The Foundling

Gauthier

A baby unwanted, unloved, and unblessed
Left on a doorstep, an unbidden guest
A shivering shadow, a child with no name
Severed, surrendered, sinking in pain

Conceived in the gale of a ruinous storm              
Partially killed, partially born
Abandoned, abandoned, falling thru space
With nobody’s eyes and nobody’s face
A foundling

A child disconnected who no longer cries
With a prisoners stare and an orphans eyes
A free floating phantom held together by skin
A small helpless stranger, a sigh in the wind

Washed into this world in fever and flood
Tears remorse, sorrow and blood
Abandoned, abandoned left at the gate
Cut loose un-tethered tattooed by fate
A foundling

Mama Here Mama Gone

Gauthier

Basinets and babies
St. Vincent’s Infants Home
Orphaned in limbo
Helpless and alone
Paradise receding
Paradise withdrawn
A tiny heart is beating

Mama here
Mama gone
Mama gone

Cut loose and falling,
Thru the crevasse cradle crack
Rock a bye baby
Mama ain’t coming back
This night has no ending
This darkness no dawn
Descending, descending

Mama here
Mama gone
Mama gone

Day and nights of falling
Thru darkness with no dawn
Baby’s arms quit reaching

Mama here
Mama gone
Mama gone
Mama gone

Good-bye

Gauthier

Born a bastard child in New Orleans
To a woman I’ve never seen
I don’t know if she ever held me
All I know is that she let go of me

So I passed thru like thunder
I passed thru like rain
Passed out from under
Good-bye could’a been my family name.

Every time I settle down it happens
I get a restless feeling I can’t control
I hit the wall then I hit the highway
I’ve got the curse of a gypsy on my soul

So I move thru like thunder
I move through like rain
Moving out from under
Good-bye could’a been my family name.

I can’t break free of the winds that blow me
They roll in like a Gulf Coast Hurricane
I’d like to stay now but I don’t know how
Hold me honey till I’m gone again

When it’s time to leave forever
I pray the Lord don’t take me slow
I don’t know where I’m going
Just let me say good-bye and go

And I’ll push thru like thunder
I’ll push thru like rain
Pushed out from under
Good-bye could’a been my family name.

Slideshow

Gauthier / Rose

People stare and then they walk away
But there's always a few who'll stay
From the stage I watch 'em close their eyes
Like a little kid trying to hide
Like they're somewhere ain't supposed to be
Watching something they ain't supposed to see
Giving in to the undertow in the dark at the sideshow

I'm the singer at the sideshow
It's a place that orphans go
Far away from the bright lights
Hard to find on a dark night
Another truly troubled troubadour
Writing songs to even up the score
A tune for every single body flow
And I sing 'em at the sideshow

Who likes to think about their pain
Most people would avoid the rain
A sunny song will help you make it through
But constant whistling is hard to do
Too many songs about happiness
Leave me sad, lonely, and depressed
A million miles from the radio you can find me at the sideshow

I make my living at the sideshow it's a place that orphans go
Far away from the bright lights hard to find on a dark night
Another truly troubled troubadour, writing songs to even up the score
A tune for every single body blow and I sing 'em at the side show

I make a living at the sideshow, a place that the wounded go
Far away from the bright lights, hard to find on a dark night
Another truly troubled troubadour, writing songs to even up the score
A tune for every single body blow and I sing 'em at the sideshow
Back in the corner where the sad songs flow
I’m the singer at the sideshow
Yes me and the buffalo,
You can find us at the sideshow

Blood Is Blood

Gauthier/Harmon

Clouds are spreading like bruises on the evening sky
I walk the streets alone again tonight
It starts to rain still I search each passing face
Blood is blood and blood don’t wash away
Blood is blood and blood don’t wash away

When I was a child they told me she loved me too much
She didn’t keep me ‘cause my mama loved me too much
She left without a trail she left without a trace
But blood is blood and blood don’t wash away
Blood is blood and blood don’t wash away

I got a heart that’s ripped
I got a soul that’s torn
I got a hole in me like I was never born

Blood is thicker than water blood is bound by God
I don’t know who I am I don’t know who I’m not
I don’t know my name I can’t find my place
Blood is blood and blood don’t wash away
Blood is blood and blood don’t wash away
Blood is blood and blood don’t wash away
Blood is blood and blood don’t wash away

I walk the streets alone again tonight

March 11, 1962

Gauthier / Rose

Hello this is Mary,
March 11, 1962
It took me five hundred dollars
And forty years to find you    
I know it’s almost Christmas
I don’t mean to make you cry
Now you ask me why I’m calling  
Well, I don’t know why

Hello, hello, say something
Don’t leave me hanging here like this
If there’s something right to say right now
I don’t know what it is
This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done
And I’m terrified
Now you ask me why I’m calling
I don’t know why

You say that I’m a secret          
Nobody knows                         
And you can’t talk about it now      
And you really gotta go
You wish you’d a done it different then
But you did not know how
And it’s too late to change any of it now

I must have thought about this moment
About hundred thousand times
But I never could get past hello
Or imagine what I’d find
I guess somewhere deep inside me
I knew I was a lie
Don’t ask me why I’m calling
I don’t know why

You say that you love me
But I’m a secret you can’t tell
And the hole you hide is wider
Than the waiting gates of hell
You wish you’d done it different then
But you did not know how
And it’s too late to change any of it now

Look, I know we are strangers
But we might just hurt the same
I’m not looking for I’m sorry
I’m not looking to lay blame
I guess I just had to thank you once
Before this life went by
Yea, I guess that’s why I called,
Goodbye

Walk in the Water

Gauthier

You tell me you’re sorry and it lands like a blow
You leave me stranded, with nowhere to go
You’re eyes are beaten, weathered and sore
And I know you don’t love me no more

The cold wind’s blowing
‘Cross sky dull and grey
I’m gonna walk in the water
Till my hat floats away

No one can tell their heart what to do
A heart does what it wants then it tells you
Like mighty waves rolling forever to shore
My hand will always be reaching for yours

A cold wind’s blowing
‘Cross sky dull and grey
I’m gonna walk in the water
Till my hat floats away

Invisible mouth, invisible words
Heaven releases, invisible birds
Wide wings waving, waving goodbye
I am weighted and weary, unable to cry

The cold wind’s blowing
‘Cross sky dull and grey
I’m gonna walk in the water
Till my hat floats away
I’m gonna walk in the water
Till my hat floats away
I’m gonna walk in the water
Till my hat floats away

Sweet Words

Gauthier

I don’t trust my eyes any more
They don’t know what they’re looking for
Thinking back on what they didn’t see
I think my eyes were blinding me

Some people never really love
They don’t mean the sweet words they say
Other people can’t see the truth
I didn’t know I was that way
I didn’t know I was that way

I don’t trust my ears anymore
They don’t know what to listen for
They don’t hear the spirit for the sound
My ears only serve to bring me down

Some people never really love
They don’t mean the sweet words they say
Other people can’t hear the truth
I didn’t know I was that way
I didn’t know I was that way

I don’t trust my heart any more
It’s busted open, bruised, beat up and sore
Even while it’s limping round in pain
All it wants to do is reach for you again

I don’t trust my eyes
I don’t trust my ears
I can’t trust my heart
It lied to me for years

Some people never really love
They don’t mean the sweet words they say
Other people won’t accept the truth
I didn’t know I was that way
I didn’t know I was that way

The Orphan King

Gauthier / Romanoff

My mama and held me one time kissed me goodbye
But I still believe in love
She never came back and I don’t know why
But I still believe in love
She passed me her crown on her way out of town
But I still believe in love
She left me this kingdom to wear it around
But I still believe in love

Hail the Orphan King!
With the crooked smile and a crackerjack ring
An alley cat court and a song to sing
I still believe in love

You don’t know alone till you sit on a throne
But I still believe in love
A castle ain’t home, it’s just hunger and stone
But I believe in love
The only love I had I borrowed and stole
But I still believe in love
Now the kindness of strangers is my ace in the hole
I still believe in love

Hail, Hail the Orphan King!
With the crooked smile and a crackerjack ring
An alley cat court and a song to sing
I still believe in love

I sleep in parked cars I drink in graveyards
Woke up in the schoolyard face down by a squad car
I am the king

Hail the Orphan King!
With a crooked smile and a crackerjack ring
It ain’t easy being king
But I still believe
Hail the Orphan King!
Superhero of suffering
Like Moses and Batman and James Dean
I still believe in love

Another Day Borrowed

Gauthier / Scott

I shook my fist at my father’s rage
I cursed my mother’s sadness
But every home I tried to call my own
Washed into a river of madness
The raging surge the stagnant mire
The taste of breath embittered
The disconnected highway lines
Where souls like ours lay littered

Passing thru, I’m passing thru
I might be gone tomorrow
Wild and worn I’m hanging on
To another day borrowed
It’s another day borrowed

Money never bought me peace
The aftertaste of lust is bitter
Diamonds that shine in a stolen sky
Come circling down like glitter
The midnight water dark and high,
Is pressing on the levee
Snakes are bound for higher ground
Me, I’m almost ready

Passing thru, I’m passing thru
I might be gone tomorrow
Wild and worn I’m hanging on
To another day borrowed
It’s another day borrowed