Get all 8 Jack Warshaw releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
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1. |
Constant Sorrow
04:19
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Break in
I am a man of constant sorrow,
I've seen trouble all my days
I bid farewell to old Kentucky,
Place where I was born and raised
For six long years I've been in trouble,
No pleasures here on earth I found
For round this world I'm bound to ramble,
I have no friends to help me now
break
It's fare thee well my own true lover
I never expect to see you again
For I'm bound to ride that northern railroad,
Perhaps I'll die upon this train
You can bury me in some deep valley,
For many years where I may lay
Then you may learn to love another,
While I’m sleeping in my grave
break
O fare thee well my native country
Place where I have loved so well
For I have all kinds of trouble
In this cruel world no tongue can tell
Maybe your friends think I'm just a stranger
My face, you never will see no more
But there is one promise that is given
I'll meet you on that golden shore
Break out
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2. |
City of Light
04:00
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CITY OF LIGHT © Jack Warshaw 2015
Come go with me to the City of Light
People at play on a Friday night,
Cafes alive with laughter and fun
Music and dancing’s already begun
Just then out of nowhere there comes a loud scream
Your blood runs as cold as a deep icy stream
Bullets resound in streets and in squares
Drowning out music and wakening fear
They scorn all music, they scorn all fun
They scorn all love, they worship guns
They try to break us, they shoot to kill
I don’t get it at all, the blood they spill
They’re programmed in death and unholy war
Led to believe that it’s worth dying for
But though we feel danger we always can see
We shall overcome and keep on being free
If they would break the country they must break you and me
For we are born to love liberty
Being free can’t be wrong, they can’t murder our songs
The path to peace is love but we must be strong
People are dying, we must not give in
Don’t lock yourself down, we can’t let them win
We are the future of our country
We are the future of a world that’s free
Come go with me to the City of Light
Paris at play on a Friday night,
Cafes alive with laughter and fun
Music and dancing’s already begun
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3. |
Little Britain
03:38
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Little Britain 4 © Jack Warshaw 2016
Tune: Little Stream of Whiskey (Doc Watson)
Oh, give me back the good old days when Britannia ruled the waves
And built a mighty empire on colonies and slaves
We were stuck in Europe, but now we can be free
Back in Little Britain the way it used to be
I believed in Little Britain the way it used to be
Fish and chips, wooden ships and folk all drinking tea
We all cried cheers and drank warm beer and acted so polite
Life was so delightful, and people looked alike
We all hate the Euro, foie gras and ratatouille
We all hate cappuccino, frogs legs and chablis
They all smell like garlic their grub’s a bleeding farce
They can stuff their bleeding horse meat, right up their bleeding arse
I believed in Little Britain the way it used to be
Cricket bats, bowler hats and folk all drinking tea
We all cried cheers and drank warm beer and acted so polite
Life was so delightful, and people looked alike
In days of old when knights were bold and peasants knew their place
Smeared in Woad, but underneath were awfully pure of race
Those Romans, Vikings, Saxons, who plundered, raped and stayed
They were all so pleasant, not like immigrants today
I believed in Little Britain the way it used to be
Mother Goose, the hangman’s noose and folk all drinking tea
Up with ruling classes, down with Brussels bourgeoisie
I believed in Little Britain so I voted O-U-T.
I believed in jolly Boris, good old Nigel was true Brit
But they fucked off like cowards and left us in the shit
Now Boris is in government, the shit has hit the fan.
The joker in the pack, has screwed us once again.
I believed in Little Britain I thought I was true blue
Till I found out the Brexiteers are bonkers through and through
Now just like little lemmings they soon will have their wish
When sorry Little Britain is falling off a cliff.
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4. |
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THE PEARL OF THE COASTAL BEND
© Jack Warshaw 2015
An allegory on “The Birth of Venus”
As I walked out in Aransas one day
Watching the sunset out over the bay
She appeared like an angel on a wave rushin’ in
At the place they called the Pearl of the Coastal Bend
The Pearl of the Coastal Bend
So boldly I called out “I must know your name”
She answered me softly “I’m called Liza Jane”
I looked in her eyes, said “Where have you been
What fortune has smiled on the Pearl of the Coastal Bend”
The Pearl of the Coastal Bend
The sound of her voice told me that she did come
From the North country to the warm winter sun
Thirsting for someone, more than a friend
Where the waters run free ‘round the Pearl of the Coastal Bend
The Pearl of the Coastal Bend
That summer of love filled the air with perfume
The birds sang on high, the flowers in bloom
Too soon I reflected this romance must end
Like a cloud driftin’ over the Pearl of the Coastal Bend
The Pearl of the Coastal Bend
So one cloudy day, I didn’t ask why
She was lookin’ at me with a tear in her eye
Her red ruby lips kissed mine once again
And were gone with the wind from the Pearl of the Coastal Bend
The Pearl of the Coastal Bend
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5. |
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Migrant song 3
© Jack Warshaw 2015
A
We fled our lands in time of war
Time of famine, time of woe
Wearied souls and ragged kids
On the road, no place to go
B
We came uplifted to your shores
Over land, across the seas
Doors and hearts were opened wide
Back then you called us refugees
A
We built your cities, roads and railways
Worked your factories day and night
Healed your sick and worked your fields
Taught your kids to read and write
B
Our tongues were different, names also
Left behind the world we knew
Settled down and raised our kids
Who looked and sounded just like you
A
Now once again in time of terror
We walk and crawl, set sail and drown
Doors are closed and faces turned
And you call us migrants now
B
And still we try and still we’re crying
Still we die before our time
While your leaders blow and bluster
Ain’t it all an awful crime
A
See us now in all the papers
In the news and on your screens
Parents weeping, children drowning
Dressed in T shirts, shoes and jeans
B
You are blessed and we are broken
Ease our troubles, ease our pain
For the sake of human kindness
Open up your doors again
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6. |
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All of my days were grains of sand
I never cared where they fell
Oh but the days that wait for me now
Have something different to tell
Tomorrow lies in the cradle
Tomorrow has eyes that shine
Tomorrow lies in the cradle
With a smile a little like mine
One little boy with a voice so loud
Like a rooster greeting the dawn
One little song for tomorrow
To leave behind when I’m gone
Tomorrow lies in the cradle
Tomorrow has eyes that shine
Tomorrow lies in the cradle
With a smile a little like mine
This is my son my newborn son
And he’s bound for a brand new day
Perhaps I can walk along with him
A little part of the way
Tomorrow lies in the cradle
Tomorrow has eyes that shine
Tomorrow lies in the cradle
With a smile a little like mine
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7. |
Freight Train Blues
04:11
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Chorus
Freight train, freight train run so fast
Freight train, freight train run so fast
Please don't tell them what train I'm on
So they won't know which route I've gone
It's when I die just bury me deep
Way down on old Chestnut Street
So's I can hear old Number 9
As she goes rolling by
Chorus
When i'm dead and in my greve
No more good times will I crave
Place a stone at my head and feed
Tell my friends that I've gone to sleep
Chorus
Break
repeat chorus
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8. |
Grenfell Fire
03:25
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A warm Wednesday night, ‘round midnight is the hour
I can hear the sirens wailing there’s a fire at Grenfell Tower
But no alarm bells ring as smoke and flames rise high
In minutes it’s all burnt up, and death has touched the sky
Chorus
Do you mourn for those who died, or rage and think on why
The innocent bear the pain and the guilty close their eyes.
A quarter to three, on the 23rd floor Mrs Ibrahim's on the phone
“The flames are getting closer, we’re trapped inside our home.
My children are here with me, there’s nowhere we can go
Now pray for us my brothers and sisters down below
Chorus
The Prime Minister hides away and reads a statement from afar
But soon the truth is plain, it would have cost a little more
To keep the people safe, who died in fear and pain
While politicians promise “It won’t happen here again.”
Chorus
Distressed, they tell their stories, the worst they’ve ever known
The tower stands in silence, a smoking black tomb stone
Who will blow the whistle, who will take the blame?
Who will sleep at night while so many die in flames?
Chorus
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9. |
You Ain't My President
03:39
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I can see and I suppose that goddamn Trump he knows
Just how much hate he sows in the hearts of humankind
When he took that oath of office, right there I knew for sure
That this land is not my land anymore
Chorus
Oh mister Trump, you ain't my President
My country's on the rocks and my soul is badly bent
You don't fool me at all, your pride will see you fall
No, no mister Trump, you ain't my President
You cheated lied and stole to fix them voting polls
The promises you made are paid by human souls
Now you have the power, you take instead of give
You're using up the country, how can the country live?
Chorus
You deny the Earth's in danger, you sponsor greed and waste
You wanna ban all immigrants of any different faith
You think women are just playthings, you crush poor people's health.
You think a person's dignity is only based on wealth
Chorus
Fake news is the tool you use to hide the deeds you do
But you can't hide the truth that the biggest fake is you
Now everybody knows it and you will soon be gone
Damn you Mr Trump and the horse you rode in on.
Chorus
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10. |
The Deportees
05:08
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The crops are all in and the peaches are rotting,
The oranges are piled in their creosote dumps;
They're flying 'em back to the Mexican border
It takes all their money to wade back again
Chorus
Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye, Rosalita,
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria;
You won't have a name when you ride the big airplane,
All all they will call you will be "deportees"
My father's own father, he waded that river,
They took all the money he made in his life;
My brothers and sisters they worked in the fruit fields,
And rode on the trucks till they took down and died.
Chorus
Some of us are illegal, and some are not wanted,
Our work contract's out and we have to move on;
Six hundred miles to the Mexican border,
They chase us like outlaws, like rustlers, like thieves.
We died in your hills, we died in your deserts,
We died in your valleys, we died on your plains.
Chorus
We died 'neath your trees, we died in your bushes,
Both sides of the river, we died just the same.
The sky plane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon,
A fireball of lightning, it shook all our hills,
Who are all these friends, all scattered like dry leaves?
The radio says, "They’re just deportees"
Chorus
Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards?
Is this the best way we can grow our good fruit?
To fall like dry leaves to rot on my topsoil
And never know no name except "deportees"?
Chorus
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11. |
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They call it the law - apartheid, internment, repression, injustice and silence
The law that they made to keep you and me where they think we belong
They who hide behind steel and bullet-proof glass, machine guns and spies
And tell us who suffer their tear gas and torture that we're in the wrong
Chorus
No time for love if they come in the morning
No time to show fear or for tears in the morning
No time for goodbyes no time to ask why
And the wail of the siren is the cry of the morning
The trade union leaders, the rebels, the writers, the fighters and all The strikers who fought with the cops at their factory gates The sons and the daughters of unnumbered heroes who paid with their lives The poor folk whose color or class or belief was their only mistake
Chorus
They suffered the torture they rotted in cells, wrote letters, went crazy and died The limits of pain they endured but the lonliness got them instead The courts gave ‘em justice as justice is given by well mannered thugs Sometimes they fought for the will to survive and sometimes they wished they were dead
Chorus
They took away Sacco, Vanzetti, Connolly and Pearse in their time They came for Mandela, Bobby Sands, the Panthers and many more friends Now they come after those who expose their crimes like Snowdon has done
In places that never made headlines, the list never ends
Chorus
The boys in blue are only a few of the everyday cops on their beat The CID, NSA, Google and Apple and spies and eyes in the skies do their job well And behind them the brains that build systems that collect every word that we breathe And the ones who decide when it’s time to drag you to a cell
Chorus
Now you tell us that here we are free to say and to think what we please To march and to speak, to write and to sing as long as we do it alone But say it out loud with millions of comrades and it won’t be too long. Till they give you a long rest with walls and barbed wire for a home
Chorus
You call us illegal, unwanted, mass rapists, drug dealers and more
We who pick all your crops; clean your homes, wash your kids, fight and die in your wars
You order your police and border enforcers to shove us back where we once fled in fear
Away from the land you call “free” that you took from the poor folk you murdered before
Chorus
So come all you people to give to your brothers and sisters the will to fight on They say you get used to a war but that doesn't mean the war isn't on The fish need the sea to survive just as your comrades do And the death squads can only get to them if first they can get through to you
Chorus
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12. |
She's the One
03:43
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I was born long ago, in the US of A
I travelled far across the sea
There I fell in love with a pretty green eyed girl
And soon I asked her if she’d marry me
Chorus
She’s my darling and my daisy
Sometimes she drives me crazy
I love her and I see her in my dreams
When I wake up in the morning
And another day is dawning
I know she’ll always be the one for me
Chorus
She feeds me shepherd’s pie
It always makes me sigh
I could eat it till it’s coming out my ears
Just when I think I’m done
“Why you’ve only just begun”
And the crumble pudding magically appears
Chorus + harp break
When we go out to the pub
To get a bit of grub
All the girls are wearing flowers in their hair
She thinks the guys are weird
With their sandals and their beards
Which makes those around to stop and stare
Chorus + fiddle break
She keeps me occupied, it cannot be denied
The way she smiles and always treats me right
I know when to “lend a hand”
She knows why she’s got her man
And my tools are always ready day and night
Chorus + all play out
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13. |
Spirit of 45
04:17
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Come over here beside me son
I’m thinkin’ ‘bout when I was young
The fascist fear we fought and won
We thought at last our time had come
But hard faced men controlled the mines
Banks, railways, power lines
Factories across the land
A living wage they would not stand
Chorus
No country
No country
No country for poor people now
In ’45 we made a plan
For better life throughout the land
Free health care if we were ill
No more fear of doctor’s bills
The war created jobs for all
Let’s make it so in peace as well
A patch of land to dig and sow
A decent home for kids to grow
Chorus.
So one by one we took control
A fair day’s wage, and homes for all
Work together, claim the prize
The name we gave it: nationalise
But what came to pass it was a shame
The bosses all remained the same
Discontentment ruled again
And gnawed away at that great dream
Chorus.
Now the bastards saw their chance
To try and crush our great advance
“Public service doesn’t work,” they lied
They name they gave it: privatise
The hard faced men are back again
They’re stealing all that we have gained
It’s time to rise and come alive
Reclaim the spirit of ‘45
Final chorus (repeat last line)
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14. |
Fatal Flower Garden
03:11
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It rained, it poured, it rained so hard,
It rained so hard all day,
That all the boys in our school
Came out to toss and play.
They tossed a ball again so high,
Then again, so low;
They tossed it into a flower garden
Where no-one was allowed to go.
Up stepped a gypsy lady,
All dressed in yellow and green;
"Come in, come in, my pretty little boy,
And get your ball again."
"I can't come in, I shan't come in
Without my playmates all;
I'll go to my father and tell him about it,
That'll cause tears to fall."
She first showed him an apple green,
Then a gay gold ring,
Then she showed him a diamond,
And that enticed him in.
She took him by his lily-white hand,
She led him through the hall;
She put him in an upper room,
Where no-one could hear him call.
"Oh, take these finger rings off my finger,
Smoke them with your breath;
If any of my friends should call for me,
Tell them that I'm at rest."
"Bury the bible at my head,
Testament at my feet;
If my dear mother should call for me,
Tell her that I'm asleep."
"Bury the bible at my feet,
Testament at my head;
If my dear father should call for me,
Tell him that I am dead."
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15. |
That was Then
05:28
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Once upon a time you had a dream you could believe
Once you cried out liberty for all
Once you laughed at rules and regulations
Once you said you’d change the world somehow
But that was then, and this is now
You marched to stop a war and paid the price of just resistance
Yelling slogans, waving banners in the air
Give peace a chance, Make love not war
Keep the faith became your solemn vow
Oh that was then, and this is now
You joined the union, stood on picket lines in deepest winter
Upholding workers’ rights and dignity
Arm in arm you faced the kicks and tear gas
Confident of victory anyhow
But that was then, and this is now
Time passed, the wars were never ending so it did seem
Revolution wasn’t raging in the air
You woke one day and wondered what went wrong
A different life was calling you somehow
Oh, that was then, and this is now
Solidarity often echoes through your memory of those years
Each time you hear of misery and pain
Your ship is safely harboured and protected
You’re grateful for the ground you’ve dug and ploughed
From that was then, to this is now.
Once upon a time you were a rebel with a cause
Now it seems the dream is far away
Is it you or Time must take the blame,
When all things change, yet stay the same?
From that was then, to this is now.
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16. |
The Fiddling Soldier
03:16
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As I was a-walking one morning in May
I spied a fair couple come walking my way
One was a soldier and a brave volunteer
And the other was a lady with a raven black hair
“Oh where are you going in the morning so soon?
There’s a place by the river a place to sit down”
And he took out his fiddle and he tuned up one string
And he played the water gliding while the nightingales sing
Oh ho said the soldier, it’s time to give o’er
Oh no said the lady, please play one tune more
For I’d rather hear your fiddle and the touch of one string
Than to see the water gliding hear the nightingales sing
Oh ho said the lady will you marry me
Oh no said the soldier, that never can be
I’ve a wife in old Ireland and children I’ve three
One wife is a-plenty too many for me
There’s loved ones in Ireland that’s waiting for me
There’s loved ones in Ireland I’m longing to see
I’ll go back to my own country that’s where I belong
And I’ll play on my fiddle and sing your love song
I’ll go back to old Ireland, I’ll stay there one year
I’ll drink of the wine and I’ll drink of the beer
If I ever come back here it’ll be in the spring
And I’ll play the water gliding while the nightingales sing
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17. |
The Exile
05:47
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Farewell to my friends, farewell to my family
Across the deep ocean, a stranger I’m bound
Don’t know what I’ll find there, how long I’ll be gone
Or if some day I’ll see you when I’m back again
My parents are gone, my friends are all scattered
No place in this country to call my home
A new country calls me, adventure awaits me
Maybe a new love to call me her own
But war knows no border, they come to conscript me
Resolved to resist them, I follow my code
I join with the angry, I join with the gentle
Who march to the ending of this long troubled road
There’s many in struggle, there’s many hearts broken
There’s many lives taken, but still we march on
There’s many alike me, far over the water
Working for good times when troubles are gone
The bombing is ended, the guns fallen silent
My country’s divided, but peace is restored
And to my delight I find my true lover
And welcome a new life with one I adore
But still there’s great dangers- our children must answer
Terror and hunger, and life upon Earth
Yet each day that dawns brings new hope and wonder
Dreaming of freedom, and a time of rebirth
So now my song’s ended, I bid you good fortune
Sometimes a road ends in the place it begun
And if I may offer this compass to guide you
To see where you’re goin’- look back where you’re from
So take up your place, march on with the many
The times they may change but the prize is the same
Freedom, good friendship and love never ending
No power in creation can put out the flame
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18. |
The Cuckoo Bird
03:22
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Gonna build me, long cabin
On the mountain so high
So's I can see Willie
As he goes on by
Break
Oh the cuckoo, she's a pretty bird
She wobbles, she fly
She never hollers cuckoo
Till the 5th day July
Break
Jack a-diamonds, jack-a-diamonds
I know you of old
You rob my poor pockets
Of silver and gold
Break
I played cards in England
I played cards in Spain
I bet you ten dollar
I'll beat you next game
Break
I oft times have wondered
What makes women love men
Then I turn around and wonder
What makes men love them
Mmmm, mmmm
Mmmm, mmmm
Mmmm, mmmm
Mumm, mmmm
Break
Oh the cuckoo, she's a pretty bird
She wobbles, she fly
She never hollers cuckoo
Till the 5th day July
Break
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Jack Warshaw UK
Veteran of the 1960s folk revival, he passionately believes, writes and sings with authenticity and respect for traditional American styles and song carriers. He has met, learned from or worked with such legends as Pete, Mike and Peggy Seeger, Tom Paley, Ewan MacColl, Bob Dylan, Mississippi John Hurt, Clarence Ashley, Dave Van Ronk, Stuart Burns and many others. Watch Youtube. Bio on Wikipedia ... more
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