| Jim Tidman - Stealing Ghosts |
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 I've been friends with Jim for a bunch of years now.
We were a little ways into our friendship before I even realized Jim played guitar. Anyway, he pulled out a guitar one night and played me a song he'd written, called Apple Blossom - I was impressed (it ended up being the 1st song on his record).
As I heard more of his tunes over the next few years, and at countless campfires, I started saying 'Jim, we gotta get you into the studio and lay these tunes down'...
So, eventually, that's what we did!
In the fall of '08, we went into the Bathouse, and we started by starting.
We chipped away at it over the course of a couple/three weekends, here and there.
On the first weekend, Jim's wife Angie, his daughter Emily, and my wife Joanne each sang a duet with him. A couple of our other kids, his Katie, and my Sophie, also added some back-ups. Jim's brother Dave, a surprisingly subtle and tasteful harmonica player, was there most of the time over these weekends - playing along with Jim and his songs, like he's done most of their lives...
I asked Rob Baker to add some pedal steel on a couple of tunes - then I asked Gord Sinclair to add a little banjo. Another friend of mine, Mauro Sepe, came in one night and played some percussion on a couple of tracks. Aaron Holmberg, our resident engineer at the Bathouse, even made an appearance, with a back-up vocal on Devils and Diamonds...
So there you go! That's how it happened, and I hope you like it....
Paul
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Apple blossom
They found her shoes down by the water/neatly set upon the pebbles by the shore/ now she's gone down the river/ washed away like and apple blossom in the breeze/ she was tall/ just like her mother/ in a family of fourteen she was the youngest daughter/ corn silk hair/ dark as a raven/ she could stop the talk in any room she came in/(Chorus)/ and a life of loss/ is all his life had been/ but he loved that dark haired girl though the bottle owned him/ that night they fought/ and he stormed away/ they found his truck half in the water the next day/some are born to fortune/ and some are born to fame/ but some are born to tragedy and pain/ and love is treasure/ but treasure costs/ and even the tallest trees go bare in the autumn frost/(Chorus)/ She wore a dress/ of the finest linen/ she tied her hair upon her head with a piece of ribbon/ and she closed the door/ then she walked the path/ running her fingers through the tall grass she walked past/(Chorus) |
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Come Around
It's all water underneath the bridge/ and it don't matter any more/ we both paid a price/ we paid it in full/ and I don't feel like paying any more/ you can come around/ I don't mind/I don't mind if you come around/ I still have that photograph/ the one I was supposed to throw away/ I see you still/ half-turned away/ when I think of you/ I think about that day/(Chorus)/ I saw your sister and she touched my face/ and she just looked at me and smiled/ she said the two of you ain't ever gonna change/ too many years/ and too many miles/ you left me flowers a couple years ago/ just a box out on the porch/ I don't know if you meant to start again/ but you never/ left me any more/ (Chorus)/ you put two magnets up against themselves/there's only two ways they can go/ they either pull until they can't become undone/ the other way/ we already know/(Chorus) |
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Clothes
Well the wind rushes past/ and throws the curtains through the sash/ and reminds you that the nights/ they'll still get cold/ and the stories that your telling/ well they might have served you well/ but tonight you think they might be getting old/ see for every story told/ a little part of you gets sold/ a little piece gets whittled off and falls away/ and I know you think its easier to just keep adding on/ but there might be nothing left to take away/ and it gets hard to keep track/ of the pile you built out back/ when you always have to watch all the other eyes/ and the things that you love best/ well they never let you rest/ and you might just be your clothes you realize/(Chorus)/now the kettle starts a whistling/ from the stove out in the kitchen/ and you get up from the couch to stop the sound/ but your not sure that you want to/ cuz that empty house might haunt you/ and you dream about getting lost at the lost and found/(Chorus) |
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That old House
That old house was broken down/and garbage piled up all around/ rusted cars stuffed full of clothes/ and windows cracked and windows closed/ and all us wild boys we'd drive past/ and throw our bottles broken glass/ shattered on the front porch step/ and shattered hearts don't soon forget/ I heard he tore that old place down and watched it fall into dirt/ the walls gave in and made a sound/ a sound like sorrow sin and hurt/ I heard/ of tragedies that can't be named/ of innocence replaced with pain/ the drunken darkening of doors/ the creak of boots upon the floor/ she had him by the back porch shed/ and there were no words to be said/ there in that old house he was raised/ eyes always down/ avoid their gaze/ and righteous neighbours whisper shame/that child of guilt that child of blame/ he grew up broken by a lie/ they said he had his daddy's eyes/ (Chorus) /and we'd all laugh and point and stare/ light up that house with a headlights glare/ that kid just stood out by the trees/ and days moved in waves/ like a field of bees/ (Chorus)/ and that old house bent under weight/ of snow and seasons/ storms and fate/ till all that held had finally fled/but the hollow frame of the back porch shed/ sometimes what's lost cannot be found/ the burdened heart of the broken down/ sometimes I think of that old place/ when I drive by the empty space/ (Chorus) |
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Meter Maid
There's a meter maid standing on the corner when the rain starts again/she thinks her day ain't getting any brighter/ and she's not wrong/ I'm just sitting in a restaurant waiting for my shoes to dry/ I'm staring out the window when a bus stops but there ain't any riders/no one's getting on/ a man with a briefcase on his head goes rushing past/ he looks up at the sky and wonders/ is it gonna last/ the rain makes tiny rivers roll on down the glass/ of the window pane/ and I want to think of you again/ but my coffee cup is empty/ and the waitress tries to tempt me/ with another/ but I'm thinking that I ought to try to get myself together/ and get on home/ so I reach into my pocket/ pay the bill and start to walk/ when I get up to the doorway /you're standing right before me/ with another/ no you're not alone/ you don't say a word/ and I don't say one either/ we just move to the edges of the doorway for each other/ you're coming in/ and I'm about to leave/ you brush against me/ and we don't breathe/ I'm lying next to you/ when my mind is drifting/ you say my name/ when your half asleep/ you know me/ even when I'm a stranger/ we ain't in love no more/ that's what were trying to believe/now I'm back out in the rain again/ I pull my collar to my chin/ turn into the weather/ well I guess it's now or never/ so I just/ I just start to walk/ two blocks up and one block over/ is the place where you stayed over for the first time/ a diner sign lighting up your body as you slept/ still and soft/ this town/ its too damn small/ every corner/ every window/ every wall/ they're pushing at me/ trying to make me fall/ I turn up the lane/ cuz I want to think of you again/ (Chorus) |
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Garfield Brant
There ain't no one walked this earth/ more straight ahead/than Garfield Brant/ a good man's dead/they don't build'em like that no more/ they don't have the mold/ lived his life with his cigarettes/ he was ninety-three years old/ trapped when it was cold/ fished when it was warm/ he was out the door by four am/ with a thermos under his arm/ and he kept any quarters/ that had a Mountie on the back/ and he burned his bacon/ and he drank his coffee black/ and he was out/ on the lake/ no hat on his head/ just a rod and a bottle/ just a bottle and a bed/ he had soap stone eyes/ and a saddle leather face/ he wore his work shirt pressed/ he kept a pen in place/ he had a ring on a string/ he had a picture in a locket/ he kept his boat at the dock/ he kept his Players in his pocket/ and he died standing up/ down at the water/ I threw his ashes in the lake/ with his great granddaughter/ they're ain't no one walked this earth/ more straight ahead/ than Garfield Brant/ a good man's dead |
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Thin Lines
You can only watch the water when it rises/ when the mountains let the rivers down/ so many things can drown/ and in the dry years than the fields can turn to fire/ and the dust will devour/ anything you try to grow/ but there's something in this spring rain/ makes you think that this could be the year of /tall green fields/ and the fence line tonight/ is a thin grey wire/ there are fine lines/ in the ties that bind/ Bobby's gone two years out working in the oil fields/ he's pumping money from the ground/ where the grass no longer grows/ but you cash his cheques/ to help to pay the taxes/ on the land you keep the pipeline from/ why/ you don't really know/ (Chorus) /so you slip out to the front porch with a coffee/ she says you seem a little quiet/ is there something on your mind/ but you don't know yourself so you don't answer/ you just stare out at the darkness/ where the sheets blow on the line/ (Chorus) /Now the lines on your face are getting deeper/ from the burden and the beauty of a life pulled from the ground/ and your back acts up when ever it gets damp now/ even when the sunlight warms you/ you still feel it in your hands/ (Chorus) |
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Devils and Diamonds
Look at the pretty girl/ up on the movie screen/ she's gone to Devils and Diamonds/ from dreaming of Steve McQueen/ In a plastic world/she tried out everything/ now were all eating her piece by piece/ in the gossip magazines/ go on now baby it's alright just let it go/ and start running/ before anyone knows/ when everybody is a taker/ and all you got is love/ you end up giving it all away/ your as empty as a glove/ and we all got our hands out/ to push you to the light/ now you don't eat/ and you don't sleep/ and your eyes just don't look right/ (Chorus)/what made you broken/ we all want to know/ if we can catch you in the camera crying/ than we'll all watch the show/ go on look away/ laugh into your shirt/ cuz sometimes you're the flower/ and sometimes you're the dirt/ (Chorus) |
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A Little Mean
She can be a little mean/ say things that make you bleed/ she'll up and walk away/ if she don't want to stay/ but she's pretty in the morning/that ain't the same as me/ she'll sneak out for a cigarette/when she don't want no one to see/I ain't bragging ‘bout it/ no I ain't talking proud/ I'm just singing to myself and loving her out loud/ she likes John and Kris and Willy/ and she snaps her fingers when she sings/ that old angel from Montgomery/ she's always got a tear to bring/ (Chorus) /and some days she makes me crazy/ and some days she makes me laugh/ and some days she's so damn lazy/ she'll spend the whole day in the bath/ (Chorus) /she pretends that she don't notice/ the way her hair falls in her eyes/ she watches TV in her undies/ and complains about how I drive/ she'll get right up in your face/ she can be a little dark/ but between a rock and a hard place/ she don't ever fall apart/(Chorus) |
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Unwed Fathers*
In an Appalachian Greyhound station/ she sits there waiting/ in a family way/ good-bye brother/ tell mom I love her/ tell all the others/ I'll write someday/ teenage lover/ to an unwed mother/ kept undercover/ like some bad dream/ but unwed fathers/ they cant be bothered/ they run like water/ through a mountain stream/ in a cold and grey town/ a nurse says lay down/ this ain't no playground/ and this ain't home/ someone's children/ out having children/ in a grey stone building/ all alone/ (Chorus) / somewhere else bound/ Smokey Mountain Greyhound/ she bows her head down/ humming lullabies/ your daddy never/ meant to hurt you ever/ he just don't live here/ but you got his eyes/ (Chorus) |
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| Words and music by Jim Tidman on all songs except *Unwed Fathers - words and music John Prine |
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