John McCutcheon & Si Kahn
Signs of the Times

This album is the first collaborative work by two of America's premier topical songwriters, John McCutcheon and Si Kahn. These two old friends offer insights on family and politics with an amazing breadth of humor and pathos. The original 1986 issue of this album is where modern folksong classics like McCutcheon's "No Mas!" and Kahn's "Government On Horseback" first saw the recorded light of day. On the 1994 CD reissue, each writer has contributed two new cuts, updating and maintaining the topical spirit of the original.

Personnel Si Kahn, vocal, guitar / John McCutcheon, vocal, banjo, fiddles, guitar, hammer dulcimer / Cathy Fink, vocal, banjo / Pete Kennedy, mandolin / Brian Smith, bass / Flawn, vocal / Michael Monagan, bass / Tom Jones, drums / Howard Levy, piano, harmonica

Formats

Compact Disk: Rounder CD:011661401723 Cassette: Rounder CS:011661401747

Produced by John McCutcheon
Year Released: 1986

Lyrics

Long Time Traveling/Long Time Friends
Traditional, arr. John McCutcheon/Appalsongs, ASCAP
Words and music to Long Time Friends by Si Kahn

The first song here is a traditional song from the singing of the late Frank Proffitt, of Reese, North Carolina.

Long Time Traveling
Been a long time traveling here below
Been a long time traveling away from my home
Been a long time traveling here below
Gonna lay this body down

When I can read my title clear
To mansions in the sky
I'll bid farewell to every fear
And wipe my weeping eye

Long Time Friends
Now, John, it's almost fifteen years
Since you and I've been friends
And here in the middle of nowhere
Our paths have crossed again
It's five in the morning and we should be sleeping
Never meant to greet the dawn
But won't you play me one more tune
Before you travel on

Take out your banjo, set it on your knee
Sing me the songs that you've saved for me
Tell me about Willie, is he almost two?
Lord, it's all like yesterday
Seems our music never ends
Been a long time traveling, a long time friends
May we always meet to sing again
Till the last note fades away

Listening back across the years
Such memories we share
Music crowds the dance floor
And coal dust fills the air
I stand playing my daddy's fiddle
While you call the dancers round
You sing your heart through a mountain hymn
While we lower a good friend down

Now the memories of those years
Are dust from the dancers' shoes
That drifts across the valleys
Of the lives we learn to choose
The harmony is closer now
Than in those years long gone
And even when the dancing stops
Our music still goes on

© 1984 Joe Hill Music (ASCAP)

Government on Horseback
Words and music by Si Kahn

The President stepped off the silver screen
He said, People put your lives here in my hands
We can turn our country's honor white again
Let the sulfur smoke of progress fill our land

'Cause we've got government on horseback again
Back to the days when Congressmen were men
We can make it on our own
Running on testosterone
It's government on horseback again

Help me give our land a golden goose
Turn our native corporations loose
High voltage lines will go the extra mile
Now it's power to the people, nuclear style

Blow out the lamp beside the golden door
We don't need cheap foreign labor any more
Without our unions and the E.R.A.
We will all have twice the jobs at half the pay

Back again, back again
We've got government on horseback again
It's back to home for mommies
Bomb the hell out of the commies
It's government on horseback again

© 1984 Joe Hill Music (ASCAP)

One Thin Swimsuit
words and music by John McCutcheon

For just as long as I remember
Every year about September
Americans from sea to sea
Watch the pageant on TV
Like livestock at the county fairs
We feed on them with hungry stares
Until, at last, the one we've found
To wear our fantasies and crown

But now, at last, the card's been played
Our hand's been called, the piper paid
A woman's bought and sold once more
And on display down at the store
We shake our heads and curse those crooks
But stand in line to buy a look
Just one thin swimsuit stands between
The porno star and the beauty queen

Flesh merchants run the magazines
The shops, the books, the movie screens
The beauty pageants, and, God knows,
The ads, commercials, TV shows
Pornographers of every guise
The bad one sells but the worst one buys
Just one thin swimsuit stands between
The porno star and the beauty queen

© 1984 John McCutcheon /Appalsongs (ASCAP)

Welcome to the World
© 1984 by Joe Hill Music (ASCAP)

Willie's Waltz
music by John McCutcheon

About a month before my oldest son, Willie, was born, I got a call from Si announcing that he was playing that Saturday night nearby over at the Carter Family Fold and that I was drafted to be his fiddler. Being as we were about 8 1/2 months pregnant over at our house I tried to beg off, but, on my wife, Parthy's insistence, we drove over the mountain for the concert that evening. Well, they had the sound cranked up just a little too high for the first number and Willie, sitting in the front row on the inside of his mother's lap, got the loudest shot of his father's fiddling he'd ever gotten. He immediately started to dance...and didn't stop for the next two hours. Si loved it.

A week or so after Willie's birth he got his first piece of mail. It was from Si: a wonderful little box. Inside the box was a cassette tape with a red bow on it and inside the tape was "Welcome to the World."

"Willie's Waltz" was a Christmas gift for Willie's first holiday season, 1982.

Pick me out an old time song
Sing it right and sing it wrong
Play a tune that's nine months long
Welcome to the World
Take my fiddle and my bow
Play you every tune I know
Keep you dancing while you grow
Welcome to the World

We've got diapers by the pail
Parthy's skinny as a rail
Got the whole world by the tail
Welcome to the World
Listen to that baby squall
John, he's nearly ten feet tall
Lord, you'd think he'd done it all
Welcome to the World

In my mind I see you clear
Changing through he days and years
Lord, we're glad you're finally here
Welcome to the World
May you grow up proud and strong
May your life be rich and long
May your nights be filled with song
Welcome to the World

By the Side of the Road
words and music by Si Kahn

He came riding in his carriage
Horses stepping high
I'd never seen such horses in my life
He took me out a-riding
Said he'd take me for his wife
And we stopped in the heat of the day
By the side of the road

By the side of the road
All things are hidden
By the side of the road
Who knows what lies
Where the briars and brambles grow
Where the dark swamp waters flow
Only God knows what goes on
By the side of the road

I was standing at my window
As he slowly rode away
I'd sent him off to town to buy a plow
And I watched a tall dark woman
I can see her even now
Slip off through the fields
To the side of the road

But the finest horse can stumble
When a gun goes off nearby
And tumble with its rider to the ground
I stood there at my window
'Til we knew that he'd been found
Lying in the dust
By the side of the road

© 1993 Joe Hill Music (ASCAP)

Let's Keep It Straight
words and music by John McCutcheon

With the election of Bill Clinton I lamented the end of 12 solid years of great raw material. Little did I know how rich the motherlode of foolishness was...

I left home for boot camp the day I turned eighteen
It was ten weeks of hell, but I made a Marine
Stationed at Cherry Point when the call came to war
I was eager to go it's what I was trained for
So I shipped out to Dubai with the Hundred and First
And, though we never saw action, we knew ten times worse
In bone-chilling danger we lived every day
We found one of the guys in our unit was gay

Chorus A

Let's keep it straight when you carry a gun
It's not what you do, boys, it's just who you've done
The fate of our nation, it's power and might
Depend on who soldiers might sleep with at night

On patrol in the jungle, my buddies and I
Came upon, to our horror, the village, Mi Lai
Midst the dead and the dying we heard one old man say
"They came and they killed, but, thank God, they weren't gay!"

Chorus A

Bridge:

We work in your office, we teach in your schools
We pray in your churches, we live by the rules
We win your elections, we die in your wars
Who we choose to love is no business of yours

All alone on the street in the quickening night
Miles from home as my heart fills with fright
No place for a woman to be out this way
There's a man in the shadows, God, I hope that he's gay!

Chorus B:

Our leaders and generals all carry on,
"We need separate showers and barracks and johns"
Men frightened of men, I just laugh through my tears
To think it's what women have gone through for years

Chorus A

Tag:

I guess I misunderstood when I saw on TV,
"Join Today's Army, be all you can be"

©1993 John McCutcheon/Appalsongs (ASCAP).

One Strong Arm
words and music by John McCutcheon
for Uncle Larry

In thinking about those that we bring into the world, our thoughts invariably turn to those that brought us here. Few people loom larger in my memory than my mother's brother, my uncle Stubby. I spent many childhood summers at the family homeplace...lazy afternoons fishing in the river, the unforgettable smell of new-made shoes at the family store. All the while my Uncle Stubby, bachelor-nurse to my aging grandparents after hours, showing us how to throw curve balls and grow champion roses.

I was sixteen or seventeen, I guess, when I finally figured out that the reason everyone called him "Stubby" was that he was born with one arm. Angry and embarrassed, I announced to him that night that I couldn't call him "Stubby" any longer. He told me that night about growing up as the "handicapped person" in that small predominantly Polish community...and how the only thing he was never able to do was enter the Catholic priesthood.

This song is for him.

One humble shoemaker from a small Polish town
One of twelve German children, his life seemed so small
One heart rent with sorrow as the Church closed its door
"A priest needs two arms to embrace all the poor"
One last child at home now, he watched them all go
Nursing mother and father as their health stumbled so
Quiet voice in the parlor reading Grandma the news
Giving sight to her darkness I saw visions, too

One strong arm to hold you
One firm hand to shake
One clear voice to guide you
One good heart to break

As a child I remember his back bent with toil
Over sick beds, shoe forms, children, and soil
Tending roses and loved ones, the family business at hand
Tending one nephew longing to be such a man

One strong arm to hold you
One firm hand to shake
One clear voice to guide you
One young life to shape

One form in the screen door, his eyes dancing with glee
With a single red rose that he's cut just for me
My son sees his first birthday as I reach for the phone
Takes his first stumbling steps as his uncle's called home

One strong arm to hold you
One firm hand to grasp
One clear voice to guide you
One good life to last

One humble shoemaker from a small Polish town
We are all lifted up as we lower him down

© 1984 by John McCutcheon /Appalsongs (ASCAP)

Signs of the Times
Words and music by Si Kahn,
with third verse by John McCutcheon

Yesterday morning I woke up quite early
Drawn tight through my dreams like a fish on the line
Through the wide open window I could see them quite clearly
Coming over the mountains, the Signs of the Times

Do you remember the dancing days, darling
When hope was a nickel and dreams were a dime
Now they're slipping like sand through the hands of the dancer
The fiddler's last tune is the Signs of the Times

By the grates of the city the old men are sleeping
Their shopping cart dreams filled with roses and wine
They can smell trouble coming for a mile and a quarter
The cop on the corner, the Signs of the Times

The hands on the table, the hands on the plow
The hands joined together, now reaching for mine
The hand on the button, the hands making music
The ones speaking silently, Signs of the Times

Come all of you sleepers so restlessly dreaming
Looking for things that you don't want to find
The answers are there if you ask the right questions
Just pay close attention to the Signs of the Times

© 1984 Joe Hill Music (ASCAP)

No Mas!
words and music by John McCutcheon

It's snowing in the valley, ice chokes the river's mouth
But the air is still and silent in the mountains to the south
Here the fire in the cookstove drives the winter's chill away
While the silent, southern sentries pass the watchful hours till day
And from the mountains of Virginia to the hills of Salvador
The mother and the fathers send their children off to war
The hand that drove the plow is on the trigger in the night
Killing other sons and daughters, fighting someone else's fight

"No mas! No more!" shout the hills of Salvador
Echo the mountains of Virginia we cry out "No mas! No more!"
"No mas! No more!" shout the hills of Salvador
Compañeros, compañeras, we cry out, "No mas! No more!"

As the government of Poland once turned to Moscow for her schemes
So the junta looks to Washington to crush her people's dreams
With the white hand of the death squads and the rumble of the tanks
Keeps the coffee on our tables and the money in our banks

No swords shall turn to plowshares till the land is theirs to plow
Till the name is on the ballot that rots in the prison now
And the weapons of their victory shall be schools and food and jobs
And the song from every mountain top is "Paz y Libertad!"

Tag:
Pretoria, Santiago, Beirut, San Salvador
Our silence buys the battles, let us cry, "No mas! No more!"

© 1984 John McCutcheon/Appalsongs (ASCAP)

The Senator
words and music by Si Kahn

I was born in North Carolina
A state where men are men
Most folks call me Senator
But you can call me friend
I've served this state for many years
Ask anyone what I've done
And I supported "right-to-life"
In 1981

I got up next morning
To have some time to think
My stomach felt real queasy
Like I'd had too much to drink
My chest felt kind of funny
It was tender to the touch
There sure was something different
But I never guessed how much

The mornings got just awful
And I'd get to work real late
The Senators would laugh and say
Hey, ain't you put on weight
My feet got sore and swollen
My pants all fit too tight
And I swear that something kicked me
When I lay down at night

So I went to see the doctor
I was feeling old and tired
He poked me up and down
And then he looked me long and hard
He said, Well, we've got a problem
Just speaking among us men
I'm going to make you an appointment
With an O-B-G-Y-N

Well, I didn't get excited
No I didn't scream or shout
I said, Doc, you make arrangements
And we'll straighten this thing out
I'm just too old and ugly
To be some child's Pa or Ma
He said, I'd sure like to help you
But you know the law's the law

I begged him and I pleaded
And I fell down on my knees
I said, Doc, this here's my body
Can't I treat it like I please?
He said, I'd sure like to help you
'Cause you sure are in a fix
But you know that vote comes 'round again
In 1986

© 1984 Joe Hill Music (ASCAP)

Music in Your Hands
words and music by John McCutcheon

Though my friend and frequent partner, Susan Freundlich, was the particular recipient of this song, it is, in fact, for all those men and women who help all of us, hearing and deaf, enjoy music and many other cultural activities together.

Where would I be, if not for you?
I know I wouldn't be here today
I'd be out at a movie, or off in some bar
But now I've seen what you have to say
And you've opened my eyes and you opened my heart
And I want you to understand
That you're speaking my language though it's never been heard
My heart feels the music, my eyes see the word
And my soul is aflight, like a flutter of birds
And my music is in your hands

Where would I be, if not for you?
To some a mime with a violin
But since your fingers have spoken, the walls have been broken
And there's music where none had been
You know, I'm proud to be sharing this stage with you
And from up here where we all stand
My words have been taken where they've never been known
My song has journeyed where it never had flown
My seed has been planted where none had been sown
And my music is in your hands

Where would we be if not for you?
Still divided by lies and fear
But we've seen it this time since you gave us the sign
That the future is coming clear
When these bodies we live in and love in and lose
And that harbor our dreams and plans
Will not be divided by part and by whole
But used, every cell, till it's time that we go
And when we have traveled the high and the low
And before we're departed, the body from soul
We want to tell you once more 'cause it's important you know
That our music is in your hands

Where would we be, if not for you?

© 1984 John McCutcheon /Appalsongs (ASCAP)

Lament
words and music by John McCutcheon

This song is based on all-too-many very true stories.

I'm so glad you came to see me and you brought the baby too
God, it gets so lonesome in this place, there's nothing here to do
Yes, I know I've caused you trouble and I know I've brought you pain
But if I could roll back time, you know, I'd do it all again

Tom and I we met in high school, yes it was love at first sight
He was, oh, so kind and gentle and our young love seemed so right
At 16 I was a mother, 17 became a wife
Tom found some work , we bought a trailer, settled to a happy life

In '69 there came a letter, such a shock brought by the mail
We both understood its meaning: go to war or go to jail
Tom he said, "I ain't no killer, but I love my country, Nan,
"I've got to prove it to myself and to my family I'm a man!"

Lord, we loved all night the day before he left for Vietnam
Everyday there was a letter from my brave, young soldier Tom
Filled with dreams about our future: a big yard, a house and such
Oh, I know the war would change him, but I never guessed how much

Those two years seemed an eternity till Tom came home from war
There was something hard about him that I'd never seen before
And he never once spoke to me all about the things he'd seen
Through at night he'd wake up screaming from some ugly, constant dream

And he never seemed to notice the new things the baby did
And when he'd cry out, Tom would yell, "Come here and take care of this kid!"
Well, he took to drinking heavy and staying out for days
And when I'd ask he'd say "I just need time to settle into ways."

One year passed, we sold the trailer, 'cause no job my Tom could find
We just roamed from town to town in search of work of any kind
I took a part-time job at waitressing and found some homes to clean
Though I had no skills, I paid the bills, but Tom was getting mean

For the nightmares grew more frequent and the sober times were few
And it's when he took to hitting me, I didn't know what to do
I was living with some stranger, an angry broken man
It seemed the gentle boy I'd known and lover had died in Vietnam

And it's two more years he searched in vain for work at any pay
And I never will forget the look he gave me on that day
"This is all your fault!" he screamed and then he lashed out one more time
But it's when he struck the baby, that's when I drew the line

Oh, how he beat upon the bedroom door that I had locked so tight
Little Tommy in the corner was trembling in fright
For though he'd grown up with my beatings, a house in a state of war
Neither one of us had every seen our Tom this way before

The door it splintered open and he started in on me
First he struck me and the blood it filled my eyes, I could not see
He threw me back upon the pillows and my hand fell on his gun
I fired out into my darkness and the awful deed was done

Oh, they took my baby from me and they took me to the jail
There the word I heard was murder, and no one to go my bail
Till some women came to see me, they told me I was not alone
They warned me that the court's abuse would match what I had known back home

Sometimes at night I dream of loving with my young and gentle Tom
Long before he brought the war back home with him from Vietnam
And the hard luck and the liquor cut our young lives to the bone
And we knew that something bigger than ourselves brought down our home

I guess some things are best forgotten, but I never can forget
And some things best left unspoken, but I ain't done talking yet
For, unless you open up your eyes, your arms, your hearts, your ears
I guarantee that you'll be hearing more sad tales like mine for years

© 1984 John McCutcheon /Appalsongs (ASCAP)

Featherbed
words and music by John McCutcheon

A love song, originally written for the wedding of my friends, Malcolm Dalglish and Judy Klein.

If I were a featherbed in your house so fine
I'd hold you in my arms each night, keep you warm in the wintertime

If I were an old banjo, felt your fingers on my strings
I'd play the sweetest little song that a banjo e'er did sing

If I were a drop of rain that trickled down you chin
I'd run right up and kiss your lips and kiss them twice again

If I were a breath of wind on your cheeks as you walked by
I'd pick you up upon my back and teach you how to fly

If I were a hair ribbon and my color it was blue
I'd be ten times as beautiful, cause I'd be wearing you

And if I were a big wool rug sitting in your front hall
I'd tickle your feet and make you laugh if you stepped on me at all

If I were a featherbed... (whole verse repeated)

© 1984 John McCutcheon /Appalsongs (ASCAP)

Friend and Companion
words and music by Si Kahn

for Elizabeth Kamarck Minnich

I knew you were different
Right from the start
There was something about you
That captured my heart
I still remember
How quickly it happened
You are my lover
My friend and companion

Friend and companion
Lover and friend
Over and over
And over again
Who could imagine
That women and men
Could be such companions
Lovers and friends

We were so young then
Who could have known
We'd meet again
After wandering alone
All of those years
Who could have imagined
A lover could be
Such a friend and companion

Now we are older
Together at last
Freed from the demons
That haunted our past
Long as I live
I know I'll be standing
Right here beside you
My friend and companion

© 1993 Joe Hill Music (ASCAP)

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise
words and music by John McCutcheon and Tom Paxton

Tom and I were on tour in England and Wales during the fall of 1991...the wake of the Gulf War and the beginning of the 1992 presidential campaign when we felt compelled to jump into the fray with this song...

The candidate stood with his hand on his heart
Let me make one thing perfectly clear from the start
There'll be changes coming, so long overdue
Here is the promise I am making to you:
That if to the White House I'm finally sent
I'll take the lead for the environment
Now he's a friend to the trees and the seas and the soil
Though he made his first million a-drillion for oil

Chorus:

Surprise, surprise, surprise
I just couldn't believe my eyes
I could hardly believe my ears
I never would have dreamt it in years
With our votes and our money we trusted these guys
Believed in their vision, their passionate cries
And now we suspect they've been telling us lies
Well, surprise, surprise, surprise!

The Congress convenes to have at it again
To slash all the programs that don't affect them
Cut food stamps and welfare, "We'll weed out those cheats"
"It's time decent folks can go walking the streets
"There ain't no free lunch!" they will sternly espouse
Unless you're employed in the Senate or House
Now it seems they've discovered some mysterious powers
'Cause they're bouncing their own checks like they've always bounced ours

Their brand new world order they sing to the skies
But to the same old world questions it's the same old replies
All the lessons so hard won so quickly forgot
The bombs may be smart, but the leaders are not
So they rallied the forces and jumped in the fight
Forget Vietnam, this time do the thing right
First came the battle and then came the calm
Now with stuff that we sold him he's building a bomb

last half of third chorus:
It's an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth
While the censors and CNN ration the truth
Now we all know they were telling us lies
Well, surprise, surprise, surprise!

The seasons keep turning, the years roll away
Now a new crop of sweet talkers show up to say
This time it's different, this time we're real
We wouldn't kid you, we know how you feel
Who's Bill Clinton sleeping with, what's the big fuss?
It's the same thing that Ronnie and George did to us
We dig down deep for each dollar and dime
And they count on us trusting them just one more time Chorus

last half of last chorus:
And just when you think you've seen everything once
They're right back again with a new batch of stunts
Trying to pull the wool over our eyes
Surprise, surprise, surprise!

©1991 John McCutcheon/Appalsongs (ASCAP) and Tom Paxton/Pax Music (ASCAP)

Here Is My Home
words and music by Si Kahn

Good friends from whom we now must part
Where are we bound
Your hands and voices lift my heart
Here is my home

Come darkness, come light
Where are we bound
Come morning, come night
Here is my home

For those who work in harmony
Where are we bound
Can learn to live in unity
Here is my home

If we can join ourselves in song
Where are we bound
Our hearts will live when we are gone
Here is my home

The spirit that finds music here
Where are we bound
Will sing forever in the air
Here is my home

© 1984 Joe Hill Music (ASCAP)