Lowry Olafson

Little Mysteries



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LITTLE MYSTERIES
Words by Lowry Olafson
Music by L. Olafson, Tom Carter and James MacNamara

  -- listen  to Little Mysteries

When man discovered
The earth was round and really wasn't flat.
He shook his ancient head and said "Imagine that!"
And scientific thought
Assures that what we should not believe,
And what we cannot prove remains a mystery.

CHORUS 1:
Like how could Mozart die broken hearted?
Same with Vince van Gogh.
Meanwhile for Moses, the crimson ocean parted
I guess it's Who you know!

You ask your guru, ask your preacher get a different point of view
But they both agree that love is going to get you through.
So just how many lives we get, I guess we'll have to wait and see.
We'll solve it soon enough this little mystery.

CHORUS 2:
Just like the blind men, described the elephant
From just the part that each could feel,
One man at the trunk, one at the heel.
The get the picture, but only pieces of it
And what they fail to see
Is the magnitude of the mystery.

Bridge:
You ask the experts, they rarely agree
You're left alone to figure them out, these little mysteries.

Maybe Columbus
Was mistaken and it's true the world is flat.
Billboards and magazines can testify to that.
No matter what we buy,
We don't look like the people on TV
Why everybody's tryin' remains a mystery.
A little mystery.
A THING OR TWO
Music by L. Olafson & Tom Carter, Lyrics by Lowry Olafson

They do the fox trot, sometimes a waltz, glide across the floor,
Just like they have a thousand times before.
Their hair is silver gray, but their eyes are just as blue,
Oh and in their day, they'd prob'ly show us all a thing or two.

Down at the dance on a Saturday night, beneath a prairie moon,
That was the first time they twirled around the room.
Her father thought it wouldn't last, but you couldn't tell her that.
And now the years have passed and they still dance like that..

CHORUS:
Once you start you know it's impossible to stop,
Some love won't ever die.
Once it's in your heart, it's like you hold it in your hand
And it won't come apart for any man.

He reaches out and she holds him steady, it's only half past ten.
They smile goodbye and we wave back at them.
She can't remember when she didn't love him so,
He can't begin to know how he could ever ever let her go.

Bridge:
They don't play the old songs on modern radio
Folks today don't care about long ago.

They do the fox trot, sometimes a waltz, glide across the floor,
Just like they have a thousand times before.
Their hair is silver gray, but their eyes are just as blue
And I think you could say, that they could show us all a thing or two.
Yeah they could show us all a thing or two,
Yeah they could show us all a thing or two.

 SUNDAY AFTERNOON
© 1997 Lyrics by Lowry Olafson

Lucie the cat sits on my lap and I swear she purrs in tune.
Or maybe I just imagine that cause it's Sunday afternoon.
You glance up from the page, and smile as if to say
"Just taking in the view" on Sunday afternoon. Sunday Afternoon.

Sometimes Sunday afternoon we'll walk down to the Quay
There's not a lot we've got to do, try some olives, buy some tea.
Bell peppers, yellow orange and red,
Fresh tomatoes and a loaf of bread on Sunday afternoon. Sunday afternoon.

Often on a Sunday afternoon, we stop at Tom's Cafe.
You put a little sugar on your spoon and then you stir the clouds away.
And you say that you're afraid to let somebody in
And I say I'm the same on Sunday afternoon. Sunday afternoon.

You toss the salad, slice the bread and I just sit and play
I say I feel like I should help, but you like to listen, it's okay.
And later in the dark, when the streets are shiny black
I'll take you by the hand, and we'll go walking back to Sunday afternoon.
Sunday afternoon, Sunday afternoon, Sunday afternoon., Sunday afternoon.

ONE THIN WIRE
© 1997 Lyrics by Lowry Olafson

  -- listen  to One Thin Wire

I've seen that horse jump higher when he's prancin' that young filly round the yard,
So how could one thin wire two feet off the ground be so hard?
But it shocked his leg like lightning once and he bolted halfway back to the other side.
He touched it a few times more like that and now he doesn't even try.

CHORUS:
But oh the pastures he could roam
If he only knew
Just how frail these fences are
That tell him what he can and cannot do.

That stallion's independent, no saddle ever sat upon his back
So how could one thin wire be enough to stop him in his tracks.
He'll run his life in circles 'til the urge for wandering has ceased
But to step over that wire is too large a leap, for his mind at least.

CHORUS

Bridge:
What we can and cannot do
What we can, what we can, what we can and cannot do.
These fields they run unbridled for as far as the eye can see
And if not for that thin wire, well you know, that's where that horse would be.
Grassy plains can taunt us, and if not for fences made of fear
And failures that still haunt us, we'd high-tail it right outa here.

LAST CHORUS
And oh the pastures we could roam
If we only knew
Just how frail these fences are
That tell us what we can and cannot do,
What we can and cannot do
What we can, what we can, what we can and cannot do.
What we can and cannot do
What we can, what we can, what we can and cannot do.


 ALWAYS
© 1997 Lyrics by Lowry Olafson
Music by Lowry Olafson and Tom Carter

  -- listen  to Always

I will always be there, or you can always call
And I will always be the one who needs you
No matter where you are, I'll hold you in my heart
And when the days turn cold, I'll never be that far.

When the days grow shorter, when the leaves have turned
It's not too tall an order, you needn't be concerned.
No matter what the time, you might like to know
I won't be hard to find, you've got someplace to go.

CHORUS:
We can watch the world drift off to sleep
Frost can't reach the roots that dig down deep,
Knowing that this love keeps growing
Even as the summer's going
And Springtime is a promise the earth will always keep.
I will always listen, and I want you to see
When the fields are glistening covering the leaves
We'll come in from the cold, leave angels in the snow,
Huddle by the fire, kindled in its glow
Chorus

And I will always love you, like a flower in the sun
In a winter window and when the day is done,
If any lonely thoughts come tramping into view,
Know that I am here, know that this is true and . . .
Chorus

I will always be there, or you can always call
And I will always be the one who needs you
No matter where you are, I'll hold you in my heart
And when the days turn cold, I'll never be that far.
LET IT BEGIN
© 1997 Lowry Olafson

  -- listen  to Let It Begin

You brought me roses wrapped in plain brown paper
So I placed them in a jar.
These simple gifts are what we give each other
Little parts of who we are.
I brought you to the water, we sat beside the brook,
Made make believe canoes from little twigs we set afloat.
We followed them downstream to where a log had formed a pool
And mirrored our reflections for the first time me and you.

CHORUS:
Let it begin, flowing like water from a spring.
Sometimes you don't have to try
Sometimes you just have to let that river in.

With the winter rains that bring the Spring to Texas
The Guadeloupe overflows.
If there are angels sent down to protect us,
I'd like to think it may be so.
I was swimming where the surface was smooth and moving slow
And I did not see it whirling till I felt the undertow.
That spinning water spit me out like a piece of old debris
And now I know some rivers are much stronger than me.

CHORUS 2: Let it begin, flowing like water from a spring.
Sometimes you don't have to try
Sometimes you just have to let that river win.
I love to touch you in the morning light, caress the shadows on your skin
Safe in the harbour of your loving, I feel this taking wing.

LAST CHORUS:Let it begin, flowing like water from a spring.
Sometimes you don't have to try
Sometimes you don't have to try
Sometimes you just have to let that river in.

CAP BRULE
Music by Lowry Olafson
Lyrics by L. Olafson, Larry Haley, Carl Champion

The wind across the water
Carried me away
Down the coast to Shediac
And on to Cap Brule.

Break out the seating and break into song,
Everyone's on their way.
Something's abrew, can you taste it too?
It's coming down the bay.

CHORUS:
Smell that magic in the air,
No one knows me like you. Time has taught this lesson well, We're only passing, we're only passing through.

The faces I remember
Have changed since yesterday
The stories have grown wilder
At the party in Cap Brule

CHORUS

Bridge:
If Dave had kept his vow to Sheri Where would that leave her and Larry,
It's been twenty years since they settled down
And who knows how it might have been
And who can keep from wondering
Things never work out the way we plan.

The times that we've forgotten,
Come rolling back like waves
Now we're reunited
Here in Cap Brule.

CHORUS

Repeat Verse 1.


 JUSTIFY THE LOVE
© 1997 Lowry Olafson

She said "I thought I finally found someone who cared enough to try,
But I get so much resistance, it's like living in a lie."
She slid her cup away, said "This coffee's cold" and sighed,
"He pushes all my buttons, I feel lost like I'm a child."

She said "Do you know what I mean or am I the only one
Who always seems to settle for less than what I want.
He tells me that he loves me but I'm never all that sure.
It's like tiptoeing on glass, being dangled like a lure."

CHORUS 1:
And so I justify this love, cause I don't want to leave,
I've got no place to go
And so I justify the love and I justify the need that keeps me here I justify the love.

I said "I know just what you mean, I sometimes feel the same.
It seems no matter who you're with you have such different ways.
And you get so tired of asking, you'd almost rather lie
And you always reach a point that there's no getting by"

CHORUS 2:
And so you justify the love again, cause you don't seem to see the signs
And you can justify anything at all,
So you justify that you remain
When you know you should be gone.

BRIDGE:
It's called an obsession
You hope that they don't call your bluff
But you leave the impression
That you could never ever, never ever get enough
You need too much love.

She said "You finally reach a point where it's not worth it anymore,
And you and I have both been there too many times before.
And it feels like straws you're grasping when they can't seem to see
Your prayers go unanswered, no angel comes to fill that need.

CHORUS 3:
And so you justify the love again, cause you don't want to see the signs
And you can justify anything at all,
So you justify that you remain
When your body wants to run.
You justify the love, you justify the love, you justify the love.

 SCHEHERAZADE
Music by L. Olafson & Tom Carter
Words by Lowry Olafson

Chorus 1:
Fill his nights with tales of wonder
Thrill him with the rhythm and the rhyme.
Is it crazy or courageous,
To think that you can change his mind?
Oh Scheherazade.

Out among the shifting sands, the harem lives in fear
The daughters of the village, each night one disappears
He selects them for their beauty, dark eyes and raven hair,
You must be mad Sheherazade to want to go in there
Cause you can pray to Allah, cry out in the night
But you should save your breath, cause no one here could save your life.

CHORUS 2:
Fill his nights with tales of wonder
Thrill him with the rhythm and the rhyme.
He wants kisses from his wife,
But you can twist him like a knife
Buy a little time. Oh Scheherazade.

Each evening when he beckons her, she holds him in her spell
Captivates her captor, she tells the tale so well,
Makes sure she's never finished before the roosters crow
And it grows like an addiction, he can't bear to see her go.
A thousand and one nights can soothe a sultan's rage,
Calm him and disarm him, make him stop his evil ways.

CHORUS 3:
Fill his nights with tales of wonder
Thrill him with the rhythm and the rhyme.
Are you crazy or courageous
To think that you can change his mind.
Oh Scheherazade.

The power of the Genie and Aladdin and his lamp
Like lullabies that every child has heard since time began . . .
Tales of old Sinbad
Scheherazade, Scheherazade, Scheherazade . . .
MORTAR AND STONE
© 1998 Lyrics by Lowry Olafson

There's a house in the country
Made out of mortar and stone
Since the turn of the century
It's stood proud as any home.

CHORUS 1:
The rocks interlock forming the walls
As tall as time and gravity will allow,
And if the skies turn gray, you can bring on the rain
And that house will remain.

We drive by that homestead
I slow as we go past
As if there lies the secret
Of how to make things last.

CHORUS 2:
The rocks interlock forming the walls
As tall as time and gravity will allow,
That old mason knew that the stones must fit tight
It takes more than mortar to holda home upright.

Bridge:
And if I need a reason
For singing you this song
It's cause it's never been so easy
For love to feel so strong.

You and I, we're still learning
So much that we don't know
But sometimes it's the rough edges
That make the perfect stone.

CHORUS 1:
The rocks interlock forming the walls
As tall as time and gravity will allow,
And if the skies turn gray, you can bring on the rain
And that house will remain.


JUST A LITTLE BIT
© 1997 Lowry Olafson

Just a little bit of love, just a little bit of faith
Just a little bit of kindness, that is what it takes.
Just a little bit of yes, just a little bit of no,
Just a little bit of stand your ground,
just a little bit of let it go.
Just a little bit of you, just a little bit of me, Just a little bit of everybody, that is what we need.

And when I'm down, my feet are dragging on the ground
And I feel like walkin' away for good, nothin' is as it should be,
If I close my eyes, there's a whisper in my ear
Floating in like a leaf upon the wind, and these are the words I hear . . .

CHORUS

And when I'm lost, and I forget how far I've come
And I lose sight of the road ahead, stray from the path I'm on,
If I close my eyes, there's a whisper in my ear
Floating in as still as a summer's day and these are the words I hear . . .

CHORUS


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