The following program

is a production of

Pioneer Public Television.

[Music]

[Music]

[Music]

I was asked to write this song about this

girl who died of cancer and,

and her auntie is a waitress at a bar

that I work at.

And I was asked by the owner of the bar to write

a song about this little girl,

she was seven, and I sort of sometimes,

I really didn't want to do it,

cause I got enough sad songs you know.

But sometimes they drop out of the sky and that

was one of them songs that just sort of dropped out

of the sky.

And they gave me some information

about this girl.

She was feisty.

They said she's probably dancing with the angels.

[Music] [Singing]

Joslyn sits on a cloud, all sassy and loud,

and she bosses the angels around.

Joslyn teaches Moses to dance,

gives him another chance, when he gets it wrong.

There's a shadow all over our world

and a big old hole in the shape of a girl.

There's a shadow all over our world

in a big old hole in the shape of a girl.

guitar

guitar

Joslyn eats cheeseburgers for breakfast

with Dr. Pepper, fruit tootsie rolls.

guitar

Joslyn is best friends with Jesus,

rides her bike where she pleases

on streets made of gold.

And she'll never grow old,

and she'll never change.

And we'll always have her in the back of our brains

La, la,da, da da...

la da da da

guitar

What's that in the y

is it heaven or a bird or it

could be some kind of plane.

Sometimes we wonder why or if we'll see her again.

Oh we do know what Joslyn wants and wishes for those

of us who remain.

Just get through this despair,

remember to share, try and take care of each other.

There's a shadow all over our world,

and a big old hole in the shape of a girl.

Well a shadow all over our world,

and a big old hole in the shape of a girl.

There's a shadow all over our world,

a hole, in the shape of a girl.

guitar

guitar

"Oh my, my" was a

song that was written for

my wife and we had 33 years of marriage and I

just, it's a mature love song and we're still

together after all these years and yeah,

it's a love song.

guitar

[Singing] "Oh my, ,

you're sure lookin' fine babe.

Light reflects your pretty face in that glass of wine.

Kids are grown and gone

and we're all alone.

Hey, slide on over here, let's stop wasting time babe.

While the hourglass has passed

each grain of sand.

We have walked this world hand in hand.

Ain't always that easy but we had a plan and oh my, my,

sure has been grand.

Oh it's a simple song in history for sure that we

planted our love and we made our garden grow.

guitar

guitar

Oh my, my,

is that you crying?

I was here waiting for your angel wings to fly.

High above the clouds far into the great beyond,

you will hear me singing and you know

I'm not really gone.

High above the clouds far into the great beyond,

you will hear me singing and you know

I'm not really gone.

Oh my, my.

Oh my, my.

Oh my, my.

Oh my, my.

Ohhh my, my.

Ohhh my my.

guitar

"Five More Minutes"

was written in Scotd

and I was driving around.

I was sitting on this side of the car,

only I wasn't driving.

My friend Matt Morrow was driving and he hadn't

written a song in awhile and I asked him what he

wanted to write a song about and he had been in

Texas and he saw a tornado and I went,

"Okay that's it then."

And we sat down and I came up with a guitar riff and

he wrote the first verse and I wrote the second

verse and the chorus and, another one that sort of

dropped out of the sky but it ended up being a song

about our fathers basically and how tough it

is to grow up.

When you're 16 you're not getting along with your

old man too, too well.

And that's, that's what that chorus is about.

And that's the part that's gonna make you

think about your dad.

guitar and harmonica

[Singing] "Halfways up to

Dallas, standing still in a truck.

Starin' at the angry sky, pushing our luck.

Hail storm's up ahead of us,

twister from the south, wonderin' what the hell to

do with our heart's up in our mouth.

I couldn't move, I just stood there mesmerized.

Mother nature's awesome power,

in a wall cloud in the sky.

Tim says 'let's get out of here,

it's bound to come our way.' I told him that a

highland boy don't see this everyday.

Give me five more minutes.

Give me five more minutes.

Just give me five more minutes

and we'll be on our way.

guitar and harmonica

I was like that twisted wind,

I was an angry

troubled child.

Down tainted streets of sin where the whirlwind

running wild.

My dad tried to tame me down and

I thought I knew it all.

He use to say "Was like talkin' to a wall".

I wish I had five more minutes.

Sure wish I had five more minutes.

Yeah I wish I had five more minutes so I could

tell him that I heard it all.

Five more minutes, yeah I wish I had

five more minutes.

Oh I wish I had five more minutes so I could tell

him I heard it all.

guitar and harmonica

Make a little time,

give yourself some space.

and to where you're going, just forget about the race.

Just take five more minutes,

have a little faith,

have a little faith.

Give me five more minutes, give me five more minutes,

give me five more minutes, give me five more minutes.

guitar

"I'm a make her Happy"

is a song I heard

on Weber's deck it's, my friend Kacey started a

little roots music festival on his,

in his backyard runs in his,

Pistol Whipping Penguins out of Minneapolis.

Wrote that song, the bass player wrote that song,

"I'm a make her Happy.

I thought it was a, you know

I could use a happy song.

So I congratulated

him on writing a song

that I think everybody's

gonna like for one thing and

it's got some humor in it and that's always good.

guitar

[Singing] Well she's drop

dead purty

as a gal could be.

I'd be happy with her most definitely.

But when she gets mad, ain't no use to put up a fight.

Cause if she ain't happy,

no one happy,

I'm a make her happy tonight.

I bust my back at the company store,

I make good money I can spend next door still

bringin' home enough to make everything alright.

Cause if she ain't happy, no one happy,

I'm a make her happy tonight.

guitar Oh yeah!

guitar Oh yeah!

harmonic and guitar

harmonic and guitar

Someday I'll buy a car

just to drive her around, make a mess of trouble in

this old town, grab her by the hand and

never let her out of my sight.

Cause if she ain't happy, no one's happy,

I'm a make her happy tonight.

guitar

guitar

Humming and guitar

Humming and guitar

[Singing] Well if I had to do it over wouldn't change a thing.

I'd walk her down the aisle,

I'd give her a ring.

I'd move on in, pray to God that she don't fight.

Cause if she ain't happy, no one happy,

I'm a make her happy tonight.

Cause if she ain't happy, no one happy,

I'ma make her happy tonight.

guitar and harmonica

"Rae Ann"

was a song that I

wrote in 1993, right around there,

and I recorded it on my first CD ever and it's

kind of got a little Merle Haggard influence in it

and I steal from the best.

It's once again for my wife who I never did leave.

I was always pretty close

to home and I never went

on the road much and it's, you know that was,

it's a road musician's song.

guitar

[Singing] My wandering dusty boots

walked through our doorway,

I'd been on the road

way too many days.

I saw your empty closet and the letter that you'd

left me on the table, it said I'd left you lonely.

I heard you on the radio you sounded like a star.

I wouldn't want to slow you down on the road to

where you are.

RaeAnn, I'm all broken down and weary.

RaeAnn, I need you here to heal me.

Seems I've left the candle burning at both ends.

I want you as my lover and I need you as my friend.

If you would just come home

I could leave you again.

guitar and harmonica

Well I tried to be a carpenter

but I'm too much of a dreamer

and I'm afraid I

might loose a finger.

I'd work for a man with a retirement plan,

it just wouldn't be fair, cause my heart isn't there.

I got this guitar

when I was very young,

it's part of what I am, what I have become.

I know it's hard to think that I'm asking you.

RaeAnn, I'm all broken down and weary.

RaeAnn, I need you here to heal me.

Oh it seems I've left a candle

burnin' at both ends.

I want you as my lover and I need you as my friend.

If you would just come home,

I could leave you again, RaeAnn.

guitar and harmonica

guitar and harmonica

This is what I'm talking about

and it's, there's a beauty in it.

It's so beautiful to me

now that it never was before.

When you grow up

around it,

you just take it for granted

and farmland is beautiful.

I was in Nashville and I, I got up every morning to

a bird outside my, he was going,

"Woo, woo, hoo, hoo, hoo," and I asked buddy I said,

"What kind of bird is that?"

I said, "I forgot" you know and he said,

"That's a mourning dove," m-o-u-r-n-i-n-g.

I said, "I wonder what key she's in,

and I picked up my guitar and I said,

she turns out she was in C.

And I, we started this song that morning,

and the morning, mourning thing.

Turns out I was mourning the death of Jesse

Winchester, who had just died that,

it was the last couple of weeks ago you know,

it's a really new song.

And so the kid in the room is,

is me listening to Jesse Winchester soaking up his

southerness, you know his soul.

Jessie had this great voice and I mean John

Prine was a great influence on me but you

know Jesse really was somebody that I emulated a

lot and a lot of the songs that you hear on this

record and I contribute a lot of that stuff to

Jessie so, "Mourning Jesse Winchester."

guitar

'Mourning you,

you, you,'

says a bird on the windowsill.

Oooooooo.

Morning dew on my shoes, walked to clear my head,

last thing that you said, still rings true.

Missing you, you, you.

There's a wind in a willow tree.

Ooooooooo.

A song weeps in there too, nothing but a breeze,

whispered melodies and memories.

By the kid in a room so long ago,

six strings in Hi-Fi stereo.

All that soul his young ears heard hanging on

every word, he's hanging on every word.

Now you're free, so free, not tied down by your

dreary chains.

Oooooo, come anytime you please,

your songs remain in me.

Other lives you've changed will always be mourning

you, mourning you, mourning you.

guitar

guitar

Don't you think as

Minnesotans we, we

really want to be from somewhere else.

And, but I, this is a hat I found at Fleet Farm and

I, I just, it feels good on my head but I still

wear the cowboy hat.

guitar and harmonica

[Singing] Yeah what do they know?

My old man says,

'Boy, you reap just what you sow.'

Cops in this town charge 200 to pass go.

Freedom was the keys to the Pontiac.

What do they care?

Buggin' me bout the way I wear my hair.

Take a picture, you're gonna stare.

Freedom was the keys to the Pontiac.

If I had them keys, I had a moving disease.

Every minute that I could steer

kept freedom at the wheel.

Me and Julie Beth parked in the corn field steaming

up the rear window, played the tape deck,

ran the battery too low.

Freedom was the keys to the Pontiac.

guitar and harmonica

guitar and harmonica