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The Caitlin County
Hemp Wars
Music and Lyrics by Terry Crystal c. 2005
  

1. Family

We started this here family
We founded this here farm
From morning until sundown
We work the ground we're on
We cherish what god gave us
The land and what we sow
To give this to our children
We hope this joy they know
We're the parents
We're the founders of this farm

Ain't easy getting by these days
We're all out on a limb
Competing with the big guys
Survival's always dim
We bicker with each other
'Bout saving this here land
So we can make a living
From the sweat of our own hands
We are brothers
We're the workers of this land

We cook the meals and clean the house
We work out on the farm
We care for all the children
Even when their gone
We've been there for our husbands
When things don't look so good
We hold the place together
Like no one else here could
We're the wives
We're the mothers of this farm

We plough the land
We till the soil
And when our work is done
We go out to the local bar
And have a little fun
We wonder what we're doing here
Saving this here land
Will take a major miracle
To keep it in our hands
We're the children
The third generation
Of this farm

We argue about everything
On nothing we agree
We know what's right 'bout everything
It's just that they don't see
Our life here it ain't easy
'Bout this much they got right
We make it even harder
With every little fight
We are family
We are family
Yes we are!


4. Kids Know Best

Hear the children
Hear the children
Hear the children
Hear the children

Listen hard and listen loud
We here kids will make you proud
Listen to what you say and do
Then we question, one or two
Things you seem to take for granted
Like the seeds that you just planted

Hear the children
Hear the children

Can't you see beyond your hand
We're about to lose our land
Mazie she just lost her job
Fact'ry closed and moved abroad
Sent young Johnny off to
war
He came back his leg all tore

Hear the children
Hear the children

Wonder why the worlds on fire
Seems as if they just got tired
Listening to the evening news
Makes you crazy and confused
That's why we hunt and fish
Life's much simpler when you wish
They'd listen

Hear the children
Hear the children

 


7. Peace Now
(3X solo, duet, ensemble)


Tired now of fighting
What use does it serve
Now we're standing together
When life throws us a curve
We can work together
For our daily bread
We are joined together
Now

You do not get to choose your family
We are only related by blood

 


9. Caitlin County Blues

You left me twenty years ago
To strike out on your own
Five years into our marriage
You left me, left our home
We didn't have no children
You said you'd rather roam
You got the blues
You got the blues
Got the Caitlin County blues

You couldn't stand the lifestyle
Too much work, it was too tough
You said, you couldn't stand the life
A farmer’s life, it was too rough
All the work and the uncertainty
And the love was not enough
You got the blues
You got the blues
Got the Caitlin County blues

Now I got my plot of land
But no woman to help me out
Now I got my plot of land
But I'd rather be without
Want to leave this pain behind me
Start a new life in the city, thereabout

Want to leave Caitlin County
Meet some women, get a life
Want to go to the city
Sell my land, get a wife
Only problem with my plan is
Ain't my land to sell.


10. Compromised Individuals

Goodby sunshine
Hello Moonshine
How did we become these
Compromised individuals

How did we become these bad seeds
Did not get rewarded for good deeds

We are only doing
What we're supposed to do
We are working for our bosses
Got to make sure there are no losses
Do you take us for fools
After climbing the ladder
We only want to go higher
Not go back down

If we didn't do
what we are told
We'd lose our jobs
We're not so bold
To defy what is expected
We're neglected

Cogs in the wheel
You might say
Playing the game
The right way
Pulling the strings
On your assets
Where would we be
If we cared

Goodby sunshine
Hello Moonshine
How did we become these
Bad Seeds


12. Diversionary Tactics

We are creating a diversion
We are creating a subversion
When we present to you our version
Of a truth you will not find
We are creating an illusion
We are creating mass confusion
No you don't have a contusion
We are messing with your mind

Are we right
To masquerade
To put on this charade
Who are we fooling

We are creating a sensation
Providing endless fascination
We present an education
Of another kind
What we are doing is delicious
If indeed it is pernicious
Should they not be all suspicious
They would be blind

Are we wrong
To mislead this way
We can only say
We hope that they believe it

Do we now have your attention
What we believe is our contention
Are we right to go out on the limb
For family and friends
We'd do it all again!

  


14. Courtroom Cowboy

She walked into the courtroom
With a feeling of pride
Put her briefcase on the table
Had her clients by her side
Said hello to the gallery
With a nod of her head
Said hello to the judge
With a smile

A-men A-men
We hang on her words
She's our lawyer our friend

So slick with your words
So quick on the draw
You proceed to impress them
With the arguments of the law
You target your oponent
Bring him into your sights
You slay them with your verbs
Till they know you are right

A-men A-men
We hang on her words
She's our lawyer our friend

We are glad you're our attorney
Our life in your hands
We gladly entrust you
With the law of the land
If the law is proved right
Then justice is dead
If you kill them with your words
We'll be free men again

A-men

Songs
(To hear music use Internet Explorer.
MP3s include song fragments only!)
1.  Family (mp3)
2.  Want to be me  (mp3
3.  Love is Forever
4.  Kids Know Best (video)
5.  Grass
6.  Take a Stand  (mp3)
7.   Peace Now (mp3)
8.   Planting the Seeds  (mp3)
9.   Caitlin County Blues  (mp3)
10. Compromised Individuals (video)
11. Hangin' Together (mp3)
12. Divertionary Tactics (video)
13. Men in Black (The Chase)
14. Courtroom Cowboy  (mp3)
15, One People (video)

 

2. Want to be me 

All my life was told just what to think
All my life they made my choices for me
What happens if I don't agree
With the thoughts they're feeding me
Seems as if they got a master plan
Tell the world exactly who I am
Made in their image
To live just like them
It pains to disagree

Won't you wipe those fears away
Just want to be myself today
If you fall down on your faith
Tomorrow brings another day.

Gave me all your love when I was young
Sacrificed to give me what I have
You made me everything I am
Told me I can do all that I can
Now you want me back home on the farm
Afraid that I will only come to harm
Should I follow my dreams
Go where life takes me
Just let me live and set me free.

Refrain

They don't like the man that I have chose
Say that he is not the one for me
Their comments leave me out there in the cold
Don't know what to do or what to be
Everything I care about dismissed
Guess that they will never understand
Want to live my own life
Shouldn't need their approval
Just want to be who I am

Refrain


3. Love is Forever
 
Like the birds in the willow, the wind in the tree
So, our love is forever, you mean everything to me
Like the storm on the range, and the herd on the plain
We are linked in our love and our goal
In our daily routine
In our hopes and our dreams
Through the fights and the diff'rences
We're always redeemed

It ain't always been easy
But here we agree
There ain't no one for me except you.

We are there for each other
Come good time and bad
We learn from each other
When happy or sad

Refrain

 5. Grass (Instrumental)

 


6. Take a Stand

Just a wand’ring man
Stumbling in the dark until I met you
Then you came along
Now I see the sun on the trees
Know you love me too
Even though your fam’ly disagrees
I’m the one for you
Feels so right I’m down on my knees

Take a stand
Let yourself be led by your heart
Take my hand
I will help you make a new start

Seasons come and go
Springs the time when we can do some planting
Let your fam’ly go
They will be there even if you stray
Summer comes along
That’s the time we reap what we sow
Tell your fam’ly “no”
To the hand that they would have you play

Refrain

Winter’s come and gone
Take me in your arms, don’t send me packing
Please don’t get me wrong
I just simply wanted to know
Will you be my wife
Stand together in the rain and sunshine
Help each other grow
Love each other our eternal life

Refrain


8. Planting the Seeds

We are planting the seeds for our salvation
Don't know where we are going, but there's no turning back
We have played by the rules, and it's time to move on
We have only our dreams to guide us
Carry us Lord, to the place in our souls
Carry us far, to the place unknown
We are here for each other in our struggle to survive
We are planting the seeds for our home.

(rap)
We try and we try
But got nothing to show
We try and we try
It's all happening too slow
The obsticals enormous
Impediments too big
What can you do
When you're dealing with a pig.
Oink, Oink.
Oink, Oink.

It eats everything in sight
Devours the nation
When it’s done with its meal
It's time for a libation
What's next?
What's next?

The countries of the world
They don't know whats coming
It's the greenhouse gasses
Gonna get you where you rhyme
But there's something we can do
That don't have people running
We can change the world
Before we run out of time
Got Hemp!
Got Hemp!
Got Hemp!
Got Hemp! 
 


11. Hangin’ Together

You ask for our help
Ain't an easy thing to do
To come hat in hand
And ask a favor

Favors we can give you
When life don't come easy
It's nice to know
You have friends

The cloud that surrounds you
It surrounds us too
The fear we might fail
Besides all that we might do

Weathers always changing
When crops don't appear
It's nice to know
You have friends

We are hang'n together
We are hang'n together
If we're not there for each other
Oh Then why are we here
The times may be changing
But our friendship's forever
You ask for our help
And we'll be there just the same
Halleluyah! We'll be there just the same
Halleluyah! We'll be there just the same
   


 13. Men in Black

This is the story
of a family and their farm
What they did to save it
So it wouldn't come to harm
They grew a plant
Was illegal, that they knew
But to save their farm
They’d try anything

So they grew a hemp crop
They knew it was a risk
That the men in black
Might arrest them

Their friends all helped
When harvest time came in
The family worked fast
To put the crop into bins
When granny got wind
That the feds were closing in
She hopped on a moterbike
To distract them

Catch me if you can boys
Says our granny to the men
The men on their moterbikes
Coming for them
She picks up a hemp leaf
And leads them on a chase
So they won't see her family
Loading up the crates

They are loading the hemp crop
Got to be quick
Or the men in black will arrest you

Go... Granny...Go

Granny on her moterbike
Takes them for a ride
Takes them through the hillside
Knows just where to hide
She breaks for nothing
The wind on her face
Cause the men behind her
Are fast keeping pace

Back at the farm
They are finishing the job
All the hemp is in the truck
And they are ready to depart
With Bill at the steering wheel
Shelly by his side
They are making the trip to Wisconson

Go... Billy...Go

He got one hundred yards
But got stopped by the Feds
Had to open the trailer
Take a look, the man says
When they opened up the crates
And the men saw the crop
They put them in handcuffs
And led our family off

They were loading the hemp crop
Got to be quick
Or the men in black
Will arrest you


15. One People

Do what is right
Do what is just
Follow your heart and your dreams

Once I was standing
Alone on the shore
You came along
Then there were more
People to help
People to care
Together we stand
Together we live
For each other, another, ourselves and our brother

Do what we can
Do what we might
I take your hand
Together we'll fight
For a better tomorrow
A better today
So, Together we stand
Together we live
For each other, another, ourselves and our brother

We may be different
But this much is true
When we needed help
You came through
To be there for each other
And show our resolve
Together we stand
Together we live
For each other, another, ourselves and our brother!

We are one people we are one
We are one people we are one
We are one people
We are one people
We are one people
We are one.