ADD songs by Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer

Subject: Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer
From: GUEST,AR282
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 02:24 PM

Does anyone know how many CDs DC & TG have out and which one contains the song "When I Go"? Or is that even the title of the song?

Subject: RE: Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer
From: Francy
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 02:34 PM

They have three(3)...When I Go is the title of the first one, which was self produced......I have the tape. It was released in 1998...In 2000 Tanglewood Tree on Signature and in 2001 Drum Hat Buddha on Tanglewood... Frank Of Toledo

Subject: RE: Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer
From: katlaughing
Date: 18 May 02 - 03:39 PM

I just ordered and received the CD of "When I go." I love it! I first heard Dave and Tracy when Art Thieme sent me a sampler from Waterbug Records which had him on it, plus "By the river where she sleeps" by Dave. I was already hooked on Art's music, but that song hooked me on Dave...his voice and his songs. Then, I heard the title cut on Hober and knew I had to have the CD.

They actually have 4 CDs, now, which you can see listed at their site: www.daveandtracy.com. Great musicians and very talented songwriter.

kat

Subject: RE: Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer
From: evansakes
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 06:08 AM

Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer perform 'When I Go'

Subject: ADD: (By the River, Where She Sleeps) Dave Carter
From: Joe Offer
Date: 12 Jul 20 - 11:59 PM

Here's a Dave Carter song lost in another thread:

Thread #31187   Message #404294
Posted By: katlaughing
22-Feb-01 - 10:44 PM
Thread Name: BY WHAT SONG should I know you?
Subject: Lyr Add: THE RIVER, WHERE SHE SLEEPS (Dave Carter)

Wow, Spud, I am glad you started this as a new thread. Some of my earliest and favourite childhood memories are of my dad singing When the Works All Done This Fall to us kids, that and Billy Venero, as well as the Zebra Dun, Little Joe the Wrangler, Strawberry Roan, Rosin the Beau..oh...geez...he is making a new cowboy songs homemade tape, if you'd like when he gets it done, I'd be happy to send you one.

He loved the time he spent in Alaska, when he was on Amchitka in the oilfields. Had quite a rep for himself, packing his fiddle and banjo back and forth on the airlines when he'd come home to Colorado for a short spell. Ebbie, I'd love to see the whole lyrics to pass on to dad.

Phoaks around here who hear me in Paltalk would probably say you'd know me by Prairie Lullaby, because it's another childhood song I love to sing. There is a fairly new song that I think idealises what I would like to be known by and that is The River, Where She Sleeps by Dave Carter and Tracy Grammar. It's got a great, catchy tune and I'd like it to be heard at my wake:

THE RIVER, WHERE SHE SLEEPS
(Dave Carter

she's a walkin talkin breathin new age wonder, old time heathens
don't know what to make of Mary Jane
cause she ain't tryin to be no swami, she ain't mad at dad and mommy
she don't curse the storm clouds when it rains

when the sun refuse to shine she don't mind, she make everything look fine
she got moon in her eyes, crescent windows on the skies
and the rain comes down in sheets on the people in the streets
and it carries all the secrets that they keep to the river where she sleeps

she comes to me when i'm dejected, leaves her soul out unprotected
tells me that the truth can make me free
and she don't need what she ain't got, she reads me books by Alan Watts
speakin words o' wisdom: let it be

when the sun refuse to shine she don't mind, she take thunder for a sign
she got stars in her head, supernovas in her bed
and it rains most every day, but i like it fine that way
'cause the waters run so marvelous and deep in the river where she sleeps

Mary ain't inclined to drinkin, still she stumbles without thinkin
anywhere she gets the urge to stray
and everybody knows about her, they don't want to change or doubt her
they just grin when she comes out to play

when the sun refuse to shine she don't mind, she be movin down the line
she got bells on her toes, generations in her clothes
and she sings without a sound as the evenin rolls around
and she dances as the twilight shadows creep down the river where she sleeps

professor come to burst my bubble, says that girl is bound for trouble
serves me solace in a paper cup
but it looks a bit like agent orange and when he leaves he slams the door and
just about that time she phones me up

when the sun refuse to shine she don't mind, she just ain't the worryin kind
she got dogs, she got cats, she keeps rabbits in her hats
and the people that she sees, they're all buddhas or police
and the banks rise high and perilous and steep by the river where she sleeps

now one dismayed December dawn i wake to find my Mary's gone
and no one knows when she'll come back again
and all the silent temple bells from Styx to Glenn to Hazel Dell
are mournin all the nights that might have been

when the sun refuse to shine she don't mind, she just leave this world behind
she got wheels in her smile, she can coast along for miles
me i'm walkin all alone, feelin soulful to the bone
till i stop and i hang my head and weep by the river where she sleeps

© 1995 Dave Carter - BMI

Subject: RE: songs by Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer
From: mg
Date: 13 Jul 20 - 12:54 AM

are both still alive?

Subject: RE: songs by Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 13 Jul 20 - 09:19 AM

Tracy Grammer is still alive. Dave passed in 2002.

Subject: RE: songs by Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer
From: DonMeixner
Date: 13 Jul 20 - 11:36 AM

I am still amazed at the depth of Dave Carter's understanding of how words could go together. But I am continually amazed at Tracy Grammer's voice.

Don

Subject: RE: songs by Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer
From: Jeri
Date: 13 Jul 20 - 12:08 PM

"When I Go" is posted (twice) in the Obit thread. I heard that song on the radio, as I was driving to Old Songs Festival one year, and remembered enough of it to find it later. Because I heard it while driving, the words all flowed together, and washed over me, and I didn't have the time to pick them apart. I'd never really noticed that style of songwriting before. It was like an abstract painting with words - you don't analyze it, you just feel it.

Subject: RE: songs by Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 13 Jul 20 - 02:57 PM

When I was substitute teaching for a sixth grade writing class, the lesson for the day was poetry, words associated with it, and types. I was supposed to talk about simile and metaphor and sang the class the first verse of When I Go. I explained that every line contained one or the other. When the topic got to ballad poetry, I explained it was narrative poetry and the lines were easy to remember because they rhymed, then sang them Jim Jones as an example. The kids were surprised that anyone would sing to them in a lit class. The real teacher said they talked about it for awhile. Anyway, Dave Carter's songs are some of my favorites.

Subject: ADD: Working for Jesus
From: Jeri
Date: 13 Jul 20 - 04:27 PM

And despite my personal beliefs, or non-beliefs, I love this song. I think I know the person hes singing about (well, not really, but I know somebody).

WORKING FOR JESUS
Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer
From Seven is the Number

She's a little overdressed, but it never hurts to shine
She invokes the turtle dove, she awaits the number 9
Standin' alone in the grey of the morning

But soon the riders come to wait, and they take their papers out
They do not know the girl, but they know that she's about
Keepin' the light and the warnin'

And the bus comes like thunder
And the doves rise around her
And she don't mind the winter
'cause she's workin' for jesus
And she's workin' for love
And she's workin' for love

There's a clock beside the bed, there's a bible on the stand
She will come home after dark, she will take the book in hand
Feelin' the grains of the black leather bindin'

And so she speaks to me sometimes of flesh and mortal chains
And where the ashes go, and the spirit that remains
Risin' like mist, see it shinin'

And her words sound like thunder
And the spirit has found her
And she knows how to reach me
Cause she's workin for jesus
And she's workin for love
And she's workin for love

Well, I have set my foot upon the road of black and white
I have passed the gates of dawn, I am makin' for the light
Barrin' the door on the darkness and sorrow
But she is somewhere up ahead, she is far beyond my reach
She has walked across the sea, she is sleepin' on the beach
Borderin' time and tomorrow

And her days pass in wonder
And the angels surround her
And she don't even miss me
Cause she's workin for jesus
And she's workin for love
She's workin for jesus
And she's workin for love
And she's workin for jesus
And she's workin for love
And she's workin for love
And she's workin for love
And she's workin for love
And she's workin for love

On YouTube

Subject: ADD: Crocodile Man (Dave Carter)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Apr 21 - 01:18 AM

ARTIST: Dave Carter
TITLE: Crocodile Man
Lyrics and Chords

CROCODILE MAN
(Dave Carter)

Mama she raised me on riddles and trances
Fatback, channel-cat, lily white lies
Rocked my cradle in a jimmy-crack fancy
Never met papa and I never asked why

/ A - AG A / / / /

And people say papa wasn't no account anyway
People say papa was a rollin' stone
I turned twenty on the Waccamaw throughway
Hitchin' upriver in the dark alone

{Refrain}
Sleepin' with a stranger in a no name town
Thanksgivin' dinner at the Top Hat Lounge
Christmas Eve at the Fantasy Tan
Lord have mercy on the crocodile man
Lord have mercy on the crocodile man

/ D - G D / A - G E / D - G D / A - G A / / A - AG A / /

Well I hooked up with a carny, little out of Memphis
Slavin' in a side show, pennies in a jar
Beetle-eyed jokers and hick town princes
Rhinestone rubies and rubber cigars

Wrassled me a gator up in Omaha City
Did me another down in New Orleans
Tangled with the barker, ran off with the kitty
Crawled the Mississippi and I got away clean

{Refrain}

Underneath the levee in a cattail thicket
Hidden in the shadow of a shady grove
There's a thatched roof risin' from a poke fence picket
White smoke billows from a kettle black stove

Inside the house is the hall of mirrors
Inside the mirror is the temple of sin
Inside the temple is the face of mama
And mama she knows just where I been
Yeah, mama know exactly where her bad boy been – huh

... / A - G D A /

{Refrain}

Source: http://www.guntheranderson.com/v/data/crocodi0.htm

Performance by Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpF0dt3r_TM

Performance by Tracy Grammer and Jim Henry: https://youtu.be/bfMlKILpiPs?t=1034

Subject: ADD: When I Go (Dave Carter)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Apr 21 - 01:35 AM

Thread #49697   Message #751337

Posted By: katlaughing

19-Jul-02 - 07:47 PM

Thread Name: Obit: Dave Carter, 49, heart attack (1952-2002)

Subject: Lyr Add: WHEN I GO (Dave Carter)

This really effing bites! I just discovered him a couple of years ago and his CDs are some of the most often played in my collection. In fact, two of his songs are to be used at my memorial. What a sad, sad day this is...and how appropriate for his song When I go...

WHEN I GO
(Dave Carter)

Come, lonely hunter, chieftain and king, I will fly like the falcon when I go
Bear me my brother under your wing, I will strike fell like lightning when I go
I will bellow like the thunder drum, invoke the storm of war
A twisting pillar spun of dust and blood up from the prairie floor
I will sweep the foe before me like a gale out on the snow
And the wind will long recount the story, reverence and glory, when I go

Spring, spirit dancer, nimble and thin, I will leap like coyote when I go
Tireless entrancer, lend me your skin, I will run like the gray wolf when I go
I will climb the rise at daybreak, I will kiss the sky at noon
Raise my yearning voice at midnight to my mother in the moon
I will make the lay of long defeat and draw the chorus slow
I'll send this message down the wire and hope that someone wise is listening when I go

And when the sun comes trumpets from his red house in the east
He will find a standing stone where long I chanted my release
He will send his morning messenger to strike the hammer blow
And I will crumble down uncountable in showers of crimson rubies when I go

Sigh, mournful sister, whisper and turn, I will rattle like dry leaves when I go
Stand in the mist where my fire used to burn, I will camp on the night breeze when I go
And should you glimpse my wandering form out on the borderline
Between death and resurrection and the council of the pines
Do not worry for my comfort, do not sorrow for me so
All your diamond tears will rise up and adorn the sky beside me when I go

© 1998 Dave Carter - BMI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n9vE3gEpSI

Subject: RE: ADD songs by Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer
From: Joe Offer
Date: 31 Jan 22 - 06:28 PM

"When I Go" has such wonderful Native American imagery. Anybody know what connection Dave Carter had to Native people?

Subject: ADD Gentle soldier of my soul (Dave Carter)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 31 Oct 22 - 04:15 PM

GENTLE SOLDIER OF MY SOUL
(Dave Carter)

Hey-yah

My love has gone all upon the crimson trail
His drum at dawn beating brimstone through the veil
Clear light through smoke and ash
And balmy seas, where breakers crash and roll

Gentle soldier of my soul

Hey-yah

He lays me down in his garden growin bed
He weaves a crown, twigs and feathers for my head
He sings the fields awake

And folds me in the love that makes me whole

Gentle soldier of my soul

Hey-yah

When i have passed through the forest of my trails
And stand at last where the shadows run for miles
We'll ride on ponies fine
With painted shields through fields of shining gold

Gentle soldier of my soul

Hey-yah

https://www.lyricsbox.com/dave-carter-and-tracy-grammer-gentle-soldier-of-my-soul-lyrics-mcstjmh.html

Subject: RE: ADD songs by Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 Jan 23 - 04:14 PM

MOTHER, I CLIMBED
(Dave Carter)

on tomorrow’s painted wagon, in a yester-dreamin day
i rode to heaven never thinkin i’d be back this way
now i’m standin at your doorstep with my halo turnin grey
open up your gate, marianna

lay me down in the dark womb of your love
mother i sought the chosen people, but i found no one to comfort me
lay me down in the dark womb of your love
mother i climbed the highest steeple, i found nothin to believe

when they called my faults against the wall i took my place in line
and put my trust in priestly men to break the ties that bind
but their straight and narrow highway’s just a row of billboard signs
open up your gate, marianna

lay me down in the dark womb of your love
mother i sang the sacred psalter but no savior came to comfort me
lay me down in the dark womb of your love
i went naked to the altar, i found nothin to believe

so i set my feet to walkin from the sidewalk to the sand
in search of any saint or sage who knew the master plan
yeah, i wandered every backroad in that broken promise land
open up your gate, marianna

lay me down in the dark womb of your love
mother i kept the plain and simple, but no shepherd came to comfort me
lay me down in the dark womb of your love
i stood shiv’rin in the temple, i found nothin to believe

as lightnin burns these bridges under, smoke will surely rise
and the fables of my innocence blow lazy through the skies
when timeless truths reveal themselves as little more than lies
open up your gate, marianna

lay me down in the dark womb of your love
mother i razed the tainted chapel, but no angel came to comfort me
lay me down in the dark womb of your love
mother i stormed the tower of babel, i found nothin to believe

sticks and stones might break this body and words might wound my soul
and phantom visions fly me where the faithful fear to go
but when this story’s over and my sun is sinkin low
open up your gate, marianna

lay me down in the dark womb of your love
mother the years pass outta countin but no prophet comes to comfort me
lay me down in the dark womb of your love
mother i climbed the holy mountain, i found nothin to believe
mother i climbed the holy mountain, i found nothin to believe


https://lyrics.network/en/song/Dave_Carter_and_Tracy_Grammer/Mother_I_Climbed

Subject: ADD: Gypsy Rose (Dave Carter)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 08 Jul 23 - 03:35 AM

GYPSY ROSE
(Dave Carter)

my love is like a gypsy rose
wild is the only way he grows
out where the sweet july wind blows
he blooms over yonder

his voice is like a mountain stream
washes me clear, washes me clean
i walk along the banks serene
where he will wander

there is no hill high as the moon, no river deeper than the sea
no shooting star, reckless in flight, burns in the night
wild as the love he gave to me
only the rain knows where he goes
thunder and me, ramblin with my gypsy rose

and on the day we were wed
up to the altar he was led
lay like a prisoner in my bed
oh, how we shivered

so i built a house to keep him in
guarded him from the sun and wind
but in the autumn he grew thin
in winter, he withered

there is no hill ...

my love was buried in the spring
i see his face in blossoming things
one night i thought i heard him sing
down in the hollow

now it's been thirty years and three
every night he calls to me
and for as long as i shall be
i know i'll follow

there is no hill ...
credits
from Little Blue Egg, released February 14, 2012


Tracy Grammer recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLv3ydLy5fk

Studio recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ug1ZuZqfA5Q

Dave Carter recording: https://daveandtracy.bandcamp.com/track/gypsy-rose

Tracy Grammer's Gypsy Rose (aka: 'Gypsy Down'): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGb-xbCI3Eg

---

The lyrics below are the ones most often found on the Internet, attributed to Dave Carter. Don't know how they fit into the history of the song.

GYPSY ROSE
(Dave Carter)

We were very happy, well at least I thought we were
Can't somebody tell me what's got into her
A house, a home, a family, and a man that loves her so
Who'd believe she'd leave us to join a burlesque show

Say has anybody seen my sweet Gypsy Rose
Here's her picture when she was my sweet Mary Jo
Now she's got rings on her fingers and bells on her toes
Say has anybody seen my sweet Gypsy Rose

Oh, I got wind my Jo's been dancin' here in New Orleans
In this smoke-filled honky-tonk they call the Land of Dreams
Whoa, here she comes a-struttin' in her birthday clothes
Say has anybody seen my sweet Gypsy Rose

Whoa, baby, baby, won't you come home
Say, we all miss you and every night we kiss your picture

Whoa Rose, one night the lights go dim and the crowd goes home
That's the day you wake up and you find you're all alone
So let's say goodbye to Gypsy, hello Mary Jo
Say has anybody seen my sweet Gypsy Rose

So take those rings off your fingers and bells off your toes
Say has anybody seen my
Now you know just what I mean by
Has anybody seen my Gypsy Rose

---

Mystery Solved!!! These lyrics are from "Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose?" They have nothing to do with Dave Carter. Here's the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBEER06xrx8