Hard Earned Smile Scroll down or click a song title to see the song's lyrics:     Dark & Deep     Hope - includes streaming audio!     All Right     Stupid In Love - includes streaming audio!     Grey Eagle     Butter     Flying     Change In Me     Michael's Song     Bicycle Man     Butler Street     Hard Earned Smile - includes streaming audio! Dark and Deep On a two lane road through the mountains I am taking the corners too fast My head is spinning as fast as my wheels Shifting from future to past So many things to attend to So many places to be The mountains roll right past my window Like a half-watched bar room TV If I could die just for a moment Let these worries work themselves out If it would all go on without me Tell me what's all this worry about? A promise is not like a moment A moment's not something you keep I've made too many promises lately And the woods are lovely, dark and deep I remember this friend down in Florida She used to get lost just for fun She'd take any turn that presented itself Just to see where the road might run It's amazing the places they'd take her The people and things that she'd find I've been meaning to look her up again But I can't seem to find the time Trying to make all the ends meet It's like I'm skating the edge of a knife I'm so busy making a living I've got no time for a life If I could die just for a moment Let these worries work themselves out If it would all go on without me Tell me what's all this worry about? A promise is not like a moment A moment's not something you keep I've made too many promises lately And the woods are lovely, dark and deep Words and Music by David LaMotte ©2000 Lower Dryad Music/ASCAP Hope In the Southland we're lighting the night sky With the fire from a church burning down When the sun comes again the black and white men Stand and stare at the soot on the ground They raise up their weapons and summon their strength And they cut at the wood with their swords But hey're striking blows against hatred 'Cause they're hammering nails into boards I keep thinking I hear the four horsemen And turning around to see It's just the pony express again And they've got a message for me I've got a lot of hope for the future I've got a lot of faith things can work out fine Got a lot of dreams for a better world Got a lot of work to do if I'm going to make them mine My town is still mostly divided And I don't see much color tonight And I know that it's all complicated That the issues are not black and white But how can we come any closer If I just shake my head where I stand There can never be any handshakes Until somebody puts out their hand I keep thinking I hear the four horsemen And turning around to see It's just the pony express again And they've got a message for me I've got a lot of hope for the future I've got a lot of faith things can work out fine Got a lot of dreams for a better world Got a lot of work to do if I'm going to make them mine Words and Music by David LaMotte ©1997 Lower Dryad Music/ASCAP Audio: Hope I wrote this one the summer that so many churches were being burned down across the South. That was a discouraging bunch of news, of course, but it was heartening to me to see the international response of people who showed up to rebuild them. All of the churches that were burned down that summer, in attacks that were obviously racially motivated, are now standing again. People of various faiths, and claiming no faith in particular, offered their sweat to drown out that hatred. I firmly believe that you can't hate hatred out of existence, that we have to build rather than destroy if we're going to defeat destruction. DavidLaMotteFan.com thanks David for his generosity in letting us share his songs. If you enjoy David's songs, you may order them here. If you enjoy David's song, please check out the Audio Library. All Right hear the knocking and I know who's there I see the branches, they blow in the air I know the sounds that this house makes at night And I know you told me that I'll be alright I see the light as it crawls across the floor You asked me please not to call anymore My friends all tell me that time heals all things But I turn the clock off before it can ring Put the pictures in the basement Lock'em up tight The presents and the postcards Get'em out of sight Wake up crying In the middle of the night Tell everybody you're doing all right I made the coffee And you made the bed I made you sorry For things that you said Now I return At the close of the day To find that my life's in Complete disarray Put the pictures in the basement Lock'em up tight The presents and the postcards Get'em out of sight Wake up crying In the middle of the night Tell everybody you're doing all right Words and Music by David LaMotte ©1997 Lower Dryad Music/ASCAP Stupid In Love Well I come 'round the corner and see you there And my heart begins to race You look up from where you are tying your shoe And smile at me with such warmth and such grace That I have to stop what I'm doing I am frozen in time and space When I finally move I trip over your cat And fall right flat on my face Because I'm stupid in love I'm clumsy in love I'm goofy in love I'm stupid in love with you We went to the ocean, we played in the water We walked along the sand And we went out to dinner and sipped champagne And completely ignored the band And you looked in my eyes and told me you loved me And reached out to touch my hand And that's when the waiter dropped our food And ran for the nearest trashcan Because we're stupid in love I mean we're disgustingly in love Revoltingly in love I'm stupid in love with you You fill me full of music I'm singing all of the time I am writing down my grocery list And it's coming out in rhyme Because I'm stupid in love I mean I'm hopelessly in love I'm cheesy in love I'm stupid in love with you Words and Music by David LaMotte ©1997 Lower Dryad Music/ASCAP Audio: Stupid In Love David says: this is the first love song I ever wrote (not counting 'post-love songs'). Star says: I love this song! DavidLaMotteFan.com thanks David for his generosity in letting us share his songs. If you enjoy David's songs, you may order them here. If you enjoy David's song, please check out the Audio Library. Grey Eagle I've got some pictures Just some old black and whites Everything was so simple Maybe I romanticize But it still makes me smile Looking back on those days When black and white fade to grey And the grey eagle flies And I'm riding along To the land of my father's father I'm singing the song my gradmother used to sing About a bushel and a peck And a hug around the neck and I'm home Now there's a sidewalk Where the path used to be Where we planted a sapling I can climb in the tree I find I stand taller With my feet on the land That my grandfather worked with his hands And the grey eagle flies And I'm riding along To the land of my father's father I'm singing the song my gradmother used to sing About a bushel and a peck And a hug around the neck and I'm home Once in a while I like to stop by And make sure that the place looks OK Stand on the steps with a tear in my eye And I'm wishing that I could just stay So I'll take a few pictures With my Dad's thirty-five Of my grandparent's home Where they lived most of their lives And a few in the garden Where their roses still grow And I'm hoping that somehow they know And the grey eagle flies And I'm riding along To the land of my father's father I'm singing the song my gradmother used to sing About a bushel and a peck And a hug around the neck and I'm home Words and Music by David LaMotte ©1997 Lower Dryad Music/ASCAP Butter There is tension all over this morning As we ready ourselves for the day Every time that I turn in this tiny apartment I seem to be right in your way So I fall down the hall to the shower While you fill up the toaster with bread If silence was noise you'd be totally deafened If looks could kill I'd have holes in the back of my head Maybe it really is the situation Maybe no one is to blame Maybe we're not much of a combination No one's breaking the rules here We're just playing different games So you ask me to say what I'm thinking I tell you I'm not really sure If I sit on my feelings you'll say I'm aloof If I share them I'll be immature So together we stare at the toaster While the teapot screams out its song If you can't stand the heat don't sit on the burner If you don't like the music then don't sing along You are gripping your composure Like a climber grips a ledge I am contemplating closure I am inches from the edge Then the tension boils over to anger And you stare with disgust at your bread Your fingers find a long strand of hair That could only have come from my head Then the anger boils over to action Something suddenly flies through the air And I'm faced with the task of extraction Of butter and toast from my hair Maybe it really is the situation Maybe no one's been unfair Maybe we're not much of a combination You don't want hair in your butter I don't want butter in my hair Now we both think hair is a good thing We both like butter just fine Some things just don't go together Some singers can't sing certain lines Maybe it isn't your problem But maybe it isn't all me Maybe it isn't bad playing We're just not in the same key Maybe it really is the situation Maybe no one's been done wrong Maybe we're not much of a combination We both have lovely voices We're just singing different songs Words and Music by David LaMotte ©1997 Lower Dryad Music/ASCAP Flying My little eyes glued in amazement To that magic movie screen Five years old in the darkness Waiting for my favorite scene And then Peter Pan was flying And it looked so real to me He just laughed like it was easy And gave us all the recipe So up to the roof with my pixie dust To try it on my own I thought good thoughts and jumped right off And broke my collarbone But for a moment I was flying So high above it all And I guess if you want to fly You've got to learn how to fall If you're ever looking for me Don't forget to look above Because I still believe in flying And I still believe in love My arm was falling dead asleep But I couldn't take it down Wrapped around my sweetheart In the theater downtown Flying on the wings of love My feet never touched the ground But they say everything that rises Is bound to come back down So I'm talking with this friend of mine But my eyes are on the floor I just couldn't see why she left me Or what this pain was for And he said "your love wasn't wasted Just because your heart is sore All that love just stretched it out So now it holds a little more" Am I falling down or am I flying? Am I washing out or just crying? Well what Peter said there's no denying The secret to the flying Is you've got to just believe If you're ever looking for me Don't forget to look above Because I still believe in flying And I still believe in love Words and Music by David LaMotte ©1997 Lower Dryad Music/ASCAP Change In Me Seems like everybody's getting it together In my little town Even Roger quit drinking Even Ron settled down With all that wind blowing There's one more that I've got to see The change in me I've been wearing my half-empty glasses Drinking them down when they're full An eye on the sky for the angels But I dig my heels in when they pull Locking my doors and my windows And wishing that I could be free Of the change in me I've been listening to songs about silence Turning them up real loud Checking the side roads and alleys Walking in step with the crowd Pretty good impersonation Of the man I wish I could be I need a change in me Change in me Words and Music by David LaMotte ©1997 Lower Dryad Music/ASCAP Michael's Song I've been watching you, the way you treat the ground Watched you crawl and walk and run and fly and fall down But you're a tough one, you never let me in Even though you know I know the smiling boy behind that thick skin It's a hard day, full of hard news Seems like everyone who loves you finally leaves you So I'll hold you while you're crying 'Cause when you say you are OK I know you're lying My little brother I can't say I'll always be here In a world that's always changing But I have no other So remember when you fall You can always call So you took my bike, and it got stolen When you came to break the news your eyes were swollen But our bond is strong, no one tore it And besides I'm gonna make you pay me for it My little brother I can't say I'll always be here In a world that's always changing But I have no other So remember when you fall You can always call It's a hard day, a tough one for me I don't think I'll ever be the man I want to be So you hold me while I'm crying 'Cause when I say I am OK you know I'm lying My little brother I can't say I'll always be here In a world that's always changing But I have no other So remember when you fall You can always call Words and Music by David LaMotte ©1997 Lower Dryad Music/ASCAP Bicycle Man Eighty-three years and some thirty-year-old Says that I'm not safe in a car on the road I remember the first car that came to this town Oh the changes I have seen But this bike and this body will still get me there If I keep them both in good repair They can't take away my bicycle license I'll ride 'til my days are through I'm the Bicycle Man It's true that you never forget I'm the Bicycle Man And my travelling days Are not over yet There isn't much hair for the wind to blow But no one can say that I'm getting slow And I'll sing just to hear my voice sound funny In the gravel parking lot All the kids on the block like to ride with me I can skid in the dirt and sometimes pop a wheelie It's almost dark soon they'll have to go in But I can ride all night if I want to I'm the Bicycle Man It's true that you never forget I'm the Bicycle Man And my travelling days Are not over yet It's strange how it all comes back around Like my wheels on the road as I ride through this town I rode my bike home from my very first kiss And here I am again I'm the Bicycle Man It's true that you never forget I'm the Bicycle Man And my travelling days Are not over yet Words and music by David LaMotte ©1997 Lower Dryad Music/ASCAP Butler Street There's a neon cross on a mountain Saying 'sinners best beware' That means that somebody went to the trouble To run power way up there These mountains speak to my spirit I guess it kind of blows my mind To think someone could look at that vista And think God needs a neon sign The old man asked me if I was saved I turned to check his eyes I didn't see any concern there And it's sad that I wasn't surprised No, he was just trying the secret handshake Where you push until push comes to shove His hands were deep in his pockets And his eyes said nothing of love Sing me a song about Jesus But please don't sing about the poor It's already been a long day I really don't want to hear anymore Sing me a song about Jesus That will make me feel happy inside Sing me a song about forgiveness That will make this lifestyle feel justified Sing a song about Jesus Ran into Jesus this morning He was down on Butler Street He was carrying his bedroll He was standing in line for something to eat He got splashed by the muddy water When the shiny hubcaps rolled by He brushed himself off and chuckled and looked over at me And said "hey, there but for the grace of God go I" Sing me a song about Jesus But please don't sing about the poor It's already been a long day I really don't want to hear anymore Sing me a song about Jesus That will make me feel happy inside Sing me a song about forgiveness That will make this lifestyle feel justified Sing a song about Jesus Words and Music by David LaMotte ©1997 Lower Dryad Music/ASCAP Hard Earned Smile If faces tell stories, and I think they do There have been some hard chapters in the story of you There's some dark and some lonely in the lines 'round your eyes A thousand nights' tears, promises and lies So we sit at the diner and talk until dawn Lay it all on the table 'til the coffee's all gone All the hard people you've known and you've been Wounded and healed and opened again And you said it best when you played your guitar "From where you come isn't what you are" I can hear the song ringing out over the miles And there's nothing so true as the hope in a hard earned smile We all have our trials and our lessons to learn If your dreams are on fire then your heart might get burned But to choose to be strong and have courage to heal Lends truth to your song and the hope that I feel And you said it best when you played your guitar "From where you come isn't what you are" I can hear the song ringing out over the miles And there's nothing so true as the hope in a hard earned smile Words and Music by David LaMotte ©1997 Lower Dryad Music/ASCAP Audio: Hard Earned Smile David says: I originally wrote this song about my friend Jimmy Landry. Jimmy has a powerful song about his family history called From Where You Come. The chorus to that song is "From where you come as you have grown/ The pain you see need not be your own/ Though it cuts you deep and hits you hard/ From where you come isn't what you are." Over the years, though, I've realized that the song isn't just about Jimmy. DavidLaMotteFan.com thanks David for his generosity in letting us share his songs. If you enjoy David's songs, you may order them here. P.O. Boogie Well I went down to the Post Office Just to pick up on my post I said honey I'll be back in ten minutes Maybe fifteen at the most Do you want me to stop and do anything While I'm already out? She said "No, no, no just come home soon and don't forget what your trip is about 'Cause you know there is just one thing That you have got to do today That's to get to where you're going So go on, get on your way And don't let anything distract you On the road to where you go And would you please just try to hurry You do everything so slow I opened up the front door Stepped out into the sun I almost stopped to greet the mountains But I knew I had to run So I ran across the sidewalk And I hopped in my old car But the tank was below empty I knew I wouldn't get too far So I pulled in at the station Just to get myself some gas I was counting every second And trying to pump real fast And right behind me at the register And old friend said hello She said "I really gotta talk to you" I said "I really gotta go 'Cause you see there is just one thing That I have got to do today And that's to get to where I'm going So I must be on my way I can't let anything distract me On the road to where I go I've just got to reach my final destination Don't you know? Well the light in her eyes flickered As if I'd tried to blow it out So I took her hand and asked her What she had to talk about We walked around the corner You can't leave a friend in need But I had to make some time up So I picked up on my speed And I flew around the corner With this officer right there I told him all about my mission But he didn't seem to care He said I should be so happy Just because I was alive And then he tooked me in and booked me For sixty-seven in a thirty-five And I said "Your honor, There is just one thing That I have got to do today And that's to get to where I'm going So I must be on my way And I'm running pretty late now Won't you let me out of jail She said "You can go quite freely For two thousand dollars bail." Well my baby came and got me She didn't even seem too mad And she listened to the tale Of the adventure that I'd had Then she said we had one stop to make If I didn't care And when we opened up the mailbox There was nothing there So I said There is just one thing That I have got to do today And that's to get to where I'm going But take my time along the way 'Cause when my goal is just to get there Seems I never get too far It's not about your destination It's the way you drive your car Words and Music by David LaMotte ©1997 Lower Dryad Music/ASCAP