Songs

My most active hobby is writing songs – country and Americana and occasionally poking at cabaret.

In 2005, I stumbled onto a songwriting workshop faculty show in Nashville and instantly was hooked. I’ve always been a writer and I’ve always loved short, short fiction. Most of my songs tell stories. I’d always been a jazz guy, so it was a corner turn to think country! (I still adore jazz.)

Here are lyrics to three songs from 2007 that my friend Brad Dunse and I wrote, a Texas trilogy. Brad lived in Texas for a while. He’s an ace performer, as you can hear in his recording of “Standing On the Shoulders of Texas”. That cut is from his CD, Old Town Road.

Standing On The Shoulders Of Texas
By Dan Barnes and Brad Dunse

I been thumbing my way across Texas
but today is for thinking.
Midland traffic ain’t picking up hitchers,
not the duffel bag kind.
I’ve lightened my load with each day on the road,
but some things just won’t leave my mind.

Standing on the shoulders of Texas,
I can see Baghdad.
I can see buddies who weren’t so lucky,
whose families are crying.
I can’t see the reason that I’m safe,
flesh and bone.
Standing on the shoulders of Texas,
far from alone.

My baby sister is waiting in Dallas
with a sofa to camp on.
We’re gonna drive to that old church in Marshall
where Mom and Dad lie.
Dad never spoke of the jungles he fought in,
now I understand why.

Two days ago, I rode with an old Navy chaplain.
He said, Iraq or Korea, you carry on the same.
You’re breathing life into the memory of the fallen,
standing in their sea of white stones,
saluting their names.

Well, it’s a start on a reason to be safe,
flesh and bone.
Standing on the shoulders of Texas,
standing on the shoulders of Texas.
Standing on the shoulders of Texas,
far from alone.

I’ll Never Leave Texas
By Dan Barnes and Brad Dunse

I can leave half a beer on the table,
I can leave my dreams unfulfilled.
I can leave Lubbock for Austin
with a few good hours left unkilled.
I can leave behind honeys who’d kiss me,
I can leave behind money I’m owed.
I can leave my mind free to wander
but Texas has my heart lassoed.

I’ll never leave Texas… oh no, no.
My mind loves the state it’s in–
lone star free to roam.
Fort Worth to Alamo,
Beaumont to San Antone,
call me loco but I know what I know,
I’ll never leave Texas!

You can take your French vacations.
You can take your New York trends.
You can take this song to Nashville
but that’s not my style, my friend.
You can take me for some kind of no-good.
You can take me to task for my ways.
You can take this state for granted
but this Texan’s still amazed.

When I die, you can help me
make sure I stay at home.
Give my ashes to the west wind
blowing down that Texas road.

That New Guy
By Dan Barnes and Brad Dunse

That new guy blows in out of nowhere,
in an old red Dodge – heck, it’s older than him.
He’s lookin’ for honest work, headin’ for Houston.
Comin’ through here had to be on a whim.
He charms every waitress, between his odd jobs.
Some, they try to be his Yellow Rose.
But soon, folks are talkin’. Where’d he come from? Who’s he seeing?
And whose heart will bruise when he goes?

Once he had a Yellow Rose.
Once he was a Mister Right.
Now he’s running from the memory.
He’ll be moving on tonight.
Come dawn, he’ll find a waitress
to sell him breakfast, and then
he’ll be that new guy again.

That new guy never crashed his new Mustang,
never lost his true love in the passenger seat.
No, those scars that he’s wearing are all from the Army
or a demon of a mare, threw him deep in mesquite.
He struggles each day to keep up his guard
and his heart behind that friendly wall.
He jokes and he grins, but it’s hokum and it’s bluster.
No waitress ever knows him at all.

Tonight the Dodge will take him down a dozen dusty roads.
At every lonely intersection,
he’ll flip a coin which way to go.