The Valentine Card
K. McKrell © 2020 BMI
I bought you a valentine card down at the local five-and-dime
With a picture of a big red heart and a goofy old nursery rhyme.
There is no way this hallmark will ever do.
So I’m gonna jot a few things down,
lick a stamp and send my thoughts to you.
Chorus
Gonna kiss your cheek soft as a feather from a hummingbird.
Your whispered words are the sweetest sounds I have ever heard.
Throw a coin in a fountain, close my eyes and wish my dreams come true
That I will always and forever be with you.
The clock on the wall ticks by in three quarter time.
Sometimes I get a downright weary and a lonesome mind.
My heart took my brain and gave that boy a talking to,
then my brain and my heart went ahead,
and wrote these words to you.
Chorus
Sure as the sun comes up, sure as the moon goes down.
Sure as this big old crazy world goes spinning round and round.
Sure as roses, violets are blue, I will always and forever be with you.
I wrote this tune using the song ‘You Are My Sunshine ‘ as part of the chorus. The origins of ‘You Are My Sunshine’ are murky at best, some say Jimmie Rodgers and Charles Mitchell, others say Oliver Hood while others Paul Rice . Whoever wrote 'You Are My Sunshine ' it is a great song and I use some it here.
Sunshine
You were in my dreams last night
Just as plain as day.
Giving me that look you give me
When I am far away.
You reached out your hand
To touch my brow,
Oh please God
Don’ t you wake me now.
If dreams are real I know somehow
I will sleep my life away.
Chorus
You are the gentle breeze that whispers through the pines.
You are that song that is always,always on my mind .
You are my sunshine, when sky's are grey.
Don’t you ever take my sunshine, my sunshine away.
I have your face inside my head no matter what I do
When people ask me what’s on my mind
I always tell em you.
That way you’re with me all the time
Mine is yours and yours is mine
Our laundry list is dryin’on the line
Cause we got things to do.
Chorus
You are my sunshine my only sunshine
You make me happy when skies are gray
You’ll never know dear how much I love you
Please don’t take my sunshine away.
I Can Breath Again
K.McKrell © 2020 BMI
These four walls, the floor and the ceiling
closing in on me like a freight train screaming
Speeding down the tracks
It’s a coming right for me.
no where to hide
no way to break free.
Oh the Nights are so long
I just cant sleep.
I pray to the lord my soul to keep.
The dark and the quiet
were once my friends.
Now I know I’ll never ever ever sleep again.
I close my eyes
count to ten.
I see your face and then,
I can breath again.
Yes I close my eyes
I count to ten.
I see your face and then,
I can breath again.
This world has a knack for making things crazy
make me sad, cry like a baby.
Tomorrow just ain't what it used to be
There is way out that I can see.
I’m out here on a limb at the edge of tears.
As all our dreams they disappear.
We use to to sit at God’s right hand.
Now there’s darkness upon the land.
The world we knew has come and gone.
Still everyday we soldier on.
The masks we all wear don’t hide our fear.
We have drawn a line and that line is here.
Boat Named Love and Happiness
K.McKrell ©2020 BMI
I see you when I close my eyes
when I lay me down to sleep.
I see you in the morning light
as the sun shines down on me.
I see the love light burning bright
from your pretty eyes of blue.
Yes I know I got a lot to learn
when it comes to loving you.
There is a full moon in the summer sky
just as big as all outdoors.
It sparkles like a diamond bright
fresh from a diamond store.
I wish that it was mine to give
cause I would put it in your hand.
Then I would run and I’d tell everyone
you are my girl and I’m your man.
There is a story of a crooked man
who walked a crooked mile.
He had a crooked way of talking
he wore a crooked little smile.
But now I hear that he is going straight
Straight back home to you.
If you’ll forgive him all his crooked ways
Do you think that is something you could do?
There is a boat named love and happiness
out on the stormy sea.
We never know which way the wind will blow
when it comes to you and me.
We will face the storms together
together hand in hand.
As we will sail into forever
a woman and a man.
My Big Ol’ Broken Heart
Kevin McKrell © 2020 BMI
I should have seen it coming.
Should have read the writing on the wall.
I should have known that I would be alone
when the teardrops start to fall.
All my skies are cloudy
All my moons are blue
Leaving only my big ol' broken heart
and my memories of you.
There was a time when I was young
before I fell from grace.
Before a wealth of hard days
wrote their story on my face.
Before innocence was just a word,
before love betrayed it’s myth.
When I would give my foolish heart
to whoever I was with.
It’s been a long, cold, lonely winter.
It has been a dark and a dreary time.
It’s been a month of Sundays
since I felt the warm sunshine.
I see the ghost of all my wilder days
bust out the door and head to town.
Coming home at dawn with a big grin on
like a drunken circus clown.
So far in this song there is not much that I have written that is true.
It’s just my way of dealin’, of trying to get over you.
So if I could ask you just this once, to hear between the lines.
You would hear that I wish I was your’s and darlin’ you were mine.
You’d hear that I wish that we were driving someplace, oh so far away.
We would sing a song to greet the dawn and speed us on our way.
Just you and me and the highway, nothing and no one in between.
At night we would talk of the things we have done,
and the wonders we have seen.
A Simple Thing
Kevin McKrell © 2020 BMI
There goes Mac and Suzy,
Taking their last walk down by the sea.
Closing the house for the season,
the summer one more memory.
50 years they've been out walking together,
since that fine faithful day of I do.
As a life of one thing and another flew by,
the way that life often will do.
They both knew as they walked by the seaside,
A secret neither would say.
They both knew that Mac was losing a step,
that he was slowly drifting away.
Putting the car keys away in the spoon drawer,
leaving the stove on after making her tea.
Suzy knew someday Mac would wake with a stranger,
something that she never wanted to be.
Some nights after a bit to much vino,
Suzy would remember her dreams.
To Mac she would say,
The Avenue des Champs-Élysées .
Is where I have always wanted to be.
To wander 8th Arrondissement,
Oh Mac to waltz by the Seine.
We would would dance
like there would be no tomorrow my lad.
Then tomorrow we would do it again.
Love can be a simple thing
It can make you sing.
It can make you dance.
Sometimes love can make you blue,
cause it was made for two.
I will always remember you.
On a day Suzy will always remember with tears,
Mac drifted away.
The gleam in his eye, that last long goodbye,
blow out his candle, He floated away .
Later that year of tear after tear,
Suzy finally put Mac away.
With his gold wedding band,
In a recognizable hand,
She found a note that said ,
To my Suzy my dear.
With that note was a ticket to Paris,
a ticket one way no return.
It read please waltz with me,
on the Champs-Élysées.
I will always love you, my Suzy, my dear.
Dublin Town
K.McKrell © 2020 BMI
Dublin Town, Dublin Town
The lights come up as the sun goes down.
Shadows dancing round and round.
With the lights of Dublin Town.
Dublin Town, Dublin Town.
My head is spinning round and round.
Staggering up and staggering down
With the lights of Dublin Town.
All the lights of Dublin Town.
sparkle like the stars.
Reflecting off the Liffey
As I wonder where you are.
My only friends are whiskey
And this beat up old guitar.
And the lights of Dublin Town
that sparkle like the stars.
All the lights of Dublin Town,
shimmer gold and blue.
I wander up by Christ Church
my only thoughts are of you.
On Grafton street a busker
draws me from my solitude.
As the lights of Dublin Town
they shimmer gold and blue.
All the lights of Dublin Town
they tell me to go home.
Not to seek my fortune,
across the broad Atlantic foam.
But to find some peace in the arms
of the only love I’ve ever known.
As the lights of Dublin Town
tell me to go home.
You and Me
K.McKrell © 2020 BMI
He's laying in the dark like an old dog chewin' on old memories.
Gnawing old bones, losing sleep on old used to be’s.
She says ya can’t change the past boy,
the future's a beautiful mystery.
So come take a walk with me down by the river.
Chorus
You and Me
Bluebirds singing on a window sill.
Got us some time to kill.
We don't leave now we never will.
You and me
Two fish on the same old hook.
Two lovers from a picture book.
One look was all it took.
She's searching for rainbows on a cloudy day.
With a smile gonna light the world gonna chase the clouds away.
Most times this goddamn world’s got nothing nice to say,
but she loves it anyway, 'cause her momma made her that way.
Chorus
You and me gonna wander down this road a ways.
Find ourselves a spot , our own lovers hidaway.
Come on boy get a move on ,we ain’t got all day.
Gonna take the time to say, everything is gonna be OK.
Angel in the Moonlight
K.McKrell © 2019
I heard an angel sing a song into the moonlight
In a voice I have never heard before nor since.
It filled my night with magic and with wonder.
I would give my life if I could only hear that song again.
Chorus
I have always been a hard case and a rover.
Living rough and destined for a fall.
If I could’ve changed my ways I’d be there with you today.
Instead I am searching for an angel to catch me when I fall.
Mama told me that God would always love me.
That forgiveness was a virtue, that lying was a sin.
The truth is I have sinned, yes I’m on my knees again.
Not even Jesus can save me from the mess that I am in.
Chorus
So if you are out there won’t you raise your hand to Jesus.
If you could please, give my ma a call.
Just tell her I’m with friends, what’s one more lie before the end .
And tell her I have seen the angel, I have heard that song again.
Convince Myself
K.McKrell ©2020 BMI
I am over you,
I don’t cry myself to sleep the way that I used to.
I took your picture down from the wall I tore that thing in two.
Just to prove to myself that I am over you.
Chorus
I can throw my life away,
reliving bitter memories of yesterday.
Or I can start my life anew,
if I could just convince myself that I am over you.
I am over you
I know that I can teach the world a thing or two,
about how to play the clown for everyone to see.
How love has come,
love has gone,
and made a fool of me.
Go To Sleep
K.McKrell © 2020 BMI
Sleep like a river, dreams they flow.
The struggles of the day
all your burdens drift away.
Slowly sail into the night,
peace will come with the morning light.
Go to sleep
It welcomes you with open arms
Quietly lie.
Surrender softly close your eyes.
Darkness holds no fear for a boy like you,
For you know that the day will dawn
when the night is through.
Go to sleep
Cast your dreams into the night
Like dry leaves blown.
Their destination is unknown.
With no direction planned.
Like sand through your hands
It’s there and gone.
Home
K.McKrell © 2020 BMI
I feel the winter coming on,
The sky more gray than blue.
That November sun it leaves me cold,
The icy wind it blows through.
I feel that wind freeze my bones,
I’m miles and miles away from home.
Here comes another winter night alone
that makes me long for you.
Chorus
Tonight I feel that home
Is just a story told.
A once upon a memory,
a place that lives in used to be.
Happiness is hard to see,
when you are lost and far from home.
It came upon a midnight clear,
the winter stars they dance.
Reach out and touch those shiny lights,
those diamonds in your hands.
You told me once that I could sail
from star to shining star.
No matter how far, away I roam
I would call and there you are.
Chorus
Now that I am years away from
The days when I would roam.
Memories they fill my head
of the people I have known.
Those memories are with me now
as much as old age will allow.
I do not know now where I am bound,
I hope I'm going home