Redemption Road

Spotify • Apple Music

Composed, performed and produced by Greg Smith

All songs © Greg Smith

Redemption Road

Hey, where’d you go?

You were here just a minute ago.

Has it really been ten years

Since you went on down the road?

Dawn, stumbles in

I can feel you on my skin

But now the sheets are tired and cold

And the house is kinda grim.

Hey, was that the wind?

I think about you now and then

What adventures you are on

The kind of trouble you’ll get in

Hey, now I know

Now I’ll travel on my own

Maybe there’s a place for me

Walking down Redemption Road

Hey, where’d you go?

Amarillo

A year or so gone and your coffee mug’s there on the counter

And some pinto beans high on the pantry shelf

The drawers are all full of coupons and broken pencils

And a moment we shared in a long-lost photograph

It was easy to love when we met in the glow of a jukebox

I liked your laugh as much as you liked my smile

Starting is easy, but ending’s just as impatient

It’s the in-between time that stretches onward for miles

But sometimes at night when the wind blows from Palo Duro

And the stars do a dance in the light of the western sky

I think I might change my mind about tomorrow

And dream you’ll come back home, to Amarillo

Out in the distance, eighteen wheels on the highway

I’m pulling a load from Tulsa down Mexico way

Sometimes I drive by your house down on El Rancho

But I never knock, I wouldn’t know what to say

But sometimes at night when the wind blows in from Palo Duro

And the stars do a dance in the light of the western sky

I think I might change my mind about tomorrow

And dream you’ll come back home, to Amarillo

In My Dreams

In my dreams, you came to me as softly as a cloud

You spoke to me, and then I lost you in a crowd

And in a whisper, you were gone

Later on, the clouds they turned a darker shade of grey

Through forest dark, and in the haze I couldn’t find my way

And like a whisper, I was gone

In my dreams, demons of my own design

In my dreams, always looking for a sign

In my dreams, the trees were talking to me in the breeze

Laying bare, all my fears and nascent memories

And like a whisper, they were gone

When I wake, you’re always there to reach out for my hand

Come with me, we’ll chart a course through undiscovered land

And in a whisper, we’ll be gone

In my dreams, drowning in the dimness of the light

In my dreams, help me make it through the night

In my dreams, we speak in silent, silver tones

In my dreams, all the loves we’ll ever know

San Joaquin Station

I found you crying in Bakersfield

trying to leave the world behind.

“You keep on crying like that,” I said
“You’ll probably go blind.

“Comes a time,” you said to me,

“When you have to choose up sides.”

You’ve known that I’m not normal

but it’s just my point of view.

The way I see the world around me

the sky is green and rarely blue.

I’ve got a few bad habits,

several good ones too.

I sort thru my lovers now and then,

trying to figure out what I’ve learned.

Did some of them love you?

Well, that’s none of my concern.

She said, “There’s a world out there and it’s waiting

and it’s calling out my name.

And if I don’t board that train on time,

I’ll have no one else to blame.”

I watched the San Joaquin pull out

Down the tracks and across the road.

Life moves in a peculiar rhythm

It’ll pass you by if you move too slow.

But you can’t start a journey

If you don’t get up and go.

I wish you well my darling

wherever you may go.

Snowfall

Chilly shivers in the air tonight,

the leaves have all gone home.

I took a walk in the day’s remaining light

and I don’t care that my nose and fingers are all bare

‘cause I’m walking with the snow falling down

Something called me from the warmth of evening fire,

frozen mirrors in the light.

An alabaster sheen is all that I desire

on my face, snowy tears reflected in my gaze,

and I’m walking with the snow coming down.

All the jagged edges torn by summer storms,

smooth and even in the moon.

Impatient flowers poke their noses out at you,

wishing it were June.

Only hours before the sun comes out again,

threatening everything we see.

So let’s wander in a state of flurried zen

and we’ll find a winter wonderland is on our mind

as we’re walking with the snow falling down.

Walking with the snow falling down.

Redemption Redux

The wind makes suggestions as it passes through town

kicking up a cloud of dust

and pauses to reflect

on those already drowned.

It’s time I hitched a ride on it

and follow where it blows,

strong and silent, never in a rush,

whichever way it goes

out on Redemption road.

Go

What’s at the edge of the universe?

Is there something there to see?

Or will we look back at ourselves

to repeat the lives we lead?