John McCutcheon
Between The Eclipse

Between the Eclipse finds John McCutcheon in top form, immersed in the themes he knows best. From his tales of the working life to his odes to love and home, John's uplifting songs continue to inspire. Propelled by a band of outstanding musicians, McCutcheon displays a new energy, which prompted the Oakland Tribune to dub him "the Bruce Springsteen of folk."

"A brilliantly gifted instrumentalist and singer, McCutcheon is the kind of songwriter who thrives on concern and commitment." —Phoenix New Times

". . . an outstanding exponent of traditional Appalachian music, who can coax deep emotions out of hammered dulcimer and autoharp. By marrying this deeply-rooted tradition with contemporary rock and country influences he forges a musical style well-suited to his message about the amazing endurance of what's best in American culture." —Utne Reader

Personnel

John McCutcheon, vocals, guitar, hammer dulcimer / Michael Aharon, piano, organ, synthesizer / Pete Kennedy, acoustic guitar, electric guitar / Bobby King, acoustic bass, electric bass / Robert Jospe, drums, marimba, log drums, percussion / Bob Read, saxophone / John D'earth, trumpet, flugelhorn / J.T. Brown, harmony vocals / Jon Carroll, harmony vocals

Formats

Compact Disk: Rounder CD:011661033627 Cassette: Rounder CS:011661033641

Produced by John McCutcheon and Bob Dawson
Year Released: 1994

Lyrics

S'posed to Do
words & music by John McCutcheon & Si Kahn

She gets up every morning
Long before the day breaks blue
She's got lunches to fix, she's on the highway by six
She's ready to give her due
She's the first one on her shift at the factory gate
She might stop in to see a friend or two
It's just another day at the same old pay
Doing what you're s'posed to do

Chorus

Doing what you're s'posed to do
Doing what you're s'posed to do
When's it gonna get any easier
When you gonna make it on through
Doing what you're s'posed to, doing what you're s'posed to do

He works down at the corner fillin' station
They call him King of the Socket Wrench
He does the tune-ups, the muffler work, and all the state inspections
Rebuilds carburetors at his bench
He's the last one out at the end of the day
He might stop in to have a beer or two
Then he's home by six to the wife and kids
Doing what he's s'posed to do

Chorus

Everyone around you, everyone you know
Is just playing by the rules, my friend
All they're asking now is the sweat of your brow
"There's gold at the rainbow's end"
So keep your shoulder to the wheel, son, and just keep pushing
Cause you gotta believe it's true
There's an easier ride on the other side of
Doing what you're s'posed to do

If it was up to me, mister
I tell you just what I'd do
I'd send a message to my Maker
Way up there in the blue
I'd tell him, "Forty hours a week, fifty weeks a year
"Well I guess I've 'bout given my due
"I've done my time, now the rest is mine
"I'm tired of doin' what I'm s'posed to do"

Chorus

©1994 John McCutcheon/Appalsongs (ASCAP) & Joe Hill Music (ASCAP)

Mending Fences
words & music by John McCutcheon

Mending fences once again
Where posts stand frail and rotten
I walk the wire, hammer-handed
Lest they be forgotten
All alone along the rim
Of all I know as mine
From those without, for those within
I stretch this borderline

The simple order of these days
The fields that know their places
The work that takes me to their sides
In steady, measured paces
The hand of time has touched it all
And the seasons' angry blow
All the labor of past years
Is to ruin and rust laid low

I saw the picture from the moon:
It was the earth in beauty risin'
No fencelines marked her face
Only endless, blue horizon

I'm thinking as I head back in,
My collar cocked and high,
That fences end where they begin
Balanced 'tween the earth and sky
All that keeps me where I am
That stirs this blood and bone
Is tethered by these three thin lines
That trace the fields of home

©1994 John McCutcheon/Appalsongs (ASCAP)

Dark Haired Woman
words & music by John McCutcheon & Si Kahn

I got a paycheck in my pocket
About to burn a hole
I got intentions for you, darling
About to make me lose control
I got forty hours behind me
And the sun is going down
So please put on that purple dress I know you like
Because we're going on the town

Don't you worry 'bout your hair 'cause
Where we're going it is almost dark
We'll order up some cheap champagne
At that place you like down by the park
I've already called a babysitter
So that you couldn't say no
So, please, no more excuses, darlin'
Just tell me that you wanna go

Chorus:

All week long there's just one thing
That keeps from losing my mind
It's Friday night out on the town
With that dark haired woman of mine

Don't ask me how my week's been, honey
'Cause you don't really want to know
And I don't want to remember
That in just two more days I gotta go
Just put your arms around me
Out on that big dance floor
And I'll forget about it all except
What Friday night is for

Chorus

I know I ain't no fancy lover, darling
But I guess you know that too
And sometimes I wonder how a man like me
Deserves a woman like you
You know, we sell our lives away eight hours a day
But tonight I'm going to treat you right
I've got a paycheck and a Pontiac
I've got a Friday night

©1994 John McCutcheon/Appalsongs & Joe Hill Music (ASCAP)

Woman Like You
words & music by John McCutcheon & Si Kahn

Fac'try is whining like a fiddle out of tune
The night shift has only just begun
He comes in growling, howling at the moon
Eight lousy hours till the sun
There's only one way he can make it till next day
With the noise and the dust and the foreman
There's just no relief for a hard-working man
But the love of a hard-working woman

Chorus:

He's got a woman like you
He's got a woman like you
He's got a woman like you
Love has laid its hands on him

He checks his workload and he checks his watch
He checks his look in the mirror
He's too old for games and he's too old to tame
And he sees all the signals much clearer
These kids come and go just like birds on the wing
Out of this old town they fly
Still, why does that hour hand crawl round the clock
While the years go on slipping right by
He's on the third shift and she's on the third shift
And they'll make it home the same time

Chorus

Works just like his Daddy did, but nothing's just like Daddy did
Everything's different and strange
It's "do this" and "don't do this", "here's your new super"
The only thing constant is change
It's downsize and slowdown and pick up the pace
The noise and the night seem insane
While outside his window the moon makes her magic
He stares with his hand on the pane
He lies in her bed in the middle of the night
He turns off the radio, turns off the light
The last sound he hears is her breathing

Chorus

©1994 John McCutcheon/Appalsongs (ASCAP) & Joe Hill Music (ASCAP)

Old Coat
words & music by John McCutcheon

I got this old coat with the collar torn
Sewed a patch where the elbow's worn
The years have bleached its black to gray
Still I wear it working most everyday
It knows my shape and it knows my skin
Keeps winter out while it keeps me in
I got it back in '61
When it was new and I was young

Where this grease spot came from I can't recall
That rip came from the fence last fall
The arm stained when I birthed a calf
And that's roof paint on the lower half
I've scrubbed and washed it many's the day
But some things just won't ever go away
It's gotten where I just believe
I'll wear my hist'ry on my sleeve

You know, the children all tease me that I should
And Loretta wonders if I would
Get another from that magazine
Exchange the comfortable for clean
But I'm not interested anymore
In those new ones they've got down at the store
They're stiff, they scratch, and they cost a lot
They ain't half as good as this one I've got

Loretta, it's just like these lives we've made
The lived in ones look old and frayed
Though change and youth is all the rage
Just give me constancy and age
For when this world is filled with fright
And I reach out for you in the night
You know my shape and you know my skin
You take my hand and you take me in

I got this old coat with the collar torn
Loretta sewed a patch where the elbow's worn
I got it back in '61
When it was new and I was young

©1994 John McCutcheon/Appalsongs (ASCAP)

Same Small Town
words & music by John McCutcheon

We got 3 funeral homes and 17 churches,
The football title back in '73
We got a lumber yard, a barbershop, a Domino's Pizza
We got 2 traffic lights, we got cable TV
We got a radio station plays country music
Got a tractor dealership that ain't been doing too well
We got a bank, we got a swimming pool, we got beer on Sundays
That's when my Grandma said it all went to hell

Chorus:

It's just the same small town
I knew when I was just a kid
It's the same go 'round
You learned to do like your Daddy did:
You get born, get schooled, get yourself right,
Work out your week on a Saturday night
It ain't no let down, it's just the same small town

Down at the courthouse there's fast times a-coming
But down at the hardware the day's still slow
There's talk about a mall, a fact'ry in the valley
You heard the same damn talk about 30 years ago Chorus (Still it's...)

Bridge:

Out at the railroad bridge I can hear the whistle
Of the 8:09 as she rolls on through
And every young kid's dream of every other town down the line's
Sung to the same, sad note that old freight blew

Now there's a two-lane highway that leads to the city
It's a one-way ticket on a dead-end track
You get work, get paid, get rich, you got it made
Try to get it out of your system but you don't ever get back Chorus (to the...)

©1994 John McCutcheon/Appalsongs (ASCAP)

Happened to Me
words & music by John McCutcheon & Si Kahn

You know, I come from people that never have amounted to much
The kind of folks that people said, "They got the dog turd touch"
The well went dry, the crops all failed
Everyone that I'm related to is locked away in jail
Won't somebody tell me how could this have happened to me

I never went to college, I barely even went to school
The teachers all said, "That boy is just a natural-born fool
"He'll never finish high school, he'll never hold a job
"The army won't take him, he'll just have to steal and rob!"
Won't somebody tell me how could this have happened to me

I never had no money, never had a date
The kind of kid the cops just loved to hate
Never had a car, never had a cause
Never had a dream beyond exactly where I was

Well, I smoked and I partied and I drank and snorted everything in sight
I was the last to get the message and the first one into every fight
I ran off my dog, I lost my very best friend
I was the best damn loser that there ever has been
Won't somebody tell me how could this have happened to me

But something had to happen, something had to take
Something had to give, something had to break
I knew that it was coming, guess I knew it from the start
But before I met her I never knew it has my heart

Now I walk this house locking up at night just shaking my head
Turning out the lights and tucking all the kids in bed
I got a job and house and a pretty wife
I got three little children and a wonderful life
Won't somebody tell me how could this have happened to me

I don't know how it happened, don't know what she did
Shaking all those devils that I'd known since I's a kid
But each night in the darkness I get down on my knees
And thank whoever's out there and begging them please
Help me keep my feet planted on this higher ground
Help me keep a'hold on this little peace I found
Help me keep together so this thing we got will last
Thank you for my future...and a hell of a past

©1994 John McCutcheon/Appalsongs & Joe Hill Music (ASCAP)

She
words & music by John McCutcheon

The supper's long been finished
Kid's are tucked in for the night
Husband's sleeping on the front room floor
In the TV's eerie light
Outside the dogs are singing out
A long and lonesome tune
She turns her back and turns the knob
To walk beneath the moon

She can her father calling
She hears her mother sing
Her sister and her brothers playing
Rosie in the Ring
And Sundays at the church house
Dinner on the grounds
And the road that headed south and onto
More exciting towns

Chorus:

And she's always listening
She's always fair
She's always strong
And she's always there
In the middle of the night
In the middle of her life
She's the perfect mother
She's the perfect wife

And she fishes out a cigarette
Though she hates it when she does
And she hates what she' s becoming
'Cause it's nothing like she was
No, it's nothing like that young girl
With the laughing, wild spark
Feeling fat and ugly
And lonely in the dark

And that night down on the boardwalk
The breathing and the lips
The young and clumsy bodies
And his trembling fingertips
Now that knight in shining armor
Sleeping, battle-scarred with rust,
Still rages at his dragons
As your dreams fall into dust

Chorus

Standing at the highway
She can just make out the light
Of the city in the distance
Like a beacon in the night
And it beckons like the future
And it shines just like the past
Till, one by one, the lights go out
And it's dark and still and last

And all that she imagines
Everything that she recalls
Come crashing in to haunt her
Till there's nothing there at all
She hears the baby crying
And she thinks she hears the phone
She snubs her cigarette out, pops a mint
And heads on back to home

Chorus

©1994 John McCutcheon/Appalsongs (ASCAP)

We Shall Rise
words & music by John McCutcheon

I have been a long time traveling
Throughout this mighty land
With my pack upon my back
And this guitar in my hand
There are people, things, and places
I haven't ventured yet
For everything that I remember
There's a dozen more that I forget

I have seen my share of trouble
But one thing I've learned is true
That the times are like the people
And it's the good ones see me through
And there is a light that guides me
When they both turn hard and mean
By the flame of that small candle, now
Let me tell you what I've seen

I have seen the men and the women
That make this old world turn
Seen their pride and seen their passion
Felt the fire that makes them burn
I've watched them struggle with their demons
Seen angels fill their eyes
Seen their face as they discover
We shall rise

Chorus

We shall rise, we shall rise
From the shadows, from the silence
We will stand and recognize
All the ones who've gone before us
The promise of the prize
Ever spoken, never broken
We shall rise

I have seen the sweat of the farmer
Wrestle supper from the soil
Felt the muscle of the miner
In their cool, dark day of toil
In the office, the home and the factory
Still I hear to my surprise
Midst the trouble and the triumph
"We shall rise!"

Chorus

I have heard the hounds of history
Ever baying at my door
Heard the cries and the curses
As the dead shout evermore
And I have heard the quiet voice of truth
Midst the thunder of the lies
It's not a threat, it is a promise
We shall rise

Chorus

It will rattle the foundations
It will stop the hands of time
It will part the mighty oceans
It will wear the rainbow sign
It will be heard by even silent ears
And seen by blinded eyes
It will happen without warning
We shall rise

And the chains will all be broken
The locks will all fall free
And the doors will swing wide open
For the whole, wide world to see
And the powerful will understand
As the scales fall from their eyes:
It is not given, it is taken
We shall rise

Chorus

Coda

And when we finally stand in judgment
Before our children's eyes
Not a soul will be forgotten
We shall rise

©1994 John McCutcheon/Appalsongs (ASCAP).

Half a World Away
words & music by John McCutcheon

The river, like some silver finger, tumbles to the sea
The pines that pierce the far horizon seem to beckon me
They draw me to another town, another brand new day
They draw me to my dreams of home, a half a world away

I think back on the days before our love grew rifts and cracks
And, in the heat of pride's confusion, we turned our hearts and backs
Lying in the still of night without a word to say
Two hearts beating side by side, a half a world away

I've seen you in a thousand glances, heard a hundred lies
I've walked the wire proudly wearing bravery's disguise
But alone upon my knees tonight for constancy I pray
I reach out in the dark for you, a half a world away

A full moon mounts a crystal sky as I cross another border
Informed, inspected, stamped, exchanged, my life in perfect order
For I've mapped my course and now I know my heart is home to stay
I'll hold you in my arms tonight, a half a world away

©1994 John McCutcheon/Appalsongs (ASCAP)