Keepsakes

by Sam Carter

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about

Full-length album released on 10th August 2009.

credits

released 10 August 2009
Recorded by Joe Leach at The Cowshed, North London.
Mastered by Andy at Tube Mastering

Sam Sweeney – Violin on ‘Oh Dear, Rue The Day’
Kit Massey – Violin, Piano
Ayanna Witter-Johnson – Cello
Charlie Stock – Viola
Matt Ridley – Double Bass
Sam Nadel – Drums

In memory of Yan 'Captain' Meynell

tags

tags: folk acoustic United Kingdom

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all rights reserved

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Track Name: Yellow Sign
On a November day in an east end cafe
There’s a fight kicking off to the right of me
‘Well I’ve half a mind to hurt you’ he cries
‘But I don’t want the world and his wife to see’

And he’s dragged that girl outside
With his arms around her
There’s a yellow sign
Where they found her

‘Cos there was some other man she’d hit on
Now she’s barely alive
What a secret to try and sit on
One you know you shouldn’t have to hide

It’s a year to the day since they put him away
He’s down for a ten-stretch at best
And she goes every week just to hear her lover speak
But there’s the one thing he can’t get off his chest

And then she forced his hand
Showed him a letter
She said ‘I hope you sent my love
When you met her’

‘Cos there was some other girl he’d hit on
Yeah he’s as guilty as sin
What a secret to try and sit on
When you’ve nothing you can keep it in

And if ever they meet when he’s back on the street
Who knows if the cafe will still be there
And will she still believe in that sinner’s reprieve
That in love as in war that all is fair?

If all he’s on is his best behaviour
And she’s holding her tongue
They can clear up the bad blood later
For now they’ll sit and watch it run
For now they’ll sit and watch it run
Track Name: Pheasant
If only you knew what I wouldn’t do to get you alone
If only I’d given drinking a miss and toddled off home
I’m not the type to tell you it’s time
That our lives and our legs became intertwined
But you flatten me like a pheasant on a country lane

We met in a foreign hotel reception as summer returned
There in the midst of sunbathing Brits determined to burn
I made conversation, melted the ice
I quoted and quipped and I tried to be nice
Cos you flattened me like a pheasant on a country lane

Seven years down the line still I’ve not said a thing
But we’re not in the sticks and I’m not giving in
Not tonight, no, until I know one way or the other

The last time we spoke we stood and we smoked while we should’ve slept
I’d broken the silence along with the one resolution I’d kept
‘I’m already taken’ you’d said in reply
I dithered and spat an awkward goodbye
Still you flatten me like a pheasant on a country lane
You know you flatten me like a pheasant on a country lane
Track Name: Station Road
As we face the snow, two of us and all of them
The place we once called home stirs to let us in again
Walked up to the Station Road, we were flecks of blue on white
Saw in you how we had changed and I flinched at the sight

Standing in the cold
Out on Station Road
This isn’t home

Just another room and I’m so maudlin I’m ashamed
The place we once called home doesn’t look or sound the same
The pictures and the clothes are here, it’s as if somebody died
Throw the whole lot out for him ‘cos he’s not here to decide

Standing in the cold
Out on Station Road
This isn’t home

Standing in the cold
Out on Station Road
We’re all set to go
This isn’t home
Track Name: Oh Dear, Rue The Day
Oh dear rue the day that ever I married
How I wish I was single again
All this weeping and wailing
And rocking the cradle
Rocking a baby that’s none of my own

Well I am a young man from the town of Ciandra
I married my old woman to comfort me home
But now she just leaves me
And she cruelly deceives me
And she leaves me with a baby that’s none of my own

Well while I’m at work then me wife’s on the rantan
She’s out on the rantan with the other young boys
But how she just leaves me
And she cruelly deceives me
And she leaves me with a baby that’s none of my own

So all of you young men who are fixing to marry
Take care that you leave all the flash girls alone
Or by the lord harry if the one you should marry
Should leave you with a baby that’s none of your own

Oh dear rue the day that ever I married
How I wish I was single again
All this weeping and wailing
And rocking the cradle
Rocking a baby that’s none of my own, none of my own, none of my own
Track Name: Captain
Captain’s in the front seat underneath his cap
Papers and tobacco rest in his lap
And he’s humming an old Creedence song
We’re hurtling down the A1
On the way to Leicester to play another show
He sits behind the faders and drinks ‘cos he knows
When Monday comes if all goes to plan
He’s up at dawn and back in the van

And he’ll drive into the night chasing the red tail lights
And he’ll drive into the night, there he’ll witness dawn’s first light
There he’ll witness dawn’s first light

We played until eleven, my hands were getting sore
The ones who stayed to listen cheered for one more
And the soundman, he beamed through the crowd
The encore was three times as loud
Homeward on the backroad, the captain’s in a state
He’s up for work tomorrow, I tell him it’s late
He turns to me and stifles a yawn
‘While you sleep I see every dawn’

And he’ll drive into the night chasing the red tail lights
And he’ll drive into the night, there he’ll witness dawn’s first light
There he’ll witness dawn’s first light
Track Name: Dew
Something left with you that morning while the dew was on the ground
And without so much as asking you turned feelings into sound
Let’s remember there’s an ending even though we’ve just begun
We’ll make clichés out of living in the only way we can

I don’t care for words this morning while the dew is on the ground
And without so much as asking I’ll turn feelings into sound
Track Name: Fight
Lord, this is not my day
Lying in wait for change
When it comes I’ll be waiting still
When it comes I’ll pass it by
Leave it out

I’m meant to be a man
But the feelings are out again
I will fight not to have to win
I will fight not to have
Have to win
Track Name: Hired Hands
I was standing in the hallway on a bright December morning
Cursed the late-running postman as a letter struck the floor
I ran a finger down the seal of the envelope as I was yawning
‘As from the New Year you don’t work here anymore’

That’s all the thanks I’ll get for fifteen years of blood and sweat
You’ve underhandedly had the best of me

You were clearing your name when it all backfired
You placed the blame in the hands you hired
As you required somebody suffered and that’s not right
That’s not right

So they wrote to tell us that the company’s going under
A case of unforeseen circumstances and a woefully shortsighted MD
But the boss has kept his job and I can’t help but wonder
If he’d have acted differently with bills to pay and kids to feed

That’s all the thanks I’ll get unless the postman’s gone and lost the cheque
While you’ve shiftily had the best of me

You were clearing your name when it all backfired
You placed blame in the hands you hired
As you required somebody suffered and that’s not right
That’s not right

You were clearing your name now it’s all backfired
You placed the blame in the hands you hired
As you required somebody suffered and that’s not right
That’s not right
That’s not right
That’s not right
Track Name: Taxi
Taxi taking me home for tonight I’ve had enough

It’s been one of those weeks, now it’s raining and it’s late
Oh talk at me and fill my mind with anything but me and mine

Candour caught me off-guard when the driver shook his head
‘Sounds like two years too long’, I was shocked by what he said
Oh how could I have spent that time on anything but me and mine?

Well it’s true, I could have lied
When you asked me if I’d seen the match tonight
And if I knew then I’d have tried
And I’d have bluffed for long enough to stop you
Asking why I carry this guitar

Taxi leaving me here on the wrong side of the street
The walk might do me some good but I’d rather be asleep
And sleep will come and fill my mind with anything but me and mine
Just for tonight
Just for tonight
Track Name: Spill Those Secrets
I’m sleeping in my clothes tonight
In a double bed with a cast iron frame
And neither of us is to blame
Oh my love
Oh my love

Every hour the good Lord sends
We work to save for the holidays
Still we can’t afford to curb the ways
Of the heart
Oh my love

Spill those secrets, don’t suffer alone
Come the morning I’ll take them home
Spill those secrets one at a time
Come the morning they’ll be with mine