Camilla Lyrics

 

1. Camilla (for Marion King)

Mama, sweet mama

Where are you going

With all your babies

And that casserole

I’m going to the jailhouse

In Camilla, Georgia

To see a woman

And ask for her parole

 

Mama, sweet mama

Why are you beaten

Why are your babies

Scattered on the ground

The sheriff slapped me

And then he struck me down

He kept on kicking

Till I blacked out

 

This old Georgia town

Knocked me from my feet

I see a blue-eyed devil

Looking down at me

 

Mama, sweet mama

Why did you do it

Why did you not move back

Into the crowd

Ella Mae was watching

From the jailhouse window

I had to show her

I was proud

 

This old Georgia town

Knocked me from my feet

I see a blue-eyed devil

Looking down at me

 

This old Georgia town

 

Knocked me from my feet

I see a blue-eyed devil

Looking down at me

 

Mama, sweet mama

What’s happened to you

Your pregnant body

Standing so tough

My unborn baby

Is no longer

Now I’m a lawyer

Is that enough

Is that enough?

 

2. Black Mountain Lullaby (for Jeremy Davidson)

Gather round my table

Say grace with me

In my little trailer

In the mountains of wise county

Grief is mine forever

Sadness my story

Down in inman holler

In the mountains of wise county

 

Bye baby baby bye

Little baby bye bye

Bye baby baby bye

My little baby bye bye

 

Mountaintops are made of 1,000 pound boulders

That roll down the hills and on to our shoulders

Lord let me bear it for safe keeping

Lord let me shield it from my dearest jeremy

 

Bye baby baby bye

Little baby bye bye

Bye baby baby bye

My little baby bye bye

 

Mama will rock you til you are sleeping

Angels will hold you in their keeping

Powerful men will make their money

Your name will live here in the mountains of wise county

 

Bye baby baby bye

Little baby bye bye

Bye baby baby bye

My little baby bye bye

My little baby bye bye

 

3. Fireflies

Little girl in your nightgown

Little girl in your nightgown

Little girl in your nightgown

Chasing after fireflies

Chasing after fireflies

 

See that burning building

See that burning building

See that burning building

That’s tradition burning down

That’s tradition burning down

 

They got you where they want you

They got you where they want you

They got you where they want you

They got the lid screwed down

They got the lid screwed down

 

Don’t you worry about nothing

Don’t you worry about nothing

Don’t you worry about nothing

Little girl in your nightgown

Little girl in your nightgown

 

Little girl in your nightgown

 

Little girl in your nightgown

Little girl in your nightgown

Chasing after fireflies

Chasing after fireflies

Chasing after fireflies

Chasing after fireflies

 

Let the traditions burn down

Let the traditions burn down

Let the traditions burn down

Let the traditions burn down

 

4. Maiden Voyage (special thanks to Woody Guthrie)

It was a maiden voyage

She rode shotgun in the back

We made snow angels in the motel tire tracks

The traffic thinned, it parted just for us

Through rain and wind, through ash and rust

We saw the white dome, like a gleaming breast

But our eyes were on the White House

And to hell with all the rest

The masses gathered drinking frozen margaritas

At the 8th and G Capitol Hill Cantinas

 

It goes like this

You take your hand

You lift it up and put it on your heart

And there you stand

Singing, “This land is your land, this land is my land”

 

A little body so packed with clothes

Disappearing into hordes

Lining up in useless rows

Of three million people

Ashamed and accused

Scared to say where they’re from

Angry their name’s been used

I held my girl as she fell asleep

 

At the noontime hour

At the inaugural weep

A man said to me, “you are living in the present moment”

And I felt shut out, cold, tired and all alone

 

It goes like this

You take your hand

You lift it up and put it on your heart

And there you stand

Singing, “This land is your land, this land is my land”

 

The privileged held while the masses flowed

Just like a mighty river running through my soul

My girl cried for a flag

Something she could understand

And we marched through the street

As I held her hand

The good days come

Not just the golden dies

As the giant sleeps under cumulus skies

We sing and dance and scream our names

Sleep the sleep of the weary

And drive home again

 

Honey, it goes like this

You take your hand

You lift it up and put it on your heart

And there you stand

Singing, “This land is your land, this land is my land”

 

It goes like this

You take your hand

You lift it up and put it on your heart

And there you stand

Singing, “This land is your land, this land is my land”

 

5. Traveling Shoes (based on A Worn Path by Eudora Welty)

Tie my traveling shoes

 

Tie my traveling shoes

Tie my traveling shoes

Give me something I can use

Won’t you tie my traveling shoes

 

Shadow of the pine

In the shadow of the pine

In the shadow of the pine

She sways from side to side

In the shadow of the pine(s)

 

Tie my traveling shoes

Tie my traveling shoes

Tie my traveling shoes

Give me something I can use

Won’t you tie my traveling shoes

 

Lady won’t you please

Kind lady won’t you please

Lady won’t you please

Go down upon your knees

Kind lady won’t you please

 

Tie my traveling shoes

Tie my traveling shoes

Tie my traveling shoes

Give me something I can use

Won’t you tie my traveling shoes

 

Ease down slow

Won’t you ease down slow

Ease down slow

Got so many miles to go

Won’t you ease down slow

 

Tie my traveling shoes

Tie my traveling shoes

Tie my traveling shoes

Give me something I can use

Won’t you tie my traveling shoes

 

6. Summer Song

It’s been a hard summer in the mountains

It’s been a hard summer in the delta

It’s been a hard summer in these hills

In these hills

In these hills

 

Can you feel the aching in your shoulders

Can you feel the aching in your shoulders

Can’t you feel the aching in your shoulders

I do, I do

 

It’s been a hard summer

It’s been a hard summer

It’s been a hard summer

In these hills

 

The mourning dove sings out in the mountains

The mockingbird sings on in the Delta

The whippoorwill sings on in these hills

In these hills, in these hills

 

And there’s a wind blowing through the redbuds

There’s a wind blowing through the cypress

There’s a wind blowing through the pine trees

On to us, on to us

 

There’s a wind blowing

There’s a wind blowing

There’s a wind blowing

On to us

 

It’s been a hard summer in the mountains

It’s been a hard summer in the Delta

It’s been a hard summer in these hills

In these hills

In these hills

 

But mourning dove, don’t you weep for me

Mockingbird, don’t you weep for me

Whippoorwill, please don’t weep for me

‘Cause I can sing, I can sing

 

It’s been a hard summer

It’s been a hard summer

It’s been a hard summer

In these hills

 

7. White Dress (for Mae Francis Moultrie)

I’m 24 years old

I won’t live this way anymore

 

See my white dress shining in the sun

See my white dress shining in the sun

 

Alabama May

Dogwoods and redbuds

See my white dress shining in the sun

See my white dress shining in the sun

See my white dress shining in the sun

 

Burning alive

Burning inside

But you won’t burn me down

 

Now the bus slows

And the driver runs away

See my blackness shining in the sun

See my blackness shining in the sun

 

Little white girl

May I have a glass of water

See my white dress shining in the sun

See my white dress shining in the sun

See my white dress shining in the sun

 

Burning alive

Burning inside

But you won’t burn me down

 

I’m 24 years old

I won’t live this way anymore

 

See my white dress shining in the sun

See my white dress shining in the sun

See my white dress shining in the sun

 

8. Until you Go

In this stillness, this sadness

Hold my grieving, my madness

For a little while longer

Till I feel stronger

Love is closing down upon me

I did not know love before now

Here in the wilderness

I feel a tenderness

 

Where is my dwelling place

Wonder or longing

I want to stay with you

My place of belonging

Until you go

 

Death it surely comes to greet us

How can you be gone forever

Just when I learned you

And we embraced us

See his eyes and how he needs me

I’m an eagle set for soaring

O’er all of creation

As long as I’m able

 

Where is my dwelling place

 

Wonder or longing

I want to stay with you

My place of belonging

Until you go

 

Tracing old familiar paths

And bridges made for crossing

I have learned to say goodbye

Oh, what love has cost me

 

Then the rawness starts to fade out

And my thoughts glaze over nicely

Time is no healer

Pain makes me human

Come my love and let me hold you

We must fight to keep on living

For in a moment

Birds’ wings are breaking

 

Where is my dwelling place

Wonder or longing

I want to stay with you

My place of belonging

Until you go

 

9. Flee as a Bird (hymn)

Written in 1840 by Mary Stanley Bunce Dana Schindler

Flee as a bird to your mountain

Thou who art weary with sin

Go to the clear flowing fountain

Where you may wash and be clean

Fly for the avenger is near thee

Call, and the Savior will hear thee

He on his bosom will bear the

O thou who art weary of sin

O thou who art weary of sin

 

He will protect thee forever

Wipe every falling tear

He will forsake thee, oh, never

Sheltered so tenderly there

Haste now the hours are flying

Spend not the moments in sighing

Cease from your sorrow and crying

The Savior will wipe every tear

The Savior will wipe every tear

 

10. Joy Never Ends (Auld Lang Syne)

 

You should see the world from up there

The rush of the G’s

We wear our special clothes

To keep the blood in our knees

Get a little me time at 76,000 feet

Serve my brothers, not the oil fields

Fight this war for peace, for peace

 

Until the job is done, until the job is done

Until the job is done, like my fathers before me

 

Do you have generals to train your brains

In the next life cycle we could all meet again

I write this romance for all the world to see

I post it on the Internet

But I do it just for me, just for me

 

May I draw you the sun, draw you the sun

May I draw you the sun

In the oldest living language, Chinese

 

I’m flying down to Texas

For a wedding at a ranch

To sing If I Needed You by Townes Van Zandt

For Mary and Peter, family and friends

To wish them all happiness

And joy that never ends, never ends

 

When two become one, two become one

Do two become one, like the twisting of the live oak trees

 

Our flight ends at DFW

And we say goodbye

I ride the trams and wonder

How airplanes fly

Dallas holds us for a moment

Then I ride on to Austin

Where I sit amongst strangers

And say nothing at all

 

Should old acquaintance be forgot

And never brought to mind?

Should old acquaintance be forgot

And old lang syne?

 

For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne

We’ll take a cup of kindness yet for auld lang syne

 

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup and surely I’ll buy mine

And we’ll take a cup of kindness yet, for auld lang syne

 

We two have run about the slopes

And picked the daisies fine

But we’ve wandered many a weary foot

Since auld lang syne

 

We two have paddled in the stream

From morning sun till dine

But seas between us broad have roared

Since auld lang syne

 

And there’s a hand my trusty friend

And give us a hand o’ thine

And we’ll take a right goodwill draught

For auld lang syne