Coming Home
For Champ Hood

I hear a fiddle
Coming through the trees
A blue guitar
Playing a rhapsody
Rhythm of the river
Smooth as honey
Playing for love
Never the money
‘s playing
“Wait for me,
Gabriel … I’m coming home”

I see a smile
On the side of shy
I see eyes
That never question why
A song that sings
Like mercy itself
That can lift the bottle
Off the shelf
‘s singing
“Wait for me,
Gabriel … I’m coming home”
 

“I’m coming home
To the arms of love I’m coming home
To the shady grove …
Wait for me
Gabriel … I’m coming home”

I hear a silence
In days to come
Like a cotton field
With a ghost drum
It says … I was here
You were too
I am your brother
The long day through
Now
“Wait for me,
Gabriel … I’m coming home”

“I’m coming home
To the arms of love
I’m coming home
To the shady grove
Wait for me
Gabriel … I’m coming home”

Trains

I hear the train a coming
Coming 'round the bend
… Talkin' Jimmy Reed
The young Carl Mann's 'Pretend'
… the grease monkey
Dance the rhumba
Shovel coal
Drink rum and cola
I hear the train a coming
Coming 'round the bend
Leaving the Southland
One more time
 

Train train
Rolling ‘round … ‘round the bend
Driving wheel … a roulette wheel
No small change to spend
Just … boom chicka boom
And chankety chank
Two lovers laying
On the riverbank
Train train
Rolling ‘round … ‘round the bend
Leaving the Southland
One more time
 

Train of love’s a coming
Big black wheels a humming
Carry the poor boy
And the rich girl just a slumming
Hand me down my walking cane
Ride past the rice fields in the rain
Train of love’s a coming
Big black wheels a humming
Leaving the Southland
One more time
 

People get ready
There’s a train a coming
Get the banjo get guitar
Get the rhythm strumming
Tell the bluebird and the oriole
Take flight tonight we carry souls
People get ready
There’s a train a coming
Leaving the Southland
One more time
 

Stars & trains spell your name
In the glow and spark and roll
All you need’s St. Christopher
And a bag of shiny coal
Heaven sent now heaven bound
Holy sound on holy ground
Stars & trains spell your name
In the glow and spark and roll
Leaving the Southland
One more time

Blue candles burn
For a blue moon boy …
Talk of the old days
Talk of the 'Ice House'
The new days
And coming days

Harmony …
Way beyond
The Hi-Lo's, Four Freshmen, 
Four Seasons,
Beach Boys, and Beatles …
Imagination's harmony …

Billy Strayhorn
Jammin
On Robert Johnson …
'Bye Bye Blackbird'
"Hello hummingbird …
Hello baby …
Wanna little sugar?"

Sugartime
Suppertime
Buttermilk pie …
Jimmie Rodgers' songs
Dipped 
In catfish and okra

The South of dreams …
Of mystic flowers
That Billy dreamed
In Philly
Pregnant 
With 'Lush Life' … 'Passion Flower'

Vintage rockets
And blue skies …
The days before
I knew you,
Lennon and Dylan …
Turning your curly head …

Listening to
Mary Hopkin
And 'Under Milk Wood' …
Dylan Thomas
In South Carolina …
'Starless and bible black'

Tonight
Stars shine
And the bible sings
And the beatbox plays
And blue candles burn
For a blue moon boy