Glasgow Songwriting Festival with lots of good tutors and inspiration.
This was written after an afternoon with Boo Hewerdine

Every Road

My friend was friends with Steve Earle's sister
And the stories that she told about her telling stories
With second hand hearsay being small town gospel
Pray

At these times we should stop and wait
It's not my place to speculate
Think about the nothing that we make with time
And the something that we leave behind

You can take someone out of context, try to grow them straight
In the shade of burning trees a street or two away
You can take years to leave the ones before
You can take someone out of context, but when the context is a war
Sometimes it doesn't matter
Some die fighting losing battles

It's a wonder for those on the line
That anyone makes it to 29
Easy enough for me to say
The leaving behind, the nothing made
The thousand miles, the setting straight
The burning bright, praying for rain
The small town gospel gossip pray
The, hell, who am I to say

Not Waiting Around (Out of Context) - Song a Week 2020, Week 35

"This One Night Stand Could Stand Just One More Night" (#386-#389, 200817-200828)

 * co-written with Melvin Purvis * 

Buckled up my jeans slipped my timepiece on
Headed downtown to the honky tonk
Goin' where I know I can find a dance and a drink

As I pulled up in the truck I thought I spied
Pretty little cutie with those Monroe eyes
Said a quick prayer she was there lookin' for the same thing

I held the door open and she walked right in
Knowin' how tonight could end

Never mind the same old pick up lines
Just one question your place or mine
I don't even care if we close the blinds
This one night stand could stand just one more night

I went what do you say we grab a cold one for the road
She said you got game but this ain't my first rodeo
Yeah she saw me comin' from my watch down to my boots

Like an old time cowgirl she headed me off at the pass
Every time I opened my mouth she shut me down fast
Kinda' started thinkin' that I bit off more than I could chew

Sittin' there wonderin' how the night would end
When she grabbed me by the hand

Never mind the same old pick up lines
Just one question your place or mine
I don't even care if we close the blinds
This one night stand could stand just one more night

When we wake up tomorrow we can flip a coin
But we both know where this thing is goin'

Week 35a - This One Night Stand Could Stand Just One More Night (200828)

The seventh song from Deconstructed

Solo para ti

Cada que me besa
con esa destreza
sabe cuanto me gusta
su mirada traviesa
Cuando ella me mira
pierdo la cabeza
Baby soy de ti
sólo para ti

You're what I want for me
and I can't go on así
so baby just let me be your man

Ay, you’re the one for me
sabe cuanto me gusta
su mirada traviesa
Ay, tú eres para mí
Baby soy de ti
sólo para ti

You're what I want for me
and I can't go on así
so baby just let me be your man

Deconstructed

Solo Para Ti

At the Glasgow Songwriting Festival, Emily Barker asked  us to write a song about a River and mine turned into a song about a Dam.
Whaley Bridge is a town in The Peak District in the UK and just just over a year ago a dam nearly collapsed. My children use to sail in competitions on this water. If it had it gone it would have taken out the town(and much of the surrounding area with it). We heard the helicopters going in and out from our house.  The hard work of the rescue services and the town stopped the disaster.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/aug/02/whaley-bridge-dam-raf-helicopter-collapse-peak-district

That Dam Wall

Sure, "Prove It" was the Week 14 prompt. But I didn't finish this song then. Don't think I finished it now.

*****

It's easy to say
We'll hold everything dear
Like we do right now
When the ending is

The ending is
What we make of it
You're going to be what we need right now
Prove it
Prove it to me

Everything starts to shake
Everything starts to blur

I can barely sleep
You're  early morning dreams
You're talking half to me
And half to you

Get inside my head and pull me out
Pull my body through when it calms down

It's all coming home, if you feel that darling
Pretty lies we were ready for

I remember rain, I remember sun
It's been so long it's gonna come, it's going come
Prove it
Prove it to me

Get inside my head and pull me out
Pull my body through when it calms down

Prove It - Song a Week 2020, Week 36

"I’m Ready Now" (#392, 200905)

 * Co-written with Paul McDonnell *

I'm looking for a place to put these chances I won't take
There's no more space the closet's full door's about to break
Gotta' clear some room by throwin' out these broken things
Collectin' dust from dawn to dusk beneath this old box spring

Like the halo that I used to wear, and my broken magic wand
There’s the shoes I never walked a mile in, should have tried those on

Well I’m ready now I’m singin’ it out loud
I'm breakin' free of what I can see I'm better off without
Yeah these nights are long but this ain't about what's right or wrong
It's just about me throwin' out my doubts and I think I'm ready now

My rosy tinted glasses they've been down there for awhile
Next to all the hours I spent wishin' like a child
A clover with 3 leaves it never seemed to grow a fourth
The pedestal that leveled all my lovers to the floor

The first stone that I couldn't cast, the tears that didn't help
Fallin' on the pages full of words I told myself

Well I’m ready now I’m screamin’ it out loud
I'm breakin' free of what I can see I'm better off without
Yeah these nights are long but this ain't about what's right or wrong
It's just about me throwin' out my doubts and I think I'm ready now

Pictures from the past like a movie in my mind
I can change my story when I leave them all behind

Week 36a - I’m Ready Now (200905)

You say
I am f ine
But you’re not
I say I m doing well
thanks a lot
Behind it all were far from what we long for  and  ache
We are not AOK

You say
Things look good in the dark
I say great but its cold in my heart
Behind it all there lies a veil to cover  up mistakes
We are not AOK

This is the truth
We are wanting to know
All will be well
All that is broken made whole

Behind it all were far from what we long for  and  ache
We are not AOK

You say  I am here for the haul
I say YES  LETS wait on the dawn
A sacrifice our  paradise
A friend FOEVER stayS
Makes us A OK

A sacrifice our  paradise
A friend forever stay
Makes me feel  A OK

This is the truth
We are wanting to know
All will be well
All that is broken made whole

A sacrifice our  paradise
A friend forever stay
Makes us A OK

AOK SAW 36

The words of the poet Robert Frost made into a song at the Shetland Songwriting Festival

The Aim Was Song

Before man came to blow it right
     The wind once blew itself untaught,
And did its loudest day and night
     In any rough place where it caught.
 
Man came to tell it what was wrong:
     It hadn’t found the place to blow;
It blew too hard—the aim was song.
     And listen—how it ought to go!
 
He took a little in his mouth,
     And held it long enough for north
To be converted into south,
     And then by measure blew it forth.
 
By measure. It was word and note,
     The wind the wind had meant to be—
A little through the lips and throat.
     The aim was song—the wind could see.

The Aim Was Song

Week 40 #songaweek2020. Photo is church, pandemic-style (Facebook Live kitchen-table worship  with my pastor). Partially inspired by Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. 

The closer you come to the mirror
The further you feel from yourself
You’re facing the facts
But there’s more to the story 
You’re something like what they see
And nothing short of you

The harder you hold out for meaning
The smaller it shrinks from your grasp
when did it ever make sense
In the cold hard light of you?

Come
Weary one
I will give you rest

The longer you live with your secret
The louder it lies in the dark
And cries to be heard
And held to the light

The deeper you dig down for treasure
the stranger the strain on your soul
When will you ever have
Enough?

Come
Heavy-laden one
I will give you rest

Come
Every last least one
I will give you rest

Rest

Copyright Erin Wolf 2020

Guitar & Vocals: Erin Wolf
Lyrics: James Tristan Redding & Erin Wolf
Music: Erin Wolf

*This song uses a wide range of old unused prompts from Song-A-Week founder, James Tristan Redding (@jimtristan). Former prompts featured can be found following the song lyrics with the year the prompt is from. While I had hoped to use them as prompts in their own right, it seemed fitting to put them all together while also using Week 40's theme, "Ifs and Thens". Thank you for the wonderful inspiration, old friend!*

last call, but i'll keep nursing my
whiskey for one
i used to say i like myself better when I'm drunk
but that old me is gone
that old me is gone

i guess my best was pretty bad, hey
what i said is not what i wanted to say
but in the end, i pay for my mistakes
pay for my mistakes

all i ever wanted was to make you proud
but for all i know,
i've failed and let you down
if i could just make you smile
even for a moment
that would be just fine

it's 11:59 and here i am hoping
that you are my tomorrow morning
forget ifs and thens
how or whens
what do ya say

forget ifs and thens
how or whens
what do ya say

(vocalizations)
(because i'm too lazy to type them all out)

**********
old JTR prompts featured in this song (year)
1. make you proud (2018)
2. 11:59 (2018)
3. my best was pretty bad (2018)
4. you are my tomorrow (2017)
5. whiskey for one (2017) 
6. for all i know (2017)
7. pay for my mistakes (2016)
8. not what i wanted to say (2016)
9. i like myself better when i'm drunk (2010)
10. if i could just make you smile (2009)

Prove It - Song a Week 2020, Week 36

Charlatan, PE