Sanctuary
Written by Tom Richardson

Chords – Capo 3
Verse – F(D), Dm(Bm), C(A), Bb(G), Fmaj7sus2(Dmaj7sus2)
Chorus – F(D), Dm(Bm), C(A), Bb(G), C7-no3(A7-no3), Fmaj7sus2(Dmaj7sus2)
Bridge – Gm(Em), Am-b6 (F#m-b6), B5 (G5), Csus(Asus), C(A)

[Verse]
Started junior high, about to be a teenager.
I hoped to leave behind the ways that I had not fit in.
A new day was dawning,
Maybe a brand-new start.

It was all a blur, every moment right and wrong.
Then I noticed girls, pretty yet so complicated.
My heart was racing,
A hormone-fueled roller coaster.

[Chorus]
(I needed) Sanctuary, shelter from the storm,
Sanctuary, a daytime second home,
Sanctuary, a place where I belonged.

[Verse]
Then there was one teacher, so generous and kind.
Said he was a believer, he encouraged me to smile.
A beacon of light and hope
Offering gentle reassurance

I often felt stranded, struggling through the day
But no matter what else happened, his classroom felt safe.
After the school bell rang
He let me stay a little longer.

[Chorus]
(He gave me) Sanctuary, shelter from the storm,
Sanctuary, a daytime second home,
Sanctuary, a place where I belonged.

[Bridge]
I felt that I was struggling alone.
Seemed like everybody else was alright.
Then reunion stories showed me the light…

[Chorus]
(We all needed) Sanctuary, shelter from the storm,
Sanctuary, a daytime second home,
Sanctuary, a place where we belonged.

Sanctuary, shelter from the storm,
Sanctuary, a daytime second home,
Sanctuary, a place where I belonged.

Sanctuary - Demo

If I Were the Man You Wanted
Written by Lyle Lovett

They all sat around in a circle.
They were laughing and all telling lies.
Then the tall one, he bumped in a dollar,
He said “Boys, I got nothin’ to hide”.
Now if the king and the queen stood together
Then the ace, he would not be to blame.
And if the cards were all laid on the table
Then love could be more than a game.

[Chorus]
And if the stars didn’t shine on the water
Then the sun it wouldn’t burn on the sand.
And if I were the man she wanted
I would not be the man that I am.

I have seen my share of long nights
And I have told my share of lies
And I have run into the darkness
When I saw the look in your eyes
But if the night it didn’t lie in the darkness
Then the daylight would be hard to find
And if the truth didn’t turn to a weakness
I would never have spoken my mind.

[Chorus]
And if the stars didn’t shine on the water
Then the sun it wouldn’t burn on the sand.
And if I were the man you wanted
I would not be the man that I am.

So if you’re going out to California
Then don’t linger in New Mexico
And if you think of the one there behind you
Then you might not feel so alone.

[Chorus]
And if the stars didn’t shine on the water
Then the sun it wouldn’t burn on the sand.
And if I were the man you wanted
I would not be the man that I am.
Oh, if I were the man you wanted, babe,
I would not be the man that I am.

If I Were The Man You Wanted - Demo

Deer Isle - Demo

Written by Tom Richardson

Chords - B, E9, Dbm, F#, Abm, E
Capo 4, Chord shapes - G, C9, Am, D, Em, C

I remember my first time on Seagoville Road,
The place where dad’s family lived.
A row of simple houses, it all seemed so magical,
I was just a six-year-old kid.

(Chorus)
Where they talked a little funny, come on, teach me how,
Show me how to be a cowboy like you,
Can I ride that horse or maybe just a pony?
Wore my Stetson the best that I could
In my Texas home, where dad’s family lived.

They settled down early, in a previous century,
Looking for some good land to farm.
Made the best of their lives, through wars and depression,
Tried to make it without too much harm.

Chorus

Bridge (Instrumental)

Now the houses are gone; on the land there’s a school,
Progress keeps coming to town.
Classrooms of kids they embark on a future 
My family could never have known.

And the kids they know nothing, and why should they,
About the family that lived here before.
Through five generations, kinda poor but alive,
Nothing left outside that classroom door.

Chorus
In my Texas home…

My Texas Home - Demo

Written by John Prine

I am an old woman named after my mother.
My old man is another child that's grown old.
If dreams were thunder and lightning was desire
This old house would have burnt down a long time ago.

(Chorus)
Make me an angel that flies from Montgomery.
Make me a poster of an old rodeo.
Just give me one thing that I can hold on to.
To believe in this living is just a hard way to go.

When I was a young girl, well, I had me a cowboy;
He weren't much to look at, just free rambling man.
But that was a long time and no matter how I try
The years just flow by like a broken down dam.

Chorus

Bridge (Instrumental)

There's flies in the kitchen I can hear 'em a-buzzing
And I ain't done nothing since I woke up today.
How the hell can a person go to work in the morning
And come home in the evening and have nothing to say?

Chorus

Angel From Montgomery - Demo

Written by Tom Richardson

Chords - F, Dm, Bb, Gm, C, Eb, Am7, G
Capo 3 - Chord shapes - D, Bm, G, Em, A, C, F#m7, E

My great-grandfather he’s staring back at me
From an oval sepia photograph, he died in nineteen-seventeen.
Some stories I remember that granny used to tell,
The namesake of my father
But my memories they don’t fit together well.

[Chorus]
I have questions I never thought of before
When life seemed like nothing but time.
So much I wish I knew about generations past
But now there’s no one left to ask.

How'd he raise them and farm the land he’d found?
And how'd he come to live here in this tiny little Texas town?
But granny she passed on a half-century ago.
My father and his siblings
Have joined her wherever people go.

[Chorus]

[Bridge - Instrumental]

[Chorus]
Now there’s no one left to ask.

No One Left To Ask - Demo

Written by Tom Richardson

Verse/Refrain and Bridge

Chords - G, C7, D

I’m going to Kentucky ’cause I’m gonna see her there,
Sitting in her sundress, Derby rose in hair.
Hiking through the bluegrass, we’ll pick a banjo tune,
Several bourbons later we’ll be howling at the moon.
She’s my baby, she gets my motor running,
Wherever she’s going, I’m coming.

We're going to Missouri ’cause she’s gonna show me how
To gamble on a riverboat and how to paint the town.
Boating on the lakes, barbecue for dinner,
Ragtime and blues, we’ll be rolling on the river.
She’s my baby, she gets my motor running,
Wherever she’s going, I’m coming.

(Bridge)
She said “Stick with me baby and give me a twirl,
Together we can travel ‘cross this great big world”.
She’s the trailblazer, I'm along side,
When we get there we will party tonight.

We're going to Louisiana, arriving on a train,
Crawfish in her gumbo, we'll be drinking Hurricanes.
Airboats through the bayou, beaches by the mile,
She said it’s easy to get crazy in the local Cajun style.
She’s my baby, she gets my motor running,
Wherever she’s going, I’m coming.

Musical Bridge

I'm going to Massachusetts, back home to where we live,
‘cause right now I ain’t got no more vacation time to give.
Gotta go to work, I’ll spend some time with my friends,
But I can’t wait ‘til we can go a traveling again.
She’s my baby, she gets my motor running,
Wherever she’s going, I’m coming.

She’s my baby, she gets my motor running,
Wherever she’s going, oh, I’m coming

I'm Coming - Demo

Written by Tom Richardson

Chords - G, C, D
Capo 5 - Chord Shapes - D, G, A

Little by little you came into my world,
A newborn boy and then a baby girl.
Tiny toes, you both were charming, and yet so overwhelming,
You threw my life into a whirl.

(Chorus)
All the time you’re on my mind
Little by little

Little by little I’ve watched you grow
I’m so amazed by all you know
Dinosaurs and railroad types, dancing and butterflies,
Excited faces all aglow

(Chorus)

Little by little how are you today?
You’ve grown up and you've moved away.
Forever reaching farther but you’re still my son and daughter,
Living your lives your own ways.

(Chorus)

All the time you’re still mine
Little by little

Little By Little - Demo

Written by Tom Richardson

Chords – A, D, E, Bm7, Bm, C, E7
Capo 2 - Chord Shapes – G, C, D, Am7, Am, B, D7

I was 14, felt all alone,
No one ever called me on the phone.
I didn’t like myself, as a rule;
Neither did the kids in my high school.

TV and music, books and beer,
At least one was usually near.
Distractions were my best friends,
Sometimes it felt safer to pretend.

[Chorus]
One was blonde, two brunettes,
We’ve not seen the boss of them yet.
Three angels on my TV,
Hoped there was an angel for me.

I’d be belittled inside my house,
Heartbroken I was never enough.
Flying dishes crashing inside,
It was all that I could do to survive.

[Chorus]

[Bridge]
Flowing hair and bell-bottom jeans,
So much smarter than the men, it seemed.

Now I’m older, look how I’ve grown,
Most days I don’t feel so all alone.
Still need distractions once in a while,
I sometimes think of angels and smile.

[Chorus]
Hoping there’s an angel for me.

An Angel For Me - Demo

Written by John Prine

When I was a child my family would travel
Down to Western Kentucky where my parents were born
There's a backwards old town that's often remembered
So many times that my memories are worn.

And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away

Well, sometimes we'd travel right down the Green River
To the abandoned old prison down by Airdrie Hill
Where the air smelled like snakes and we'd shoot with our pistols
But empty pop bottles was all we would kill.

And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away

Then the coal company came with the world's largest shovel
And they tortured the timber and stripped all the land
Well, they dug for their coal till the land was forsaken
Then they wrote it all down as the progress of man.

And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away

When I die let my ashes float down the Green River
Let my soul roll on up to the Rochester dam
I'll be halfway to Heaven with Paradise waitin'
Just five miles away from wherever I am.

And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away

Paradise - Demo

Tom Richardson is a Musician-Actor based in Boston, MA. His music is folk/rock with some country flavor.

Tom Richardson Official

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