HOME BY DARK VOL. 1 ALBUM LYRICS

OPEN SONG

Words and music by Beth Wood

I’m gonna open my mouth and sing my joy
I’m gonna open my mouth and sing my joy
I’m gonna open my mouth and sing about my joy
Let my mouth be open to the joy

I’m gonna open my heart and sing my sorrow
I’m gonna open my heart and sing my sorrow
I’m gonna open my heart ‘cause everyone’s got sorrow
Let my heart be open to the sorrow

I’m gonna open my eyes and see the beauty
I’m gonna open my eyes and see the beauty
I’m gonna open my eyes ‘cause everywhere there’s beauty
Let my eyes be open to the beauty

I’m gonna open my hands and learn how to give
I’m gonna open my hands and learn how to give
I’m gonna open my hands, we can all learn to give
I’m gonna open my hands
I’m gonna open my eyes
I’m gonna open my heart
I’m gonna open my mouth
and sing my joy.

CALIFORNIA

Words and music by Beth Wood

San Francisco is a lady who is waiting
she is dressed up for the Friday night dance
remember when we came here? two teenage runaways
just sixteen years old, we were looking for a chance
to be free, but we got lonely
and after just one night we went home like they knew we would

California, California
we never knew lonely could feel so good

Doesn’t a day go by I’m not lonesome for someone
I guess I was just made for looking back
but everyone I ever loved gave me something precious
so I’ve got his heart full of jewels and I can feel the joy in that
and I feel free, I see diamonds on the water shining at night
and the mercy of a sun rising in the neighborhood

California, California
I never knew lonely could feel so good

and the weight of the world is a heavy load
sometimes you just leave it by the side of the road
because you have everything you need,
you have everything you need
and you would not change a thing even if you could

California, California
I never knew lonely could feel so good

San Francisco is a lady who is waiting
she is dressed up for the Friday night dance

THE HARD WAY

Words and music by Beth Wood

Twenty-two years in a single-wide trailer
just about enough for a wide-eyed soul
she burned up her dreams and it smelled like failure
now she’s burning up the miles where the rubber meets the road

Nobody says it
nobody tells you
everything good is gonna come the hard way
everybody know it
nobody tells you
show me one thing good that didn’t come the hard way

Forty-four times he circled round the block
couldn’t find the courage to walk on in
saw her every day at the same coffee shop
but when she’d flash that smile he went into a tailspin

CHO

One day you learn a dream
is just an idea with wings
until you hold your breath
and decide to fly that thing

Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall
thrity-three minutes until the stroke of midnight
thought this damn year was gonna kill us all
now we gotta stare down the darkness to get back to the light

CHO

DOING THIS DANCE

Words and music by Beth Wood

There’s a crazy old rooster crowing all night long
He thinks he’s hot shit but his clocks are all wrong
Ain’t it just like me, baby, I do the same thing to you
On and on and on about my feelings until your face turns blue

Here we go, watch us now,
Tiptoe around the room
Stepping in, stepping out,
Laugh out loud, howl at the moon

Doin’ this dance all of my life with you
Feels like I’m doin’ this dance all of my life with you
All my life, all my life with you

Sometimes you come to a place you can’t get across
Full of broken glass and barbed-wire and your compass is lost
Ain’t it just like you, baby, you wave from the other side
But I know you’ll jump back over if I just bide my time

Here we go, watch us now,
Shuffling across the floor
Holding loose, holding tight
Running, coming back for more

Doin’ this dance all of my life with you
Feels like I’m doin’ this dance all of my life with you
All my life, all my life with you

Sometimes we fall
But baby, don’t we all?
We pick each other up and we go on
We may have four left feet
But when we meet,
Lord what a song!

Here we go, watch us now
Twirling, spinning through the air
Turn around, close my eyes
Falling back on a dare…

Doin’ this dance all of my life with you
Feels like I’m doin’ this dance all of my life with you
All my life, all my life with you

ALL I CAN DO

Words and music by Beth Wood

I’ve been trying to think how to tell you
I would be sad to see you go
But in the middle of all my thinking
You slipped out through the window

And I’m not the only one
Who’s ever walked around in a haze
I’m trapped in a dream where I get lost
I can’t wake up, can’t see my way

If all I can do is write this down
If all I can do is sing my heart out
If all I can do is shake my fists up at the clouds
Then that’s what I’ll do now

We knew this day was coming
Yeah we knew there would be hell to pay
I could sense it like an avalanche
But I never knew what to say

So I tried too hard to make you laugh
It’s just I was so scared for you
And joy is the one thing we can have
To keep for ourselves and give away, too

If all I can do is scream and shout
If all I can do is write my heart out
If all I can do is shake my fists up at the clouds,
Then that’s what I’ll do now

Wherever you are,
I hope it’s not so hard

If all is can do is cry this out
If all I can do is live my life out loud
If all I can do is look up to the clouds
Then that’s what I’ll do now

THE NEW KID

Words and music by Beth Wood

All these little people belonging in their rows
The blackboard stretching on for miles
I am the new kid in the hand-me-down clothes
Trying to conjure up a smile

We came from Texas with the tumbleweeds and dust
No, I did not ride a horse to school
We do not own oil wells, but my grandma does
I wonder if that might make me the tiniest bit cool

And will I always be the new kid?
Wondering how this goes
Trying to figure out how to do this
I am the new kid and it shows
I am the new kid

First love burned me and I had to move on
And then love brought me to my knees
When I wasn’t looking, something real came along
And I know it’s right but no one said it would be easy

Will I always be the new kid?
Wondering how this goes
Trying to figure out how we do this
I am the new kid and it shows
I am the new kid

Somehow someone always reaches out a hand
Someone always says, “I understand, are you okay?”
I guess I am

Then the phone call came in the middle of the night
Shattering what was left of our sleep
Everything changes in the blink of an eye
What we think is ours is never ours to keep

All these people belonging in their rows
The grey sky stretching on and on
Black limousines and ill-fitting clothes
And I am still standing here trying to be strong
Will I always be the new kid?
Wondering how this goes
Trying to figure out how to do this
I am the new kid
And I’m wondering how this goes
How the hell will I get through this?
I’m still the new kid, I suppose
I am the new kid

THE LONG ROAD

Words and music by Beth Wood

It’s getting so late I guess it’s early
no one else on the highway but the long loads
memories hang on showing no mercy
but you can’t outrun a feeling no matter how fast you go

on the long road
the long road
you can’t outrun what is already done
on the long road

I lived in a house on a crumbling hillside
our seeds just slept, summer fields lay fallow
time answered there to a different kind of tide
and it swept me away in a season of sorrow

on the long road
the long road
you can’t outrun what is already done
on the long road

we are all on it
we cannot see beyond it

I come to you now, I come in pieces
but I come to you whole, I come to you clean
Lay your yesterdays down, and when it don’t come easy
I will hold on to you, you can hold on to me

on the long road
the long road
you can’t outrun what is already done
on the long road
the long road
we will become what we will become
on the long road

WIDE MOUTH JAR

Words and music by Beth Wood

Wide mouth jar full of wishes
Sitting out on the front porch in the rain
It’s held many things – fireflies and goldfishes
But when will it hold wishes again?
Pushpins, thumbtacks and rusty nails
Cloudy old grease from her frying pan
Oh wide mouth jar long forgotten
Holds just as much as your dreaming can

Wide mouth jar full of wishes
Used to sit in his room by the model airplanes
Bedtime stories and goodnight kisses
A mother and father tucked their little boy in
Then they each made a wish, placed it in the jar
Until it filled up, then they’d start over again
Oh wide mouth jar long forgotten
Holds just as much as your dreaming can

Baseballs, dinosaurs and magic tricks
Trophies, marbles and pick-up sticks
A box full of memories that she fixed
Just for him, just for him

Two rocking chairs sit there empty
The last of the distant relative has gone
A house that has stood for more than a century
Little boy turned into a man has come home
He stands on the porch listening to the rain
Newborn baby in his arms staring up at him
Oh wide mouth jar long forgotten
The time has come for wishing again

FUNERAL DAY

Words and music by Beth Wood

We were laughing, it was funeral day
I guess it might seem strange that we’d behave that way
It was just our bodies craving levity,
My grief a heavy blanket weighing down on me
So we laughed until the sun went down
Trading stories, passing the bottle around
Recalling all the good times we had
It didn’t seem so sad

It all started at the parlor doors
Cousin Henry’s kid tripped on an extension chord
We busted out, what else could we do?
Hell, I knew that you were up there crackin’ up, too
So we laughed until the preacher came in
Then we settled down and we listened to him
Staring at your photograph

It didn’t seem so sad

Well we got some dirty looks from the old blue-hair crowd
But with all due respect, I think we did you proud
By laughing out loud

Some days I miss you, years have gone by
There’s a tiny hole in my heart but I can’t bear to cry
You brought me joy, joy to everyone
And it’s just a simple story, we’re here and then we’re gone

So I laugh remembering that day
How we carried on and how it washed our tears away
I’m smiling and I’m looking back
It doesn’t seem so sad

EASY ON ME

Words and music by Beth Wood, Shannon McNally and Anne Heaton

Today the world feels so heavy
it don’t care about you and me
so let’s wait for tomorrow
to leave our sanctuary

We’ve been working so hard, for so little, for so long
to keep this place to belong

So take it easy on me
I’ll take it easy on you
let’s take some time to breathe
and take it easy, easy, easy

The radio says it’s a mess down town
But this little house is safe and warm
How nice to be together
The baby’s sleeping and the coffee’s on

We’ve been working so hard, for so little, for so long
To keep this place, to belong

So take it easy on me
I’ll take it easy on you
let’s take some time to breathe
and take it easy, easy, easy

I can’t bear to leave your side
I’m all out of courage and I need to hide

So take it easy on me
I’ll take it easy on you
let’s take some time to breathe
and take it easy, easy, easy