Carolina

by Robert Earl Keen

The sweet smell of nighttime rides on the breeze
The river is winding through the hickory trees
The redbones are howling down by Wilson's Bridge
The lawmen stand waiting upon Deadman's Ridge

Ooo Carolina, so dark I can't see
Ooo Carolina, won't you let me go free?

I came here with Lily a year just last fall
We left her old daddy back in Donegal
We made us a home place of Black Mountain stone
But one cold winter morning I woke up alone

Days full of silence are so incomplete
Nights without Lily I took to the streets
In the streets of Asheville I channeled my pain
'Til one raging black night I slept in the rain

I dreamed of a refuge, a red velvet world
And I swore my sweet Lily was one of the girls
I loved her so madly, I loved her so long
I woke with my dream girl, but her life was all gone

Ooo Carolina, so dark I can't see
Ooo Carolina, won't you let me go free?
Love has no boundary, sorrow no end
And the lawmen of Asheville have no mercy in them

Carolina in the Morning

by Gus Kahn

Nothing could be finer
Than to be in Carolina
In the morning
No one could be sweeter
Than my sweetie when I meet her
In the morning
Where the morning glories
Climb around the door
Whispering pretty stories
I long to hear once more

Rolling with my girly
Where the dew is pearly early
In the morning
Butterflies all flutter up
And kiss each little buttercup
At dawning
If I had Aladdin's lamp for only a day
I'd make a wish and here's what I'd say
Nothing could be finer
Than to be in Carolina
In the morning

Wagon Wheel

by Ketch Secor

Headed down south to the land of the pines
And I'm thumbing my way into North Caroline
Staring up the road
And pray to God I see headlights

I made it down the coast in seventeen hours
Picking me a bouquet of dogwood flowers
And I'm a hoping for Raleigh
I can see my baby tonight

Running from the cold up in New England
I was born to be a fiddler in an old-time string band
My baby plays the guitar
I pick a banjo now

The North country winters keep getting me now
Lost my money playing poker so I had to up and leave
But I ain't turning back
To living that old life no more

Walking to the south out of Roanoke
I caught a trucker out of Philly, had a nice long toke
But he's a headed west from the Cumberland Gap
To Johnson City, Tennessee

And I gotta get a move on fit for the sun
I hear my baby calling my name
And I know that she's the only one
And if I die in Raleigh
At least I will die free

Carolina in My Mind

by James Taylor

In my mind I'm going to Carolina
Can't you see the sunshine?
Can't you just feel the moonshine?
Ain't it just like a friend of mine
To hit me from behind?
Yes I'm going to Carolina in my mind

Karen, she's a silver sun
You best walk her way and watch it shining
Watch her watch the morning come
A silver tear appearing, now I'm crying
Ain't I going to Carolina in my mind

There ain't no doubt in no one's mind
That love's the finest thing around
Whisper something soft and kind
And hey babe, the sky's on fire, I'm dying
Ain't I going to Carolina in my mind

Dark and silent late last night
I think I might have heard the highway calling
Geese in flight and dogs that bite
Signs that might be omens say I'm going
I'm going to Carolina in my mind

With a holy host of others standing 'round me
Still I'm on the dark side of the moon
And it seems like it goes on like this forever
You must forgive me
If I'm up and gone to Carolina in my mind

Singin' in the Rain

by Arthur Freed

I'm singin' in the rain
Just singin' in the rain
What a glorious feelin'
I'm happy again
I'm laughing at clouds
So dark up above
The sun's in my heart
And I'm ready for love

Let the stormy clouds chase
Everyone from the place
Come on with the rain
I've a smile on my face
I walk down the lane
With a happy refrain
Just singin'
Singin' in the rain

Dancin' in the rain
I'm happy again
I'm singin'
And dancin' in the rain

From This One Place

by Sara Groves

I was about to give up, and that's no lie
Cardinal landed outside my window
Threw his head back
Sang a song so beautiful it made me cry
Took me back to a childhood tree
Full of birds and dreams

From this one place I can't see very far
In this one moment I'm square in the dark
These are the things I will trust in my heart
You can see something else

I don't know what's making me so afraid
Tiny cloud over my head
Heavy and grey with a hint of dread
And I don't like to feel this way
Take me back to a window seat
With clouds beneath my feet

The Waste Land (Pt. II)

[Part I here]
by T.S. Eliot

II. A Game of Chess

The Chair she sat in, like a burnished throne,
Glowed on the marble, where the glass
Held up by standards wrought with fruited vines
From which a golden Cupidon peeped out
(Another hid his eyes behind his wing)
Doubled the flames of sevenbranched candelabra
Reflecting light upon the table as
The glitter of her jewels rose to meet it,
From satin cases poured in rich profusion;
In vials of ivory and coloured glass
Unstoppered, lurked her strange synthetic perfumes,
Unguent, powdered, or liquid—troubled, confused
And drowned the sense in odours; stirred by the air
That freshened from the window, these ascended
In fattening the prolonged candle-flames,
Flung their smoke into the laquearia,
Stirring the pattern on the coffered ceiling.
Huge sea-wood fed with copper
Burned green and orange, framed by the coloured stone,
In which sad light a carvèd dolphin swam.
Above the antique mantel was displayed
As though a window gave upon the sylvan scene
The change of Philomel, by the barbarous king
So rudely forced; yet there the nightingale
Filled all the desert with inviolable voice
And still she cried, and still the world pursues,
'Jug Jug' to dirty ears.
And other withered stumps of time
Were told upon the walls; staring forms
Leaned out, leaning, hushing the room enclosed.
Footsteps shuffled on the stair.
Under the firelight, under the brush, her hair
Spread out in fiery points
Glowed into words, then would be savagely still.

'My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad. Stay with me.
'Speak to me. Why do you never speak? Speak.
'What are you thinking of? What thinking? What?
'I never know what you are thinking. Think.'

I think we are in rats' alley
Where the dead men lost their bones.

'What is that noise?'
                                          The wind under the door.
'What is that noise now? What is the wind doing?'
                                          Nothing again nothing.
                                                                                           'Do
'You know nothing? Do you see nothing? Do you remember
'Nothing?'
    I remember
Those are pearls that were his eyes.
'Are you alive, or not? Is there nothing in your head?'
                                                                                                               But
O O O O that Shakespeherian Rag—
It's so elegant
So intelligent
'What shall I do now? What shall I do?'
'I shall rush out as I am, and walk the street
'With my hair down, so. What shall we do to-morrow?
'What shall we ever do?'
                                                 The hot water at ten.
And if it rains, a closed car at four.
And we shall play a game of chess,
Pressing lidless eyes and waiting for a knock upon the door.

When Lil's husband got demobbed, I said—
I didn't mince my words, I said to her myself,
HURRY UP PLEASE IT'S TIME
Now Albert's coming back, make yourself a bit smart.
He'll want to know what you done with that money he gave you
To get yourself some teeth. He did, I was there.
You have them all out, Lil, and get a nice set,
He said, I swear, I can't bear to look at you.
And no more can't I, I said, and think of poor Albert,
He's been in the army four years, he wants a good time,
And if you don't give it him, there's others will, I said.
Oh is there, she said. Something o' that, I said.
Then I'll know who to thank, she said, and give me a straight look.
HURRY UP PLEASE IT'S TIME
If you don't like it you can get on with it, I said.
Others can pick and choose if you can't.
But if Albert makes off, it won't be for lack of telling.
You ought to be ashamed, I said, to look so antique.
(And her only thirty-one.)
I can't help it, she said, pulling a long face,
It's them pills I took, to bring it off, she said.
(She's had five already, and nearly died of young George.)
The chemist said it would be alright, but I've never been the same.
You are a proper fool, I said.
Well, if Albert won't leave you alone, there it is, I said,
What you get married for if you don't want children?
HURRY UP PLEASE IT'S TIME
Well, that Sunday Albert was home, they had a hot gammon,
And they asked me in to dinner, to get the beauty of it hot—
HURRY UP PLEASE IT'S TIME
HURRY UP PLEASE IT'S TIME
Goonight Bill. Goonight Lou. Goonight May. Goonight.
Ta ta. Goonight. Goonight.
Good night, ladies, good night, sweet ladies, good night, good night.

[Part III here]