The Mulligan Brothers

Ceceilia

In the south of alabamy

Near the gulf of Mexico

On the banks of the ol' Tombigbee

Walks an old lost forgotten soul

He was once a man of virtue

Sadly less a man of means

He said Cecelia I wont let'em hurt you

I'll set you free. I'll set you free

My love for you is stronger than these plantation walls

And it howls at the moon at night

It don't know about the law

And it is at your beck and call

I'll set you free

Cecelia don't you cry

by and by

Cecelia don’t you cry

She was born into subjection

She was born without a say

He was her first and only revelation

That she might not die that way

I will love you all the seasons

What you want is what I'll be

I'll be your rock I'll be your reason

Just set me free. Just set me free.

My heart is so much stronger than these plantation walls

And it howls at the moon at night

It don't care about the law

And every night I hear it call

I'll set us free

Cecelia don't you cry

by and by

Cecelia don't you cry

He had never been inclined to help another man die

Until the boss man declined their wish to leave

With Cecelia at his side under that dark October sky

They climbed aboard his boat and left that man to bleed

No sooner than the boss man died his fury fell out of the sky

Racer's storm was on the hunt they say

Revenge and water filled that boat and sank his one and only hope

As he heard Cecelia's cries fading away

In the south of alabamy

Near the gulf of Mexico

On the banks of the ol' Tombigbee

Walks an old lost forgotten soul

From those murky, shallow waters

To the Caribbean sea

You can hear him cry Cecelia

Come set me free. Come set me free

Lay here

I remember I was singing about September

When you walked across the boardwalk to that smoky bar

And I’d been singing for the last six nights

And I could barely talk to tell you just how pretty you were

But you were as pretty as a preachers wife on Sunday

And I was useless like a church bell on a Friday night

I felt like a tragedy all dressed in dirty clothes

When you walked out before I could say

How when you stopped in

And the world stopped spinning

I gotta let you know

Just how I’ve become an artist

At how things fall apart

Its the only thing I know

Won’t you just stay here

Would you just stay here

Won’t you just stay here

We can just stay here

Spent the whole next night on the telephone

We were both alone and waiting on a change

And I remember I felt as suave as a prom date

15 minutes late in a rented suit and his mothers car

The next night was a Monday and you came over to my house

We hardly talked about anything, but it never got quiet until we

Kissed our first of many and the clock hands took reprieve

From the round the clock labor of their day to day

Cause when you stopped in

And the world stopped spinning

I've gotta let you know

That I know it will I don’t know when that time will matter again

But I don’t want to let you go

Won’t you just stay here

We can just lay here

I was thinking I’d swing by sometime around midnight

Turn my headlights off when I get near

Lets say you and me, we get the hell out of this town

Cause we’re the only thing that ever happened here

I’ve got 50 dollars and if we ride with the windows down

And I screen my smokes I think we’ll make it into Georgia

And improvise from there

Everybody know from here

That you can’t go to hell without passing through Atlanta first

I’ll find a dead end job and

Try to write a dead end song

Just thoughtless enough to make the radio

And we’ll drink wine like water

As if we had a sorrow to drown

If that don’t work it’s alright

We can just stay here

Because when you stopped in

And the world stopped spinning

I gotta let you know

Just how I’ve become an artist

At how things fall apart

Its the only thing I know

Won’t you just stay here

We can just stay here

We can just lay here

We can just stay here

We can get away dear

We can just stay here

I remember I was singing about September

When you walked across the boardwalk to that smoky bar

Sensible Shoes

the winter here is a week one, even it don't like to hang out here to long

just rolls into town and clocks in and sleeps until all the leaves are gone

the sunlight is strategizing, trying to skip right over town

the humidity's the only thing to gladly stick around

all the rest of us are stuck here for reasons we cannot explain

everybody here's a stranger we just know each others names

all our sunrise reverends are sunset sinners too

we'll be better by our criminals than we will be by you

so when you're crossing this city

this city will cross you

draw a line through your name

I've got a line through mine

round about last call on dauphin street theres a short parade that scatters from the bars

a bunch of pretty girls with blistered feet that dig for their keys and try to find their cars

in those high heeled shoes that they should've know better than to ever wear

they do a compact mirror makeup check and they exercise that stare they're gonna use

to turn somebody's head

paint another color on their blues

me I'm keeping my eyes peeled for one in sensible shoes

how i hope you find me

i hope you do it soon

it don't feel like you're trying but darlin if you do

when you're crossing this city

this city will cross you

draw a line through your name

I've got a line through mine

this place is beautiful the way it mystifies its bad

just like if Norman Rockwell painted a methamphetamine lab

all our consciences are busted they're off doing their own thing

they'd rather make their living some place else by any other means

they say everyone who's climbed on top this city's soapbox

has leaped from it to their death son

of this i am sure I'm no exception

when you're crossing this city

this city will cross you

draw a line through your name

I've got a line through mine

Thrift Store Suitcase

I woke up this morning and wanted to throw myself away

tried to sell my soul but it turns out it just aint worth much these days

the sun cut through the curtains and awoke me from a sleep

my dreams cut through the daytime and the sour through the sweet

and the papers came and said today would be like every other day

and I just could not go back home this way

now I'm sitting on a thrift store suitcase

not a nickel on my name

with holes in my heart and in both of my shoes

just waiting on a train

the old man over my shoulder says you'll have to find another way I fear

to run from all your blues boy

there aint no train that comes through here

the old man looks like Jesus, says I get that all the time

but if I were I'd leave the coast and throw away my cardboard sign

he said I looked like an old friend he'd lost somewhere down the line

and that if I were his friend and if he were the lord he'd turn the ocean into wine

he said I had a family down in New Orleans that just lived beyond my means

I thought I’d just go out and find my scene

now I'm sitting on a thrift store suitcase

not a nickel on my name

with holes in my heart and in both of my shoes

just waiting on a train

you can watch the some chase off the moon

a million times I fear

before you run from all your blues boy

aint no train been through in years

amazing grace, no matter just how sweet the sound may be

might save a wretch but not the chronically unsatisfied like me

when my suitcase washes up to shore

you might find what I was looking for

but I don't need it anymore

I don't need this anymore

now I'm sitting on a thrift store suitcase

not a nickel on my name

with holes in my heart and in both of my shoes

just waiting on a train

the old man says you oughta go back home boy

before we both catch our death out here

I know that'll be the day i catch the only train that comes through here

he said go home. all these days turn in to years

listen to an old man who knows that you can't get back home from here.

Oh Susanna

The city lights light up the skies and sidewalks
And I realized the second they came on
Surely that must be where all the light goes

when it gets dark back home

All the brunettes in New York City
And all the hills and rain in Tennessee
We road through them all for what seemed like years
But I was thinking about you and me

Oh Susanna
Don't you cry for me
I'm coming home to Alabama because I've got no place else to be.
Oh Susanna
It's me who cries for you
Lord I'm coming home to stay and honey you're just passing through.

I played my guitar out on the shore line
And the fireworks, they burned our in the bay
We drank til July fifth and then we slept right through the sixth
And I thought about you all three days
Then I guess I woke up sometime on a Friday
And realized that drug store wine, it just don't taste the same
Without the sweetness of your kiss to end the bottle. but man, it damn sure still works wonders on the pain

Oh Susanna
Don't you cry for me
I've got bones beneath my skin to keep me who I've got to be
Oh Susanna
It's me who cries for you
You sure do walk away a straight line for all the circles that you do.

Your entrance killed the laughter in the room
And my presence killed the laughter in you
And the cue card guy quit yesterday
You're left without a thing to say
You kindly pass on through
That's how I'll see you
That's how I'll see you
That's the portrait that I'll paint in my head every time I think of you

It don't take much for me
Just a tree line, some cheap wine and a back yard sky
Hovering over me like forgiveness just dangling on a string
It could turn it all around
Let's turn it all around

Oh Susanna
Don't you cry for me
I've got bones beneath my skin to keep me who I've got to be
Oh Susanna
It's me who cries for you
You sure do walk away a straight line for all the circles that you do.

Kaleidoscope

It was a long night that turned into a long day back into a long night left to go

my worries were as many and as bright and as broken as the reflectors in the middle of the road

I guess i became a danger and all my friends became strangers. I was feeling as cold and as alone

as a new lovers hell and i could already tell that I wasn't going home.

I aint going home

I wanna feel like something God made even if it hurts sometimes

I wanna live and die the long way even if its hard sometimes

I'm sitting in a heartache and looking at kaleidoscope people through the bottom of my glass

I'm plenty old to drink but still pretty young to think that my future might be shorter than my past

theres a new light chasing off the moon light making way for those with some place to go

they're gonna close the doors after one more song but I aint going home

I aint going home

I wanna feel like something God made even if it hurts sometimes

I wanna live and die the long way even if its hard sometimes

God send me a radio send me a song

that'll send me far away or send me back home

give me a reason give me a way

bring me tomorrow and wash away today

give me everything i want

give me everything i need

give me all the means to believe

I wanna feel like something God made even if it hurts sometimes

I wanna live and die the long way even if its hard sometimes

even if it hurts sometimes

even if its wrong sometimes

even if you lose sometimes

even if it hurts sometimes

Momma Gets my Soul

When I die my momma gets my soul

here I'm fading just slower than the daylight and I still don't know

what will come to collect me or which way it will come from

but it won't be long now if I'm gonna die young

Find somewhere warm for my dear Caroline

Tell her that I’m sorry and I’ll be just fine

Tell her I went easy when I knew I’d lost the fight

why would I lose sore nobody ever won at life

Gather all my friends down at the bar

Divvy up my records and hand out my guitars

tell them pull a little harder tonight when they raise hell

make a big enough scene to keep the devil off my trail

Tell my girl to keep that sparkle in her eye

it’s alright she couldn’t love me and it was good of her to try

surely it’ll be the angels that call her when she’s old

if heaven don’t want her then i don’t want to go

Don't give me to no cold and deep, dark hole

reduce me to an urn and lighten up your load

I know God is a good man cause my momma knows him well

but the devils fast so tell dad to drive like hell

When I die my momma gets my soul

here I'm fading just slower than the daylight and I still don't know

what will come to collect me or which way it will come from

so when I die my momma gets my soul

Too Soon To Say

Theres a girl in my bed

only calls me when her lover don't call

Theres a girl in my bed

Hardly ever calls me at all

theres a woman I love

only knows me by another man's name

thats the price of always trying to win without playing the game

so we're the same

its just too soon to say if we're gonna be ok

headlights or taillights

right or wrong night or day

its too soon to say

Theres a ghost in my head

only wakes me when i get the blues

i guess sometimes some things die and just don't get the news

theres a piece of my heart on a fence post in Ontario

If you don't live there you're dead there and I died there a long time ago.

So we're the same

its just too soon to say if we're gonna be ok

headlights or taillights

right or wrong night or day

its too soon to say

Theres a boy in a bar

plays behind his tip jar all night long

no one seems to care that he's always playing the same song

he sings theres blood on the floor you all seem to ignore somehow

you're all pacified with your up casted eyes aren't you now

they say no offense boy but its best if we leave that blood be

You're bleeding to death boy theres prettier things here to see

so we're the same

its just too soon to say if we're gonna be ok

headlights or taillights

right or wrong night or day

its too soon to say

Red Dress Lady

I peel my label into hundreds of shreds

keep my eye on the door

smoke my last cigarette

above bottles clanging and conversation

my watch is ticking and taunting and asking

How long you waiting on a chance she won't show

and I don't know

Suddenly I'm beginning to feel a little past over and a little naive

and just as i surrender my seat and reach for the keys to my car

there you are

there she comes like a spotlight coming down the hall

she shines from the middle I can't see nothing else at all

my red dress lady in a black and white town

don't turn around

keep coming my way

don't turn around

Im staying in and she's out there tonight

out on the town until nearly daylight

I'm getting older and it's getting late

wonder if she would call if she knew I'm awake

everything is changing and my warm feeling is converting to burning

I can just see her waiting for somebody other than me

suddenly I'm beginning to feel a little passed over and a little naive

but just as i give up on sleep and reach for the keys to my car

there you are

she calls out like a church bell ringing through the streets

bringing hope to the hopeless and me to my feet

my red dress lady in a black and white town

don't turn around

keep coming my way

don't turn around

she's a beautiful song just too long to write and too perfect to know

I'm a sad sad song, but I wrote every note

there she comes like a spotlight coming down the hall

she shines from the middle I can't see nothing else at all

my red dress lady in a black and white town

don't turn around

keep coming my way

don't turn around

Come To Me

close the curtains

pull down the shades

I’ve been watching this clock for days and days

you’ll never understand

what its like to love you like I do

I’ll never get enough

just give me your love

Come to me

I can’t wait for you to come to me

its getting late so hurry and come to me

all that I am

all i can do

I find myself lost without you

and you’ll never understand

what its like to lose you like I do

I’ll never get it back

until I’m next to you

Come to me

I can’t wait for you to come to me

its getting late so hurry and come to me

this emptiness

won’t take nothing less

than the two of us

so come on lets go on and

fill it up

Come to me

I can’t wait for you to come to me

its getting late so hurry and come to me

One Trick Pony

I’ve got a job that breaks my body

I’ve got another one that breaks my soul

these days its hard to tell which one does what

I suppose they both define me

but mostly they remind me

of everything I am not

A dusty replication

flesh and bone, lust and fear

I’m a one trick pony and its getting kinda lonely in here

I've got a heart thats always reeling

for another as much in need

how dearly misery loves company

I've got a heart thats always reeling

for another way to be

but misery loves nothing more than me

a dusty replication

flesh and bone lust and fear

I’m a one trick pony and its getting kinda lonely in here