Til I Get to You

'All the way to the Jersey Shore' - Live at The Lost Knight: Echo Park, CA

My Grandfather's Guitar

my grandfather's guitar

i didn’t get your frame 

i didn’t get your height

i might've got your courage 

but i didn’t get your fight 

one things for sure 

one things to stay 

i got my grandfather’s voice

when i play 

my grandfather’s guitar

four fingers on your right hand 

you lost your thumb on the farm 

south of calgary alberta 

canada at heart 

the blood in you 

is the blood in me 

i got my grandfather’s heart 

when i play 

my grandfather’s guitar 

“throw nothing away 

always clean your plate

fishing and a hard days work 

we wake up early and we come home late” 

the years roll on 

still these remain 

i hear my grandfather’s voice 

when i play 

my grandfather’s guitar

driving all four windows down 

hypoluxo to old dixie

your 76 lincoln continental 

and the lantana florida breeze 

turning up the radio 

we’d all hum along 

i hear my grandfather sing 

when i play 

my grandfather’s guitar

i was just a boy 

when heaven called you home 

too young to understand 

too young to know 

but i hope you can see me now 

standing tall to say 

i got my grandfather’s voice 

when i play 

my grandfather’s guitar

infinite

infinite,

sounds too few a number 

for the times over 

and the skies under 

which I have thought her most beautiful. 

i try to count them with each breath from my cigarette,

each exhale into the chilly los angeles night, 

the smoke from my lungs.

the warmth of my breath, 

like the waning of her voice

and her still fullness in my memory,

floating on and up through the branches

another drag 

another smoke

another exhale

another hope 

that still tonight, 

the countless clouds 

floating above los angeles, 

hang as reminders of just how beautiful she is, 

and remind her that i

am still counting.