A Cat in the Rain Album Lyrics by Turnpike Troubadours

---

Mean Old Sun

Empty promises I've given
Hollow heart beats in my chest
And every word of sterling silver
Stirred butterflies beneath your breast

Still untouched by ties a'binding
Going where the Gulf breeze blows
No ring of gold around your finger
No ring of brass run through my nose

Headlong for the wall now, honey
Still coming up like a rose
Dead still in the garden
Waiting for the reveille
The dawn is yet to dry the dew
From off my Sunday clothes
That mean old sun better rise up soon
If it's ever gonna set on me

Hear the song she sang in darkness
Cheerful, fair and free and fine
"You're the one", she softly whispers
My canary in the mine

Headlong for the wall now, honey
Still coming up like a rose
Dead still in the garden
Waiting for the reveille
The dawn is yet to dry the dew
From off my Sunday clothes
That mean old sun better rise up soon
If it's ever gonna set on me

I met a man, pale gray with wisdom
Told me fate will come collect
Hard tempered steel bites at my ankles
Soft cotton rove burns at my neck

Headlong for the wall now, honey
Still coming up like a rose
Dead still in the garden
Waiting for the reveille
And the dawn is yet to dry the dew
From off my Sunday clothes
That mean old sun better rise up soon
If it's ever gonna set on me
That mean old sun better rise up soon
If it's ever gonna set on me

---

Brought Me

Well, I have loved you for so long
I have no memory of falling
So long now, it feels that we have never been apart
I hear you half a world away
You know for whom you're calling
I'd have said this years ago
If I'd known where to start

Whoa now, it still beats steady
This heart I handed you for free
Should you ever need a thing
It won't be hard to find me
Standing at the ready
With a dance or two still left in me
Wager that it won't appear
That I forgot who brought me

You've torn the place asunder
And you've left the party early
Looked at me with tears
As if a lost and lonely child
Your status suits you well
But do not think that you can fool me
This polish and reserve
Barely hides that you are wild

And we've echoed off of bar room walls
And buildings down on Main Street
Thought the moon would never set
On our back alley Rome
In moments I found quality
I thought could not be beaten
A thousand person choir
Has that affection on its own

Oh now, it still beats steady
This heart I handed you for free
Should you ever need a thing
It won't be hard to find me
Standing at the ready
With a dance or two still left in me
Wager that it won't appear
That I forgot who brought me

You kissed me in the parking lot
I gave you nothing clever
Damages and injuries
Were far beyond repair
Submitted to the shape of things
This time it was forever
At an old barroom in Tulsa
I looked up and you were there

Oh now, it still beats steady
This heart I handed you for free
Should you ever need a thing
It won't be hard to find me
Standing at the ready
With a dance or two still left in me
Wager that it won't appear
That I forgot who brought me

---

Lucille

Well, the neons were new and robin egg blue
And brandin' iron red, they had nothin' on you
And the nights were alive in a remodeled dive
Sometimes you'd take me home with you
And it was later that spring, saw the spark from a ring
I never protested just gathered my things
And I settled my rent and onward I went
Oh, lonesome feels better in motion

Lucille (Lucille), in the flickering light
With the moon on your shoulders, a pearl-handle white
Lucille (Lucille), glad you're doing alright
But I wonder who's keepin' the baby tonight

Well I'd walked off the stage to a old dog-eared page
Finally worth more than a day labor wage
I was checkin' in on a rumor from home
Oh, I doubt that there's anything to it
And you're still just the same, except from your name
I lost all my half-hearted fortune and fame
Each night I would find as if by design
Your bonfire that burned in the back of my mind

Lucille (Lucille), in the flickering light
The moon on your shoulders, a pearl-handle white
Lucille (Lucille), glad you're doing alright
I wonder who's keepin' the baby tonight

Get out of town, turn the radio down
The window's wide open and you've got your hands on the wheel

Lucille (Lucille), in the flickering light
The moon on your shoulders, a pearl-handle white
Lucille (Lucille), glad you're doing alright
I wonder who's keepin' the baby tonight

---

Chipping Mill

Ran my heart through a chipping mill
Sold my soul for rock 'n roll
Gave away all that I could steal
But I always kept the best for you
I always kept the best for you

Drank my way through a hurricane
Thinking 'bout your wedding ring
I've done a lot of real dumb things
But I always kept the best for you
I always kept the best for you

Well I should've seen it a million miles away
We are star dust brought to life
None of us were meant to stay
One thing about it
I'll meet you at the gate
I always kept the best for you
I always kept the best for you

There's a moment when time stands still
Day breaks at the top of the hill
Back strap from the morning kill
I always kept the best for you
I always kept the best for you

Lines get distorted
But the message is the same
We were howling at a ghost without a name
Despite what's reported
My love for you remains
I always kept the best for you
I always kept the best for you

Well, I ran my heart through a chipping mill
Sold my soul for rock 'n roll
Gave away all that I could steal
I always kept the best for you

---

The Rut

Early fall descended on the dry back country Aspens
It could be any time now that the bulls start bugling
I watched the pack mule panniers, see the loads are riding even
Is it in my mind or did I finally hear one sing?

It's been ten years since I first came to the mountains with my father
A half pint in each saddle bag and stars in both my eyes
I don't miss the taste of liquor or really anything about it
But the temporary shelter was a welcome compromise

Oh friend, I'm gonna ride out of the rut I'm in
A little elevation and an open ended prayer
Holding out for more than breaking even
I've come back to the mountains and they're all still standing there

The bull had come in tight and he was screaming in dark timber
I could see his brown eyes moving, hear him breathing as he wheeled
But tomorrow full of promise I just lived there in the moment
Hunted back door camp for enough grouse to make a meal

Oh friend, I'm gonna ride out of the rut I'm in
A little elevation and an open ended prayer
Holding out for more than breaking even
Well, I've come back to the mountains and they're all still standing there

Oh friend, I'm gonna ride out of the rut I'm in
A little elevation and an open ended prayer
Holding out for more than breaking even
I've come back to the mountains and they're all still standing there

---

A Cat in the Rain

With a midnight sky and your big brown eyes
Did you stumble on a pearl?
Wake me from a thousand meter stare
With a halo hanging just a little too heavy and another evening's curls
Mixed up with the morning and your hair
Like a country girl who came across a cat out in the rain
Like a country girl you played it true to form
Gonna lay a little pity on a prodigal son who parted with his name
A little shelter for a stray out in a storm

You can try to put the past behind
It's on your clothes like burning pine
Is it gin or turpentine you keep in your canteen?
If pressure makes a diamond babe, I still might come out clean

In the simple solitary joy of temporary comfort
Well, I closed my eyes and felt I'd slept a hundred-thousand years
Awaking I would disregard the terms of my surrender
Took every bad fork in the road and look who's standing here
We were victims of eternal love for almost half a morning
Said I know you can't go home again but tell me where you land
Oh, here's to yet another chance you get to be reborn
And here's to greener, higher hills to make your final stand

You can try to put the past behind
It's on your clothes like burning pine
Is it gin or turpentine you keep in your canteen?
If pressure makes a diamond babe, I still might come out clean

For a walking ghost, that southern coast was a lawless piece of heaven
There were bayou dives and oyster knives and liquor for to drown
In the Q beam lights and rooster fights and months I don't remember
My winning hand went busted and my luck was winding down
In the southeast Texas setting sun, I sat surveying damaged done
We wish you luck and fortune hon, we're closing in an hour
Backed up to the trinity with no more road to run
No longer can I wander all alone on my own power

And try to put the past behind, perhaps it's only in your mind
They close the doors at nine at General Market 17
If pressure makes a diamond babe, I still might come out clean
Tejanos curse in Spanish and a Cajun eyes the weather
There's black mud on the belly of the yellow colt I ride
Never thought I'd catch myself so calm out in the open
As a gulf storm deals in bucket loads and hits from every side

---

Black Sky

Well, I sure take it with me wherever I go
And you might like to see it but it never does show
Like the wind in the valley that never does blow
Like a grass in the back that you never did mow

It's a black sky forming on the ridge
It's a woman waiting standing on the bridge
It's a price that you pay for walking on the ledge
It's everything you do and nothing that you did

Well, you might see me driving on the wrong side of town
And you might see me shining when the rains come down
Like a diamond that's hiding in the lost and found
Like a coon that's running from a red bone hound

It's a black sky forming on the ridge
It's a woman waiting standing on the bridge
It's the price that you pay for walking on the ledge
It's everything you do and nothing that you did

Well, the wood keeps burning in the old wood stove
And the cows keep going where they done been drove
And the light keeps glowing in Dead Man's Cove
And the loom keeps spinning where the weave gets wove

It's a black sky forming on the ridge
It's a woman waiting standing on the bridge
It's the price that you pay for walking on the ledge
It's everything you do and nothing that you did

---

East Side Love Song (Bottoms Up)

You're such a sight in the dashboard light
You're an old forgotten photograph in shades of black and white
Don't it feel alright? Well, we've got all night
Oh, your daddy's gone to Kingston, bettin' on a rooster fight

Oh, bottoms up now darlin', let's get on back to town
Well, the bottoms aren't the kind of place you need to hang around
Let's get on back to town, let's get on back to town

And he's full of pride in a double wide
Got the house and seven acres after his granddaddy died
And it's how you've been, won't you come on in
Pull you up a stool, it's good to see you all again

Oh, bottoms up now darlin', let's get on back to town
Well, the bottoms aren't the kind of place you need to hang around
Let's get on back to town, let's get on back to town

It's a coal black sky and the coonhounds cry
And distant hunters shine their lights as they go passin' by
And they're moving east through the bodark trees
Oh, your old man he'd kill us both if he caught you here with me

Oh, bottoms up now darlin', let's get on back to town
Well, the bottoms aren't the kind of place you need to hang around
Let's get on back to town, let's get on back to town

---

Three More Days

One, two, one, two, three
Tax payer, soothsayer, team player
Buddy, whaddya you need?
Empty page on an endless stage
And all I know is all I read from you
It's a whirlwind, stuck in the middle
Just looking at my shoes
I've got three more days on the road now, honey
God help me make it home to you

Dream-maker, leg-shaker, heart-breaker
Baby, I'm just a man
Runnin' wild with the eyes of a child
They take what they give and give all they can
Joker's wild flies to the top just to come down blue
I've got three more days on the road now, honey
God help me make it home to you

Show's over, crowd's leaving
Quit deceivin', just one more song
Break it down, take it to the next town
I like the company but the drive's too long
Learn to love it, livin' my life from eleven to two
Three more days on the road now, honey
God help me make it home to you

Learn to love it, livin' my life from eleven to two
Three more days on the road now, honey
God help me make it home to you

---

Won't You Give Me One More Chance

Don't you think I know you don't want me anymore?
How you've turned off to me like the closin' of a door
When I search your eyes for a sign that you care
All I see is goodbyes and I wish I wasn't there

Won't you give me one more chance to make it with you?
Forget about the bad we had, I don't believe we're through, honey
Come and lie with me like the way you used to do
You're the only thing I've got to hold on to

Thought I knew all the ways love can go blind
Like winter, keepin' cold in the heat of summertime
Now I feel a part of you is somehow out of tune
Something I can't see, like the dark side of the moon

Won't you give me one more chance to make it with you?
Forget about the bad we had, I don't believe we're through, honey
Come and lie with me like the way you used to do
You're the only thing I've got to hold on to

Won't you give me one more chance to make it with you?
Forget about the bad we had, I don't believe we're through
Come and lie with me like the way you used to do
You're the only thing I've got to hold on to

Won't you give me one more chance to make it with you?
Forget about the bad we had, I don't believe we're through
Come and lie with me like the way you used to do
You're the only thing I've got to hold on to

Won't you give me one more chance to make it with you?
Forget about the bad we had, I don't believe we're through
Come and lie with me like the way you used to do
You're the only thing I've got to hold on to