Lucy Allen & Marshall Goers

Eddie Bolt is the manager of Hagood Mill in Pickens County and a really fine songwriter. I heard this song during the 2003 SC Community Scholars Institute and fell in love with it. Eddie was kind enough to teach it to me and let us use it as the title track for our CD. --Lucy

Set my dinner plate
In payment for the work I’ll do today
Just don’t be too late
Or you may find that I’ve gone on my way

Chorus:
Let me say thank you
For everything you do
Just don’t get too used to hearing it cause
I’m just passing through

Lay me down a place to rest my head
And sleep this night away
Do it just in case I may decide
To stay another day
Let me say thank you…

Let me say thank you…

Soon I’m glory bound,
I’m headed on to where the angels tread
When that place I’ve found
I’ll tell them by whom I was clothed and fed

Let me say thank you…

Traditional fiddle tune. Marshall on lap dulcimer

For Andy. Hope you're still playing guitar and singing and writing songs.

In the winter of 85 and on into the summer
Played music at the club, for our friends and for each other
I have the tape we made back then with Angel from Montgomery
Recorded in the living room with our harmonies so lovely

The letters you used to write were the best gifts I received
With your address they’re now gone, something I can’t retrieve
The last time I saw you I was standing at the station
It seemed right for you to leave me there, go back to my own nation

Chorus:
I wish I never told you “I love you”
I wish I had been single at the time
I wish I knew now you are happy
In London or in Oxford or in Skye

Bridge:
You might have been the right one but it wasn't the right time
You could've been the wrong one and I was desperate in my life
It seemed you were my best friend, or I remember it that way
And if I hadn’t spoken we might still be friends today

Sitting on the bottom shelf a memory in a folder
The songs we sang together before we both got older
I give to you a wish today of grace and peace and plenty
And this song I send out to you wherever you may be

Chorus

Chorus:
How do I know when to let go?
Why is the fear that holds me here?
Where is the love that'll set me free?
When will I be me?

A happy little girl walked down the lane, The day was clear and cold
She spotted a diamond snake in the grass and picked it up to hold
She saw the diamonds glitter so fine, the rest of its skin was gold
The snake it bit her in the side the way it was foretold

Chorus

‘You knew what I was when you picked me up’--But the girl was innocent
She dropped the snake back in the grass; it never did repent
The wound healed over out of sight and left her double-bent
And the poison trickled through her veins for there was no way to vent

Chorus

The years went by and joy slipped out replaced by fear and hate
Till one day a healer happened by and he knew it wasn't too late
He saw the scar that left the mark that she thought was her fate
He opened the wound and let it drain the poison of that snake

Chorus

Every day the poison came draining from her side
And while she changed the bandages tears fell from her eyes
Then one day the bleeding stopped, the sun came out to shine
She saw the healer in her heart, it always was inside.

Now I know when to let go
Gone is the fear that held me here
Come is the love that has set me free
Now that I am me [repeat]

About a relationship disaster. True story about driving and seeing 6 different hawks on the journey. In a number of different cultures hawks are messengers.

On my way home from DC
Six hawks sitting and staring at me
From the branches they sat upon
Telling me it’s time to move on

Part of me still wants to love you
Despite the pain you put me through
And even though I hurt today
I wonder why it went astray

On the highway showing me a sign
Six hawking staring from their pines
Elders say hawks never lie
Now they’re urging me to fly

You taught me to care about myself
Then turned and left me on the shelf
So now you’ve gone the other way
And I live through another day

Bridge:
In my dreams a window opened
I flew out and your spell was broken

Driving down the interstate
Hawk flew across and caught my gaze
Looked at me and I took her to say
You’re flying free, now keep it that way

Police Dog Blues is played by blues great Etta Baker, recorded at her home. Etta's gift is my tribute to her. It was meant to be a blues; didn't turn out that way, but she likes it so that's okay.

Little white house in Morganton town
I stopped by but you were already gone

Hey Etta, did you get the apples I left?
Hey Etta, did you get the apples I left?

It wasn’t a visit you thought I’d make
So catching up will have to wait

In your garden flowers grow tall
And doves reply whenever you call

Driving down in your big ol’ Pontiac
With your Gibson and your Martin in the back

“John Henry” and “One Dime Blues”
“Dew Drop” is the one that I would choose

Groovin’ grandma out there playin
Your guitars said all that’s worth sayin

From our recent album, 'Won't See Tadpoles Covered In Fur".

Another cut from our latest album.