Dark Highway © 2023, Scott Hrabko
...
Down a country ass road in the dead of night
You can drive 100 miles and never see a light
Just a howling black hole, punctuated by the glow
Of 500 pairs of hellified eyes

Man, your high beams will only go so far
Beyond that ... godonlyknows
At least if you're not from here, which is clear
'Cause you're driving so slow

Dark highway, you go your way, baby, I'll go mine

We got red smears from dead deer 
To no avail, this vale of tears
No plastic flower bouquet there till the end of days
Collecting diesel dust by the speed limit sign
In the good ol' summertime

Passing souls from lane to lane
No signal to make their intentions plain
Least of all, for the eyes of men to see
Passing souls that took their leave
On we roll, invisible and free

Arkansas becomes Missouri
But I left my heart neither here nor there
Through a flurry of bug gut glory
In the oncoming, dirty headlight glare
Dirty looks from small town eyes
Baked cicadas unwind and rewind

Dark highway, you go your way, baby, I'll go mine

Dark Highway

Doin' The Dog

Et les couches de vêtements s'ajoutent
Et les couches de vêtements se détachent
Les oiseaux sont confus.
Tout a coup ... 
Les fleurs apparaissent trop tôt.
Elles ne survivront pas
Elles doivent savoir
Que c'est l'hiver
Ou juste le Printemps des Fous ? 
Ou peut-être que le fou, c'est moi

And the layers of clothing are added
And the layers of clothing come off
The birds are confused
Suddenly the flowers appear 
Too early
They won't survive
They must know
That it's winter
Or just Fool's Spring? 
Or maybe the fool is me

Le Printemps Des Fou (Fool's Spring)

Guard dog of nothing
But a Godforsaken vacant lot 
All day, all night
The barking never stops
Landlord somewhere
Doing time for fraud
He must have believed
He were some kind of god
Guard dog, guard dog 
Living for the kill
All the blood that ever was 
Or yet to be spilled
Come up hard, come up mean 
It didn’t have to be that way 
Loyal to the end and then 
They just threw him away
I saw his lifeless body
On the tailgate
Of the truck in front of me 
On the way uphill to a landfill 
Somewhere in Tennessee
His eyes were a long, long way from home 
Staring back from eternity

Guard Dog

Brand New Royal Blues 

Well, I woke up this morning with a jackhammer in my head
Bustin' up a bad batch of concrete*
Some manifest land grabbing real estate man
Has big plans for my street

And if only Ewing Kauffman were around
To see what's going down
I don't believe he'd say, "John Sherman --
You know I really do love what you've done with the place."

~ It's been a long way down since Sherman came to town
From the days when the blue pennants waved
Now he's telling the people to pay for his dreams
And then get the hell out of the way

On, Salvador! Hosmer! Moustakas and Cain!
Now, that was a baseball team
But it's going on damn near 10 years ago
And it feels like a long lost dream

And if only Ewing Kauffman were around
To see what's going down
I do believe he'd say, "Kansas City --
Please don't tell me we've lost our way."

~ It's been a long way down since Sherman came to town
To the slums of the American League
For all he's done we must reward him
And make our town another tawdry tourist dream

So now we're at a crossroads - Which way do we go?
The schemes and dreams of distant kings
Or the place we love and know?

Where we started a garden with our little children
And we watched it grow
-- So, on the day after April Fools Day, come join us
And vote no
A resounding NO
Hell, NO
A Kansas City no

* Yeah, right.

Brand New Royal Blues

Vertigo Girls - © 2017 - Scott Hrabko (ASCAP)

Old gypsy spells 
And cicada shells
One last summer buzzing by
We prayed in vain 
For the mercy of rain
To a spider in the sky

In the mid-morning glare
None the worse for the wear
I shook off a slamming door
Church bells ringing
Bo Diddley singing
"I can tell you don't love me no more"
No more

Vertigo girls, won't you come out tonight?
Look at the time -- It'll soon be light
Mean old daylight

Over the roar
Of the drunks next door
She's shooting off sparks
Barbecue saints 
In a hickory haze
And, man, I don't mean Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc

Vertigo girls, won't you come out tonight?
Look at the time -- It'll soon be light
Mean old daylight
___________________________________________________________
From Scott Hrabko & The Rabbits "Summer" Release date 6/23/17

Scott Hrabko - Vocals, Guitar, Percussion
Josh Arnold - Bass
Tim Higgins - Drums, Percussion 
Marco Pascolini - Pedal Steel Guitar
Fred Wickham - Lead Guitar

~~~

Summer

Vertigo Girls

Sunshine Girl - © 2017 - Scott Hrabko (ASCAP)

Who's been here since I've been gone?
Pretty girl with the headphones on
In a reverie of heaven in a song
I just smile at her dog and move along
I'd make love to her for sure
If she could endure
If she could endure the gratitude
Of a lonely heart with nothing left to lose

Sunshine girl, what's come over you?
Seems like it's either raining or just about to 
You can call me a fool, but I'll keep on loving you
Till the day that I die ...
Of the blues

Who's been gone since I've been here?
Like the bubbles in my beer
Sweet dreams disappear at closing time
Ever smiling, ever brutal on my mind
Mourning dove, mourning dove 
Your sweet, misguided love
Oh, jealousy and gravity abound
And they'll leave you crying
Helpless on the ground

Sunshine girl, what's come over you?
Seems like it's either raining or just about to
You can call me a fool, but I'll keep on loving you
Till the day that I die ...
Of the blues

___________________________________________________________
From Scott Hrabko & The Rabbits "Summer" Release date 6/23/17

Scott Hrabko - Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
Josh Arnold - Bass
Tim Higgins - Drums
Marco Pascolini - Baritone Guitar
Fred Wickham - Lead Guitar

~~~

Sunshine Girl

A Thrill Of My Own - © 2017 - Scott Hrabko (ASCAP)

I pulled into town and out of my mind
Calamity was on my trail
A fretful buzz on the driver's side
The devil's just watching me fail
{Attaboy}

I ain't got no wifely prohibitions
Nothing to keep me in line
Somewhere in the middle of nowhere
I can't get you out of my mind
But I've been trying

Darkness falls, the cold wind calls
Guilty to the bone
I'd go out of my mind if I ever did find
A thrill of my own
My own

It's hard to be blue when I'm holding you
I'm lost in the stars in your eyes
The things you said went right to my head
I might not make it home tonight
That'd be alright

Now, you can pretend we're strangers
If we should ever meet in a crowd
Fool me once, baby, kiss me twice
Ain't we got trouble now?

I guess I'll serenade the gargoyles
For there ain't nobody home
I'd go out of my mind if I ever did find
A thrill of my own
My own

_____________________________________________
From Scott Hrabko & The Rabbits "Summer" Release date 6/23/17

Scott Hrabko - Vocals, Guitar
Josh Arnold - Bass, Vocals
Tim Higgins - Drums
Marco Pascolini - Pedal Steel Guitar, Baritone Guitar
Fred Wickham -Guitar

With

Havilah Bruders - Vocals
Kevin Dolan - Mandolin 

~~~

A Thrill Of My Own

A track from "Smash Hits From A Parallel Universe" EP. 

https://scotthrabko.bandcamp.com/album/smash-hits-from-a-parallel-universe-ep

© 2019, Scott Hrabko (ASCAP)

Sometimes

Pretty Good Day

Scott Hrabko writes songs and lives in Kansas City, MO, with his wife and kid.  He has a very nice band called The Rabbits.