North Country Blues

I recorded this Live studio cover of Bob’s song (The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan) back in 2006. He didn’t add a harmonica part to it, but I decided to do one anyway. Everything was recorded as is, completely live, including the harmonica. This was the first song that Dylan wrote from a female perspective. I find it to be a great story, and since I am from the North Country and really liked the song, I figured… why not.

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Come gather ’round friends
And I’ll tell you a tale
Of when the red iron ore pits ran plenty.
But the cardboard filled windows
And old men on the benches
Tell you now that the whole town is empty.

In the north end of town,
My own children are grown
But I was raised on the other.
In the wee hours of youth,
My mother took sick
And I was brought up by my brother.

The iron ore poured
As the years passed the door,
The drag lines an’ the shovels they was a-humming.
‘Til one day my brother
Failed to come home
The same as my father before him.

Well a long winter’s wait,
From the window I watched.
My friends they couldn’t have been kinder.
And my schooling was cut
As I quit in the spring
To marry John Thomas, a miner.

Oh the years passed again
And the givin’ was good,
With the lunch bucket filled every season.
What with three babies born,
The work was cut down
To a half a day’s shift with no reason.

Then the shaft was soon shut
And more work was cut,
And the fire in the air, it felt frozen.
‘Til a man come to speak
And he said in one week
That number eleven was closin’.

They complained in the East,
They are paying too high.
They say that your ore ain’t worth digging.
That it’s much cheaper down
In the South American towns
Where the miners work almost for nothing.

So the mining gates locked
And the red iron rotted
And the room smelled heavy from drinking.
Where the sad, silent song
Made the hour twice as long
As I waited for the sun to go sinking.

I lived by the window
As he talked to himself,
This silence of tongues it was building.
Then one morning’s wake,
The bed it was bare,
And I’s left alone with three children.

The summer is gone,
The ground’s turning cold,
The stores one by one they’re a-foldin’.
My children will go
As soon as they grow.
Well, there ain’t nothing here now to hold them.

Copyright © 1963; renewed 1991 Special Rider Music

Forget About The World

From the album Buy One, Get One Free by Jeremy Gratton

walk a mile in someone else’s shoes
it might just change your point of view
take a breath and hope for clean air
the pollution, like the noise, seems to be everywhere

got me a ticket to a sold out show
no one’s gonna find me and no one’s gonna know
gonna leave it all behind
gonna let it all go… my, my

witnessed an earthquake in the early mornin’ sun
swear i saw a thousand angels jumpin’ on the earth, just for fun
take all you have and let it wash away
there’s no need for it anymore anyway

got me a ticket to a sold out show
no one’s gonna find me and no one’s gonna know
gonna leave it all behind
gonna let it all go… my, my

all i need is the music
all i need are the words
put them both together…
and forget about the world

and forget about the world
and forget about the world… my, my

Funny Money

From the album Buy One, Get One Free by Jeremy Gratton

leave me with your sinister ministers and preachers of fame
leave me with your death defying acrobats and jugglers of praise

leave me with this empty smile
that sometimes graces this wrinkled face
leave me in your desperate eyes, your tiny waist
and your filthy mind of beauty

ain’t it funny
how the things you want aren’t always what you need
how things you need aren’t always what you want
how dreams cost so much money
isn’t it funny

leave me with a battered brain,
broken down like an engine train on its way
towards a torrent tornado and a hallowed hurricane of shame

leave me with your emptiness,
your loneliness and your feeble hands of fate
leave me with a dismal view of the beauty
i once knew inside of you

ain’t it funny
how the things you want aren’t always what you need
how things you need aren’t always what you want
how dreams cost so much money
isn’t it funny

ain’t it funny
how the things you want aren’t always what you need
how things you need aren’t always what you want
how dreams cost so much money
isn’t it funny

Think Of You

From the album Buy One, Get One Free by Jeremy Gratton

when i look up at the moon, i’ll always think of you
when i’m alone, or drenched to the bone, i will think of you
when i hear the sound of silence, i’ll think of you
when i crave passion or intensity, i will think of you

it brings me to tears to think that someone else gets to hold you
it brings me to tears to think that someone else gets to wake up to you

when i can’t shake my darkness, i will think of you
when i’m burning out from my brightness, i will think of you
when i lose myself in casual conversation, i will think of you
when i want something more from this world, i will think of you

it brings me to tears to think that someone else gets to hold you
it brings me to tears to think that someone else gets to wake up to you

when i want, or feel like i need, i will think of you
when i talk, or lose all my thoughts, i’ll still think of you
when i dream, or feel as though i can’t breathe…

i will think of you
yes, i’ll think of you
i will think of you

222 (Peace And Love)

From the album Buy One, Get One Free by Jeremy Gratton

we’ve got pills to cure other pills
friday night psychics and saturday evening thrills
we’ve got name brand clothes and radios
and plenty of reality tv shows

but what i’d really like to see is a little peace and love

we’ve got batteries and energizer bunnies
we’ve got plastic bushes and christmas trees
we’ve got fine linen and airport security
and little white presidents on green money

but what i’d really like to see is a little peace and love

we’ve got “nucular” weapons of mass destruction
four-year degrees and higher education
we’ve got assholes that went to yale and harvard
and still can’t pronounce a simple word

but what i’d really like to see is a little peace and love

“it’s nuclear you asshole!”

we’ve got an economy of frailty
we gotta work hard to spread the misery
we’ve got indentured servants and democracy
and soda pop with zero calories

but what i’d really like to see is a little peace and love

we’ve got blockbuster films and hollywood hookers
social security numbers and factory workers
i could go on forever about what we have or don’t have
but what i think we really, really ought to have…

is a little more peace and love

Off Of My Mountain

From the album Buy One, Get One Free by Jeremy Gratton

i’m a late blooming bloomer,
full of flesh and bones and mulch
the kind that sits in your stomach
after a lifetime of being beaten to a bloody pulp

and while some egomaniacs
can drown in silver spooned madness,
i’m the kind that likes to make it back home

i’m a perpetual broken reptilian ponderer
in a world full of demagogues
forever-warmed radiant robotic micro-peasants
who all want what one another got

and i’m coming down off of my mountain

like a soft stilled general leading
brilliant minds into a state of muscled atrophy,
i’ve gathered in the cells of instance,
broken waves with the filers of distance,
only to be left here like a slave

and i’m coming down off of my mountain
this time, both feet are staying on the ground

“i’m just so sick of it all, you know:
the violence, the hate, the war, the rage,
just the self-defeating behavior in general.
it’s just uh, absolutely ridiculous.
and it’s not that i hate us; actually, i…
i love us. i see how wonderful we could be,
but then i look at us… and we’re not.”

borne into a hardcore world of tyranny and misfortune
mass mad armoires full of mangled beauty and nonfiction
here the sullen sins of confounding pleasantry are all but extinct
even the juxtaposed moments of intimacy are considered just a luxury

and i’m coming down off of my mountain
this time, i’ll be bringing you down

Ray Krone (Snaggle-Tooth Killer)

From the album Buy One, Get One Free by Jeremy Gratton

ray krone was an air force veteran
he ‘mighta delivered your mail, if you’re an arizonian
ray krone was wrongfully accused
for the death of a 36 year old woman
for that error, ray krone spent 10 and a half years in prison

kim ancona was brutally savaged
left with teeth marks, her skin was ravaged
seems the jury agreed that ray krone should never go free,
since experts testified that the bite marks on kim matched his teeth

snaggletooth killer

ray krone told ‘em he was innocent
and damn us all, if the man didn’t speak the truth
ray krone had no criminal record
so don’t think this story couldn’t happen to you

give that ray krone a life sentence, put him behind bars forever
make sure he never sees the light of day not now, not ever
wait… even better, let’s execute that snaggletooth killer
hey, just for old time’s sake, let’s put him in the gas chamber

snaggletooth killer

kim ancona didn’t deserve to die
ray krone didn’t deserve to be in prison
seems they got the wrong guy
how do you apologize for wasting someone’s life

how can we have faith, in truth and justice in this current system
do you really believe ray and kim are the system’s only victims

“i don’t think so.”

snaggletooth killer… ray krone
snaggletooth killer… ray krone
snaggletooth killer… ray krone
snaggletooth killer… not anymore

ray krone… ray krone…
ray krone… ray krone…

i’m glad you made it home