Lyric Contest Winners: July/August 2017

Congratulations to our July/August 2017 Lyric Contest winners, listed below. Click here to enter the September/October 2017 Lyric Contest.

1st Place
“Highway Sky”
by Adrian Gronseth
Beverly Hills, CA

Fell in love on Monday
Tuesday fell back down
Hit the road on Wednesday
Rolled right outta town

The highway’s always open
When all the doors have closed
Beyond the city’s silence
There’s music on the road

Mama made me wonder
Daddy let me drive
My baby took me under
Taught me how to dive

Know I’m born to ramble
Ride upon the wind
Believe I’m bound to die for you
I just don’t know when

Far away, far beyond the clutches of the past
Out to where the wild waters flow
A suitcase and a harp to blow my heart is all I ask
Leave the rest behind me when it’s time to go

Left you in Missouri
Got drunk in Arkansas
Woke up in Montana snow
With a broken jaw

Spent all of my silver
Gambled all my gold
Gave away my winter coat
But my soul ain’t cold

Far away, far beyond the clutches of the past
Out to where the wild flowers grow
A notebook and a harp to blow my heart is all I ask
Leave the rest behind me when it’s time to go

Never could find shelter
Could not claim a home
Never feel as free as when
My boots begin to roam

Don’t know where I’m going
Don’t know how or why
But I’ll lead my feet to where
The highway meets the sky

2nd Place
“Proof of Life”
by Michael Sinay
San Antonio, TX

A table for two
Neither one of us is there
Pretend to read the menu
With a 1,000 yard stare
The talk is cheap…
As the mariachi play
“Would the lady care for a song tonight?”
Here’s a $20 to just go away…

That summer in Veracruz
Stray dogs at our feet…
Just a couple of crazy kids
With a front row seat…
Not a care in the world
Beyond the changing tides
Before the lines were drawn
Before we chose up sides…

You can’t hold a heart for ransom
On the edge of a knife…
You can’t try to raise the dead
Without a proof of life…
Every tie that binds
The struggle & the strife…
Every battle scar
They are my proof of life…

Windswept memories are trapped behind your glance
I try to recall, the last time that we danced…
To a faded fiddle’s call, in the early July heat
To when we knew the rhythm…of the other’s own heartbeat…

So here I am again
Corona in my hand…
Trying to find the answers
In a million grains of sand…
Did the anchor just give way?
Did we just drift out to sea…?
And the shimmer off the ocean
Is only a memory…

You can’t hold a heart for ransom
On the edge of a knife…
You can’t try to raise the dead
Without a proof of life…
Every tie that binds
The struggle & the strife…
Every battle scar
They are my proof of life…

You can’t hold a heart for ransom
On the edge of a knife…
You can’t try to raise the dead
Without a proof of life…
All the ties that blind
A man & a wife
Leave us battle scarred…
They are our proof of life…

3rd Place
“Your Days Are Numbered”
by Bill Vaughn, Ken Harrell
Eagleville, TN

I spent the summer of my 16th year
On the farm with my grandpa
He tried to teach me right from wrong
But I thought I knew it all
All the little things that matter
Never mattered much to me
And it took losing him
For me to finally see
That grandpa’s words mean more now than ever
And looking back I wish I listened then to what he said

Don’t let your life get in the way of living
Take your time and be a little more forgiving
Do what’s right and remember this, my son
Your days are numbered and you don’t know which one you’re on

Years and miles down the road
My son came to me
And said, “Dad, my world is upside-down”
And I can’t make ends meet
He said, “I work all the time
To buy the things that we don’t need
I hardly see my wife and kids
And it’s killing me”
And grandpa’s words meant more right then than ever
So I told him
The same way he told me, when he said

Don’t let your life get in the way of living
Take your time and be a little more forgiving
Do what’s right and remember this, my son
Your days are numbered and you don’t know which one you’re on

Every day you get
That’s just a gift from up above
And don’t wait on tomorrow
‘Cause tomorrow might now come

Don’t let your life get in the way of living
Take your time and be a little more forgiving
Do what’s right and remember this, my son
Your days are numbered and you don’t know which one you’re on

4th Place
“Tastes Like A Heartache”
by Andrea Stray
San Francisco, CA

I finally ran into you
It was how I thought it would be
I was a little thrown, and it was so bittersweet
Sure enough the past slowly crept in
I was happy to see you, but I remember when

The air was thick with blue night scars
Drunken dreams and perfect guitars
To go back now would be a bittersweet mistake
Cause the bottom line is, it tastes like a heartache

So I grabbed my drink to wash it down
So much to say, but too many people around
I almost fell again for you
Between the smoke and these aching blues

The air was thick with blue night scars
Drunken dreams and perfect guitars
To go back now would be a bittersweet mistake
Cause the bottom line is, it tastes like a heartache
The bottom line is, it tastes like a heartache

And there’s a place that nobody knows
Where the melodies last like faith and a rose

When the air gets thick with blue night scars
Drunken dreams and perfect guitars
I remember that’s what caused us to break
The bottom line is, it tastes like a heartache
Yeah, The bottom line is, it tastes like a heartache

Honorable Mention

“Submarine”
by Matt Larson
Peoria Heights, IL

“Start Again”
by Bill Beasley
Winston Salem, NC

“Writing Letters”
by Jeanne Marie Freer, Molly Jeanne Freer
Poughkeepsie, NY

“Sunday Mourning”
by Bryan Garrett
Houston, TX

“I Didn’t Come This Far (To Only Come This Far)”
by Mark Stepakoff
Wellesley, MA

“Blue Camaro”
by Eric Jones
Staten Island, NY

“Broken”
by Taylor Lanigan
Delray Beach, FL

“Pass Me By”
by Aemero Gebeyehu
Los Angeles, CA

“Redemption”
by Melody Black
Rowlett, TX

“Hooking Up”
by Nick Deutsch
New York, NY

 

Paul Simon: The Concert In Hyde Park — (CD/DVD)