MP3

BY THE TIME THE GREAT LAKES FREEZE 

I guess I don’t know what I’m looking for
Was not the answer he had hoped to hear
She took a t shirt from the hotel floor
And put a couple silver rings back in her ear
I guess them changing winds have come again
And now the leaves are turning in Montreal 
She tried some round about way to explain 
Which kinda makes things worse like every time before

When she goes 
With the highway in her soul
Yeah she’s always got to leave 
By the time the great lakes freeze 

And now she’s back out on the open road 
Just to kick these dreams from town to town 
Like there’s no future and there’s no past 
Just these moments flying through an hour glass
And a hurricane of things she couldn’t say but won’t live down

When she goes 
With the highway in her soul
Yeah she’s always got to leave 
By the time the great lakes freeze 

She made no promises to settle down
And she made peace with letting go
You can run so far it gets hard to turn around
And that’s something’ both her and I know

I got to go
With the highway in this soul
We’d be crazy not to leave
By the time the great lakes freeze

Shimmer Through The Windscreen

By The Time The Great Lakes Freeze

MP3

SASKATOON 

Prairie skies and hearts made of fire
Burning down the endless road
She was born with the stars in her eyes
And she takes them wherever she goes
Spent her whole life with arms open wide
Trying to catch the gypsy moon
Now she’s waving goodbye to Saskatoon 

Highway sixteen and childhood dreams
Of the wild flours whipping by
She was gunning for a taste of that big city scene
You could see the lights shining in her eyes
Her friends back home all said she shouldn’t go 
But that they'd come visit her soon
They’d make the trip West out of Saskatoon 

No matter how far we run 
Or whatever our hearts have done
Home will be home 
Whatever we become
No matter how far we run

California nights
Sunset strip lights
And the pre disposition to roam 
She’d dreamed of this place for years of her life
But in those dreams she wasn’t stuck here alone
A world away from the faces that stay
Framed and hung all over her room
They all think of her back in Saskatoon 

No matter how far we run 
Or whatever our hearts have done
Home will be home 
Whatever we become
No matter how far we run

From the moment I saw her
In some West side bar
In the city where you have to look down to see the stars 
I could tell right there she was caving in
Cause I’d been there before and I’d felt the same thing
Like you’re searching for love that don’t want to be found
Like your driving a dream right back into the ground
Like the whole city’s crowded but you feel so alone
Like you just want to head back home

Where everyone knows here
The highways freeze over
Where the land of the living skies got tattooed on here shoulder
I seen it the one time that I got to hold here
And I think about that now and then
We kissed in the car
I tuned her guitar 
And played some old Joni Mitchell tune
Then I said goodbye to Saskatoon
Goodbye Saskatoon

Saskatoon

MP3

DON’T TURN YOUR BACK ON THE OCEAN

Don’t turn your back on the ocean
Don’t curse the waves when they rise
Don’t let your heart stay broken 
If some love shifts with the tides

Don’t run away from the whirlwind 
Don’t head for the hills trying to hide
Just understand that the world spins 
Out of control sometimes 

But you will find a way
Through the thunder and the lightning and the rain
You will find a way
On this rising see of things you cannot change
You will find a way through all this sadness 
And you will learn to love the madness 

I fell in love with the highway
For all of it’s twists and it’s turns
The headlights dancing
The breaking of the day 
And the lessons that can’t be unlearned 
Like never break your heart right open
Just to find the love you need
Don’t turn your back on the ocean 
Don’t let the whirlwind break your speed 

But you will find a way
Even on the darkest night when you cannot see a thing
You will find a way
Past that familiar ghost that came to clip your wings
You a find a way through ocean storm and whirlwind 
To steady up that heart and let this world spin
Through all the light and all the sadness 
You will learn to love the madness

Don't Turn Your Back On The Ocean

Buy 'The Gypsy Moon - Volume II'
https://itunes.apple.com/au/album/the-gypsy-moon-volume-ii/id835578921

Caroline, those dark eyes say your fine but that heart feels like an ocean that I can't swim
Send me a sign and say what's saying on your mind before these heavens fall and the tide starts coming in

She said boy my heart grows weary and all these dreams are shaking I'm just scared someday I'll wake and find they've flown away

And I say
I've seen the line where you fell, think I've fallen there as well
Think I've fallen and the whole dream came undone
Now every loss is a reason to fire, every face becomes a bullet and every heart becomes a gun

Caroline, I think this highways left me blind I've been searching for the point on the map we crossed
But every time, it feels like I lose more that I find someday soon I'll just find myself completely lost

I said girl my heart grows weary and all these dreams are shaking I'm just scared someday I'll wake and find they've flown away

And you say
I've seen the line where you fell, think I've fallen there as well
Think I've fallen and the whole dream came undone
Now every loss is a reason to fire, every face becomes a bullet and every heart becomes a gun

There's no bullets on this side of the glass
You'll see right through it once this battled passed
Your tears are breaking this sand, your tears are breaking this sand
If you keep crying there will be nowhere left to stand
Let's stop firing now, better stop firing now
If we keep shooting stars the whole skies going to come down
Keep that heart of gold, and keep those dreams still holding onto every secret that this highways left to unfold
Let me stay on your mind, let fate ring true like time, let there be a day we meet again and I can say 

Caroline, those dark eyes say your fine and that heart feels like it knows mine

Caroline

Buy 'The Gypsy Moon - Volume II'
https://itunes.apple.com/au/album/the-gypsy-moon-volume-ii/id835578921

I'm still trying to hold the heart of this dream
It don't glitter like gold or play out on a screen
Where the story ends, but we can just play in all over again

And I keep thinking back to when you'd ask me why
I won't stray from this track I've been tracing all my time 
And I couldn't say, just felt like the only way

And the longer I go, the more I believe it
The stronger I grow, the more that I need it
And the more that I know, the more that I wonder why
And that's why I still chase the sky

So I let you grow up and I left to find my way 
Through fear, doubt and dust in the hands of the highway
I still feel like a child, starring at his first midnight sky

Back when our dreams were for keeps, every last one of those stars were in reach
And I told you I'd go bring them down someday 
I guess those thoughts never changed

And the longer I go, the more I believe it
The stronger I grown, the more that I need it
And the more that I know, the more that I wonder why
And that's why I still chase the sky

And I know that it's so hard to leave it 
And go out alone just to learn that you need it
But I'd rather let go then keep on wondering why
And that's why I still chase the sky

You can keep wondering why
But I'll keep chasing the sky
You keep wondering why
But I'll keep chasing the sky


That's Why I Still Chase The Sky

Buy 'The Gypsy Moon - Volume II' 
https://itunes.apple.com/au/album/the-gypsy-moon-volume-ii/id835578921

Well Katy turned away, with a slow step back she falls into the night / And says there's nothing left to pray for and there's nothing worth the fight / It just feels like we're empty until someone comes along that we could paste in every picture and sing for in each song / And if it's always going to be like this I'll quit believing now / If the memories from each turn we missed keep dragging us around in circles then I'd rather forget / She cried and hailed a taxi with her cigarette.

So we say goodbye 
And I wonder why 
We're always leaving so soon
Or why I chase the midnight sky 
When I could be holding the moon

She said take me as I am or take the next train out of town / Take the memories we kept locked away cause darling this love is hurricane bound / And I want to ask her ain't it easier just face it, either my heart kept running faster or yours grew too strong to chase it / So it all just fades away and slowly I step back into the night / Cause if there's nothing real to stay for then there's no need for the light / And we remain two lost shadows in the dark with a fear to ever frame our restless hearts.

So we say goodbye 
And I wonder why 
We're always leaving so soon
Or why I chase the midnight sky 
When I could be holding the moon

We say goodbye 
And then off wide eyed 
All the way from the cradle to the tomb
Wondering why 
We chase the midnight sky 
When we could be holding the moon

Holding The Moon

The Pursuit

Kind Pirate

04 - Kind Pirate

Lily

Westbrook

Midwestern Blue

Marakoopa

Vincent

Indigo

I’ve always wanted to make an album that’s completely solo. Just me and my guitar, in a room playing all the songs live because that’s what I’ve done my whole life and it’s what I do on stage every night. I don’t know why but music has always been a very personal thing for me. Something I feel most comfortable doing on my own.

2015 was a big year for me, even busier than usual. I played over two hundred shows around the world and at the end of it all just decided to come straight off the road and into the studio to throw down everything that felt like it needed to come out at the time. So after so many years of performing night after night and throwing myself around the globe like a corkscrew I suddenly found myself back where I began - on the Far South Coast of NSW in Australia, half an hour from the house I grew up in, recording in the same studio I first walked into as an 18 year old to make my first EP with one of my best friends sitting in the control room to help me try and capture this whole thing.

I spent three summer nights laying down as much music as I could. Some songs took one take and some took about thirty. It was all live. It was all real. And you have no choice but to be completely honest when playing it this way. Whatever happens belongs to that one moment. You can’t see it coming and you can’t do anything about it once it’s gone so when the the song is over, you listen back to what happened and either live with that take or go back to the top and try it all again. We managed to capture some new songs that were born out of the past few years of touring and some older ones from previous albums that have grown up a lot on the road and I felt I could do more justice to today. I also finally recorded my own versions of ‘Spoonful’ (Willie Dixon), ‘Vincent’ (Don McLean) and ‘Fade To Black’ (Mark Knopfler), which have been in the live show for years now but wouldn’t fit any of my other albums.

I feel like we captured a pretty vivid snap shot of where my music is at right now. And it’s kind of exciting to have something to point to when it’s what has taken me all over the world, to some amazing places and people. I’ve seen and felt some things I would never have thought about when I first set out with a guitar and a box of CDs all those years ago. I also know there are people who have been coming to my shows for years now and always ask about an album that sounds like I sound live. And to be honest, I’ve felt the same way all along.

So here it is - just me and my guitar, in a room playing all the songs live because that’s what I’ve done my whole life and it’s what I do on stage every night.

I hope you hear it, I hope you get something from it and I hope to see you out there on the long road ahead.

Daniel Champagne


Same Enemy

The Gypsy Moon

Spoonful

Heart Like This

Fade To Black

Heart Shaped Tattoo

The Australian born, Nashville based singer/songwriter and one of a kind guitar virtuoso Daniel Champagne announces a new live-in-studio album ‘The Heartland Hurricanes’ and a world tour that will take him to Australia, New Zealand, The United Kingdom, Belgium, Ireland, The USA and Canada in the first half of 2016. Full details @ www.danielchampagnemusic.com

SUPERNOVA

Acland Street

The Nightingale

All Of My Stars

By 'Pint of Mystery' from www.danielchampagnemusic.com

I got half a hand still hanging from a heart i couldn't hold / I got an iron will lying by the door of a girl i used to know / she circles like a raver round the raged edge of time / through the deepest of pain trailing away with my mind

And we both go 
Tearing down the boulevard with our hearts on show
And we both throw
Our world for believing cause it's leaving and it's all we know

There's no angel that could save me from the light i see / a startled satin lady with here eyes on me / with a watered down whisky stair she waits for a dance / and in the misty midnight city square I fall for the chance

So we both go 
Tearing down the boulevard with our hearts on show
And we both throw
Our world for believing cause it's leaving and it's all we know

Always falling on my sword I try to fight your charm
But lets not weep for loss
And lets not speak of why we crossed 
Lets just dream tonight like life forgot
Our secret in the dark

I've got half a hand still hanging from a heart I couldn't hold / I've got a witches spell tracing for truth beneath each tail I'm told / and I used to know this mirrored maze I walked it as a child but so many things around us change in the face of times trial 

Where we both go 
Tearing down the boulevard with our hearts on show
And we both throw
Our world for believing cause it's leaving and it's all we know

We both go 
Tearing down the boulevard with our hearts on show
And we both throw
Our world for believing cause it's leaving and it's all we know

Secret In The Dark

Buy 'Pint of Mystery' from www.danielchampagnemusic.com

The nightingale sings each morning
Her sweet song weaved in midnight's thread
Beneath her vale, a kingdom's calling
If I could leave this grassy bed

But when I told you I was afraid to fall
Really I was afraid to fly at all

Deep in trial, bound and burning
Her restless charm has broken through
But between cheap denial and reckless yearning
To run from harm was all I knew

So when I told you I was afraid to fall
Really I was afraid to fly
When I told you I was afraid to fall
Really I was afraid to fly at all

We fly and we fall
From the summers golden ray's to the murky ocean floor
Sometimes there's some cause we're calling for
But mostly it seems we're chasing dreams to the shore

The Nightingale flies tonight
And I know the spell that she's weaving
It's not like I can't stand the fight
I just can't stand the leaving

So when I told you I was afraid to fall
Really I was afraid to fly
When I told you I was afraid to fall
Really I was afraid to fly at all

Buy 'The Gypsy Moon - Volume I'
https://itunes.apple.com/au/album/the-gypsy-moon-vol.-1/id643550774

Woken in the middle of the night when you called to come around
You'd been dancing alone in the neon lights with eight drinks down
And Josephine I've never seen your eyes so dark
My midnight queen was torn between this city and her heart

Walked in to find the suitcase and old guitars already gone
And you've got half my mind the rest's in the car with a highway song
My hearts still on my sleeve where it keeps bleeding life
You asked me why I leave I wish I could've just said why

But they don't write the answers, like a name in the sky
And you don't see the chances till your waving goodbye
And the lights going to leave us here I see it fading in your eyes
But the don't write the answers we lost our way and I could never really say why

Now it's one last show, a thousand miles and a strange town
And you know how it goes with a sweet smile and another round
But Josephine you should've seen the stars tonight
I though I'd call but just got all them questions down the phone line

But they don't write the answers, like a name in the sky
And you don't see the chances till your waving goodbye
And the lights going to leave us here I see it fading in your eyes
But the don't write the answers we lost our way and I could never really say why

There's a point when it all feels the same and we're lost in the heart of it
When there's nowhere to go with the blame so we all just where part of it
And it plays like a runaway game but it's our fault for starting it
Now I'm searching the sky for your name cause losings the hardest bit

But they don't write the answers, like a name in the sky
And you don't see the chances till your waving goodbye
And the lights going to leave us here I see it fading in your eyes
But the don't write the answers we lost our way and I could never really say why
So I keep waiting for your name in the sky


Name In The Sky

Buy 'The Gypsy Moon - Volume I'
https://itunes.apple.com/au/album/the-gypsy-moon-vol.-1/id643550774

I guess the mornings good for leaving
I guess I'll try to tell you why
I guess we lost ourselves believing that we could chase the sky
That we could chase the sky

Do you see the shadows dance before us
Do you feel this love melt just like snow
Do you hear the ravens fly and call out the end 
Well they've got me waiting on the breeze like it's my only friend

And it goes like this if we never let it fall
And we'll always wish that we had have made a call
With a heart like this you can never have it all
Till it all comes back with a wrecking ball

You said the mornings good for leaving
You tried to smile and tell me why
You said I'd lost myself dreaming while you went to say goodbye
Did you mean to say goodbye

I think your shirts still in the hallway
I think your songs still in my fist
A cry of shame has got me tied to the hall 
And I stay here silent starring at the open door

And it goes like this if we never let it fall
And we'll always wish that we had have made a call
With a heart like this you can never have it all
Till it all comes back with a wrecking ball

Can't you hear the highway calling out
I tried to let you know
Can't you fell the sky way falling down
I've got to let you know
Leaving left a thorn in every kiss
I could not feel before
I could never hold a heart like this 
I'm lost starring at the open door

Trying to hold you is like trying to fire a pistol in the dark, missed your mark and now your running from the world again
I can't control you and I won't retrace our steps back to the start, you shot the heart out of this love and now where all the same
I know I want to know you but I don't know if I want to play the part to shut you out when I see compromises that i can't comprehend and I want to show how this cold wind and the highways left a mark, got me waiting on the breeze like its my only friends

And it goes like this if we never let it fall
And we'll always wish that we had have made a call
With a heart like this you can never have it all
Till it all comes back with a wrecking ball

And it goes like this if we never let it fall
And we'll always wish that we had have made a call
With a heart like this you can never have it all
Till it all comes back with a wrecking ball

As one reviewer recently said...‘Daniel Champagne exudes a natural ease on stage, as he sings poignant lyrics and beautifully crafted melodies that invariably whisk the heart up with grand romanticism. Coupled with an exhilarating guitar talent that transcends mere acoustic playing to replicate a whole band, Champagne is just magical’ (themusic.com.au)

DANIEL CHAMPAGNE

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