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CROSSCUT TIMELINE : SELECTED SONGS 1984 - 2022

by Patrick Regan

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    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of NORTH ATLANTIC CROSSING, THAT PASSED, LIKE A WORLD, and CROSSCUT TIMELINE : SELECTED SONGS 1984 - 2022. , and , .

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1.
HERE TODAY 03:23
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HERE TODAY Today you hear an unfamiliar sound Not a seagull, not a crow, not a magpie Four and twenty singers flitting all around And not a single one that you can spy I can see you looking up into this tree If you like what you hear, stop and listen Get it while you can, this fleeting melody You don't know what you might be missing I'm just one little wandering songbird But here and now I see I have your ear Stick around, there are sounds you have never heard And we may not meet again next year Here today, here today We're what's here to hear today There's always somewhere else I ought to be Tomorrow I may have to move along Though I might seem free, it’s not really up to me Where and when I sing my song I'm just one little wandering songbird Here and now I see I have your ear Stick around, there are sounds you have never heard And we may not meet again next year Here today, here today Here today, here today I'm a lot like you, only passing through We're what's here to hear today
2.
CALIFORNIA GOLD 03:27
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CALIFORNIA GOLD Got a call the other morning, from a friend who’d gone out west Had a chance at fame and fortune, took his shot and missed It’s an old familiar story, nearly always ends the same When the hero stakes a claim to California gold Patient panners, desperados, refugees and hangers-on Independent women and those boys who love the sun Every kind has gone there driven by a hunger in the mind Most of them would never find their California gold Coronado lost his way, turned around near Santa Fe El Dorado called on Raleigh, Raleigh had to fold Many more have come and gone, doesn’t matter why they’re drawn Inner peace or silicon, it’s California gold Hollywood to all-night bookstores, monasteries to the beach Wave on wave, new forty-niners find it out of reach People born there always tell you it isn’t what it used to be That depends on what you see in California gold If it doesn’t pan out, pack it in, always time to start again Though you might be chasing something you can never hold I had a look but couldn’t stay, they won’t miss me anyway More arriving every day for California gold
3.
NOTHING BUT A FARMER'S SON 05:39
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NOTHING BUT A FARMER’S SON Before the war, when time moved slow There was no way I could know That my whole world would soon be gone Or that I’d miss it later on Even before the hardest time By nineteen twenty-eight or nine Even then my mind was set To see how far away I’d get Row by row, we ploughed the land The furrows even, straight and true Show those mules the master’s hand Don’t let them see the child in you It is a story swiftly told I was born, and I grew old And now there is no more to me Than what you see, and what you see I’m nothing but a farmer’s son For all I’ve seen and all I’ve done Worked my way through the university Then took a walk through Italy In those days every step cost blood The whole world over under God When we returned, the lucky ones Got on with life and got things done But soon it seemed like civil war I wondered what we’d struggled for Day by day we did our jobs Played the game and made the goals Our children said, at home, in mobs We’d won the world but lost our souls It is a story swiftly told I was born, and I grew old And now there is no more to me Than what you see, and what you see I’m nothing but a farmer’s son For all I’ve seen and all I’ve done One thing I’ll say for World War Two You knew who aimed at killing you The foes that our grandchildren face Are camouflaged in pleasant peace I think back on my one-room school Days I worked harder than a mule Who am I to say that kids Were better off the way we lived? One by one, we journey on Toward an end that no one knows Where everyone who’s been has gone Where everyone who comes here goes It is a story swiftly told I was born, and I grew old And now there is no more to me Than what you see, and what you see I’m nothing but a farmer’s son For all I’ve seen and all I’ve done
4.
LIKE OLD POMPEII 03:10
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LIKE OLD POMPEII I saw a painting once, of Mount Vesuvius Over vineyards and store rooms a tall peak looms All gone, went boom The folks in old Pompeii know how to seize the day Slaves tend the vines, Death brings the wine And bides his time Now we, we grope for a way Blind as moles, or just looking away From the harm that we’ve done And the quiet desperation that looms, like doom I heard a young girl say time is short today Tomorrow won’t wait, why tempt fate Like old Pompeii?
5.
TROUBLED BY A LULLABYE 04:31
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TROUBLED BY A LULLABYE Venus shines tonight, and before the morning light Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, and the moon Lovely world down here, but it’s never been less clear What’s coming next, or how soon And I’m troubled by a lullabye I learned so long ago A dreamy, wistful lullabye You always loved it so Singing soft and deep, I walked you off to sleep Safe in my arms, cradling your head Let go of the day, send your cares away Don’t mind your daddy’s sadness or his dread Yes I’m troubled by a lullabye I learned so long ago A dreamy, wistful lullabye You always loved it so The wolves outside our door Were hatred, greed, and war Heard them howling while I sang to you Ancient superstitions, lying politicians All-too-human monsters, nothing new Made promises to you I must have thought were true My mind, just like my eyes, can be deceived Every human grace is beaming from your face Shining like the truths I once believed Still I’m troubled by a lullabye I learned so long ago A dreamy, wistful lullabye You always loved it so You always loved it
6.
LOOK, NOW (OR THE CHILDREN ARE GONE) 02:53
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LOOK, NOW, OR THE CHILDREN ARE GONE Time flies is what all of them said to me Parents whose children had grown Those first nights with the nest full of babies Felt like an eternity 'til they had flown Days inched like a worm in an apple tree While they were learning to crawl Look, now, and they’re not what they used to be What you expect to see, not that at all Like desperate sleepers who cling to their dreams Though morning has come We need to be shaken, and often it seems Look, now, or the children are gone No page from the book of your memory Ever can bring back a day Hear, now, it’s a hymn not an elegy Life in a major key, children at play If time is a wind, find a place in the lee Each moment is one A sheltering presence, a moment to see Look, now, or the children are gone
7.
THE FABLE OF THE TREES 03:54
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THE FABLE OF THE TREES I only want this little tree The woodcutter said to the wood What good could it possibly be to you? What harm can there be? We’ll let him have this little one Reason the elder trees A small price for getting him off our backs And they give him the little thing that he lacks A handle for his axe
8.
LIKE A WORLD 04:26
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LIKE A WORLD Little island in the endless sea Flicker in the endless night No more constant than a tidal pool Yet to me it’s like a world See the universe in your own hand Dissolve into a shimmering field Yet you have a solid place to stand Your feet believe the rock is real How dependable the common sense Steady as the solid ground An illusion of the cosmic dance What a joy to dance the circle round Little island in the endless sea Flicker in the endless night No more constant than a tidal pool Yet to me it’s like a world What a wonder for the earth to grow Flower of the human mind Like a crocus thrusting through the snow Like an orchard in the summertime Fire flickers on the cavern walls As we paint the great sustaining herds Heavens part, a torn and flaming scroll As we reach beyond the grasp of words Little island in the endless sea Flicker in the endless night No more constant than a tidal pool Yet to me it’s like a world When the atoms of an inner space Seem as far as star from star And we look upon the human face How we wonder what we are Little island in the endless sea Flicker in the endless night No more constant than a tidal pool Yet to me it’s like a world
9.
FLIRTING WITH DISASTER 02:30
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FLIRTING WITH DISASTER I can see what’s on your mind And I can’t pretend the same thing hasn’t taken hold of mine But I’ve seen it all before Seen the way she cuts 'em down and keeps 'em coming back for more If you know what’s good for you You’ll walk right past her She may be looking right at you But she’s flirting with disaster Flirting with disaster Flirting with disaster too Every man thinks he’s the first Every man another Adam at the mercy of his thirst On the eve of his demise When the downfall of his Eve is making more than spirits rise If you know what’s good for you You’ll walk right past her She may be looking right at you But she’s flirting with disaster Flirting with disaster Flirting with disaster too
10.
IT'LL NEVER COME 02:50
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IT’LL NEVER COME You say you can’t go on But I know you, you love the game Maybe you’ve never tried Or tried too hard, it’s all the same If you look and don’t touch If you want too much If you’re sad and lonesome It’ll never come Wherever love comes from It waits 'til you say It’ll never come Hear the kettle boiling You know what to do Hide from trouble It’ll come to you Supper’s on the table If you have to run If you get too hungry Supper never comes It’s just like driving home Just settle down And watch it go Remember how it feels Behind the wheel Just take it slow Waiting for the kingdom Waiting for the bomb If everybody’s waiting Will it ever come? It’s when your back is turned Your ship comes in Don’t miss the tide Remember how it feels Behind the wheel Enjoy the ride
11.
WHAT DO I SEE IN YOU? 05:18
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WHAT DO I SEE IN YOU? White gold of a winter sun Mares’ tails and waves of sand Cold blue of a winter sky Bright sails in the rising wind Driving my heart beyond Her rising in your eyes What do I see in you? What do I see in you? I see her, the one I love She comes and goes The way that I do What do I see in Dark glass of the swimming sea Standing as it walks to shore Wave after wave it comes White blaze of a winter sun Mirrored in a walking wave Your face when you come to me What do I see in you? What do I see in you? I see her, the one I love She comes and goes The way that I do Between you and the thought of her I walk a narrow strip of sand Fall stars climbing from the water Woodsmoke rising from the land You say you can give me more She calls me there, where lightning plays Like surf on a distant shore She draws me on and on She keeps me passing through Is she what I love in you? White gold in a winter sky Cold fire in a walking wave Is she my only love? What do I see in you? What do I see in you? I see her, the one I love She comes and goes The way that I do What do I see in you?
12.
THAT PASSED, THIS IS 05:34
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THAT PASSED, THIS IS And this is where the story always ends Where it all begins, time and time again A little bird flies in from the night Into the feasting hall, fires burning bright From the night, the silence, and the cold Through the feast of life flies the little soul And on the walls, see the shadows cast Shadows of our joys, sorrows of the past It’s gone, ah ha That passed, and so will this That passed, this is That passed, and so will this We tell the tales that always have been told Close against the night, warm against the cold Love and war, and ordinary days The wonders and the work, homelands and the wandering ways All gone, ah ha That passed, and so will this That passed, this is That passed, and so will this Behind every singer’s song Is a line a thousand generations long Who knows how many gathered so Or how many thousand years ago Outside of time, this place Knows the changing weather of the human face As all the passing things endure So all that have passed are present here The shadows stand tall behind our backs Sun and moon and stars frozen in their tracks A little bird flies in as before Through the feast of life, out again through the other door It’s gone, ah ha That passed, and so will this That passed, this is That passed, and so will this And this is where the story always ends
13.
GULF STREAM 04:29
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GULF STREAM An air of southern morning That moves upon the waters And stirs among the palms of Bantry Bay Recalls another country A rough and woeful music Wings of palm trees stirring far away Oh Gulf Stream, where are you leading me now? Was it here my fathers wandered A land of elk and salmon This gentle sheep-shorn green to which I’ve come? The old world hardly knows me A stranger now returning And I can hardly say which way is home Oh Gulf Stream, river that marries two lands A soft breeze takes me to Florida As if my mother took my hand Primeval cypress forests Warm springs and winding rivers The shallow sandy soil that we called home Where the water boils with yellowtail When the dolphins play round the springs Where the osprey dives and the herons glide And the snakebird perches to dry her wings You find me, ocean river A wanderer and seeker Reminding me that I’m already home That anywhere and nowhere is my home
14.
WHEN THE REFORMATION RAN AGROUND 07:50
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WHEN THE REFORMATION RAN AGROUND When the Reformation ran aground On the coast of a howling wilderness There was little left of summer then, in sixteen ninety-six When the Reformation ran aground She was bound for Pennsylvania From Port Royal in Jamaica In a company of thirteen sail With a frigate armed against the French Bound for Pennsylvania But we lay becalmed for seven days Then the Reformation went astray Lost an anchor, lost our company And the master broke his leg In the first storm, off Havana Bay Among the Quaker’s slaves there was an Indian girl She was taken with fits for hours before she died The Havana lay behind us when we cast her over the side Her name was Venus And I heard a hurricane in her cries And I watched our luck run out in her eyes With the master down it was Dickinson tried to raise our spirits up But in the wind and water I heard her cries O we called upon the lord on high For the lord on high is mightier Than the voice of many waters Yea, than the mighty waves of the sea O we called upon the lord on high And we prayed all night for break of day With the storm waves breaking over the deck There were seabirds in the hen coops and a flood in the cabins of the wreck When the morning broke on Florida It was sand and scrub and nothing more Like the moon compared to England And by nightfall we were shivering while they danced round a fire in our clothes That was just the start and nothing more Every day the Hoe-bays held us there And after them a tribe called Ais Every time they drank the black drink, or they looked at us crosswise There were some of us feared for our lives Oh it startled Jonathan Dickinson When he heard “English son of a bitch!” From the Spanish words and the gibberish, darting out like a weasel from a ditch In the angry voice of an Indian Among the Quaker’s slaves there was an Indian girl She was taken with fits for hours before she died The Havana lay behind us when we cast her over the side Her name was Venus The dark places of the earth are full Of the habitations of cruelty Both the Quaker man and the African who were joined by slavery Feared the cruel jaws of the cannibal And the Quaker feared for his little child In the hands of those we’d fallen among As the native women nursed the babe, and he grew both fat and strong The Quaker feared he’d grow up wild We were starved and beaten, but none was killed It was no worse than the navy It was cold and rain and the long march north, two hundred thirty miles Killed the few who died along the way Among the Quaker’s slaves there was an Indian girl She was taken with fits for hours before she died The Havana lay behind us when we cast her over the side Her name was Venus In November we made Augustine And we left in Spanish colors We reached Charles Town at Christmas time With a tale worth a bottle all around Then my mates and I shipped out again When the Reformation ran aground On the coast of a howling wilderness There was little left of summer then, in sixteen ninety-six When the Reformation ran aground
15.
ICHEPACKESASSA 02:47
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ICHEPACKESASSA An educated man in a frontier town He’d served as a sawbones on the rebel side Gave a grand old name to his little son Saw the railroad come to Waldo before he died The son had looks and he had brains Wed a strait-laced lady who had the same She broke his bottles, poured the whiskey down the drain But there are spirits you can’t contain Great-grandpa wet his whistle one last night Poison in the whiskey snuffed out his light The town was Ichepackesassa, Plant City now Saloon gal with a jealous pal, that’s how Now the tippler and the Bible-thumper had a son And that, you see, was my Grandpa Ray Raymond traced a rumor back to that saloon And what came next, no one would say Maybe another murder, maybe revenge Grandma only told me that they found his grave “We walked all the way from Bartow, we was care-free then. We liked this little town, and we stayed.”
16.
GOODBYE OLD PLANK ROAD 03:56
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GOODBYE OLD PLANK ROAD Underneath the sand out there Twenty miles of wooden beams Old plank road that goes nowhere Once it carried someone’s dreams Never like to say goodbye Even when it’s time to go Watch those birds up and fly Where they’re heading Do we need to know? Funny what we leave behind Hints like flints and arrowheads Broken tools someone might find Garden walls and flower beds Wasn’t it a lovely day? Being here is like a song Songs may end, music stays Hear that river roll along
17.
GATHER ROUND ME 04:48
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GATHER ROUND ME Gather round me once again Songs and stories now we will spin You are the circle that’s always been Who am I? The space within In a canyon in the west One lone raven cried: Move on! I lay down but could not rest Wondering where they all had gone Unknown hands laid stone on stone In the middle of nowhere Where the sun goes to be alone Empty circles in empty squares There the night is deeper black And the stars confound the eye Desert stone beneath my back 'Til I fell into the sky Gather round me once again Songs and stories now we will spin You are the circle that’s always been Who am I? The space within In a vessel made of clay Shaped by hands and fire-born You can’t see and you can’t say What’s within that earthen form Follow music where it goes When there’s no one there to play There is so much that no one knows Even more no one can say Gather round me once again Songs and stories now we will spin You are the circle that’s always been Who am I? The space within

about

Beginning in 2022, this set of songs tracks back through decades and returns to now. Like running your finger edge-to-edge across growth rings of a crosscut tree. The earliest, recorded with Dave Pegg, David Mattacks, and John Andrews, are in the middle (9-11). Outward in both directions you'll find tracks from the 1990s to now, a mix of 21st century home recordings and earlier studio recordings with band members Andy Goesling, Alison Boardman Goessling, Shannon Anderson, Joe D'Andrea, and guests. Dozens more tracks from the '80s and '90s are set for release in early 2023, to be followed by new work.

credits

released November 4, 2022

Patrick Regan: vocals; acoustic, electric, bass, and steel guitars; flutes and whistles; piano; mandolin; banjo; harmonica; concertina; percussion; drum programming.
Andy Goessling: oboe, soprano sax, clarinet, whistle, acoustic guitars, mandolin, percussion (3,6-8,12-14).
Drums: David Mattacks (9-11), also electric piano (11); Joe D'Andrea (6, 8).
Bass: Dave Pegg (9-11); Alison Boardman Goessling (3,6,7,14); Dave Grego (12,13).
Lead guitar: John Garrett Andrews (9-11).
Vocals: Shannon Anderson (12).
Studios: Pebble’n’Spin, Mix-O-Lydian, Woodworm, Oakwood, Aardvark, home.
Cover photo: Tim Gainey, reproduced with permission.

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Patrick Regan Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France

A songwriter and singer, I'm handy enough to be a one-man band but lucky enough to rope in great collaborators: Andy Goessling, Dave Pegg, Dave Mattacks, John Andrews, Shannon Anderson, and more.

This is one place I'm preserving and publishing the best of my songs. Look for new releases here throughout 2024. ... more

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