Get all 11 David Hakan releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Count. Me. In., Gypsy Wagon Man, Stone and Steel, Warning Bell, Out of Print, David Hakan - Rough Cuts, David Hakan Live at the Corbin Theater, Loose Upon The Street, and 3 more.
1. |
Held Up to the Light
04:06
|
|||
|
Held Up To The Light
G C G
Held up to the light, my failures look like road maps.
G C D
Held up to the light, my weakness looks like lace.
G C Em
Held up to the light of passion my caution is a tender invitation
C D G
to the shy and barefoot look upon your face.
Held up to the light, this ashtray looks like crystal.
Held up to the light, my patience is paper thin.
Held up to the light of longing the promises that weigh me down
look like feathers that catch the ocean's salty wind.
refrain
C G
Held up to the light, your hair is on fire.
C G
My fear burns brightly, then is gone like smoke.
C Em
Take my hand and trust in our desire
C D G
as we hold each other to the light.
Held up to the light, the famous ones are circus clowns.
Held up to the light, the dire headlines are confetti.
Held up to the light of reason the fashion prisoners parade in chains of style
and yearn for casual anonymity.
Held up to the light, this mirror doubles all its power.
Held up to the light, this fist becomes a thunder cloud.
Held up to the light of wisdom my careful schemes escape a sinking ship,
swimming away and crying right out loud.
refrain
C D Em C
When I draw my curtains, sorrow is almost certain.
C D C D
But when I hold you nearer, I'm blinded but seeing clearer.
refrain
(4x) Held up to the light.
Words And Music By David B. Hakan 6-9-99
© 2000 David B Hakan All Rights Reseved
|
||||
2. |
Shady Rest Home
03:40
|
|||
|
THE SHADY REST HOME
G G7
Welcome to the Shady Rest Home.
C Ddim9
Old folk singers never die.
G D
They just move a little farther to the left
C D G C-G C-G
at the folk singer's Shady Rest Home,
Shady Rest Home, Shady Rest Home.
G C-G-C
Hand me down my bent hickory walker,
D C G
the one with the built-in tambourine.
G C-G-C
Strap me in good and tight, now
D C-G-C G C-G C-G
so we can pick and sing, pick and sing, pick and sing.
Judy still does some clogging
with just a little less spank.
“This machine kills fascists.”
scrawled across her oxygen tank, oxygen tank, oxygen tank.
REFRAIN
Em C
Everything's stopped working or gone haywire,
D C G
Yeah, all of our body parts are sold.
Em C
Don't ask me about the ones who've left us.
D C G
They've just gone on the road.
Em C D-D7
And our act just isn't quite ready yet, ready yet, ready yet.
The whole gang went down to the state house
to stop a bill that would censor and cramp.
The police couldn't lift a finger,
they still hadn't built a wheelchair ramp,
wheelchair ramp, wheelchair ramp.
Kathy and Steve formed a duo.
They forget that they are married about once a week.
Our newlyweds sure steam up the windows.
You should hear that concertina squeak,
concertina squeak, concertina squeak.
words and music by
David B. Hakan 5-18-92
© 2000 David B Hakan All Rights Reseved
|
||||
3. |
Ms. White
03:23
|
|||
|
Ms. White
G D
Snow White's great, great grandniece was turning 95.
C G
Her birthday party shifted into overdrive.
G D
Snow was still just sleeping. Her prince was nowhere near.
C D
Then that "hip, hip, hooray" finally reached her ears.
C D
Her eyes flew open. The spell was broken.
G Em
She knew in her heart she had a brand new start.
C D
Goodbye to weaving, spinning or cleaning.
C D G
This future looked bright. Just call her Ms. White.
Snow looked high and low for that prince she missed.
She knew in this story she was bound to get kissed.
She ran downstairs to try to find that boy,
but the chapter of NOW cheered and jumped for joy.
refrain
Snow learned fast about gains women has made,
paychecks and microwaves and Gatorade.
She cut her hair short, dressed in tight blue jeans,
but still wanted help meeting the prince of her dreams.
refrain
Outside was a rally for the ADA.
(She found) seven dwarves and others trying to have their say.
She cast a spell and broke some glass and made a fuss,
'till Greyhound caved in and put lifts on every bus.
refrain
The moral of this story is remember your roots.
When you get to the future, don't take off your boots.
Family is important, but set your sights high.
We can make room for everyone if we try.
refrain
Words And Music By David B. Hakan 6-16-99
© 2000 David B Hakan All Rights Reseved
|
||||
4. |
For Molly
03:54
|
|||
|
For Molly
C C2maj7 Am
Molly, I know that you feel
Am/G F G
that you've got to be free. So do I.
C C2maj7 Am
Molly, I know that you're chasing
Am/G F G
your dreams to the sky. So am I.
Esus4 Am7
It shouldn't surprise either one of us
Esus4 Fmaj7
that both of our dreams are the same.
C G
But, when I think over the chance we missed
F G
I can't help but think it's a shame.
Molly, if only we could
press flat the years between us
and hold tight enough that the jeers
would give up the chase and leave us.
Love doesn't count time. It peels away
the garments of culture we wear.
Shadows run from the light of day
when the heart shines its message clear.
Molly, I know that it couldn't
have worked out at all that way.
For crossed stars are too much to fight
when you always must win, all the time.
I can't help but think of how it would be
if we'd taken our lives in our hands.
But it's kind of late now, you're so far away.
We both have made other plans.
Molly, I know that you think
you can choose when to fall in love.
But tell me, how many times have you chosen
to wake up at dawn, just as the sun explodes?
refrain one
Molly, you know that I love you
what more can I say or do.
And, Molly, you know that once
I'd have spent my whole life with you.
Words and music by David B. Hakan 2-14-2000
© 2000 David B. Hakan All rights reserved.
|
||||
5. |
Georgia Freeway Lullaby
05:44
|
|||
|
Georgia Freeway Lullaby
E/A (rocking)
I drove the night haul thru Georgia.
E/A
Katleen folded up the map.
E/A
I said try to get some sleep now, Kat.
A (5th fret) A2
I'll make it till the sun comes up.
E6 E6,7sus4 E6 E6,7sus4
Hey tell me, Sebastian, what difference does it make
E6 E6,7sus4 E6 E6,7sus4
if dawn comes in five hundred miles or right where we are now?
Dmaj7 B7sus4
Right where we are now.
E/A (rocking)
Tomorrow won't even notice, Kat, whatever state we're in.
F#m F#m7sus4 G# G#7
But of all the laggard freeway dawns, none ever look the same.
F#m F#m7sus4 A B
And the break of light on Kentucky hills is worth a lonely night.
A A2
What a lonely night.
E6 E6,7sus4 E6 E6,7sus4
Wouldn't be so lonesome if you'd settle for Georgia clay,
E6 E6,7sus4 E6 E6,7sus4
or Kansas dust or Utah rock. Let your roots grab hold.
Dmaj7 Amaj7 Dmaj7 Amaj7
Getting root bound in an automobile won't let your soul unfold.
Dmaj7 B7sus4
Let your soul unfold.
E/A
And when I'm all unfolded, Kat, squatting to a piece of mud,
F#m F#m7sus4 G# G#7
should I turn my hands toward the sun and hum my life away?
F#m A
Well, I couldn't stand the slackened breath,
E/A
the long wait in between.
F#m F#m7sus4
No, I'd rather lose my battered lungs
A B
shouted down by the wind.
A A2
Shouting down the wind.
Georgia Freeway Lullaby/p.2
E6 E6,7sus4
So we make our own wind, now,
E6 E6,7sus4
Sebastian, it all feels the same.
E6 E6,7sus4
We're in a gale even on sunny days
E6 E6,7sus4
and never know who's throwing the rain.
Dmaj7 Amaj7
But you have to pick your madness,
Dmaj7 Amaj7 - Dmaj7
use your hands or use your feet.
E6 E6,7sus4
Let me know when you've decided,
E6 E6,7sus4
that you'd like to get some sleep.
Dmaj7 Bm7sus4
Like to get some sleep.
verse one
A E/A
Make it till the sun comes up.
(repeat and fade.)
Words and music by David B. Hakan 7-1-73
© 2000 David B Hakan All Rights Reseved
|
||||
6. |
Sidewalk Van Gogh
03:42
|
|||
|
Sidewalk Van Gogh
C/G G
I dreamed I was rubbed on a sidewalk in town
C/G G
by a young student artist with some chalk she had found.
C D G Em
She transformed that curbside of broken concrete
C Dsus4 D
to the walls of a mansion at everyone's feet.
As a sidewalk chalk painting, I felt pretty new.
I bragged of my yellows and nursed all my blues.
She said, “Yes, you're done now.” and wouldn't you know
she looked down and smiled at her sidewalk Van Gogh.
C D G Em
I'm only a sketch in a great painter's book.
C/G G D
and not many souls ever take a look.
C G C Bm
But my light and my shadow are all that I know.
C/G G D G D2-C-D2
I'm only a painter's sidewalk Van Gogh.
People would stop and take some pleasure away,
or a new shade of truth in a personal way.
She gave kids her chalk. They added some greens.
Dog and cats pawed printed over my scenes.
A poet penned a couplet right under my frame.
A circle of passerbys guessed at my name.
It wasn't a bad life as those things go,
Some footprints and compliments as a sidewalk Van Gogh.
refrain
Em D
But as dreams often do, this sky turned to black.
C Dsus4 D2
My life was so fragile and under attack.
Sidewalk Van Gogh page 2
The thunder was closer. Rain began drumming.
This storm was my end, but we all have that coming.
Each raindrop took some piece and washed me away.
My sidewalk was turning its yesterday gray.
Those kids gathered mud and sticks and made a big dam,
and held back my chalk water and round me they ran.
My last colors swirled like a kaleidoscope.
They looked down and laughed at their sidewalk Van Gogh.
refrain
Words And Music By David B. Hakan 5-11-96
© 2000 David B Hakan All Rights Reseved
|
||||
7. |
Eyes of Galileo
03:16
|
|||
|
The Eyes of Galileo
D G D A
I hope that this letter brings courage my friend.
G D A
It's hard in Barberini's Jail House, I know.
D A D G D G A D
So I hid in this pail my very best pair of the eyes of Galileo.
They can shackle your feet and hands, bar you from me.
Your tormented head's hanging low.
But at night when they're sleeping you can travel the stars
with the eyes of Galileo.
Bm A G D
Thinking's not free, my friend. It's just like the soil.
A
The Dukes got the deed long ago.
Bm A G D
But I dream of a time when our words will be as free
G A D
as the eyes of Galileo.
I spoke to your daughter. She asked of your work,
“Is mathematics some irreverent joke?”
She wonders if numbers are magic that fools
the eyes of Galileo.
I said, “A ship needs men pulling on ropes to set sail,
but one with a sextant they follow.
When we reach the shores of a New World we'll thank
the eyes of Galileo."
refrain
Some say the Devil works in your spyglass.
But he points us to what is base and low.
Your vision of heaven is just clearer than most
through the eyes of Galileo.
So don't be ashamed if they make you recant.
For your truth will not into hiding go.
Even if you went blind I would count myself blessed
to have the eyes of Galileo.
refrain
Words And Music By David B. Hakan 1-13-95
© 2000 David B Hakan All Rights Reseved
|
||||
8. |
Servant of the Soul
02:53
|
|||
|
Servant of the Soul
D G
Slow down and light a candle.
A D
Look within and not without.
G A D
Look for comfort in the silence.
G A D
Spread our hopes upon your doubt.
refrain
G A D
We come to make a common silence.
A D
We come to make the fragments whole.
G A Bm
We come to learn from the still voice
Em7 A D
how to be a servant of the soul.
Some believe in the promise of salvation,
magic, miracles or prophecies.
Some think it is enough to care for people,
(but we) welcome all souls here for this peace.
refrain
Orders to follow, rules to obey,
our calendars direct our every move.
But when we share this solitude,
we remember who we want to serve.
refrain
Words And Music By David B. Hakan 12-22-96
© 2000 David B Hakan All Rights Reseved
|
||||
9. |
Lost in the Fire
05:46
|
|||
|
LOST IN THE FIRE
G D
Windigo Lake shone like a great northern jewel,
Em C
Indian homeland before the Whiteman's rule.
Peter Bear stood proud, his spear raised to strike.
He fished like his forefathers half thru the night, half thru the night.
Buck Mills had tracked him; his grudge was still clear.
Only the Chippewa had spear fishing rights here.
Officer Riley saw Buck's Winchester, too.
He drove in lights flashing, before tempers flew,
G D
before tempers flew.
Bury the spear. Empty the gun.
Can't you see the color of what you've begun?
Red for the anger, tight as a wire.
Em Cm - A - D -C - D
Can't you see that common sense is lost in the fire?
G D C
Lie la la lie la la lie lie.
Jenny Bear watched them build the barricade stronger.
The protestors from the town wouldn't tarry much longer.
(She was) too young to help her dad as the Chippewa
blocked the road to Wind Island with a sign that said "stop", a sign that said "stop".
The treaty that gave them the spear fishing rights
had reduced their homeland like a vice held tight.
Trapped and forgotten, pitied and mocked,
they held onto magic as they sang on the dock, sang on the dock.
refrain
Every pickup in Hayward was lined up on Main.
Little Sally Mills thought they'd surely gone insane.
"Save all the Walleye," they cried "Smash all their boats.
If money won't buy them then we'll let them smoke. We'll let them smoke."
"Depleting the lakes would keep the tourists away,"
Buck told his daughter, wiped a tear from her face.
She said that the red had returned to his eye.
She should be angry too, but still didn't know why, still didn't know why.
refrain
The police moved the barricade and the crowd edged up.
Sally waved to Jenny in the meeting house from her truck.
An arrow went flaming to that meeting house door.
Dry wood and paint cans fed the blaze with a roar, that blaze with a roar.
With Jenny trapped inside Peter grabbed up a boat.
Buck helped him ram thru and inside they broke.
All they found were the flames climbing up higher,
but besides on old bearskin all else was lost in the fire, lost in the fire.
refrain
Lost in the fire. Lost in the fire.
Then a bear floated past as the twilight paled.
Everyone stared as it shuddered and wailed.
Then that bearskin splashed ashore around a ten-year-old face.
Windigo Lake had kept little Jenny Bear safe, had kept her safe.
refrain
words and music by
David B. Hakan 11-26-91
© 2000 David B Hakan All Rights Reseved
|
||||
10. |
Drawn to the Dark
04:25
|
|||
|
Drawn To The Dark
F C G
Peter met Maddie under bright moonlit skies.
F C Am G
(He was) drawn to the dark in her gentle gray eyes.
F C G
Her head on his shoulder was a quiet surprise.
F C G C
Their hands came together and their spirits did rise.
Caution slipped from him. There was no second chance.
Her father smiled briefly as he turned a quick glance.
So they circled together one more time to the dance.
Her smile kept on growing to the tune of romance.
refrain 1
Am Am,maj7
Some are drawn to the sparkle and light,
F C - G
some to the weight of a stone.
Am Am,maj7
Some love a heart with no fear of the grave
F D F/G C/G F-A G C-F/G
and they risk someday waking alone. Waking alone.
He worked building ships in the Tarryton yards
A falling steel brace snapped his leg like a card.
She took in sewing. Taking charity was hard.
Their painting of happiness from that day was marred.
They'd sit in the evening as silence crept in.
He tried lighting candles, played his old violin.
But the glow and the music never reached her within.
Her darkness was growing and the darkness might win.
refrain 2
How do you keep back that river of sleep
from a life that's as frail as a spark?
How do you love what you never can keep
when you see that you're drawn to the dark? Drawn to the dark.
Folk saw her walk to the cliff by the sea,
but some shadow held Maddie. It was easy to see.
Peter came home and found the house quite empty.
His heart held a stone. Each breath held a plea.
Maddie stood at the edge of Summerhill heights.
Counting the cost of her days and her nights.
At least she knew Peter was nowhere in sight.
Once her shadow was gone, he would manage all right.
refrain 1
Peter rode up on the Parson's black steed.
(he just) held out his hand, not a word did he plead.
A dark wind came moaning its song through the weeds.
Between terror and comfort was a battle indeed.
Maddie stepped back from her private nightmare.
She clung close to Peter who breathed a short prayer.
He held her so tightly with his hands on her hair.
For this day at least his heartache was spared.
refrain 2
Words and Music by Steve Phillips and David Hakan
8/18/1999
Copyright 1999 Steve Phillips & David B. Hakan
All rights reserved.
|
||||
11. |
Dancing Now
04:22
|
|||
|
Dancing Now (for Andy)
G D C
I was the kid brother who studied too hard, always sitting down.
G D C
You got me downstairs to the ping pong table for one more round.
G D C
You never struggled but got good grades in everything.
G D C
You'd practice dancing up in your room, make the room lights chink.
refrain
G D C
And I hope you two are dancing.
G D C
I hope you two are dancing.
G D C
I hope you two are dancing.
G D C G
I hope you two are dancing now.
You were the best at games. You needed someone you could beat.
I made it a little harder for you every week.
When Chris came home from college, you would sing A Song Will Rise.
You'd pull me into line to sing the harmony way up high.
refrain
Em D
But in the year of '67,
Em C
I'd turned 15 years old.
Em D
In the morning after your prom night,
Em C
you and Shifra were lying cold.
Em D
Our garage trapped those fumes around you.
Em C
You slipped from us in each others' arms.
Em D
Why so soon? was on all our lips.
Em C
But not an answer could be formed.
refrain
C G - D - C
Dancing now.
Dancing now.
Dancing now.
Words And Music By David B. Hakan 10/13/1999
Copyright 1999 David B. Hakan All rights reserved.
|
||||
If you like David Hakan, you may also like:
Michelle Stodart’s folk music captures hope in melancholy, addressing the transformational aspects of the most challenging times.
go to album
The St Buryan Sessions
by Sarah McQuaid
Recorded live at St Buryan Church, the latest from Sarah McQuaid is a showcase for the simple power of voice & guitar.
go to album
such bad things happen
by Levi Fuller & the Library
Turbulent indie rock from Levi Fuller & the Library that has the snarl of hardcore and the knotty meter of math rock.
go to album
Stunningly beautiful songs wrought with pedal steel and nylon-string guitar that cast mesmerizing melodic shapes.
go to album
The Flowers That Bloom in Spring
by Kieran Kane & Rayna Gellert
Kieran Kane & Rayna Gellert offer up a stunning minimalist country record, conjuring huge emotions with little more than vocals & guitar.
go to album
Hell on Church Street
by punchbrothers
A re-envisioning of Tony Rice's classic album "Church Street Blues" from Brooklyn progressive bluegrass quartet Punch Brothers.
go to album
Sorry I'm So Sensitive
by Bea Stewart
The second EP from Northern Irish singer-songwriter Bea Stewart runs from gentle folk to pillowy pop ballads, all perfectly executed.
go to album
