Album Notes

Political, emotional, spiritual, edgy, hopeful, spirited, inspired, mystical, thought-provoking, a living contradiction, Americana, consisting of styles using shades of country/rock/folk/blues and gospel.

The Mystic Cowboys is an eclectic group of various artists spanning a couple of decades and always led by the tunesmith, Dan Johnson. If you like most of what's playing endlessly on the current radio charts, you'll probably hate this original stuff.

Following are the lyrics for this CD:

***Too Damn Slow
There’s some young boys running around this town in a pickup truck
Nobody seems to know where they come from
You can hear it backfiring down on Main Street
Sounds like a double-barrel shotgun

Downtown Mary Sue says they’re chasing her daughters
It looks to me like her daughters are chasing them
The girls went and got their bedroom mattresses
They heard them boys were headed for Enemy Swim

Preacher John says they look outlaws
But then what the hell does Preacher John really know
When you’re young there’s only one speed
And if it ain’t wide open it’s too damn slow

That old pickup don’t even look very suspicious
Sure they took notice Mary Sue’s daughters
With the skirts hiked high on those cream thighs
Don’t you think that they oughta

Preacher John says they look outlaws
But then what the hell does Preacher John really know
When you’re young there’s only one speed
And if it ain’t wide open it’s too damn slow

Wide open is too damn slow
Wide open two days low
Too damn slow

***Chances are You’re a Cowboy
If you've taken a bad ride in Cheyenne or damn near drown at Fort Pierre
If you’ve lost your mind to Nashville on sad music and beer
If you’ve laughed about old broken bones and compared nasty scars
While the world is on a health kick you’ve got whiskey, chew and cigars
You’re a cowboy so keep on riding
Hide from the lawman what needs hiding
If you let a northern woman drive you south
Or you let a bad horse put gold in your mouth
Chances are you’re a cowboy

If you dream about Alaska and a cabin way up in the hills
If you’ve toasted a Texas buddy who succumbed to whiskey and pills
If you’ve wrapped your arms around an angel while forsaking the woman in your heart
If you need to make a good stand but can’t find the right place to start
You’re a cowboy so keep on riding
Hide from the lawman what needs hiding
If you let a northern woman drive you south
Or you let a bad horse put gold in your mouth
Chances are you’re a cowboy so keep on riding
Hide from the lawman what needs hiding
If you let a northern woman drive you south
Or you let a bad horse put gold in your mouth
Chances are you’re a cowboy

***The Eagle Song
I’ll find a morning patch of clear blue mountain sky
Where I’ll study the eagles sowing all my dreams of flight
And I’ll fly across the prairie to this place that I’ll leave behind
And I’ll be flying with an eagle easy state of mind

I’ll take you with me if you like to travel in your sleep
Good dreams need companions with joint destinations to reach
Hold me all through the night and see if we can find
How to fly with an eagle easy state of mind

As we share this one bed and dream of the future and the past
Let’s join in body and soul cause new destinations are vast
The feather in this hat belonged to an eagle once before
I found it one night as I picked myself up off the floor
Now I don’t fly that low I have left that life behind
I’ve been flying with an eagle easy state of mind
I’m flying yes I’m flying c’mon I’m flying with an eagle easy state of mind

***Starlight Shines in Your Eyes
Starlight shines a million miles and ends up in her eyes
Just a tiny sparkle in the tears that she cries
Wind blows back her hair tears run down her cheeks
Lord I’d say sweet things if I had the strength to speak

Starlight shines forever fills up the empty skies
But I saw it for the first time the last time that I looked into her eyes

She turns and walks away so I won’t see her tears
She whispers something softly that doesn’t reach my ears
I call out her name it echoes down the street
The only lonely sounds were the rhythm of her feet

Starlight shines forever fills up the empty skies
But I saw it for the first time the last time that I looked into her eyes
Starlight shines a million miles and ends up in her eyes
Just a tiny sparkle in the tears that she cries

***13 Thousand Beers
If the eyes are windows to the soul then yours are stained glass
Light diffused by color, an ornamental sunshine glass
They’re pretty but they hide all the sins left untold
With the worth of quartzite and the sparkle of gold

Some things you see coming some only in hindsight
If the rabbit runs faster the dog don’t get a bite
I still can’t comprehend the goodbye ringing in my ears
It makes me thirsty for 13 thousand beers

I think of your eyes while I plunder my soul
I know you’ll be together while I’m out of control
I had a pocket full of nothing enchanted by the show
Now at 13 thousand beers I’ll just say no

Some things you see coming some only in hindsight
If the rabbit runs faster the dog don’t get a bite
I still can’t comprehend the goodbye ringing in my ears
This song makes me thirsty for 13 thousand beers

I want a little pain so I’ll open them all with my teeth

***View from the Stage
There’s sawdust on the floor this is a better gig to play
But a banker owns the joint we have to beg for our pay
We’ve been to Nashville and we can drop a couple names
But we can’t drop our day jobs so pay our weekend games

The view from the stage may never change
Might always be someone trying to arrange
Secret rendezvous they should avoid
While they’re still trying fill a lonesome void
Hell I know that I should act my age
But I can’t get over this view from the stage

Got a family loving woman just as soon that I’d stay home
But I’m a cowboy gypsy poet with a destiny to roam
If you catch me on a bad night I appear near the end of my rope
But when I’m riding tall I’ve got my songs to give me faith and hope

The view from the stage may never change
Might always be someone trying to arrange
Secret rendezvous they should avoid
While they’re still trying fill a lonesome void
Hell I know that I should act my age
But I can’t get over this view from the stage

Well it’s last call now and this ain’t no motel
We sang all of our songs they sold all they could sell
But the view from the stage is still the same
I hear what you’re saying but I don’t recall your name
I had it right here on the tip of my mind
But then I forgot what I’d been trying to find
Hell I know that I should act my age
But I can’t get over this view from the stage
Hell I know that I should act my act
But I can’t get over this view from the stage

***Good Luck is Ridin’ on the Wind
Storm came blowing in this morning
Dark clouds trouble every mile
I caught you crying in the kitchen
A collector on the phone was so unkind
It’s a shame it’s all about money
Close your eyes on all your fears
Trust in my determination
Let music fall upon your ears

Rough waters will smooth out
Great ships will sail on in
Of these things I have no doubt
Good luck is ridin’ on the wind

I saw the lights of Heaven
Flash the lightening of that storm
Thunder brought us together
It’s one of the Lord’s many forms

Like the angels in the alleys
That look like beggars to most eyes
We must walk as children
Underneath the Lord’s watchful skies

Rough waters will smooth out
Great ships will sail on in
Of these things I have no doubt
Good luck is ridin’ on the wind

Rough waters will smooth out
Great ships will sail on in
Of these things I have no doubt
Good luck is ridin’ on the wind
Yeah good luck is ridin’ on the wind
Said good luck rides on the wind
Good luck is ridin’ on the wind

***The Funny Farm
Sad man misses his lady with a certain fascination for the stars
Has been catching all the fireflies and putting them in gallon pickle jars
He cares for them kindly some night he’ll let them fly
If a certain young lady would only pass by

I don’t think he’s all that crazy he’d never cause you any harm
Most of the animals are tame here out here on the funny farm
A good old boy attorney walks with a slight limp
Got an old girl’s name tattooed on his arm
He said sometimes you need help to remember
When you come off the funny farm

A couple of women have left me standing
Third time out has been a charm
So most times I don’t remember
My stay out on the funny farm
So all you late night cats and couch puppies
Try to keep the fox out of the barn
He’s been known to romance all the chickens
And drive you to the funny farm

***Not Good With Secrets
I’m not good with secrets so please don’t tell me yours
There’s skeletons in every closet so please don’t open up the doors
I’ve done things that might shock you but I’m not trying to be unkind
But I’m not good with secrets so you cannot be one of mine

I’m not good with secrets they always hide from the truth
They frequently deal with indiscretions of youth
You’re young beautiful and innocent, I’m older and jaded from my time
And I’m not good with secrets so you cannot be one of mine

You probably feel like she used to in my arms
You’ll probably take me back in time
But I’m not good with secrets so you cannot be one of mine

***The Outlaw Creed
When the sun comes up on an endless night and a woman with a vacant bed
Cause you danced with the snakes that rattle inside your head
And your search for bright clean answers comes screaming through bloodshot eyes
Take pity on the rabbit who hears the eagle cry

Then you’re ready for a lesson you should have already learned
Quit drinking firewater on the bridges that you’ve burned
Make peace with your angel she has a strength you may need
She can break you softly follow the outlaw creed

Don’t ever spite a woman unless you plan to run
The distance you must travel correlates to what you’ve done
Trust the feelings in your stomach and wash your knuckles when they bleed
Son kill your own snakes that’s the outlaw creed
That’s the outlaw creed

Go looking for the children playing in the shallow creeks
Listen to them closely when they take the time to speak
Words so sweet and simple they cut right to the quick
Take them to your angel and try to make them stick

Don’t ever spite a woman unless you plan to run
The distance you must travel correlates to what you’ve done
Trust the feelings in your stomach and wash your knuckles when they bleed
Son kill your own snakes that’s the outlaw creed
That’s the outlaw creed
Oh yeah that’s the outlaw creed

***It’s a Brand New Buffalo
Uncle Dan’s got a sauna he calls his sweat lodge
His painted pony is a rusted out old Dodge
We let some old ways pass as the wheels rolled us around
Grandpa went a little crazy when the last teepees came down
Grandma’s got a buffalo blanket across her ancient bed
It’s kept her warm all the years he’s been dead
He died along a fence line following the white man’s ways
Now he straddled that fence for the buffalo we pray

Things been tough on these Reservations now times are changing for the Indian Nations
We’ve got poker, black jack and keno
It’s a brand new buffalo

Walked through the Badlands thinking it would do some good
We saw dens of rattlers to see what we should
Our sacred hoop is in the wind of the past
But we prayed so that our faith would last

A buffalo is a part of a circle that fulfills many needs
Now gamblers come like hunters with the same lust and greed
Our worthless land has never been taken away
So walk Grandpa’s fence line praying the buffalo stay

Things been tough on these Reservations now times are changing for the Indian Nations
We’ve got poker, black jack and keno
It’s a brand new buffalo

***Second Hand Smoke
Prairie winds can drive you crazy when they blow through your town
The summer heat can make you lazy no love relief can be found
She’s on the street like a dream that’s kept you awake in the heat of the night
Acting out some juvenile scene with a man at her side in the hot sunlight

Memories on fire from flames that never expire
This irritation ain’t no joke when you’re choking on the fumes of second hand smoke
She’s back around to see if you’ll choke you need fresh air not second hand smoke

Memories on fire from flames that never expire
This irritation ain’t no joke when you’re choking on the fumes of second hand smoke

As she fades into your darkness like a ship adrift in your uncharted sea
Your love captured to this darkness of her image that won’t set you free

Memories on fire from flames that never expire
This irritation ain’t no joke when you’re choking on the fumes of second hand smoke

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