The Stray Birds

(Maya de Vitry)

Well roll on, Montana morning
I'll quit my soaring when the rattlesnake sings
Blue dawn, my engine burning
Lay down my body, gonna fasten my wings

Look for me with the birds of the borderland
I lived my song and I lived it long, love
I have gone with the birds of the borderland
I know what it means to fly free

Darlin', I hear you crying
I know my fall is flying high on your mind
Baby, I'm hardly dying 
Your heart and mine have long been living in time

June morn, blue bells are blooming
Come afternoon I've seen 'em all from afar
Night falls, she moves the moon in
I find my way by your Moravian star

    

(traditional, arr. by The Stray Birds)

My horses ain't hungry
they won't eat your hay
So fare ye well darlin' 
I'm going away

Your parents don't like me
They say I'm too poor
Say they don't want me
Hangin' around your door

Go saddle me my pony
My pretty little babe
I'll ride out tomorrow
But I'm coming back someday

It's true I've no silver 
It's true I've no gold
It's true that I love you
And now you've been told

    

(traditional, arr. by The Stray Birds)

Down in the willow garden
where me and my true love did meet
Was there we sat a-courtin'
my love fell off to sleep
I had a bottle of burgundy wine
my true love she did not know
Was there I murdered that dear little girl
down on the banks below

I drew my saber through her
it was a bloody knife
I threw her into the river to drown
it was an awful sight
My father often told me
that money would set me free
If I'd but murdered that dear little girl
Whose name was Rose Conlee

Now he sits by his cabin door
Wiping his tear-brimmed eye
Gazing on his own dear son
Upon the scaffold high
My race is run beneath the sun
The devil is waiting for me
For I did murder that dear little girl
Whose name was Rose Conlee

    

(Maya de Vitry)
Come down here, and tell me
What did the doctor say?
Said lay off that whisky
Your baby’s on its way
Come down here, and tell me
What did the preacher say?
Since night fell on sweet Eve
All sinners have their day

Sure as dyin’ comes
I’d of had you for my wife
I’ll have no one else now
Nor ever in my life

Come down here, and tell me
What did your mama say?
Cried curse you, old Satan
You’ve led my lamb astray
Come down here, and tell me
What did your papa say?
Said leave me, my daughter
I won’t have you this way

Come down here, and tell me
What did you say that day?
You told me, come Sunday,
I’d know just what to pray
Come down here, and tell me
How far out did you wade?
Out on that Green River
Til’ you were washed away

    

(Oliver Craven)

I bet you understand
Not to say that you comprehend
What a man can feel
Touching down on the sands of a distant shore

I think you recognize
And it comes as little surprise
That I'm not coming home
No, I'm out here on the sea for to be alone

Think not of me
I'm out here on the sea
With many miles until I reach the shore
Wait not for me
I'm out here on the sea
Don't save your love for me anymore

I cannot honor your love
Foreign to me as the faces I know
As this wind blows my sails
My love has grown as dry as bone

But for your eyes I can remember you not
They burn a hole in my mind
You are a fire with no sense of time

I know these tears I've wept
Fall through the water like a sinking ship
Not to be seen or felt again
But just to waste on a dying ocean floor

I can no longer be sane
With these thoughts, this madness surrounding my life
It is a ghost haunting my soul
Not to be found, yet I follow ever more

    

(Maya de Vitry)

I tore my dress in May
Never had the time to mend
I bore your son the day 
the sky was red from end to end
I gave to him your name
And on his lips I laid my own
I rocked him through the rain
I held him through the snow

I've been okay with you leaving this town
I've been okay with you traveling all around
Lonely for certain I'm holding my ground
But I'm weary of waiting in a tired town

I wear my hair in braids
I tie it with a golden band
I sweep the porch we made
And then I sit and stare across 
this land where I have laid
A son to rest you'd never known
There's lilies on the grave
Beyond the wall of stone

I sold my Sunday shoes
The way I'm walking lately
I'm far better if I lose
the sole that keeps the ground from mine
My way is hardly new
I find I walk a weary line
There's little to refuse
For sparrows left behind 
 
    

(Oliver Craven/Maya de Vitry)

Tell me something that nobody knows
Something never said before
Make it dirty now
Make it tired and worn
Leave my lying on the floor 

Don't care where you've been
don't care what you've seen
Baby I just wanna know
Might be old as sin
Might be new and clean
Might be something from below

Never said before, lying on the floor
I just wanna know, something from below

Mmmmm,mmmmm