Get all 12 Andrew McKnight releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Treasures in My Chest, Live: Bound for Glory, Live from the Appalachians to Austin, Sampler Download, One Virginia Night, Something Worth Standing For, 1845, Red-Haired Boy, and 4 more.
1. |
Embarking
01:14
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Music ©2019 Catalooch Music, BMI
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2. |
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"Margaret" ©Andrew McKnight, 1906 Success Music
"Treasures in My Chest" words & music ©2019 Catalooch Music, BMI
Scent of cedar rising, as I open up the lid
childhood things and so much more, darkness kept safe hidden
and it holds my stories like a sailor’s prized possessions, while he's out to sea
Wrinkled scraps of paper, and faded photographs
my name on a manuscript, and notes upon the staff
the lines unfolding on these pages I am holding, written long ago
are the gift running through my veins, and fingers on the strings as they flow
Chorus:
From these treasures in my chest
timeless rhythm beating, steady in my breast
memories and hand me downs present from the past
countless treasures in my chest
Pieces of this puzzle, of how I came to be
family names and question marks, somehow part of me
now I'm climbing up this tree exploring, branches that I see for the first time
samaritans and saints, rogues and renegades, all come alive
Message tone awakens me, from my imagining
connections in the here and now, that music brought to me
for they've sat here at my table, raising toasts and breaking bread, and it was real
we are bound by magic twists, and proof that they existed, now revealed
I'm rich with treasures in my chest
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3. |
Web of Mystery
03:26
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Words & music ©2018 Catalooch Music, BMI
I've been trying to touch the past, I wanna know just why I am
reach back through the mists of time, so much I want to understand
You were a child once like me, full of wonder, full of pain
I know sometimes that you were scared, I know that sometimes, you were brave
Chorus:
ah ha, ah ha ha
ah ha, this is the only life I've known
In part you gave it to me
look behind or look ahead, you are woven in the thread
in my web of mystery
I'm still trying to touch the past, while the present slips away
I've gotta know how your part goes, before those pages fade to grey
You were old once like me, I wish that I could see your face
no one else knows what's passed our eyes, hurt and anger, love and grace
Someday centuries from now, like coaxing ember into flame
since I've left a verse or 2 behind, someone might still speak my name
someone might still speak my name
someone might still speak my name
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4. |
Left Behind
03:56
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Words and music ©2019 Catalooch Music, BMI
My people braved boats over angry seas, risked everything giving life to me
Left the home they’d known for a stranger’s shore, hope and hunger for once chance more
Irish blessings at American wakes, glasses raised to the hearts that break,
gathered at the door to see them go, of the rest of their lives, we'll never know
hold on tight, storms on the ocean
hold on tight, storms on the ocean, hey
break through the doors slammed in your face, with the love that remained
Chorus:
Left behind, left behind, I’ll never let go in my heart and mind
of all their prayers and desperate dreams
Left behind, left behind, forever changed once you cross that line,
the great divide that lies between, the leaving and the left behind
coyote howls in the Mayan night, a boy in the shadows slips from sight
the packet in his belly is his only chance, at someone else's promised land
put one foot down, in front of the other
one foot down, in front of the other, hey
climb the wall rising in your face, with the love that remained
A newborn face in the morning sun, another journey has just begun
for time is a river and the river flows, through a mother's love towards the letting go
don't turn back, even if you want to
can't turn back, even if you want to
the way ahead is yours to claim, with the love that remains
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5. |
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"Passage" music ©2017 Catalooch Music, BMI
"Our Meeting is Over" traditional, public domain
Fathers now our meeting is over, fathers we must part
and if I never see you any more, I'll love you in my heart
til we land on the shore, til we land upon the shore
til we land on the shore, and are safe for ever more
Mothers now...
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6. |
Aretas Culver
04:14
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Words and music 2018 ©Catalooch Music, BMI
My name is Aretas Culver, in summer of '62
I traded in my papers, for a uniform in blue
I took Abe Lincoln's bounty, and Union swore to save
what I've seen, since that day, haunts me to my grave
We were farmers, merchants, clockmakers, and I knew all their names
some escaping trouble, still others seeking fame
proud we marched down Main Street, while Bristol rang her bells
none could know our destiny, to glory or to hell
Chorus:
ohh-oh, I can't escape the dreams
ohh-oh, don't you hear their screams
ohh-oh, I will kill no more
ohh-oh, let them fight their civil war
Put on a train to Maryland, with but a single drill
to Antietam's killing fields, upon that cornstalk hill
we faced their fiercest legion, in a withering hail of lead
in terror ran while rebel yells, echoed in our heads
We dug graves for many days, watched by lifeless eyes
then rifles marching at our backs, in hands that fought at our side
Little Mac called it victory, but for failure we were blamed
and if I might survive this war, I vow to clear my name
Four nights surrounded, siege at Plymouth town
til our white rag of surrender, stopped the shells from raining down
to Andersonville through gates of hell, its deadline we had crossed
when they paroled my skin and bones, my soul had long been lost
I am Aretas Culver, my breath is fading fast
tell my wife and children, I loved them to the last
the curse I leave this world with, before the fighting's done
is those that vote to start the wars, be those that face the guns
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7. |
A Dram to the Holidays
05:15
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Words & music 2017© Catalooch Music, BMI
A flickering candle, on cold window glass, brave and small in the dark
it beams like a lighthouse, on winter shores, guide me safe home in its glow
The wee ones a'slumber, deep in their beds, tucked close in a room much too small
their dreams burn brightly, far more than they should, have reason enough to believe
Lord give them reason to believe
Chorus:
raise a dram to the holidays, long may they last
where hopes for the future dance, with ghosts of the past
hold tight to the best of what's been
we're still here at the holidays again
they come home off the water, and home from the mines, with worry lines worn in their souls
outside the revelers, filling the square, voices raise hymns up on high
proclaiming that Christmas is nigh
the longest of nights, gives way to the dawn, its radiance christens the sea
there's sweets in the oven, a log on the fire, and an angel rests high on the tree
blessed angel keep watch over me
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8. |
The Gift
04:00
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Words & music 2019 ©Catalooch Music, BMI
It sits here in my living room, on the stand with window view,
somehow the strings stretch out of sight, wrap softly round the words I write
I cannot tell you what it means, family ghosts and ancient dreams,
in moments where the veil is thin, I feel their presence beckoning
Chorus 1:
Like a king returned his family sword
Torn battle flag or coat of arms,
and gold coin in a peasant's palm,
All the things I might become,
with this gift of family
A double helix crossed the sea, part of you the same as me
the proof is singing in my hands, magic sound from distant lands
On some far-off moonlit night, long after I have passed from sight
Will it still know these songs I weave, held in hands not yet conceived
The papers on my table, the lines that fill my head
a spirit-conjured melody, mystically surrounding me
Final chorus:
Like a king returned his father's sword
Torn battle flag or coat of arms,
Gold coins in a peasant's hand,
All the things that I now am
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9. |
Sons & Fathers
03:55
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Words & music ©2019 Catalooch Music, BMI
We are all born screaming, naked and afraid,
looking back it’s funny seeing, all those plans I made
We'd throw our balls and race our bikes, sometimes dare to dream
manhood ain't as hard as, fathers make it seem
I guess it's just the way of things, we take our place in line
like our fathers and their fathers did, when it was their time
Now we're slowly trading places, I suppose those are the rules,
father time won't suffer any fools
Chorus:
all those things we cannot say
perfectly imperfect at, getting out of our own way
but we do not, we will not, could not though we know it's true
Nothing else gets quite as tangled up in knots, as sons and fathers do
Leave behind settling old scores
Gotta meet him where he’s at, on the bridge or that far shore
Now it’s my turn in that easy chair, it's the hardest thing I’ve done
Though any man can take the gig, it ain't for everyone
the have tos and the must dos, credit and the blame we earn
Hoping what we teach, is what they need to learn
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10. |
My Little Town
03:37
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Words & music ©2019 Catalooch Music, BMI
We close our road, on the 4th of July, for the kids to ride by
with streamers on their bikes, in red and blue and white, let the judges decide
bring a dish to share, and your favorite folding chair, try to stay cool,
we read the famous words, just like we've heard, since we were kids in school
in my little town
Renamed for Honest Abe, somehow it became, where I put roots down
graveyard stones, hide more than bones, in the red clay ground
these sunken gravel roads, wind back in time and slowly disappear
the last dairy farm, keeps holding on, another year
in my little town
Chorus:
When the fire breaks out, when the roof caves in
when the snow’s piled high, times are worst they've been,
or progress of the present brings the future crashing down
stand up with each other here in our little town
try not to blink and miss, our little town
The holiday lights, cold winter nights, herald angels sing
from door to door, just like the year before, firelight caroling
we pray that it lasts, cherishing our past before it's gone
where neighbors still wave, stories we still save to pass on down
in my little town
a world of change swirls around my little town
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11. |
Long Ago and Far Away
01:52
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Words & music 2019 ©Catalooch Music, BMI
When I was just a child, full of hope and dreams
of everywhere I'd go, and everything I'd see
My grandmother’s knee and stories that she’d saved,
of lives, that we’d lived, long ago and far away
In the face of my child, full of hope and dreams
of everywhere she'll go, and everything she'll see
I will keep treasures safe, and pass to her one day
twice the tales that were lived, long ago and far away
When I’ll wear, shades of gray, around my wrinkled face
a child of my child, held in my embrace
in her turn she will share, stories that she saved
When it is I, who once lived, long ago and far away
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12. |
Entrelazando
00:51
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Music 2019 ©Catalooch Music, BMI
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13. |
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Words & music 2016 ©Catalooch Music, BMI
Two thousand years ago today, a farmer walked his fields,
Wondered what the land would yield, before the winter snow
Two thousand years ago today, two young lovers kissed,
laughed and made a wish, beneath a shooting star glow
Chorus:
Someday in a far and distant future
Millennia beyond imagining
as time ticks away, what will remain
of how we lived and loved,
today
Two thousand years ago today, anger hurled a stone,
to break another's bones and keep some fool upon a throne
Two thousand years ago today, a cog in a war machine,
drew his last breath on a distant plain, as he dreamed of home
Two thousand years ago today, a mama hushed her little ones,
kissed them on the head and tucked them into bed
turned her face towards the sky, for blessings from on high
prayed to guide them safe, on the unknown path ahead
she wondered,
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14. |
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Traditional; arranged Lisa Taylor & Andrew McKnight
Brothers now.our meeting is over, brothers we must part
and if I never see you any more, I'll love you in my heart
til we land on the shore, til we land upon the shore
til we land on the shore, and are safe for ever more
Sisters now....
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15. |
When My Time Comes
03:53
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Words & music ©2019 Catalooch Music, BMI
When my time comes, don't shed a tear (repeat)
I've got all I need and it's beautiful here
When my time comes, raise your voice & sing (repeat)
it sounds like angels when, that joyful noise rings
When my time comes, hold out your hand (repeat)
don't worry about me, lift up your fellow man and woman too
When my time comes, yeah ring them bells (repeat)
until we meet again, fare thee well
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Andrew McKnight Lincoln
Nationally-acclaimed singer/songwriter and guitarist celebrates rural America, weaves masterfully crafted songs, humorous stories and poetic drama into a musical soundscape sketched with shades of Appalachia, tasteful slide and jazzy blues, feisty anthems, and rustic folk. 5 solo CDs heard on many public & community radio, plus NPR "Art of the Song" & "River City Folk" and XM/Sirius. ... more
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