brother

Prince of no depression, no?
Barely an expression, yeah?

Is he or isn't he who he says he is?
Is he or isn't he who he says he is?

Office clerk, engineer
sweetest guy you'll meet here
We know it's not true but we'd like him anyway
So we let it lie

There'll be disappointed scenesters
if this is make-believe world, yeah.

Is he or isn't he who he says he is?
Is he or isn't he who he says he is?
Is he or isn't he who he says he is?

Yes, I see his face in yours
oh, he's coming in to town
sure, you'll bring him by the bar
we're bobbing for apples in a bathtub of pears

Is he or isn't he who he says he is?
Is he or isn't he who he says he is?
Is he or isn't he who he says he is?

Credits:

Jennifer: vocals, baritone ukelele
Duke: electric guitar, lap steel
Paul Bryan: bass, vibes
Jay Bellerose: drums

Gagna's Song

For years I've been ready to let go of this life -
my friends, my wife already gone.
I was an old man then, now I'm senior to the octogenarians.

I was born in the year 1899, each July I'm one year ahead.
From Ipswich to Oberlin, Salisbury, Rome,
the people I loved have all gone.

"Just remember we love you," they say by my bed.
"We're here and we're holding your hands.
Just remember we love you, and this will always be.
You're going to join Nonna, our mother,
you're beloved, Josephine Jewel."

I loved her in Manhattan. I loved her in Rome.
I took her to Maine by the sea.
I whistled and painted, and walked with her there.
And she sang the high parts for me.

So take this weight off my chest.
Take this ache from my heart.
Take this breath from my lungs.
Let me slip away forever, let me be what we become.

And they'll sing for me, the men from school,
a silver dollar tune.
I'll fly over the villas of Florence and Brittany,
and graveyards with headstones for boys
who died in the 2nd World War.

My affairs are in order, my children are grandparents,
my work stands here and abroad -
from houses to rowboats, headstones to lithographs,
libraries, watercolors and oils.

Oh, there've been disapointments, but mostly I'm sure,
I wouldn't change a thing for this world.
I open my arms. My body will close.
And I go into the dream - the dream that never ends.

tuning: (F-) baritone ukulele, C G C F

Credits:

Jennifer - baritone ukulele, vocals
Marc Shulman - electric guitar, acoustic guitar on bridge
Larry Campbell - acoustic guitar and bouzouki
Mike Rivard - acoustic bass
Jerry O'Sullivan - uilleann pipes
Lucy Kaplansky - harmony vocals

the Revelations

from: Demo
The revelations of the worlds' devout -
are but stories from the other side.
Before the wise as prophets burned,
they told their brothers and to sleep returned.

Strange, though, don't you think?
That of the myriad who pass through the dark door
not one returns to tell us of that road,
which to discover we must travel, too.

I'm not afraid to die -
not here, not now
the laden bough.
It's just that there's so much
I have to live for now,
speed the plough.

You and I are here to stay
You and I are here to stay

Even through a wood you know by heart
it's hard to go the same way twice.
Any bird, a stone can be a new path
any love may turn to ice.

There is no vision here but what is seen,
a stillness deeper than the night sky.
There's time enough for both of us,
I am yours, and you are mine.

This is the way I've heard
it's supposed to be, you and me.
A bridge over open sea
a single span, the infinite plan.

You and I are here to stay
You and I are here to stay.

Winter Wonderland

Your Mouth

I took myself for a walk
along the rose-colored path
through the prickly mounded thistle
to the dunes

Over the rolling sand
soft grasses dark and sweet
wave their dewey selves at me

Your mouth, your mouth
Your mouth, your mouth

Stare into the pool
Dark waters deep and blue
Meet my gaze, take my heart
with you, with you

Hills so smooth and wide
glide to the glistening
single monument - take me in to

Your mouth, your mouth
Your mouth, your mouth

Credits:

-Jennifer Kimball

The Wheel

All the sorrow and joy
We hold in our beating hearts
Do not cede them to the wheel of heaven
For in the light of reason
The wheel is a thousand times more helpless than you

All the evil and good
Part fortune, part destiny
Do not cede them to the wheel of heaven
For in the light of reason
The wheel is a thousand times more helpless than you

Credits:

Jennifer: vocals, Wurlitzer
Duke: lap steel, omnichord, gut string bass, bass

It's a Long Way Home

You are a highway with no exits,
they say she drove you to extremes.
She couldn't stand that endless freeway,
"free" is never what it seemed.
She saw you from afar
but you went the distance for her soul.
She could never pay you back
so she just took her toll.

It's a long way home, this time.

You are a highway with no exits,
they say you took her for a ride.
But you just paved your way to heartache
and froze all up inside.
You thought you knew the signs
but she walked out on you.
All that open sky
never felt so blue.

It's a long way home,
it's a long way home,
it's a long way home, this time.

She was out of this world but you were out of your mind.
A heartless expedition to the steady and the kind.

Your are a highway with no exits,
they say she drove all over you.
You kept looking 'round for answers
while nothing dawned on you.
You are a highway with no exits,
they say you should have known.
But who are they to tell you -
those who've not been shown

the long way home
the long way home
the long way home, this time.

Love can take you back or it can make you lose your mind.
Now they're lining up to take your place - the eager and the blind.

It's a long way home,
it's a long way home
it's a long way home.

tuning: (Db) guitar, capo 6, normal tuning

Credits:

Jennifer - acoustic guitar, vocals
Marc Shulman - electric guitar
Zev Katz - bass and lounge piano excerpt
Ben Wittman - drumset, percussion and keyboards

Lullabye

Sleep, my darling
all through the night.
Let yourself fall
into the dark.

Close your eyes,
imagine the stars
shine this bright
just for you.

Hold my hand
and I'll be there when you wake.

Row your dory
out to sea -
give me your oars
I'll row you home.

Brush your black hair
out of your eyes.
Let yourself fall
into the dark.

Hold my hand
and I'll be there when you wake.

Credits:

live at DryLongSo Coffeehouse, NH
just Jenn and her ukulele

the Back of Your Hand

from: Demo

I Still Miss Someone

Cruel Sea

Goodbye, Maire, I am going to sea.
Just one more trip this season's all I need.
Oh dear Martin, please don't go
I have a feeling deep down in my bones.
His ship set out with the morning tide.
As Maire waved, a chill ran down her spine.
Oh my darling what have you done?
The cruel sea has taken the one I love.
With the pressure falling on his third day gone
Maire knew she'd been right all along.
Through shrieking wind she heard her Martin's voice
"I am lost sweet Maire, but always yours."
As the waves thundered down the rocky shore
Maire threw herself into the storm.
Just off the azores Martin fought the helm
the storm had passed and now he headed home again

Credits:

-Ry Cavanaugh

Last Ride Home

This is your last ride home
This is your last ride home
This is your last ride home
This is your last ride home

Sleep, mother, rest your eyes
Let the world pass you by
Sleep, mother rest your eyes
Evening will fall by and by

The trees they will bow and sway
As we slowly make our way
The trees they will bow and sway
Ive got the wheel today

Youll not see the deepening shade
Your favorite oaks will have made
Youll not see the deepening shade
Nor hear the birds accolade

This is your last ride home
This is your last ride home
This is your last ride home
This is your last ride home


Credits:


Jennifer: vocals
Duke: electric guitar, horn arrangement
Paul Bryan: bass, Chamberlin
Jay Bellerose: drums
Kevin Barry: lap steel
Russ Gershon: tenor sax
Joel Yennior: trombone

An Ordinary Soldier

It was easier when I let go.
It was easier than you will know.
Your lovely face, your deepest eyes -
you fade from me in this disguise.

But where is my cavalry?
Who's going to follow me,
who will fight by my side?

I'm standing still, I'm standing straight.
An ordinary soldier with my blind faith.
I hear the wind as I retreat.
It sings of when we two shall meet.

In the lee of the battle
my heart, heavy like rain,
beats slowly to the single drum
that sounds out your name.

But where is my cavalry?
Who's going to follow me?
Who will fight by my side and hold me when I fall?
Who will keep me from slipping into the past?
Who will help me remember I loved and lost well?

(C) guitar, capo 5, double dropped D: D A D G B D

Credits:

Jennifer - acoustic guitar, vocals
Marc Shulman - electric guitar
Zev Katz - bass and fretless bass

World Without End

from: Demo
All afternoon we watched that storm
over your favorite field;
the wind on my face, the worry in yours,
the wheat and the sea and your elm.

I am dust, let me settle;
all reason unwound.
We are ravelled and shaken,
not touching the ground.

Other places, other times
I remembered my lines -
but here I know it all by heart, by heart.

Take my hand, I'll walk with you
when we are old and beyond.
Time it was when even the sky
stretched out like the map for a fight.

You are dust, you can settle;
all reason unwound.
We are flying, unfurled, nowhere to be found.

When the forest is silent
lightening will strike.
We are tinder and we set the world on fire, on fire

After all is said
there is still no greater love.
World without end.

Knock Me Down

Knock me down - I get up
Once is never enough
Back of your hand 'cross my face
Turn my cheek just in case

Have you seen the wind - not just what it destroys?
I ask, have you seen the wind - not just what it destroys?

Knock me down - I get up
Once is never enough
Back of your hand 'cross my face
Turn my cheek just in case

You're not done having fun - well, I know where to find your gun
(You're) swinging for the bleacher seats - Gods redeem their vigils keep

Have you seen the wind - not just what it destroys?
I ask, have you seen the wind - not just what it destroys?

Knock me down -
Rule of thumb - times one

Knock me down - I get up
Knock me down - I get up
I get up
I get up
I get up

Credits:

-Kimball, Beardo, Cavanaugh, Conway, Colley

Gagna's Song

For years I've been ready to let go of this life -
my friends, my wife already gone.
I was an old man then, now I'm senior to the octogenarians.

I was born in the year 1899, each July I'm one year ahead.
From Ipswich to Oberlin, Salisbury, Rome,
the people I loved have all gone.

"Just remember we love you," they say by my bed.
"We're here and we're holding your hands.
Just remember we love you, and this will always be.
You're going to join Nonna, our mother,
you're beloved, Josephine Jewel."

I loved her in Manhattan. I loved her in Rome.
I took her to Maine by the sea.
I whistled and painted, and walked with her there.
And she sang the high parts for me.

So take this weight off my chest.
Take this ache from my heart.
Take this breath from my lungs.
Let me slip away forever, let me be what we become.

And they'll sing for me, the men from school,
a silver dollar tune.
I'll fly over the villas of Florence and Brittany,
and graveyards with headstones for boys
who died in the 2nd World War.

My affairs are in order, my children are grandparents,
my work stands here and abroad -
from houses to rowboats, headstones to lithographs,
libraries, watercolors and oils.

Oh, there've been disapointments, but mostly I'm sure,
I wouldn't change a thing for this world.
I open my arms. My body will close.
And I go into the dream - the dream that never ends.

Credits:

live at a WUMB member concert, Woods Hole, MA
Jenn and Marc Shulman, who recorded the original parts on Veering from the Wave

When I was Lost

Take the service entrance at the back door
Trash wet with early morning rain
You do what you're told all day long
It's not your nature to complain

Santa Maria, it's me, Paulo
Calling from half a world away
Cash in the mail, how's my little Lucy
I miss you more than I can say

Just a little accent - just a little music
on the tip of her tongue - it sounds like rain
When I was lost you showed me kindness
Lit up the night with your smile (I hear it)
More radiant than sunshine, sweeter than diamonds
No jewel could shine this bright

This island knows no inconvenience
I am a country with no name
But your little light shines so bright up on my wall
Your face, my heart, in a rosewood frame.

Just a little accent - you've got just a little music
on the tip of your tongue - it sounds like rain
When I was lost you showed me kindness
Lit up this night with your smile (I hear it)
More radiant than sunshine, sweeter than diamonds
No jewel could shine so bright

Sunday morning I will walk on South Beach
and sing Joao Bosco songs for you
four thousand miles away by sea

When I was lost you showed me kindness
Lit up this night with your smile (I hear it)
More radiant than sunshine, sweeter than diamonds
No jewel could shine so bright,
Shine so bright.



Credits:

Jennifer: vocals
Duke: electric and acoustic guitars, mandola, Wurlitzer, harmonium, lap steel
Paul Bryan: bass, Chamberlin
Shawn Pelton: drums
Merrie Amsterburg: harmony vocals

lyrics co-written with Merrie Amsterburg

Take One Step

The harbor lies still in Argentia.
It captured my heart today.
Your father and you sing a late night song and you turn

Take one step, come towards me
If I asked you would you take one step?
You can lead.
Let my hand go in yours.
Don't look sideways, don't look sideways.
Take me along, and we will dance.

Your opening, more of a question.
Better to keep it that way.
The look on your face when you opened the door after midnight said

Take one step, come towards me
If I asked you would you take one step?
You can lead.
Let my hand go in yours.
Don't look sideways, don't look sideways.
Take me along, and we will dance.

(D to E-) guitar, capo 5, double dropped D: D A D G B D

Credits:

Jennifer - acoustic guitar, lead vocal
Ben Wittman - percussion and keyboards
Mike Rivard - bass
Duke Levine - forwards and backwards electric and baritone electric guitar
Lucy Kaplansky - harmony vocals
excerpt from "Lighthouse Light" performed by Ry Cavanaugh

Lost Woman

How come lost woman songs always say she belonged to me
It sounds like you could buy one special on tv
Well the way it looks from where I stand, tell me if I'm wrong
If you think you owned her that just might be why she's gone.

She's there with you because she wants to be
She does what she wants to do
You can spend your life in love with her but she don't belong to you

All these sad songs some guy cryin' in his beer
Pumpin' coins in the jukebox, the same one you're gonna hear.
His gal is gone she said so long, left a farewell note behind
says he will remember though that she once was mine

She's there with you because she wants to be
She does what she wants to do
You can spend your life in love with her but she don't belong to you

Credits:

-George Cavanaugh

I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire

Credits:

live at Hi-n-Dry studio, Cambridge, MA
Jenn and Duke Levine sat in with Ry Cavanaugh and the Session Americana band to record this World War II era tune for SA's fabulous two-cd album called Tabletop People, Vol. 1 & 2. This cd also features Jenn and Ry singing "Lighthouse Light," Ry's song which appears at the end of Veering's "Take One Step."

East of Indiana

I live East of Indiana, no tilling here to mourn
No fields to the horizon, your shirts were always torn.

Your gaze did slowly drift, sure as winter fell from Fall
And since you sent no letter I read the writing on the wall.
East of Indiana, East of Indiana

From the high ground she did spin her tales of being left alone;
As if by spreading pain it seemed she could undo some of her own.

If hell is here on earth, oh, then let me fall
Let me think I know what love is, I don't know anything at all
East of Indiana, East of Indiana

In the nighttime did we sing.
The moon, her fullness won,
is now indifferent and pale
from here to kingdom come.
You reap what you will sow,
the harvest is on fire.
And little girls with little boys' names,
condemned, all, to desire.

In the golden streaming sundown, for a moment I forget,
we thought we could go swimming without ever getting wet.

But the sun will rake it's path across me to the west
And each day it sets above you, I am older, I am yet
East of Indiana, East of Indiana
East of Indiana, East of Indiana


Credits:

Jennifer: vocals, piano
Duke: electric guitar, mandola, mandolin, backpacker, harmonium, guitorgan
Paul Bryan: Chamberlin, toy piano
Kevin Barry: lap steel
Kris Delmhorst: harmony vocals

The Revelations

The revelations of the worlds' devout -
are but stories from the other side.
Before the wise as prophets burned,
they told their brothers and to sleep returned.

Strange, though, don't you think?
That of the myriad who pass through the dark door
not one returns to tell us of that road,
which to discover we must travel, too.

I'm not afraid to die -
not here, not now
the laden bough.
It's just that there's so much
I have to live for now,
speed the plough.

You and I are here to stay
You and I are here to stay

Even through a wood you know by heart
it's hard to go the same way twice.
Any bird, a stone can be a new path
any love may turn to ice.

There is no vision here but what is seen,
a stillness deeper than the night sky.
There's time enough for both of us,
I am yours, and you are mine.

This is the way I've heard
it's supposed to be, you and me.
A bridge over open sea
a single span, the infinite plan.

You and I are here to stay
You and I are here to stay.

(D- to C) piano

Credits:

Jennifer - acoustic piano, vocals
Marc Shulman - electric guitar
Zev Katz - bass
Ben Wittman - drumset, percussion, keyboards and guitorgan
Rick Hammett - piccolo trumpet
readings by Ben Wittman, Ry Cavanaugh, Tod Baker, Lucy Kaplansky and Jennifer Kimball
excerpts from a live recording of Wayfaring Strangers at the Bottom Line, October 30, 1997

All the Time in the World

Whistles blow and bells will ring, it's only the swell of the sea
Fever and the bootleg flask took all of my brothers from me
From the old world ships brought quarrymen to carve columns with finnials, victors of war
The steam drill whines, your back is bent - you turn and smile at me

and suddenly -
I've got all the time, darling
All the time in the world
I've got all the time when you look my way
And we haven't said a word

The Union won the nine-hour day. still we're chained to the company store
a pittance wage, not a minute free for a girl on cannery row
Save Saturday, in the oil lamp glow, the dancing pavilion it sways
your gaze meets mine, beneath spruce and pine, and we dance the night away

'cause I've got all the time, darling
All the time in the world
I've got all the time when you look my way
And we haven't said a word

It's a dry island where the boss is King
but the band makes it feel like home
those Yankee tunes, they end at the end
but the Italians made me fly

Whistles blow and bells will ring, the foreman's out looking for me
A stolen hour, a stolen kiss. We were thieves in an endless robbery

Credits:

-Jennifer Kimball

Lightning Bugs

All morning Dariens been blue, nary a cloud in the sky.
From here your daddys fields stretch out fifteen acres long and wide.
One minute swaying wheat the next, quills on a bristling porcupine.
Now hes coming toward the porch rail, no place out here you can hide.

Lightning bugs at twilight, thats how the stars shine for you.
No apparent rhyme or reason, no one can hold them still for you.

Your fear of needles wont help, baby, keep that animal at bay.
Oh you want that field to lie still more than you could ever say.
But daddys six feet underground and mama dont like country life.
And now you couldnt tell your high from low if you could stick it with a knife.

Lightning bugs at twilight, thats how the stars shine for you.
No apparent rhyme or reason, no one can hold them still.

They should be brighter, you could see clearer
bring what you want a little nearer.
But now theyre moving in zig-zag fashion.
Theyre still eluding, you want to smash them.

New York skylines not the same, the searchlight sends its magic beam.
Now your daddyll never leave your side. Things arent always what they seem.

Lightning bugs at twilight, thats how the stars shine for you.
No apparent rhyme or reason, I wish I could hold them still for you.



Credits:

Jennifer: vocals, baritone ukulele
Duke: electric guitar, mandoguitar
Paul Bryan: bass
Shawn Pelton: drums

(this is) My New Vow

Walk back down the aisle -
No cameras, no flowers this time.
You will find your way back home, no one at your side.
Only absense will be your lover, regret your bride.

And this is my new vow
not to have you or hold you
no more my arms enfold you
from this day on.

And with all that I am
and all that I have
I still honor you.

So go, take your records,
I want the plate from Mexico.
Go, and don't look back
to swimming in the azure blue.

We have lived and partly lived, not to let this happen
You took my hand, I gave it to you, I take it back.
Ten years could be a lifetime, now we count the ways
to leave the burning sameness of these days.

And just the other day
I saw it there
gleaming in the attic twilight -

my wedding dress,
still off-white, still my mother's,
as she must have seen it
when she left Dad.

So go, damn this whole thing,
I don't know how we got here.
Go, and don't look back, dear,
the way I always did.

And I still do.

(G) strumstick G D G (the strumstick is a little dulcimer-broom kind of intrument with three strings)

Credits:

Jennifer - strumstick, vocal

Tomorrow Night

Credits:

live at Jenn and Ry's WUMB member concert for their band Maybe Baby
Jenn and Ry and one baritone ukulele perform the Lonnie Johnson tune made famous by Elvis.

All the Same to Me

As long as I can remember I've been trying to ease the pain
so when I found myself on the corner after the doctor said that I'd been cured
bag or bottle you know it doesn't matter, as long as it takes away the pain
its all the same to me

Some believe in Jesus, Yeah some believe in love
but my brother, he plays the market.
Last year he did pretty good.
Lately I've been feeling foresaken because money, god and love
are all the same to me.

The carousel is spinning around and the band is out of tune
The whiskey bottle's empty... abandoned.

For as long as I can remember, he's been talking about wanting to go
so when I found the old man on the carpet lying there still and cold
I didn't wonder how it had happened
heart attack or overdose
It's all the same to me

Credits:

-Ry Cavanaugh

Ballad #61

Words that werent said,
words that werent said.
Theyre all in your head,
All in your head.

On occasion Ive been known to get the facts confused.
On occasion I may have twisted the rules
Into the knot that suits my fancy.

Some say it wont,
some say it wont.
Some say it will,
Oh, say it will

Last until the fall burns like our initial desire.
Give it one more chance before you call me a liar.
And kiss me as if nothing could stand in our way.

All that youve worked towards
will take you far from me,

The lighthouse in love with the ship
that sails on the restless sea.

Remember the harbor
sailing your oceans deep.

Follow this beacon of light when and if
you come back home to me.

Credits:

Jennifer: vocals, acoustic guitar
Duke: electric and acoustic guitars, lap steel, mandola
Paul Bryan: bass, vibes
Jay Bellerose: drums
Ry Cavanaugh: acoustic guitar, harmony vocals
Sean Staples: mandolin
Dinty Child: accordian, fiddle

World Without End

All afternoon we watched that storm
over your favorite field;
the wind on my face, the worry in yours,
the wheat and the sea and your elm.

I am dust, let me settle;
all reason unwound.
We are ravelled and shaken,
not touching the ground.

Other places, other times
I remembered my lines -
but here I know it all by heart, by heart.

Take my hand, I'll walk with you
when we are old and beyond.
Time it was when even the sky
stretched out like the map for a fight.

You are dust, you can settle;
all reason unwound.
We are flying, unfurled, nowhere to be found.

When the forest is silent
lightening will strike.
We are tinder and we set the world on fire, on fire

After all is said
there is still no greater love.
World without end.

(D) guitar, capo 7, normal tuning

Credits:

Jennifer - acoustic guitar, vocals
Marc Shulman - electric guitar
Ben Wittman - percussion and keyboards
Mike Rivard - fretless bass
Duke Levine - electric guitar
Peter Eldridge and Theo Bleckman - vocal loop

What Matters

There's a thousand things that I could say, it doesn't matter anyway
you know where I stand, it's the same place I always stand, you know what kind of man I am

What matters is already here

Let the pundits pose and the lawyers elude, writers prose and the poets alude
The politicians are always on shaky ground but you and I are sticking around

What matters is already here

There's a million jobs out there to be had and managers who'll treat you bad
It's the same old shit no matter what you do but the same old love will pull us through

What matters is already here.

Credits:

-Ry Cavanaugh

Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams

What price happiness, what price happiness
Who can truthfully say?
But for every share, with tears we pay

Love is happiness, Ive had happiness
Ah, but it ended one day
Now I look at life a different way

When skies are cloudy and grey
Theyre only grey for a day
So wrap your troubles in dreams, and dream your troubles away

Until that sunshine peeps through
Theres only one thing to do
Just wrap your troubles in dreams, and dream your troubles away

Your castles may tumble
Thats fate after all
Lifes really funny that way
No use to grumble
Just smile as they fall
Werent you king for a day, say

Just remember that sunshine
Always follows the rain
So wrap your troubles in dreams, and dream your troubles away

Credits:

Jennifer: vocals
Duke: electric guitar
Paul Bryan: bass
Jay Bellerose: drums
Kevin Barry: lap steel, whistling

words Ted Koehler and Billy Moll;
music Harry Barris

Veering from the Wave

You and I, well we fell in deep
as a plumb line's true in the ocean of my sleep.

True is love when your heart takes aim.
In the silent depth nothing ever stays the same

So I left you here.
And I feel so alone,
veering from the wave to the fury.

When the storms roll in and they make me lose my place.
Slow and black I watch them creep across your face.

So you left me here.
You will drink to the midnight,
veering from the wave to the fury.

What I said to you then is what I say to you now -
Take it easy my friend, but take it somehow.
There's something between us I won't let it go.
Less than nothing, more than the universe can hold.

(You said, understand, we are blacker than sun -
but golden in the shadows, even coming undone).

You and I, we were meant to be.
Love and madness may run us out to sea.

So we'll leave them here
beating East on a tangent
veering from the wave to the fury.

(C) guitar, capo 5, double dropped D: D A D G B D

Credits:

Jennifer - acoustic guitar, vocals
Ben Wittman - percussion and keyboards
Mike Rivard - bass
Duke Levine - electric guitar

Coal Machine

Goodbye my Appalachia, I'll see you in my dreams
I'll miss the wind in the sycamore tree
but I know it won't miss me

"So long, farewell," no friends will say
as I leave a trail of steam.
Those steel wheels will pull, though my heart tries to slow
this speeding coal machine, this speeding coal machine.

You sank into the moonlight
but your wedding ring still shines.
Another round for the bar,
god knows where you are -
you're hers 'til the end of time.

"So long, farewell," no friends will say
as I leave a trail of steam.
Those steel wheels will pull, though my heart tries to slow
this speeding coal machine,
this speeding coal machine.

Oh I can't undo what I have done -
fool was I to care.
I've sure had fun, but I've just begun
Now all in love is fair,
is fair, is fair, is fair.

Credits:

-Jennifer Kimball

Lullabye

Sleep, my darling
all through the night.
Let yourself fall
into the dark.

Close your eyes,
imagine the stars
shine this bright
just for you.

Hold my hand
and I'll be there when you wake.

Row your dory
out to sea -
give me your oars
I'll row you home.

Brush your black hair
out of your eyes.
Let yourself fall
into the dark.

Hold my hand
and I'll be there when you wake.

(ends in F) baritone ukulele, C G C F

Credits:

Jennifer - baritone ukulele, vocals

Veering From The Wave

Time to Go Home

He don't come when he's called
Sometimes he don't come at all

and he loves you

She don't do as she's told
She don't weave threads of gold

But she loves you

Cheryl, it's time to go home
Cheryl, it's a cold, cold dawn
Take what you need, don't do as you're told.
Cheryl, it's time to go home.

I know you've been so concerned
that I don't have money to burn
I know that there's just no excuse
We live the life that we choose

and I love her
and I can love you too if you let me through

Credits:

-Ry Cavanaugh