Get all 4 Patrick Regan releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
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.
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
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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
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3. |
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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
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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?
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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
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6. |
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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?
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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
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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
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14. |
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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
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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.”
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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
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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
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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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