NEW SET OF DREAMS – Jim Newsom

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released October 12, 2018

New Set of Dreams
words & music by Jim Newsom

I find myself looking back to when I looked ahead
Through a memory myth of the Leave It to Beaver life I led
But tricks of the mind
Leave a few things behind
Or lost somewhere in time
While another day rushes past like a swiftly flowing stream,
I sit here fishing for a brand new set of dreams

There were times, I must confess, I’d just as soon forget
Romance, commitments, partnerships
that left me with regret
But in the depths of despair
A spark flickered there
I found reasons to care
So I brushed the dust off my feet
and made a change of scenes
And steered in the direction of a brand new set of dreams.

What do you do after you make your dreams come true
Have you come to the end or is there more left to do
Must you start from scratch or can you reinvent old themes
Is that how to construct a new set of dreams?

I can rock out on my porch and watch the world drive by
Or take a walk through the woods beneath a cloudless sky
Write a new song to sing
Strum a fresh set of strings
With nature’s harmonies
While everything around me blows apart at the seams
I’m drawing up plans for a brand new set of dreams

© 2018 Jim Newsom. All Rights Reserved.

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Talking Like Horses
words by Jim Newsom
music by Holly Bishop & Jim Newsom

In the small mountain town
Where my mama was born
Back when summertime sounds
Filtered through fields of corn
We were checking our sources
Lining up some gigs
Talking like horses
And sweating like pigs

A hot day at the ballpark
On a weekday afternoon
There’s Doctor Carl Stark
He’s whistling an old tune
We all sang the choruses
And danced the hometown jigs
Talking like horses
And sweating like pigs

A long ball to the outfield
A catch against the fence
A baserunner’s going for the steal
The ump, in place, intense
Granddad in white shirt and tie
We schoolboys on our own
Bat crack, it’s a high pop fly
A cold cherry sno-cone

I chowed down on a foot-long
Hung on every pitch
Sang the seventh inning stretch songs
Scored errors, runs and hits
We’d gather on concourses
Share stats about the Bigs
Talking like horses
And sweating like pigs.

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Fender Rhodes Piano and a Jesus Handle
words and music by Jim Newsom

A long-haired factory worker, a not quite grown up son
On a summer job, learning lessons fast
The shop boss says to me, “Slow down,
you’re getting too much done;
There’s only so much work to do, we’ve got to make it last.”

An innocent naïf, nineteen years old
With plans unformed, but planning nonetheless
Never bad, but not too good at doing what I was told
What lay ahead was anybody’s guess

We had a Fender Rhodes piano and a Jesus handle
in the microbus we loaded up for gigs
The night time was the right time,
The weekend was the candle
with music made for meager wage
Our popstar dreams took center stage
While every day we turned the page
To write another chapter in our lives.

A funky little five-piece band with a goofy kind of name
Rehearsing in the choir room at church
College boys making noise, on the long cold road to fame
Together every evening after work.

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Street Singer
words by Jim Newsom
music by Holly Bishop & Jim Newsom

I’m just a street singer, a wandering minstrel
I’ve come here to sing you my song
I’ll bring you new faces from exotic places
You’re invited to come along

I’ll sing of your neighbors, I’ll sing of your labors
Maybe I’ll bring you a smile
With songs of the good earth, and some songs of real worth
Sit back and relax for a while

I’m just a street singer, a wandering minstrel
I’ve come here to play you my tune
Through oceans of wonder, lightning and thunder
I’ll be with you this afternoon

Bring me your story, I’m in no hurry
If I can, I’ll turn ‘em to song
Your facts and your fictions, your revised editions
Correct me if you think I’m wrong

I’m just a street singer…

Love songs and protest, of sleeping and unrest,
Music to make gardens grow
We’ll sing songs for certain, and sing songs of hurtin’
Of strangers and people you know

I’m just a street singer, a wandering minstrel
A troubadour here with a song
And strange as it may seem, you’ll all here in my dream
Won’t you join me, now please come along.

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Virginia
words by Jim Newsom
music by Holly Bishop

As I watch my lover sitting there,
I feel the warmth she radiates
and soon the cold pneumonia winds
are blown beyond my conscious gates
And I am left to meditate
On rainbows that appear too late
The skies have much to say

With the cold wind whipping through her hair
in the Minnesota countryside
Her eyes reflect the world we share
and reveal the secrets locked inside
The floorboards creak, the windows freeze
But I stay warm when she’s with me
The snow has much to say
So we travel in my dreams
To Virginia, where it seems
Home is just a mile or two away
Let the north wind’s blizzards blow
Let the cities overflow
In the hills of old Virginia I will stay

I think back to the golden sand
on the beach where ocean waters surge
and the peanut farms that dot the land
where the cloudless open skyways merge
The heat has parched the fields bone-dry
Until the heavens start to cry
The sun has much to say
So we travel in my dreams
To Virginia, where it seems
Home is just a mile or two away
Let the north wind’s blizzards blow
Let the cities overflow
In the hills of old Virginia I will stay
In the hills of old Virginia we will stay

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Sunflowers on the Moon
words and music by Jim Newsom

Spending evenings drowning sorrows
with cheap wine and booze
May keep the bars in business but you always lose
Until that certain someone comes
to sing you your own love tunes
Like a local craft beer that is specially brewed
There’s no time like the present
when you find love that’s true
You look into those eyes and you see
sunflowers on the moon.

Like other lonely wanderers, I searched high and low
Panned the streams for nuggets but it all was fool’s gold
I struck out in the morning, late at night, in the afternoon
Then one day at the office, I was reading the news
My senses came alive when I looked up at you
And then I understood about those
sunflowers on the moon.
Sunflowers on the moon
Sunflowers on the moon

Every man and woman who appears on this earth
Will spend much of their time from the day of their birth
Looking for a love who’ll bring sunflowers from the moon
But me, I’m just a lucky one because I have found
A lover like no other, how you make my heart pound
With you, I know the glow that flows from
sunflowers on the moon.
Sunflowers on the moon
Sunflowers on the moon

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If I Had Wings
Traditional, adapted by Jim Newsom

If I had wings, like Noah’s dove
I’d fly up the river to the one I love
Fare thee well, my honey, fare thee well

The woman I loved was tall and fine
She’d press her body close to mine
Fare thee well, my honey, fare thee well

Early this morning, there was drizzling rain
My heart was filled with an aching pain
Fare thee well, my honey, fare thee well

No one can say who’s right or who’s wrong
But if you call me, I’ll be gone
Fare thee well, my honey, fare thee well

If I had wings, like Noah’s dove
I’d fly up the river to the one I love
Fare thee well, my honey, fare thee well

Show me a bird, flying high above
Life ain’t worth living without the one you love
Fare thee well, my honey, fare thee well

Fare thee well, my honey, fare thee well

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Harness the Sun
words by Jim Newsom
music by Holly Bishop & Jim Newsom

When the sun takes flight
Through the black eternal night
Like a crazed messiah
Spreading rays of heat and light
You can feel the day’s begun
With the power of the sun

Like the Dutch windmills
Catching breezes through the hills
With no power merchant thieves
To enslave you with their bills
Helium from hydrogen:
the power of the sun
Heat and light for everyone
Harness the sun

Just as tides rise and fall
And the redwoods grow up tall
And the seasons keep in motion:
Spring and summer, winter, fall
The point of origin
Is the power of the sun

Just like photosynthesis
When green plants receive a kiss
Solar energy is clean
There’s no radiation risk
Homes and factories can be run
with the power of the sun

Just as tides rise and fall
And the redwoods grow up tall
And the seasons keep in motion:
Spring and summer, winter, fall
The point of origin
Is the power of the sun

An unlimited supply
Of energy shines in the sky
No pollution in the streams
No destruction from strip mines
the future solution
is the power of the sun
The clock is ticking, time has come:
Harness the sun

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The Next Transition
words and music by Jim Newsom

Now I can choose to spend the whole day out fishing
I don’t have to ask permission
No one else’s purse am I enriching
I can bat or catch, or do the pitching
I’m a pilot on an unmapped mission
Taking off on the next transition

I got no worries ‘bout wealth or position
I’ve slammed the brakes on the old ambition
Now there’s more subtraction and less addition
I don’t get bogged down in small decisions
Don’t know if there’s a name for my condition
I’m just gliding through the next transition

Declutter, simplify, live and let live
Relax, let go, forget, forgive
Open your heart, expand your mind
Unclench your fists, don’t look behind

I used to spend my time hoping and wishing
Now my worry warts are in remission
I turned off the news, no longer listen
I can savor all that I’ve been missing
Until my time is up and they call in the mortician
I’ve got a lot to do before the last transition

I write the chapters for a new revised edition
And set my sails for the next transition.

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Road to Joy
Adaptation of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”
words by Jim Newsom

Sound the trumpet, raise your voice
With harmony and words of love
Pound the drum, let joyful noise
Rise through the atmosphere above
Spend each day in honest labor
Lift one another when we fall
Make a friend of every neighbor
All for one and one for all.

Walk with me, the road to joy
Where none are hungry, none are poor
Lift up every girl and boy
Let love supreme reign ever more
You and I can write the story
Through the way we live our lives
Let our hearts sing songs of glory
Till the day when peace arrives.

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Mint Chocolate Chip
music by Jim Newsom
Instrumental

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Turning In, Looking Out
words and music by Jim Newsom

Turning in, looking out
Uncertain what it’s all about
It’s so hard to understand
Decisions beyond your command
All you can give is what you’ve got
May be enough but it may not
Whenever you let someone in
That’s when risks begin

Turning up, looking down
Uncertain ‘bout what you’ve found
You think your fate is in your hands
Somebody else spoils your plans
You make commitments, you promise too
But you don’t know what you never knew
The moment you think there’s no doubt
You move her in but she runs back out

Turn the clock back, look ahead
catch the blame for words you never said
You’ve had enough, you want to cry
But your tear ducts have all run dry
Too much confusion drags you down
Feeling lost, never found
All you can teach is what you’ve learned
You give and take but it’s all returned

Turning in circles, looking ‘round
Speaking softly, making sounds
You hear the music, you feel the pain
Chasing the sunshine through soaking rain
All you can be is what you are
Searching for closeness, you drift too far
You hold it in but you want to shout
Turning in, looking out

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A Matter of Color
words and music by Jim Newsom

The red-letter year, 1619,
Jamestown imported women and black Africans
The girls were placed on pedestals,
the blacks were put in chains
The women became ladies, the Africans were slaves
It was just a matter of color
It was just a matter of color
It was just a matter of color

The red man stood at the gates of the west,
The white man came without an invitation
The misnomer of “Indians,” their weak defense to guns
The liars with their treaties; that’s how the west was won
It was just a matter of color
It was just a matter of color
It was just a matter of color

The soldiers marched upon the Asian shores
To protect yellow men who never knew why
Defoliating lush green land and leaving homes in ruin
Betraying long professed ideals
and hiding what they were doing
It was just a matter of color
It was just a matter of color
It was just a matter of color

You can choose who to educate
You can choose who may immigrate
You can choose who to incarcerate
You can choose who to love and hate
It’s so easy, it really takes no thought

The public statements preach equality
But down on the homefront nothing’s changed
The law says don’t discriminate, tradition disagrees
The ancient right of prejudice is taught in families
And it’s all a matter of color
Yes it’s all a matter of color
It’s just a matter of color

A matter of color
All a matter of color
Just a matter of color

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Saxophones
words and music by Jim Newsom

The winter’s got me down
The cold air blowing round and round
Keeps me locked indoors
But from my stereo, the music pours
I hear the saxophones playing
I hear the saxophones playing

You lie at my side
While the snow piles up outside
And as fireplace shadows leap
The music warms our hearts and soothes our sleep
We hear the saxophones playing
We hear the saxophones playing

It’s gonna be one of those days
It’s gonna be one of those nights
It’s gonna be one of those days
It’s gonna be one of those nights

When the winter gets you down
Until you’re saved by the magic sound
Of the beat that can’t be stilled
And the melody that gives you chills
You hear the saxophones playing
You hear the saxophones playing

It’s gonna be one of those days
It’s gonna be one of those nights
It’s gonna be one of those days
It’s gonna be one of those nights

When the winter gets you down
Until you’re saved by the magic sound

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Christmas Lights
Words and music by Jim Newsom

When I woke up this morning,
There was one thing on my mind
Wondering if Santa Claus
Will visit us this time
We haven’t been too naughty
But we probably weren’t that nice
Still I spent Thanksgiving
Stringing Christmas lights.

Neighbors all around us
Throw up strands of gold and white
But we prefer the multi-colored
Big bulbs of delight
The kind we had on our tree
When we’d ride to see the sights
Of those other people’s
Tacky Christmas lights.

I never imagined I might decorate my home
My parents’ sense of class and taste completely overblown
I can’t resist a string, a strand, a net of LEDs
Some solar powered candy canes to brighten up the trees.

On Christmas Eve,
When Santa guides his reindeer o’er the pines
He’ll see our gaudy welcome mat,
Our “Season’s Greetings” sign
We’ll have a batch of cookies,
Coffee, schnapps and chocolate bites
And a house that’s all lit up
With Christmas lights.