Music & words: Ad van Meurs

The List of people that I can call my friends
Gets shorter every day
The list of names I can call and say 'hi'
Gets shorter in every way
Some left or died, some lied, when they said they'd call
Or was it me who never tried
The list of people that I can call my friends
Vanishes in time passing by

The list of things that I still need to do
Gets longer all the time
The travels and ideas, the plans that I drew
Are awaiting already for awhile
Some I'll do, some I won't
I need another life to do the things I don't
The list of things that I still need to do
Is out on the longer road

The list of things that I really need
Fits in the palm of my hand
The things that make me feel good, oh yes indeed
Are so simple you wouldn't understand
But that's my tale, and it's not for sale,
But these three chords will tell you, have they ever failed?
The list of things you can hear them in these strings
I hope you listen well

music: Ad van Meurs / words: Ad van Meurs / Jan Buckingham Duckhouse Music

The first time I came to this city, I walked through an arcade of light
Thousands of bulbs hung over the streets and brightened a dreary night
My mom and I stood in wonder, and gazed at a huge Christmas tree
The village I came from seemed so far away and this place became home to me...

Let the light shine on, like they shone over our hearts that night, bright light

As a girl I lived in a fantasy world, with radio and TV
Each month the shop windows showed something new to dazzle my friends and me
We had trouble with school, with the old man at home, and said that we might run away
Looking for treasures like we saw in the windows, hoping to find them one day...

A boy and I went to see this band...the band never came
But sitting under that half dime moon, there was magic just the same
To his simple and solemn promises I nodded a shy little yes
And thanked the moon for its magic as my heart beat against his chest...

Now my children and their children live their lives too in this town
And I can't understand why some people have to put this city down
If they could just see how she sparkles, they'd stay and never move on
Like my children who carry a torch in their hearts for this town that we call home...

Music & words: Ad van Meurs<

I live my life, no plans no strategy
I live like a child playing wild, I do as I please
But all the time I know, there is this counterpart
I know I'm supported by your loving heart

Your love, your love, your love, your love, your loving heart
I trust all the things I do because of your loving heart

Sometimes I'm reckless, sometimes I'm shy
Some days are like a rollercoaster I don't know why
When I doubt myself, many times I do
Your loving heart smiles, says it's all right with you

It's always beside me
It always guides me
And when the days get dark
It always brightens me

music & words: Ad van Meurs

I believe in rock & roll, peace to my sorry soul
I believe in rock & roll, rock & roll don't lie
don't believe in miracles, wise guys being cynical
I believe it's rock & roll, or die

Hey little girl lying in the street
What faith brought you here?
You're worn and wasted, but you won't trade with me
What is that dear?

There 's no east, there's no west
There's no place where we can rest

Last night my baby woke me up
and said, 'in my dreams I saw you
Too much work, too much strain, don't recognize the one
That I knew'

music & words: Ad van Meurs

Down in the woods many years ago
A picture I still clearly see
I sang a song that the old folks would sing
You opened your heart for me

I've got my own way, my own way, my own way to your heart

Then, times of trouble
You and I lost our ways
No language nor listening would do
The only thing that helped
We were both holding to
Old songs that we once knew

Sometimes it whispers and hurts
Sometimes it comes like a knife
But always make me feel I'm alive

Here in the dawning of an early summer morn
The sound of a new day in town
I hear your voice in every chorus, every song
That's when I know you're around

music & words: Ad van Meurs / Arising Artists

The car broke down in St. Catherines
We were coming from the Falls
How the water hypnotized, felt so small
As I always do when nature calls

The car broke down in St. Catherines
A far away thunder barked
I looked at you and all the years coming down
In the hail and rain whipping all the cars

Down by the well, down by the well, down by the well
We all are the same
Down by the well, we're looking for an answer
Down by the well, we're looking for a name

The car broke down in St. Catharines, I saw my father's dying bed
For a moment he crossed the ocean, there he was, in that fifty dollar motel shed
The car broke down in St. Catharines, he said, you gotta listen to your call
There is guitar,there is love, there is endurance, and nothing futher at all

Down by the well, your question is your answer
Down by the well, you whisper your own name

music: Joseph Philbrick Webster words: Maud Irving / A.P Carter

Oh, I'll twine with my mingles and waving black hair,
With the roses so red and the lilies so fair,
And the myrtle so bright with the emerald dew,
The pale and the leader and eyes look like blue.

Oh I'll dance, I will sing and my (*laugh) shall be gay
I will charm every heart, in his crown I will sway
When I woke from my dreaming, my idol was clay
All portion of love had all flown away.

Oh he taught me to love him and promised to love
And to cherish me over all others above
How my heart is now wond'ring no mis'ry can tell
He's left me no warning, no words of farewell.

Oh, he taught me to love him and called me his flower
That was blooming to cheer him through life's dreary hour
Oh, I long to see him and regret the dark hour
He's gone and neglected this pale wildwood flower.

music & words: Ad van Meurs / Arising Artists

Homeless heart, where have you been
I've been to the woods of trouble and sin
Day after day, night after night
Rainy streets neon lights

I was craving for love, I was raving for love
I was crying, dying, sighing, almost hated love
Homeless heart, where have you been

Homeless heart, come to me
No I can't, I'm paying the fee
I'm paying the price, for pretending love
Telling lies and getting rough

music & words: J.Clement/Universal Songs Of Polygram Inc.(BMI)

music & words: Ad van Meurs

Here we stand at your parting bed
Pictures of the past above your head
Black and whites with a colourful life
I see the orchard is in full bloom
Faces of friends start to loom
Food and wine, going back and forth
And the sound of freight trains bringing coal to the north

Country boy after all these years
Country boy with a mind so clear
A little bird on the parting bed
Mother Mary's blessing you for the road ahead

Always happy, never said
You saw the good, refused the bad
You suffered war and a life underground
As we chased God from paradise
You said nothing but you held the ties
You said there's always a way to find the Lord
You heard him speaking in the sound of wheels
bringing coal to the north

Now your name is carved in stone
Now it's up to us now we're all alone

Times have changed, no more trains around
The orchard 's gone, no more playful sounds
Still I know I'll always be pulled forth
By the strength of freight trains bringing coal to the north

music & words: Ad van Meurs

I learned to live when you went away
Missing you my sole and only being
It made me feel I was alive, as if your leaving just arrived
To shape my ways of seeing
It gave long roads with trees, reaching for the sky
To them I pointed all my questions why
Missing you became my world,
where I crossed or drew the line
Missing you made all of that shine

I did well, yes I did, in sorrow I did not dwell,
While your face in my mind grew dimmer
Fell in love and again, had children and then,
Your name, a background shimmer
But at the end of the day, I heard a voice inside me say
This ain't right, something is leading me astray
Happy as I was, with all the things I could do
I knew I was missing the missing you

So now I learned, that life is large,
And that the presence of missing
Is as important and real, it's what I need to feel,
As the essence of kissing
Now your name is my creed, teaching how to read
The ripples in the water, the waving of the wheat
And all my 'rise and fall', walking small or tall
Missing you, connecting it all