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All My Life

All my life I’ve always loved freight trains

In the night I’d wake to hear their sound

In a mystery of motion, they sang to me

While I watched them pass me standing
on the trembling ground

 

Their slow crawl through the freight yards at midnight

Builds into a free wheel prairie roll

The farther they go, the more the magic grows

And a spell is cast each time the whistle blows

 

As a boy, I’d watch them leaving town each evening

In a week, I’m wondering where they’d be

A string of freight cars rolling off toward Montana

Like a clipper ship bound for the China Sea

 

Yes, I always thought I’d grow to be a railroad man

Instead of singing pictures put to rhyme

For I’ve got the steel rail diesel fever in me

And I think I’ll always run on railroad time

 

All my life I’ve always loved the freight train

I was raised up in the days of fading steam

Though miles from my sight,
Ihear them through the night

And fall back into an endless railroad dream

©  Wayne Drury

Annalee, Annalee
Tell me, who do you dream of
On this long, windy night, tell me who do you love?  


When Spring flowers were bloomin’
Just like dreams comin’ true
In the rain by the highway, I was waitin’ for you

For my dreams they had been troubled
for six nights or more
Like a dark wind of warning on a peaceful shore
Like a dark wind of warning on a peaceful shore


Annalee, Annalee
Tell me, who do you dream of
On this long, windy night, tell me who do you love?

 
Then I saw nine black ravens and it gave me a chill
Just to hear those mad birds callin’ on a night oh so still
When I went down to the station and the train didn’t come
I just stared out that window into the setting sun
I just stared out that window into the setting sun


In this world full of stories of lost love and woe
And the poetic stranger with no place to go
I found a flower bloomin’ within all our misery
And I smile a lttle sadly when I think of Annalee
And I smile just a lttle sadly when I think of Annalee


Annalee, Annalee
Tell me, who do you dream of
On this long, windy night, tell me who do you love?
On this long, windy night, tell me who do you love?

 

Annalee

©  Wayne Drury

She carried a six gun, a .44 to keep her close
To a worthless outlaw, a fallen man but heaven knows
Love was blind, and flightful as the clouds that fly
And the worthless outlaw was a king in Rose O’Leary’s eye


I can hear him singin’, Just as the sun went down
Lookin’ out across the prairie, With the moon shinin’ down
‘Where are you, my lovely Rose of Cimmaron?’


She couldn’t be happy, just to spend the rest of her life
Watching the homestead as some poor cowboy’s wife
To follow her heart was the only path she knew
She fell in love and down the outlaw trail she flew


Maybe they got shot down, One fine day
Maybe they took their love, And stole away
I can’t tell you and I’m sure no one knows
What became of that outlaw and his lovely Cimmaron Rose


That night stage to Tulsa, The drover’s bank in St Antoine
The legend grew, till there was no crown they did not own
Wild rides, blazing guns, Traps were set and sprung again
With midnight border crossings
They moved like tumbleweeds in the wind

Cimmaron Rose

©  Wayne Drury

For so long I’ve been wanderin’
I forgot where I began
But no place that I’ve been can quite compare
To my home where the hills they rolled
And lovely rivers ran
And every day I wish that I was there


In New York City they knocked me down
And hit me till I fell
And what it was that scared them I just don’t know.
But their eyes were dark and grey
Beneath the city’s spell
And their minds were twisted mean and awful slow


So sing me a country song
Sing for me (child), it won’t take long
Sing and let me strum along
Til the day I’m grey, til the day I’m old
That country music will soothe my soul


So take me back right now
To my little mountain home
Where the country girl she smiles just for me,
And though I know again some day
That I may want to roam
Right now all I want is peace, please
Right now all I want is peace.

Country Song

©  Wayne Drury

CHORUS

   A little bit of lovelight’s gonna shine on me,
   And a little bit of lovelight’s gonna shine on you...
   Be it bright, be it small, For one and for all,
   A little bit of lovelight’s gonna shine on you.
 

 

 

Well, I put my faith in the silver skies of mornin’
I travelled like the wind across the land.
For what’s to come, I don’t expect no warnin’,
And there’s nothin’ that I need to understand.. except that

 

CHORUS

 

I left my home to travel west about a year ago,
I was lookin’ for a brand new place to start.
I just packed my bags, forgot the rest,  I just had to go,
I was a homesick country boy with a lovesick heart... and

 

CHORUS

 

But now I think the time has come for me to leave,
And go see those folks I left back home.
I carry you in my heart, this you must believe,
And in your heart, you’ll never be alone...

 

And when I’m gone, I know I won’t feel quite the same,
I’ve just seen how things turn out that way.
On a cold, cold Eugene night I will dream your name,
And carry you in my heart every day...I pray that

 

CHORUS

Lovelight

©  Wayne Drury

We’ll talk about tomorrow
As blind as we may be
And hope for the best for one and all
And always show a helpin’ hand
That everyone might see
One flashin’ glimpse of love before they fall

So put your heart in mine
Together we’ll outlast the dawn
And be gone
And if we go our separate ways
There will always be
Someone there to help us carry on


How many hands has the world
To grab and hold you down
As many hearts will reach across the sea
How many times have you been lost
When love could bring you ‘round
Untie your dreams and set your poor heart free

 

So put your heart in mine
Together we’ll outlast the dawn
And be gone
And if we go our separate ways
There will always be
Someone there to help us carry on

Separate Ways

©  Wayne Drury

My momma told me just the other day
‘Honey, if you got somethin’ you got to say, then’
Step right over (child)
Step right over
Step right over
There’s someone in love with you


She said ‘Don’t get caught between the sinner and the saint,
Don’t let no one tell you what is what ain’t, just’
Step right over (child)
Step right over
Step right over
There’s someone in love with you


‘Oh, be careful of the strangers you meet,
And keep your mouth shut unless you want to eat, and’
Step right over (child)
Step right over
Step right over
There’s someone in love with you


My momma told me just the other day
‘Honey, if you got somethin’ you got to say, then’
Step right over (child)
Step right over
Step right over
There’s someone in love with you

There’s someone in love with you

Step Right Over

©  Wayne Drury

New York Central Line

CHORUS

   I’m ridin’ on the New York Central Line
   Ridin’ on the New York Central Line
   All the way from Albany up to the Northland Pine
   I’m ridin’ on the New York Central Line
 


Daddy, he was an engineer,
And Uncle Willie, he mended rail
All night they’re out on the back porch,
Drinkin’, tellin’ tales
Stories of the New York Central Line


CHORUS


You know railroad men, they all are brothers
They got nothin’ left to lose,
They work all their lives to die of railroad blues
While they’re ridin’ on the New York Central Line
Ridin’ on the New York Central Line


CHORUS


If you ever see me passin’ through here
If you ever see me ridin’ by
Just jump on a northbound train,
Baby, kiss your pain goodby
When we’re ridin’ on the New York Cental Line.


CHORUS

©  Wayne Drury

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