Over the coming year I will be posting 52 songs for my friends musical enjoyment. I can think of no better way to start this than to feature 3 valentines written for my muse and great love. So Happy Birthday Kathleen. I love you more than chocolate. 


The Limbo Of Love

A Pub, the great war, a soldiers rambling commentary, A toast to the wind...

The Toast

" Don't think I don't love you, baby I do. I even used all my tears up on you..”  This one is crazy fun to sing.
Written By John Reynolds &  D. Scott Miller


I Dont Cry

Mississippi 

Mississippi got a ribbon river slides on its belly thru the cotton to the delta lappin at the banks like a wild alligator like a whore on her back she’s a devil of an angel so charmed to meet you as it curls by the veranda where the mockingbird screams bought the coronal and Virginia and the ribbon rolls on in the dark throwin sparks like a drown boys ghost neath the eye of Fatima till the air gets hard as a kerosene lantern goes down deeper than the brown and the yellow in a black child’s eyes off the coast of Alabama wet as the mud ‘tween the toes and the marrow of two boys fishin cussing and itchin, talking real big and smoke ring wishin 

Its in the bone stays with you like a song Mississippi 
The pull is strong it just goes on and on, on to Mississippi. 

Mississippi got a ribbon river smells like the shine in a bait shop window long as the wind in an old southern preacher standin on the stump till momma comes to fetch yah where the cracked moon ripples in the black tide water lingers in the shallows like the breath of a lover shimmers like the hover of a white sheet blowin in the breeze while the trees watch the river keep rollin, cutting straight down like an axe blade racin thru some sunken timbers that were lost in a flood that took half of the farms most of the houses left 26 missing and the muddy banks crowded two boys itchin wantin to be fishin, talking real quiet bought’ smoke ring wishes. 

The pull is strong it just goes on and on Mississippi 
Its in the bone lives in you like a song Mississippi 

Mississippi got a ribbon river kill you dead she’s an unforgiver mean as murder and colder than vengeance sad as a convict listenin to his sentence wide as a field of cut you bad cotton pretty as heaven and burnin hell rotten swingin low like a diamond head hangin from a willow sleepy like the way your head falls on a pillow passin two old men with there feet in the water cutting fresh bait swearin on there honor that there must be more than the state of mississippi that damned old river with its air so sticky laughin and fishin, cussing and itchin, talking real big makin’ smoke ring wishes 

The pull is strong was with me all along Mississippi 
knew all along id end up comin’ home, home to Mississippi 
mmmmmmm 



Released March 9, 2016 
Words, Music and Performance - John Reynolds, Recorded at the House Of Bliss, Nashville TN.

Mississippi

#17 of 52 songs released in 2016 as part of 52n52 project

                        The light
mmm..
All day long I've been standing in the dark.
The great big world had lost its spark.
Every thing around me was on its way out.
I was sure of one thing and that was my doubt.

But you came up like a blinding flash.
Now all that bric a brac is in the past.
I was holding on to nothing but that's fading fast.

Mmm, Since you lead me to the light.
There’s not an end in sight.
Since you lead me to the light.
The black and the whites got a whole new meaning.
It's in color now that I'm dreaming.
Whum wada wewah....

What went wrong said the clock to the spoon.
Every since he met her he’s hummed a dif’rent tune.
Then the wall said he hardly even talks to me at all.
And the phone said its just been one long call.

Mmm, Since you lead me to the light.
There’s not an end in sight.
Since you lead me to the light.
The black and the whites got a whole new meaning.
It's in color now that I'm dreaming.
Whum wada wewah....

Written by John Reynolds and Larry Knight

Larry Knight - Blistering Acoustic, Bass drum
John Reynolds - Words, Voice and whum wada wewah's 


The Light

#19 of 52 is one of the first songs ever recorded at the House of Bliss. 
Produced, Arranged and co written by old friend and cofounder of the band Without Ruth - Steve Rosen. 
Mandolin by Larry knight,
Drums by Chuck Tilley, 
BG vocals by Don Dixon 
Thanks to all of the many Without Ruth'ites who have performed it live so beautifully over the years. 
I wrote the words as a beautiful ice storm blanketed Nashville, when all the power was out and electrical generators popped off in the snowy distance.  
A night when we felt small but deeply connected to the beautiful world around us
 j.

Simple Truths

Look into the heavens on a starry night
Drink in the darkness bathe in the light
From this perspective we all seem fragile and small
Tiny diamonds on a big blue ball
First you stumble then you fly
Some days are laughter some days are crying
A little kindness lasts a long long while, simple truths
We can’t make it on our own..
Even the ocean must reflect the sky
Simple truths for a complicated time
Look into the gentle eyes of a helpless child
Drink in the darkness burning and wild
Deep as the darkest of forests wide as the sky
Tiny footsteps in the march of time
First we stumble then we fly…
Even the ocean must reflect the sky
Simple truths for a complicated time

Words and music by John Reynolds & Steve Rosen


Simple truths for a complicated Time

Words and music by John Reynolds and Steve Rosen
Recorded at the house of bliss, nashville , Tenn
From the first Without Ruth album
JR - Voice, Words
Steve Rosen - All instruments, Arrangement, voice
Don Dixon - Voice, Bass
Larry knight - Guitar

Rage


Stuck Inside

Stuck inside of something that I thought I'd never see,
Broken up in pieces like a painful memory.
Tangled up and twisted like the veins inside the arm,
Of a hollow eyed old junky falling for the needles charms.

Stuck inside of a time that seems foreign and unclear.
Much, much further down the line than I had ever feared.
On a train that's never leaving from a town that never was,
Straddled spread eagle across the track I once called love.

Stuck inside and I cant get out.
Stuck inside and I cant get out.
Makes me want to scream and shout.
Stuck inside and I cant get out.

Stuck inside of the day that death taught me the truth.
When justice lifted up her wings and flew off with my youth.
And balance lifted up its eyes so life could cut one out.
And freedom locked me up inside a cage of my own doubt.

Stuck inside and I cant get out.
Stuck inside and I cant get out.
Makes me want to scream and shout.
Stuck inside and I cant get out.

Come inside let me take your heart,
We’ll dry our minds here by the fire,
You and me in here forever,
You and me and me and you forever and forever and we’re..

Stuck inside and we cant get out.
Stuck inside and we cant get out.
Makes me want to scream and shout.
Stuck inside and I cant get out.

Words & music - John Reynolds

  John Reynolds - vox, acoustic 
  Mason Waters - bass, bgv
  Dave Reed - electric guitar, bgv
  Mike Radovsky - drums

 Produced by Scott Baggett
 Recorded at The Electric Sandbox, Nashville Tenn.
 Illustration - George Bernal

Stuck Inside (unedited)

LUCIFERS DELILAH  (Portrait of the Muse as a Goddess)

Hair like golden rings of fire    E
Arms like Eden’s snake unfurled    A E
Eyes like diamonds in the dark    E
Her heart a brooding underworld   A E
She’s got a disposition marked by friction   A E
And her thoughts are searing braids aflame   A B
Her beast walks by her like a child   A
Comes to her wild and leaves her tame   E B

She’ll take you like a massacre   D/A/G/E
Leave you like a pile up    D/A/G/E
She’s Lucifer’s Delilah    D/A/E

Lips like bloody valentines   E
Tongue like a scarlet ribbon streaming    AE
And her legs an ark a covenant   E
Her face a Venus dreaming   D/A/E
Her test is given easily   AE
Ah but no ones ever passed it   EA
Her feast is taken in due course   AE
First there’s the battle then there’s the war   F#-/F#/B

She’ll call you with a battle cry    D/A/G/E
Pick you from a line up    D/A/G/E
She’s Lucifer’s Delilah    D/A/E

She’s Lucifer’s Delilah    D/A/G/E  TAG

I've come to learn I've come to trace    A 
a line around desire    E
I've come to lift a cup and drink    A
impound imbibe acquire   F#-F#B
I've come to spend a life time    A
and drowning all the while   E
I've come to spend a little time   E 
with Lucifer’s Delilah   DAE

Lips like bloody valentines   E
Tongue like a scarlet ribbon streaming   AE
And her legs an ark a covenant   E
Her face a Venus dreaming   D/A/G/E

words and music john reynolds


Lucifers delilah

Delilah

Ordinary 
Words and music John Reynolds / Shevy Smith 
Don’t take me down tonight don’t swing low
There are so many parts of me that are just so hard to know
I push away from what I cannot control
So if this is gonna be well its gonna be slow

Don’t feign wisdom like it aint no big deal
For somebody to surrender to the way that feel
I’m not laid out there for anyone to steal
Not sure if I believe in love and other stuff that isn’t real

I’m afraid of a lot of things but not of myself
If you think that you don’t know me you know me pretty well
I’ve thought it out I’ve fought it out I've faked it like I fell
Doesn’t being ordinary scare anyone else 

I want someone who is strong enough to show me much too much
Isn’t being complicated simple enough

Lead vocal - Shevy Smith


Ordinary

This song was written on the road between San jose and Nashville with my two great friends Mark Mcguinn and Billy Davidson, two days after the event occurred.  This version by Mark with I love was recorded when we arrived home in Nashville on September 14th. 
This weeks 52n52 song is dedicated to those we lost.  All peace, John

America More Beautiful
John Reynolds, Mark McGuinn & Billy Davidson
 
September Eleventh Nine A.M.
America was born again
We became brand new
More beautiful right then
We found strength in strangers
Thanked God for our friends
Held on to our loved ones
Proud Americans
 
They closed down all the airports today
We watched the last plane in San Jose
We couldn’t close our eyes
We just stared into the sky
Could not look away
And as the flames burned through the night
All we could do was hold our heads up high
And when the morning light broke through
That old Red, white and blue still waved
America the beautiful, you’re more beautiful today

In the Pennsylvania Sky
Heroes chose to fight and die
With the pentagon in flames
Our spirit still remained alive
And in the rubble and the dust
Three firemen raised a flag for all of us
To show the world we would go on
Proud Americans

They closed down all the airports today
We watched the last plane in San Jose
We couldn’t close our eyes
We just stared into the sky
Could not look away
And as the flames burned through the night
All we could do was hold our heads up high
And when the morning light broke through
That old Red, white and blue still waved
America the beautiful, you’re more beautiful today

They opened all the airports today

More beautiful today

OBSERVATIONS OF A DEAD MAN
                                                                                         
ITS JUST ME AND ALL THESE CREDIT CARDS 
TRADIN’ STORIES AT THE BAR
MY TONGUE IS LOOSE AND WHEN I’M ALL OILED UP
I’LL SAY ANY THING TO ANY ONE
DID YOU HERE ‘BOUT THE TIME IN MEXICO 
WHEN I WAS SO YOUNG AND FELT SO OLD
FOR TWO POUNDS A CAKE I NEARLY LOST IT ALL
NEARLY ROTTED BEHIND THEM PRISON WALLS

BUT THE WEATHERS FINE AND THE MOON IS FULL
THE SKY IS CLEAR AND THE AIR IS STILL 

THEN THERE WAS THE GREAT COMPROMISE
JUST FORGOT THE TRUTH AND I BEGAN TO LIE
SAVED ALL MY TEARS THEN I PAWNED THEM OFF
I WAS HARD AS NAILS NO I WASN'T SOFT
AND THERE'S NOT MUCH TO TELL JUST A CHEAP NOVEL 
ABOUT A MAD MAN IN A WISHIN’ WELL
WHO TRIED AND HE TRIED BUT HE JUST COULDN’T SEE 
THE OCEAN FOR THE DEEP BLUE SEA

BUT THE WEATHERS FINE AND THE MOON IS FULL
THE SKY IS CLEAR AND THE AIR IS STILL  

HOW BOUT ANOTHER DRINK IT’LL BE ON ME
IF WE DIE RIGHT HERE WE CAN DRINK FOR FREE
WE’LL JUST LIE OUR HEADS DOWN ON THIS BAR
LIKE A BUNCH OF CUT UP CREDIT CARDS
AND WHEN THEY HAUL US OUT OF HERE
WE’LL JUST SPREAD OUR WINGS AND FLY
TO WHERE THE WEATHERS FINE AND THE MOON IS FULL
AND THE SKY IS CLEAR AND THE AIR IS STILL
 
Words & music - John Reynolds

John Reynolds - vox, acoustic 
Mason Waters - bass, bgv
Dave Reed - electric guitar, bgv
Mike Radovsky - drums

Produced by Scott Baggett
Recorded at The Electric Sandbox, Nashville Tenn.

Observations Of A Dead Man

All music Performed by Without Ruth, words and music by John Reynolds  

Corruptible

It aint no secret its just a simple fact 
Put fire and gas together and you better jump back
Some folks will try and tell you its original sin 
I tend to think its nothin’ but the flame within

Uh uh oh Corruptible
Uh uh oh we're so
Corruptible

Lie down with the lions you got to learn to roar 
There aint that big a diff ‘rence tween an angel and a whore 
Cause out here in the jungle no one gets out alive 
Without bein’ accepted as a member of the tribe 

Uh uh oh Corruptible
Uh uh oh we're so
Corruptible

There’s no use to deny it, no need to try and hide 
Everybody’s flirtin’ with the devil inside

It aint no secret its just a simple fact 
Put fire and gas together and you better jump back
Some folks will try and tell you its original sin 
I tend to think its nothin’ but the flame within

Uh uh oh Corruptible
Uh uh oh were so
Corruptible

Produced by Scott baggit

Corruptable

Written at the House of bliss, Nashville, Tenn.

IT NEVER FADES 
Written by and John Reynolds and Joy Lynn White 

VERSE	TOOK A PLANE OUT OF HEATHROW 
BARELY MAT)E MY FLIGHT 
S0 CAUGHT UP IN LEAVING 
THAT I NEVER HAD TIME TO CRY 

VERSE	LOOKING OUT MY WINDOW 
AT PURPLE CLOUDS BENEATH MY WINGS 
I KNEW THAT SOMETHING WOULD BE MISSING 
BUT I MISS EVERYTHING 

CHORUS	AND IT NEVER FADES 
NEVER FADES 
IT NEVER FADES AWAY 

(INSTRUMENTAL BREAK) 

VERSE	WE ALL KNOW HOW MUCH WE'VE LOST HERE 
WE ALL WATCHED IT GO 
THEY SAY THIS TOO SHALL ALL PASS 
BUT STILL I JUST DON'T KNOW 

VERSE	THATS JUST S0METHING YOU'LL COME TO LIVE WITH WHILE YOU'RE LEARNING TO G0 ON 
AND SO I CARRY THIS WEAKNESS 
'CAUSE ILL NEVER BE THAT STRONG 

(REPEAT CHORUS) 

TAG	AWAY

Written at the House of bliss, Nashville, Tenn.

It Never Fades

A bit of a funkified blue-eyed Oddity some of you may remember, Cheers,
j. 

CHOCOLATE

John Reynolds is a singer songwriter hailed by the Associated Press, USA Today, UPI, has songs on Norwegian and Canadian Grammy-winning albms, TV, Movie & Top100 cuts.


The John Reynolds

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