AN ANGEL FELL INTO MY BED AND WOUND UP IN MY ARMS

Oh sweet angel, come explore with me

I’ll take you places you have never been.

Show me things that I have never seen…

Close your eyes, a bed of trust.

Leave your doubts there in the dust

Sweet angel, come explore with me

Oh sweet angel, do just as I say

The unknown calls just to seize the day.

You grant me this and so I will obey…

Close your eyes, a bit of fear,

deepens joy, I’ll be your mirror

Sweet angel, let me have my way

Oh sweet angel, sit beside me please

Your calming presence teaches new found peace.

Your laughing smile, it brings me to my knees

Close your eyes, and taste my touch

and if it gets a bit too much

Sweet angel, I’m just here to please…

Oh, sweet angel, just from where’d you fall?

Into my open arms forever blessed.

Fortuitous this life we’d never guess

Close your eyes, and hold me close

For all too quickly, our time goes.

I’m here, my angel, when you call.

~ for Molly, December 10, 2008 – Big Bear City, CA

words & music by Brad Riesau ©2008 Brad Riesau / v32unes

demo streamed on MySpace.com 2008

A THING FOR ROSES

He had a thing for roses, she liked to rock 'n roll.
It was part of his neurosis to always see the hole.
She was looking skyward, he was looking down.
He had this thing for roses, she had to leave this town.

He had this thing for roses, he saw them everywhere
a slippery osmosis just underneath his hair.
She liked Lynyrd Skynyrd. He liked looking inward.
He had this thing for roses, she had to run around.

He had a thing for roses in spite of all the thorns.
The only thing he knows is you gotta grab it by the horns.
He was always careful, she would jump right in.
He had a thing for roses, she had a thing for sin.

The moral of this story, the moral of this tune
Is keep your options open, when starin' at the moon.
Two sides to every story, two halves to the whole
Nothing goes with roses like a little rock 'n roll.

Words & music by Brad Riesau ©1998
written predominantly 7/24/98 from some earlier notes

A CONSTANT STATE OF BECOMING

How can I find my way home with so many folks left alone

All I have left is what’s left in my hand

Everything gone with my home and my land

How can I find my way home

In a constant state of becoming

Someone we are at the end

From some place down some road to nowhere

To every place in between

From the outside in and back out again

From the inside out and back in

In a constant state of becoming

Someone that we are at the end

A constant state of becoming

Is something you just cannot teach

Where the pole moves a little bit higher

Whenever a goal has been reached

From the simply complex to the simple

No matter how constant you preach

For a constant state of becoming

Is something you just cannot teach

How can I find my way home with so many folks left alone

All I have left is what’s left in my hand

Everything gone with my home and my land

How can I find my way home

A constant state of becoming

Becomes what it’s going to be

You can push, you can shove, you can grovel,

You can search, you can seek, you can see

To the peaks of Tibet, you can travel

From California to Galilee

A constant state of becoming

Becomes what it’s going to be

How can I find my way home…

~ the opening stanza was written in response to Hurricane Katrina watching news reports of the dislocated. The verses seeds were written out of meditation, the final verse penned in DE on 3/13/05, the rest in Big Bear in 2005.

© 2005 Brad Riesau / v32unes

This song has not yet been released.

Original demo is collected in UNRELEASED DEMOS/VARIOUS (ps)

IN TENT CITY

There's a place I know where the folkies meet

A town criss-crossed by muddy streets

A field of faces smiling sweet

A place they call "Tent City"

(In Tent City), mud two feet deep

(In Tent City), ya can't get no sleep

(In Tent City), stayin' up all night

to watch the sunrise creep

(It's intense in Tent City)

(In Tent City) people sharin' songs

(In Tent City) why don't you sing along

(In Tent City) you might sing right

but ya can't sing wrong

(It's intense in Tent City)

instrumental verse

Banjo, fiddle, washtub bass

Dirty hair and filthy face

Lots of tie-dye girls to chase

It's intense in Tent City

(In Tent City) what about hard knocks?

(In Tent City) y'ave to sleep on rocks

(In Tent City) you'd better take

an extra pair of socks

(It's intense in Tent City)

(In Tent City) people live like dogs

(In Tent City) down in the mud

they roll around like hogs

(In Tent City) up all night instead of sawin' logs

(It's intense in Tent City)

Instrumental verse

(In Tent City) people joinin' hands

(In Tent City) people formin' bands

(In Tent City) everyone doin' just what they can

(It's intense in Tent City)

(In Tent City) mud two feet deep

(In Tent City) ya can't get no sleep

(In Tent City) stayin' up all night

instead of countin' sheep

(It's intense in Tent City)

(It's intense in Tent City)

(It's in tents intensity)

Words & Music by Brad Riesau 1995 Brad Riesau

written in a field on Old Pool Farm, Schwenksville PA August, 1984

original 4-track version from BRAD RIESAU The Lone Arranger cassette only - rtRECORDS v32-003 released 12/25/86.

This alternate studio version was released on THE OLD POOLE HUSTLERS/PORCH CHOPS In Tent City/Daily Living cassingle rtRECORDS v32-007 - released promotionally 8/25/95, commercially 1/1/96 - This alternate version was also reissued on the CD compilation: PORCH CHOPS Vic’s Picks: Vol. 1: ROOTS SELLER – rtRECORDS v32-019 – release date: 2/20/04

NEW VERSES WRITTEN AUGUST 2011 IN HONOR OF 5o years of PHILLY FOLK FEST:

Tryin' to sleep is so absurd

Sing along just like the birds

D-man don't forget the words

It's intense in tent city.

(In Tent City) better bring a hat

(In Tent City) where's my lighter at

(In Tent City) that old moon sure is hangin' fat

(It's intense in Tent City)

(In Tent City) you just might get wet

(In Tent City) but you can't forget

(In Tent City) nothin's ever stopped us yet

(It's intense in Tent City)

Doing this for 50 years

Lots of laughs and drunken cheers

Monday brings exhausted tears

It's intense in Tent City

(In Tent City) come on, join the fun

(In Tent City) we love everyone

(In Tent City) a splendid time has just begun

(It's intense in Tent City)

(In Tent City) you can sing and play

(In Tent City) all night and day

(In Tent City) Only one thing there's left to say

(It's intense in Tent City)

(It's intense in Tent City)

(It's in tents intensity)

new lyrics (c) 2011 Brad Riesau / v32unes