January 2007

• Decyfer Down, Jim Cooper, & Tony Palacios (Decyfer Down Publishing Designee [ASCAP] [SESAC] / Jim Cooper Publishing Designee [SESAC] / Poignant Pup Publishing [SESAC])

I don’t remember the last time I could say
I was where I wanted to be
Still You see through this mask
Hiding all my flaws
You see something down deep in me

Bring me back so that I can feel You again
Take me to that place I was before
All I want is to hold my head up high
So take this life and set aflame again

Still I linger around
A life unchanged

I just can’t break the cycle now
I feel I’ve lost all my hope
Trapped in my own mind
Break these thoughts that are clouding me

Again, again
Set my life aflame again

• Decyfer Down, Jim Cooper, & Tony Palacios (Decyfer Down Publishing Designee [ASCAP] [SESAC] / Dayspring Music, LLC [BMI] / Poignant Pup Publishing [SESAC])

Found a hole and fell inside myself
This emptiness by my own hand
So constricted
Self-inflicted
Its more than I can stand

Got to break free
From this disease
In my core without a doubt I just want more
Life, free from holes down deep inside
I need to find

I push to keep these walls from caving in
Trying though I cannot fill the space
I had excuses
It never fuses
It’s hard for me to face

• Traditional; arranged by Ricky Skaggs (Heart Bound Songs [ASCAP])
• Ricky Skaggs (lead vocal, mandolin, rhythm guitar, Celtic bodhran); Mark Fain (bass); Bryan Sutton (guitar); Mary Alice Hoepfinger (harpist)

Hug me closer, Mother, closer
Put your arms around me tight
For I am cold and tired, dear Mother
And I feel so strong tonight

Something hurts me here, dear Mother
Like a stone upon my breast
Oh, I wonder, Mother, wonder
Why it is I cannot rest

All the day while you were working
As I lay upon my bed
I was trying to be patient
And to think of what you said

How the King, dear blessed Jesus
Loves His lambs to watch and keep
Oh, I wish He would come and take me
In His arms that I might sleep

Just before the lamps were lighted
Just before the children came
While the room was very quiet
I heard someone call my name

All at once a window opened
On a field of lambs and sheep
Some far out in a brook were drinking
Some were lying fast asleep

In a moment I was looking
On a world so bright and fair
Which was filled with little children
And they seemed so happy there

They were singing oh so sweetly
Sweetest songs I ever heard
They were singing sweeter, Mother
Than our darling little birds

But I could not see the Savior
Though I strained my eyes to see
And I wondered if He saw me
Would He speak to such as me?

All at once a window opened
One so bright upon me smiled
And I knew it must be Jesus
When He said, “Come here, My child”

“Come here, my little Bessie
Come up here and live with Me
Where little children never suffer
Suffer through eternity”

Then I thought of all you told me
Of that bright and happy land
I was going when you called me
When you came and kissed my hand

And at first I felt so sorry
You had called and I would go
Oh, to sleep and never suffer
Mother, don’t be crying so

Hug me closer, Mother, closer
Put your arms around me tight
Oh, how much I love you, Mother
And how strong I feel tonight

And the Mother pressed her closer
To her own dear burdened breast
On the heart so near its breaking
Lay the heart so near its rest

At the solemn hour of midnight
In the darkness calm and deep
Lying on her mother’s bosom
Little Bessie fell asleep

• Bill Monroe (Bill Monroe Music [BMI])
• Ricky Skaggs (mandolin, archtop guitar); Mark Fain (bass); Paul Brewster (rhythm guitar); Bryan Sutton (lead guitar); Bobby Hicks (fiddle); Jim Mills (banjo)

Instrumental

• Billy Joe Foster (Golden Hook Music [BMI])
• Ricky Skaggs (lead vocal, mandolin, lead guitar, rhythm guitar); Mark Fain (bass); Stuart Duncan (fiddle); Bryan Sutton (guitar); Sharon & Cheryl White (background vocals)

Grandpa raised a family on a worn out cotton farm
Borrowed money on his word, he never did nobody harm
Sometimes he’d get discouraged when a dry spell came around
He’d go out in the cotton field and he’d kneel down on the ground

Give us rain, on this dry old ground today
Give us rain, wash the troubled times away
I believe You’re faithful, I’m not meaning to complain
But Lord, we sure could use a little rain
Lord, we sure could use a little rain

I moved to the city when I turned twenty two
Saw a way of livin’ that my grandpa never knew
I’m a different kind of farmer in a different kind of field
Plantin’ words of hope in a ground as hard as steel

There’s a crop of thirsty people in this dry old dusty town
They grew up fast but withered when the scorchin’ sun came down
Although there is a difference the need is still the same

And just like Grandpa’s cotton field they need a little rain

• Ralph & Carter Stanley (Fort Knox Music / Trio Music [BMI])
• Ricky Skaggs (lead vocals, mandolin); Mark Fain (bass); Bryan Sutton (lead guitar); Bobby Hicks (fiddle); Paul Brewster (tenor vocals); Darrin Vincent (baritone vocals); Jim Mills (banjo)

I’ve got a pig at home in a pen
Corn to feed him on
All I need is a pretty little girl
To feed him when I’m gone

Going on a mountain
To sow a little cane
Raise a barrel of sorghum
To sweeten ol’ Liza Jane

Yonder comes that gal of mine
How do you think I know
I know by the gingham gown
Hangin’ down so low

Dark clouds a risin’
Surely a sign of rain
Get your old gray bonnet on
Little Liza Jane

Bake them biscuits, Baby
Bake ‘em good and brown
When you get them biscuits baked
We’re Alabami bound

• Bill Monroe (Unichappell Music [BMI])
• Ricky Skaggs (lead vocal, mandolin, archtop guitar); Mark Fain (bass); Bryan Sutton (rhythm guitar); Paul Brewster (tenor vocals); Bobby Hicks (fiddle); Jim Mills (banjo); Darrin Vincent (baritone vocals)

Oh you say that you love me
That your heart would be true
But now you’ve gone and left me
I’m so blue

Oh I believed in you darling
That your heart would be true
But now you’ve gone and left me
I’m so blue

Our vows have been broken
You have proven untrue
Another has my sweetheart
And the love I once knew

Oh the nights are so lonely
Dreams of you haunt me so
What’s happened little darling
I don’t know

But now you’ve gone and left me
I’m so blue

• Jim Mills (House of Mills [BMI])
• Ricky Skaggs (lead vocal, mandolin, guitar, spike hammer); Mark Fain (bass); Paul Brewster (tenor vocals); Stuart Duncan (fiddle); Bryan Sutton (guitar); Jerry Douglas (Weissenborn guitar)

Daylight or dark
In rain or shine
It don’t matter much
Down in the mine
Where the tunnel’s deep
Lord, the air gets thin
That’s the way of life
For the minin’ man

His lungs are weak
His back is gone
His sixty years
Are plainly shown
Lived half his life
Down in the ground
A cold steel hammer
Rings a mournful sound

I’ll tell you, Son
He said to me
There’s just two things
I pray to see
That’s the day my Savior
Calls me home
And to see my son
Stop minin’ coal

Oh, daddy dear
I’ll tell you true
There’s nothing else
For me to do
But to make my livin’
Underneath this land
And live and die
A coal minin’ man

I’ll make my livin’
Underneath this land
And die like you
A coal minin’ man

• Ricky Skaggs (Heartbound Music [ASCAP])
• Ricky Skaggs (mandolin, archtop guitar); Mark Fain (bass); Paul Brewster (rhythm guitar); Bryan Sutton (lead guitar); Bobby Hicks (fiddle); Jim Mills (banjo)

Instrumental