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Vagabonds & Wastrels

by Jeff Andrew

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1.
Dirt Alley Rose Midnite coffee keeps me warm This music keeps me whole She said "This place is hard to find, but I'm glad I found you here 'Cause I've never been to a wedding But I've seen my share of wakes Last night I dreamt I was a butterfly, but this morning I woke up as a snake" I said "They found me in a burned out alley Tied me up like an old pair of shoes They left me in the grease-stain sunrise with nothing but the needles and the blues" This world ain't much for dreamers like us We’re freaks wherever we go But now the nights are getting cold and I'm so tired of being alone I just want to fall in love one more time Maybe I'll see you out on the road somewhere In the mountains with your thumb to the sky You'll be dancing with your backpack and you'll be singing a song Looking like you're living a dream Looking like you're living a dream This place is cracked and crumbling That's how I like it best Broken bottle glass and empty hearts and all the rest She stopped under an October streetlamp With the wind wrapping shadows around her feet With her eyes full of heartache and the cold in her cheeks She smiled and sat down next to me She said "I've walked between the stars and the mountains I've hitchhiked every road you can name I've seen all there is to see and all I've ever found was me Ten years and I got no one left to blame" My hands are as patched-up and scarred as my clothes And we both got the same miles of dirt in our toes But you're pushing thru the wreckage like a dirt-alley rose Lord I hope you never lose your thorns -Chorus- The radios are crackling in the alleys That old jazz that always sounds best at night "Our adventures are the love songs we write to the world" She told me as we stepped into the light She said "I know there's an answer on the highway There's a home waiting for me out there I keep my faith wrapped up with the beads in my hair; now I'm sorry babe, but I got to go" My heartache has a rhythm like a freight train Comes and goes like a po' girl on the run 'Cause you're a sad old song that gets better every time I hear it sung My traveling boots are falling apart I can fit my whole life into a shopping cart When my last wish is gone I'm going to make a new start I promise I'm going to find you someday Maybe I'll see you out on the road somewhere In the mountains with your thumb to the sky There's some magic out there we're gonna find it I swear We just got to hang on to our dreams We just got to hang on to our dreams
2.
Deeper Than This Pick up the axe and let the brittle wood fly We can always go deeper than this Hold the truth in your eyes and you can never miss We can always go deeper than this Now the lake has frozen over and by the time this is over There'll be nothing left but matchsticks in the wind I'd like to die with the Northern Lights shining Snow covering every place I've sinned So pick up the axe and let the brittle wood fly We can always go deeper than this Hold the truth in your eyes and you can never miss We can always go deeper than this Tell the story of creation in the moment of a kiss We can always go deeper than this I been here since the beginning, that night you drove out alone Sled tracks disappearing in the storm Now the winter's blowing over and this is all so far from over I'll be here when you decide to come get warm -Chorus-
3.
Truck Stop Wall (Highway of Tears) I set out lonely in the Prince George rain To see my sister in the mountains today A truck pulled over when I stuck out my thumb He said he'd take me somewhere far away I know it's dangerous, I know people have died But I been stuck so many times, I can always find a ride Now the pigs are ready for slaughter in the farmlands to the south I can still feel East Hastings like a bad taste in my mouth I came back to the north to be with my son, but I'm nobody's wife Now he's reaching into his boot and 'Oh my God, that looks like a knife…' Faces fading on a truck stop wall Another missing for another year Forgotten voices in the northern rain Last seen standing on the Highway of Tears These forests are my playground, this backpack is my home The road is full of bad turns but you can't be afraid to roam My contract finished early, I planted my last tree Now there's a festival in Smithers, people I want to see I know it's dangerous, I know people have died But it's summertime on the open road and I feel like I can fly I used to laugh at all the faces looking away with their little lies But now I'm a ghost in your rearview mirror who wasn't there when you drove by Two cities named after Princes and a Highway full of thieves My body's still out here somewhere, my soul's lost in the trees -Chorus- I only drive this highway about once or twice a year I'm the only one on this stretch of road who ain't got nothing to fear I like 'em tall and pretty, dark-haired and young I got a knife tucked into my boot and if they scream I got a gun They all know it's dangerous, they all know people have died But every day there's another girl with her thumb out for a ride I know someday they might catch me, but for now I'm not really scared As long as I leave the white girls, the cops don't seem to care Now their mothers all walk the highway, there's another one every year They know it'll never be over, as long as I'm still here Faces fading on a truck stop wall Another missing for another year A killer driving with a stolen heart Last seen standing on the Highway of Tears
4.
Old Drunken Scribe I'm the undisputed master of a hopeless old vernacular My diction is as worn out as my shoes But go ahead and ask her - she'll say my couplets are spectacular And if you follow my hidden meaning, you can't lose I'm an old drunken scribe and I dare you to imbibe Another shot of what I've got to say I came here on a boat, I got a bottle inside my coat My pants are made from genuine tweed Once there was a time when I could make anything rhyme But now I'm lucky if my stanzas can find their feet -Chorus- They said I could'a been a real voice Of the people, another James Joyce But then I went and made a choice To follow Burroughs' model instead 'cause I'm an original, my style is inimitable There's no one in the world like me But now I need to find a woman who can publish what I've written Then old Sam will let me drink here for free -Chorus- I wrote a thousand perfect truths On a napkin at the Hog's Tooth Stuffed it down the side of a naugahyde booth And left without a hat upon my head
5.
Cambie & Cordova Manic street preacher, wild-bearded dream teacher A wandering light in the fog A whisperer in shadows; he was right there at the gallows Crying: "Freedom is a backpack and a dog!" The world whips around her, no peace has ever found her But you can light up her day with a smile And one ever asks why the cops come so fast As she stands up to walk the last mile There's cars on the street, people trying to sleep The rain beating down on their souls At the corner of Cambie and Cordova there's a door: Turn left if you're rich, turn right if you're poor In an old shopping cart, she keeps a piece of her heart All that's left as she tries to hold on A cold wind is blowing and the doors are all closing As she dreams of a child dead and gone "I need to get to sleep," he says as he cries Head in hands on the park bench at dawn "When will it end? I had so much to give Now all I've got is this bell and this song" There's cops on the street, people trying to sleep The rain beating down on their souls At the corner of Cambie and Cordova there's a door: Turn left if you're rich, turn right if you're poor A place to get warm, a shelter from the storm Wrapped in old newspapers and sin But from the madness inside, there's no place to hide When the daemons all call from within There's cops on the street and a woman on the floor Of an old hotel bar by a cheap liquor store At the corner of Cambie and Cordova there's a door: Turn left if you're rich, turn right if you're poor
6.
Rebel Girl 06:14
Rebel Girl I was workin' in the North Woods on a hillside cut to hell Setting chokers on a sketchy high-lead show Then the boom went to bust and my paycheque went to dust Ten months and I had nothing left to blow So I stepped into a cold rain on the west road from Wenatchee Cross the mountains, headin' down to old Skid Row I found a camp outside of town and a bowl of jungle stew A bed of cardboard by the barrel-fire glow And with the echoing gunshots of Ludlow and Everett Ringing across a century's dead air A girl played the violin with fingerless gloves By the man with the thousand-yard stare With the harp from my pocket and the rhythm in my feet We sang like a pair of foxes in a snare About a history rewritten to bury sedition Beneath the parking lot at Rockefeller Square "Joe Hill never died," the Rebel Girl cried "I saw him on the long dusty road He lives in our eyes and the railroad ties Walking with the ghost of Tom Joad" Greasy grimy drifters, hobos tramps and bums Work for nothin' while your boxcar dreams of rain Now they come across the desert, thru Juarez and El Paso Trade the sweatshop for a slaughterhouse on the plains You can watch your children starve while they burn the golden fruit The great failure that outweighs all our gains Throw the heroes in a cage or kill them while they sleep With axe handles and a spreading bloodstain Like that night on the Chehalis when they lynched Wesley Everest Strung him from a railroad bridge Ninety years later and nothing's really changed Militia's still camped up on the ridge Like a Panther in his bedroom and a cabbie on Death Row The firing squad for writing Rebel songs Take AIM at Wounded Knee or the women in the mill The killing starts whenever we get strong "Joe Hill never died," the Rebel Girl cried "He lives in our blood and our bones He leads the striker's line, singing so fine Walking with the ghost of Mother Jones" Winnipeg in '19, Seattle in '99 Chicago in 1968 Bread and Roses in Lawrence and the chance to take a stand But we can't fight hatred with hate So Fellow Workers hear the call: Revolution Starts Inside! Find your demons and the world you want to make We're all leaders, that's the secret - shout it down the years: Never let your fears decide your fate So this one's for Lucy Parsons and Emma Goldman too And the Triangle Shirtwaist women dead and burnt This one's for Rosa'sharn's baby and every mother too And all the kids who died so ours wouldn't have to work This one's for Ani and Utah and Elizabeth Cotton too And everyone who sings to what we're worth You can find us in the forests and the city deserts too From the mountains to the edges of the earth -Choruses 1 & 2-
7.
Shapeshifter 03:46
Shapeshifter This time I come in with the trainsmoke Catch the Midnight Ghost at the edge Of another small town and roll across the border after dark With the rickety-clack and roar of the great wheels turning I leave the trainyard in the early morning fog Work my way downtown With the streetsweepers rumbling in the gutter and the seagulls Fighting over what's left of Saturday night. I don't talk to anybody, not at this hour There are scars on my hands and secrets buried Deep in my eyes I'm alright when I find an abandoned cup of coffee on the church step Pick a long butt off the street and smoke it in the alley With the matches from the Tennessee Diner And an old scabhound sleeping on a bed of cardboard beneath the fire escape. This morning there's a voice across the alley Moaning with the delirium tremens in the doorway of an old hotel I'd help him, but I'm not strong enough yet The only one who knows me here is the guy with the bell and the clapboard sign Standing like a scarecrow at the corner of Mars and 4th. "I remember your face," he says, when he thinks no one's listening "But I've forgotten your name…" "It's alright," I tell him. "1307 was a bad year for all of us." Time always goes so fast. Still I remember the sound of the ocean and the way The salt hangs in the air on the right kind of night When the fog rolls in and wraps the streets in a whispery Blanket of half-remembered dreams and for a few short hours You can pretend that everything is different. Alma always said: "Watch out for the cold years. The winter and the razor and the drink like amber tears." I forget the rest of it, but I can still hear her voice On those sad October nights When the moon hangs low and the stars do their perfect little dance And I remember the time when I stood at the foot of a cross In the desert and looked up, at the dying man I had just been and would be Again, someday…but it's a long way From Golgotha to the back door of the Astoria Hotel. So for now I'm waiting…waiting for the stars to be right. Waiting for my time to come again.
8.
Map of Secrets Since I left my home Since I left my home Never once have I looked back Since I left my home I danced with an angel Eyes as blue as her soul She taught me how to hitchhike And she left me on the road When I left my home When I left my home Knew I couldn't be the only one When I left my home I was 18 and brave; said I wouldn't be no slave Combine machinery and childhood dreams betrayed So I learned to trust the shadows and the voices in the trees Drumbeats on the full moon night calling out to me When I left my home When I left my home Never once did I look back When I left my home Footsteps on the highway, a ghost in every town Echoes of the old world everywhere Shadows of the Goddess, spirits cast in stone Echoes of the old world everywhere I roam Everywhere I roam Everywhere I roam I see the cracks in what we've built Everywhere I roam I dreamt the city shadows were flaming in red Falling down a ladder on a dried-up riverbed When the highways are forgotten and the traintracks are dead Follow me to Salem like the prophecy said Trying to find my home Trying to find my home Searching every pair of eyes Trying to find my home
9.
Faerie Music 02:56
Faerie Music You better watch out for that faerie music Hear it once and you'll never come back Join the underground, there's mysteries all around Wail with the banshees in the night Haunted melodies on a foggy hill at night Cemetery stonework and a God-awful fright An invitation from the shadows, final snap upon the gallows Unseelie Court is in session tonight You better watch out for that faerie music Hear it once and they'll never get you back Leave the world of concrete, feel the earth upon your bare feet Dance with the pixies on the grass Wood nymphs in the trees, a crescent moon in the creek A monolith to mark the edge of time A rare and ghostly tune echoes on the moon A hobgoblin has stolen your heart -Chorus 1- Myst upon the moors, firelights in the swamp A fallen snag lies rotting on the path This is your world now, forget that cross it's much too shallow The bread crumbs have all been swept away -Chorus 2-
10.
Wanderlust 04:09
Wanderlust In the last days of summer, thirteen hundred and four I bid farewell my home, set out on the moor I pushed hard for the boundary and up to the hills Thru the myst I heard a cry and my blood went a-chill A dark shape in the forest tracked me all thru the night 'til I turned and drew steel in the flashing moonlight Now my headstone is carved and the psychopomps wait For my shadow to fall on the last iron gate Be careful my love, there's a ghost on the hill He carries a blade and I know he's there still But if you must travel, you must go alone Just be sure you can find your way home Promise me you'll find your way home When the wand'ring wind finds you, when the children have grown Scrape the moss from the marker, read the letters on the stone Take the path from the churchyard thru the black raven sky Find the edge of the forest where the creekwaters rise Beware of the beldam, she's not who she seems Stay clear of the shadows, hold on to your dreams I'll be there beneath the bloodmoon on the last autumn night By a door in the hillside and an unholy light -Chorus- Now the road lies before me, I can almost hear the sound Of a pipe and a drum and a world underground So tonight I cross the bridge made from old turtle shells My path lit by the fire from a kingdom in Hell Your voice calls like silver, your tears fall like rain How I long for your kiss, but I cannot remain The Shadowmen are coming, my love I must go There are things in the darkness older than we can know -Chorus-
11.
12.
The Madhouse Keeper The sun is a stranger, the moon is a dream Myst on the mountains, a ghost ship at sea Ten desperate men in an opium den A bounty on their heads makes a fortune for me He stands before the big iron gates In his palm he holds all of our fates We must find our way out before it's too late For in the shadows the Madhouse Keeper waits In the shadows the Madhouse Keeper waits We set out with the dawning for the tombs in the north Broke the seal on the headstone; with the prize we set forth Then the blood rites were read and they left me for dead Now the Nile lies behind me and I'll have my revenge -Chorus- In my dreams I see the horror and the sunken city rise An ancient sleep broken and a thing without eyes Sailors and jailors, they all look the same A whisper in the darkness and I hear him call my name -Chorus-
13.
Zombie Falsetto At the edge of a rusted backwoods dream He soaked his voice in kerosene Lay back with the moon through a wolfhound screen Shut his eyes and lit the match She scraped the blood from her guitar strings With the splintered shadow of a nameless thing The wraith took her hand and she began to sing Of an itch she could never quite scratch I want the rolling thunder and the bottleneck sky I want the knife on the corner and the steel string slide Tin cup, rattlesnake, blind in one eye I want the moonshine nightmare and the gods to cry The ocean broke upon a scarlet dawn Whiskey-blind panther wrapping up his song Smoke-shattered voice howling 'Everything's gone wrong!' But man, that old tomcat can sing She dropped her coin into a dried up well A child of sadness and the wizard's spell As the sparrows gathered and the darkness fell On an angel with one broken wing I want the rusted brandy and the diamond tooth grin I want the axe head sharpened and the cows brought in Wrought-iron gateway to an alley made of sin I want the secrets of the ancients and the witches to win Blistered martyr in a flaming skirt Staked her cross into a pile of dirt One last sign as the world lay burnt Saying "All Who Would Seek Me - BEWARE!" The madman wept for the blood he'd spilt As the Nothing crept across the world he'd built And the Devil danced on broken stilts At Hell's County Fair I want the witches' ladder and the cobblestone march I want the fire on the hillside and the pyre in the swamp Zombie Falsetto and a skeleton stomp I want the Carnival of Shadows and the madrigal romp When the general public has no use for your face The carnival barker he can show you your place If you follow the voices and abandon the race There's a party down here in the slums We're gonna rip that harp like a crosscut saw Slap that voice til the melody's raw Race that bass to a dragstrip draw And bang them fuckin' drums I want the haunted boxcar and the railroad earth I want the stewbums' racket and a graveyard's worth Garbage can lid in a back alley church I want to watch it all burn from the Gargoyle's Perch

about

Travel songs for orphans, freaks, hobos and ghosts. Rusty gates, muted horns, resonators, accordions and voices, held down with percussive acoustic guitar and the mad bowing of a six-fingered classical bassist.

"A two-sided record on a one-sided disc, the album begins with familiar folk fare: love, drunks, killers and working-class heroes, before descending into an underworld of faeries, ghosts and madness." - BC Musician Magazine

"A wordsmith and poet...Andrew has harnessed his muse on hobos, heartsick pilgrims and the demons left on the highway." - Americana UK

credits

released January 13, 2009

This album is dedicated to the Ghost of Utah Phillips.

All songs by Jeff Andrew except #11, by Tobias Meis (SOCAN)
Engineered, mixed and mastered by Corwin Fox
Production and soundscapes by Crows At Midnight
Recorded at El Studio in Victoria, BC
Photos by Melisa Melo (www.myspace.com/melisamelo)
Art and design by Juniper English (rippledesign.info)

Jeff Andrew - guitar, fiddle, dobro, banjo, harmonica, piano, vocals, percussion
Tobias Meis - bass, organ
Larissa Ardis - accordion
O'Mally - vocals
Radar - vocals
Shelder Footz - trumpet
Corwin Fox - percussion

www.jeffandrew.ca

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Jeff Andrew Vancouver, British Columbia

Fiddles, horns, double bass and subterranean percussion from the tunnels of East Vancouver. Songs from the road and beyond the grave.

"A backroads troubadour with a few things to say by way of viscera, nerve and hard experience." - Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange
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