Get all 5 Darryl Holter releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
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Took a long walk down to the ocean, baby, trying to know who I am. Old man, young man, crazy man, maybe, pushing my toes in the sand. All these years I thought I knew what I was looking for. But now I wonder why I never saw it walking out the door. I could hear the waves crash. (On the beach where you first kissed me). Time passing in a flash. (But there’s no time left for me). Wind blowing in my face. (I wonder if you really loved me). Not leaving any trace. Well I thought I knew what I was doing but I couldn’t visualize how to understand myself through someone else’s eyes.
Now the night is closing in and I’m singing the Blind Man Blues. Trying hard to make some sense about the things we’re supposed to do. One day I was the king of the hill, next day I was a fool. Work hard, play hard, love hard too, try to follow all the rules. Look out for what you can’t see. (I guess you never really saw me). Love isn’t for me. (You let me go too easily). Don’t let your guard down. (Why didn’t you ever try to trust me?). It’s a lonely town.
Well I feel the sunlight warm my face and I hear the seagulls call. I smell the ocean in front of me, but I can’t see you at all.
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2. |
Walk a Mile
04:39
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3. |
Highway 66
03:58
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I cannot say it
It doesn’t roll right off my lips
I know you want to hear it
From your toes to your fingertips
Putting labels on your love somehow seems to make it fake
Making promises just guarantees they’ll break…
Words
But if I tell you will your love erode to dust?
Can’t you tell by what I do, isn’t that enough
Can I say those words
Without the risk of losing you?
And once I use those words
Will their meanings be untrue?
Words
Come and sit beside me
The truth has been exposed
The you, the me, the story
The something we both chose
Hold me tightly so we / won’t be broken in two
Listen closely as / those words are spoken to you…
Words.
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4. |
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5. |
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One day I started walking /And ended up on the other side 2X
Man I must have walked for 10 hours or so / Down a strange road I never seen before
One day I started walking / And ended up on the other side
Yesterday the world went by a hundred miles and hour 2X
Now I’m in slow motion and time stands still / No such thing as time to kill
Yesterday the world went by a hundred miles an hour
Bridge:
Once I started walking / my worries began to fade away 2X
One by one I dropped them to lighten my load / They rolled off my shoulders and on down the road
Once I started walking / My worries began to fade away
Some say I took a bullet to save my pretty Baby’s life 2X
Others say it happened when I raised my voice / and all the authorities said was: “We had no choice”
Some say I took a bullet to save my Baby’s life
Throw away my money / There’s nothing here to buy (2x)
I’ve got one foot in the future / the other’s in the past / Where first is first and last is last
One day I started walking and ended up on the other side
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6. |
Crazy for You
05:00
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Well I knew when we met/ This was something new
‘Cause all the women I knew/ Were nothing like you
And I knew when I looked in your big brown eyes
There was something deep and strong inside
And I found myself losing my way
And I tried to deny it/ I tried not to see
The powerful force taking control of me
And I wanted to hold my own/But I wanted to hold you more
And I was crazy/Crazy for you
I thought about it more and more/ I tried this once before
Love just didn’t treat me so well
But now that I’m older/ Maybe I’m bolder
And who knows? /You never can tell
So I went through the longest
Courtship I’ve known
And I tried to resist
The thought of settling down
But each night when I drove you home
I felt empty and all alone
And I was crazy
Crazy for you
Tried to make it easy/ Drove to Albanese’s
Pizza, red wine, and talk/Want to get kissed again?
The bluffs above Lake Michigan/Or Brady Street in the dark
Now there are kids in the house
Flowers in the back yard
And I’m finding that life
Isn’t really that hard
And I’m learning that life with you
Is better than I thought I could do
And I’m crazy
Crazy for you.
August 2014
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7. |
No Depression
03:37
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8. |
New Depression
04:21
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Economy. Some say it’s fine
But we’re falling though the bottom line
Retirement plans are lying in the gutter
Homeless population grows
Working families lose their homes
Days of living comfortably are numbered
Welcome to the New Depression
A lot of folks are falling through the cracks
I don’t think it’s natural selection
Or just a case of not knowing all the facts
Finance companies pumped their egos
When Congress killed Glass-Steagal
But banks too big to fail learned how to cheat us
We knew we needed stimulus
But Congress wouldn’t help us out
We needed John Keynes but they gave us Milton Friedman, Milton Friedman…
What are the people supposed to do
When all their money goes for rent and food
With nothing in their pockets left to spend
I thought I found the magic key
When I read Thomas Piketty
But I only got to page two hundred and ten
Welcome to the New Depression
Where inequality rules the land
Economists, please run some more regressions
While we pray like hell for the invisible hand
I used to think that all our kids / could end up better than we did
But now it seems like we are in decline
I thought we lived in a land / where people lent a helping hand
To those of us who were falling far behind
Welcome to the New Depression
Remember that old Carter family song?
They said, “We’re going where there’s no Depression”
But do we have to die to come along?
Welcome to the New Depression
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9. |
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There’s many a man who would stand up and say/The past is no quide for what we’re doing today
But the roots of the past are thick and they are deep/And the roots are exposed on Magazine Street
It’s many a year since I walked through the town/Past the old shotgun houses and workshops around
Where factories and stores and warehouses meet/Where commerce converged on Magazine Street
Humid breeze/ Missing piece
By the look in her eye and the way that she stood /I could she was a wild one and up to no good
Then her hand touched my arm and she smiled so sweet/On a hot afternoon on Magazine Street
Dark place/ Her face
A summer of heat a summer of night/The wind pushed us toward the flickering lights
Of the old French Quarter where the river runs deep /When you come to the end of Magazine Street
Lovers/ No others
Now the lumberyard’s gone and the factories closed/The barges stopped coming to drop off their loads
And the old railway tracks are covered with weeds/Dragged into the past on Magazine Street
The rules of the game are never quite fair/You can work all your life and still never get there
Bury your dreams, live with defeat/Until the rules change again on Magazine Street
Changes/ Strangers
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10. |
King of the Hill
04:54
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11. |
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12. |
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I cannot say it
It doesn’t roll right off my lips
I know you want to hear it
From your toes to your fingertips
Putting labels on your love somehow seems to make it fake
Making promises just guarantees they’ll break…
Words
But if I tell you will your love erode to dust?
Can’t you tell by what I do, isn’t that enough
Can I say those words
Without the risk of losing you?
And once I use those words
Will their meanings be untrue?
Words
Come and sit beside me
The truth has been exposed
The you, the me, the story
The something we both chose
Hold me tightly so we / won’t be broken in two
Listen closely as / those words are spoken to you…
Words.
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14. |
Do You Remember the Day
03:55
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Do you remember the day?
Remember the day when we talked
The day when we talked in the car
We talked in the car about life
The life that you wanted to live
You wanted to live in a way
To live in a way that was real
A way that was real as the touch
Do you remember the day?
A way that was real as the touch
As real as the touch of my hand
The touch of my hand on your cheek
My hand on your cheek in the night
Your cheek in the night that we kissed
The night that we kissed in a way
A way that was more like a dream
A dream where you laid next to me
Do you remember the day?
A dream where you laid next to me
Next to me when you told me the truth
You told me the truth about you
The truth about you and your feelings
Your feelings about you and I
About you and I and our world
You and I and our world and the fear
And the fear that we both stripped away
Do you remember the day?
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15. |
Another Blue Moon
11:53
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It wasn’t the way you smiled when we first met / It wasn’t your blood-colored jewels
It wasn’t because you told me the truth about /The man with the hat who was watching you
It wasn’t because I felt lonely /Or that I ever felt sorry for you
I try to live on the lean side /With thin expectations
But I know it’s true…There’s another blue moon
Remember how loudly you laughed when I told you /That everyone knows that nothing is free
Remember the view from the 21 st floor /And your comment about distressed property
Remember my hand on your shoulder/As we watched the sun slowly climb into bed
Black curtains drawn by the mountains/We closed our eyes then
And traveled soon …To another blue moon
Forget the didactic diatribes/The life that could never begin
Forget the guy who couldn’t remember/The face of the friend who did you in
The portrait interrupted/Broad strokes waving alone in the night
Forget all the nostalgia/Dreams burning in your pocket
But remember too …There’s another blue moon
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Darryl Holter Los Angeles, California
Darryl Holter grew up playing the guitar and singing country and rock and roll songs in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His current brand of Americana music draws from country, blues and folk traditions and often tells stories about people, places and events.
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