The eagle flies above the mountain
She swoops down low, seeking feed
Oh, and she knows she dare not rest
Until her young have left the nest So she flies on to where the timbers
And brooks of nature songs are sung
But falls too soon to grounds uncovered.
She lies a victim of the hunter's gun. Her young are calling, high up above her.
Their cries are simple for basic need.
Ah, but there's no answer, their hunger deepens,
And they perish, too, from the hunter's greed Ah lovely creature of nature's making,
Can we not see the truth of law
For it's in our own pathetic weakness
And not in you, which lies the flaw The eagles fly above the mountains.
From such a fate they can't defend.
So they'll fly on into the darkness
And join the others who man will end.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Vocals and guitar: Mindy Simmons
Keyboards: Bruce Wallace
Bass: Otis Young
Drums: Jenny Ashbaugh
Pedal Steel: Dave Peirce

CHORUS
The rose and the gold of a Florida morning
Will bring your soul close to tears,
The rose and the gold of a Florida morning
Will live in your mem'ry for years. Your heart leaps up by her ocean,
Dreams sweet dreams by her streams,
In the calm of her blue estuaries
You'd swear you can hear mermaids sing.

CHORUS
Her Everglades roll on forever,
Grass rivers all tangled with sky,
And over immense Okeechobee
Swift hawk and the bold eagle fly.

CHORUS
The gulf stirs beneath warming West winds,
She nourishes bodies and souls,
When Nature laid hands on this magical land
She blessed it with treasures untold. CHORUS

Vocals: mem Semmes
Giuitar: Jon Semmes
Flute: Ingrid Ellis
Bass:Pete Price
Fiddle: Pete Hennings
Vocal harmony: Ingrid Ellis and Pete Price

Chorus:
Now dirt bikes scream over land that used to be scrub cow trails
And interstate highways have taken the place of old Mr. Flagler's rails
And condos rise from the land and space shuttles fly
And the old Cracker Cowman don't know how it all passed him by

Old Bone Mizell he's gone but the legend lives on
Jake Summerland, and old Sam Keene, the beginning and ending of an era now gone
Men like Doc Norman some how let the bottle get him down
These old Florida cowboys are like eagles tied to the ground

Chorus: repeat

Frank Thomas: guitar and vocals
Ann Thomas: bass and vocals
Stan Geberer: harmonica
Doug Richard: fiddle
Mike Lawson: cello

A bird can fly, in from the sea,
Or be blown a thousand miles upon a tropical breeze.
But we are bound, fast to this land,
As we sink our human roots into this shifting sand.
We came in boats, we came in cars,
We cam in numbers nearly countless as the evening stars.
We came on roads, we came on rails,
We came with dreams of endless sun and brightly colored sails

Still some times I think we've gone too far and gotten there to fast,
On this journey to the future from the past.
I hear the words of Will and Gamble as they whisper from behind,
While I'm walking through the Florida pines.

We tamed the land. We turned the ground,
We drove our highways through the Glades and tore the woodlands down.
But we brought the world, and they brought cash,
Then they raised their cane and cows and filled the air with trash.
Now they come in cars, they come in planes,
They come to stand in endless lines despite the daily rains.
But they buy their hats, and they stay out late
To enjoy this plastic vision of the Sunshine State.

Still some times I think we've gone too far and gotten there to fast,
On this journey to the future from the past.
I hear the words of Will and Gamble as they whisper from behind,
While I'm walking through the Florida pines.

But some have come, and some have cared.
They have helped ensure that corners of our world are spared.
They came in boats, they came in cars,
They came with voices in their hearts and played their old guitars.
Now we feel the sun, as we walk the shore,
And hear the verses of the poets who have gone before.
We share their hope, and we share their pain.
We share a vision that a s simpler way will come again.

Still some times I think we've gone too far and gotten there to fast,
On this journey to the present from the past.
I hear the words of Will and Gamble as they whisper from behind,
While I'm walking through the Florida pines

Paul Garfinkel, 1997

In a deadly kind of silence that is all across the land
To the haven of Big Cypress, I have come to make a stand
Are you listening, Can you hear me just before the dawn?
Hear my scream break the silence, Will you wake up and I'll be gone?
Pawprints in the sand

I'm running for the backwoods as more trees begin to fall
Being pushed into a corner with my back against the wall
Are you listening,Can you hear me for I'm nearly out of breath?
Hear my scream break the silence, For my race is life or death
Pawprints in the sand

This dark image now is clouded for I see through misty eyes
Come and run now with my spirit, This proud panther never cries
Are you listening, Can you hear me? Know this before I'm through
For surely with my passing goes a little bit of you
Pawprints in the sand

In a deadly kind of silence that is all across the land
To the haven of Big Cypress, I have come to make a stand
Are you listening, Can you hear me? Know this before I'm through
For surely with my passing goes a little bit of you
Pawprints in the sand
Will you see Pawprints in the sand?
Will there be Pawprints in the sand?
Are you listening, Can you hear me?

These Diamonds
There's a story behind these diamonds
Your grandma kept them in a velvet box inside a drawer
These Diamonds
In a green velvet sea, they're just like islands
They could have brought a pretty penny in their time

If we sold them we sure could have used the money
But one day all that money would be gone
And Grandma said we can't be poor
Just look right here inside this drawer
And once a year, she'd put them on

Chorus:
How they sparkle
How they shine
Handed down to you and me to be their keeper for a time
But these diamonds, these little islands
How they sparkle, how they shine
These islands
There's a story behind these islands
Your grandpa sailed me out to them when I was just your size
These islands
In a green velvet sea, they're just like diamonds
They could have brought a pretty penny in their time

And we could have filled them in and built a city
Like grandma could have sold those jewels she prized
She kept them safe and so did we
These diamonds, these mangrove keys
So you can see with your own eyes

Chorus

Bridge: So many generations have passed these heirlooms down
So easily they could have sold them
So very much more beautiful to hold them

Chorus
How they shine, these little islands
How they shine, these little diamonds
How they shine, these little islands
How they shine

The moon rides high on the Atlantic
As we walk down John Lloyd beach
Watching for those ancient creatures
Who climb up within our reach
Then we see the mamma turtle
Pick her perfect nesting place
And as she struggles with her eggs
It looks like tears fall down her face

Our young guide with the flashlight
Says it's just sand in her eyes
There's no other earlthly reason
For a loggerhead to cry
But we'll be here to help the hatchlings
Find their way toward the moon
Cause when we' built our homes upon this sand
We didn't leave them any room

Chorus:
She's cryin' turtle tears
As she leaves her babies in the sand
Like she's done a hundred years
Before she needed any help from man
Before our ignorance and greed
Did so much damage all these years
She crawls back to the sea
Her sea of turtle tears

Florida means oceans
Florida means clouds
Since the highways and Flagler's trains
It means vast tourist crowds
And anywhere a hoard of humans go
Our Mother suffers in the wake
As we feed our endless appetites
We take and take and take

We believed our rare resources
Would go on eternally
That Florida was ours to waste
>From the grasses to the sea
Now I watch this blessed mother
Leave her babies on this shore
Not knowing if they'll find the moon
I know what she's cryin' for

Chorus:
She's cryin' turtle tears
As she leaves her babies in the sand
Like she's done a hundred years
Before she needed any help from man
Before our ignorance and greed
Did so much damage all these years
She crawls back to the sea
Her sea of turtle tears

TAG: She disappears into the sea
Her sea of turtle tears

Now the armadillo'll scratch the sand
And poke his nose down underground
Stick it in just as deep as he can
And he stirs it all around
Somehow he manages to find a meal
But I don't know how he does.
He ain't got no Rand McNally map of Florida.

Now the dragon flies fly thick as rain
Out here where the sawgrass grows
And you know if you can stand the pain
He'll pick a deer fly right off your nose.
He always gets there right on time
But I don't know how he does.
He ain't got no Rand McNally map of Florida.

We go running down the interstate
Round the clock--we're running late
It's a raging river of rayban shades
From Tallahassee to the Everglades,
Bumper to bumper, ditch to ditch
And every one but me's a son of ____
And we've all got Rand McNally maps of Florida.

You know the 'possum folks, kinda tells it all.
His brain ain't wide and it ain't too tall.
Compared to most folks it's kind of small
But still he muddles through,
'Cause he don't litter the road with McDonald's trash,
He don't snort coke and he don't burn gas.
He don't hate 'cause he can't figure
He don't pull knives and he don't pull triggers
He don't smoke and he don't cuss
And if he don't get run over by one of us
He don't need no Rand McNally map of Florida.

We go running down the interstate . . . .

They call me 2-gun Johnson
Down here in the glades
I fish a little, hunt some birds.
I'm a jack-of-all-trades

Grew up in Flamingo
Down around Cuthbert Lake
With a rifle or a boat
It's a living I must make

I've scouted out some rookeries
Where the snow egrets nest
And after the eggs are hatched
You know their feathers are the best

Feathers for the ladies' hats
Is what they're for I'm told
And at $35 for an ounce of them
You know they're worth their weight in gold
Chorus:
Plumes
Bright explosions of wings
Once I shoot those crazy birds
I can buy all kinds of things

They'll just sit right there
Can you imagine that?
Trying to protect their young
Just feathers in a hat

Said he was a game warden
As his blue eyes glinted sadly
I'm not proud to say this, but
I'm the man who killed Guy Bradley
I'm the man who killed Guy Bradley

I killed him for Plumes
Bright explosions of wings
Once I shoot those crazy birds
I can buy all kinds of things

(Instrumental)

I guess I've known Guy Bradley
Nearly all my life
Sat together in Miss Hattie's school
Carved a desk up with a knife

He played a decent fiddle
With Old Uncle John's String Band
They'd play at Old Man Lyman's Store
Or they'd play right in the sand

But I've got to feed my babies
So I shot without a word
Crumpled in the bottom of his sailing skiff
You know he looked like a bloody bird

He's buried behind a coconut grove
Out there on the East Cape
Sending him to protect them birds
Was a terrible mistake

(Repeat Chorus)
Steve Blackwell
© December 1992

When she leaves the dam at Chattahoochee
Winding in a southern flow
Easy on her way -- another night and day
She'll finally reach the Gulf of Mexico

Apalachicola River Water
In veins of our land
Alligators in her swampy borders
Are a part of nature's plan
Give the word to protect her
Call the technical sector
Soften up the cry to drain the swampland dry
Apalachicola let her wind
Apalachicola strong in mind
Apalachicola flowin' fine--Lord
Apalachicola doin' time

So as we turn the page of natural history
She's windin' in a southern flow
Nursin' in her waves
The oysters in the bays
This is just a part of nature's role
(Chorus)

Older than your history, I am Manatee. Shall I be extinguished in your time? Or shall I, like the mermaid, save the man who would save me? Your future, fellow mammal, flows with mine.

(Chorus) And who will be Manatee tomorrow? Will your children know my children, or just a memory? The current of all living things shall treat us quite the same. Who'll know my name, in an empty rolling sea?

Racer of the ancient currents, I am Dolphin. Man-child, I have seen you safely home, Though your father's trawler hauls miles of drifting, deadly walls; The nets that snare my future and your own!

(Chorus) And who will be Dolphin tomorrow? Will your children know my children, or just a memory? The current of all living things shall treat us quite the same. Who'll know my name, in an empty rolling sea?

Singer of the ageless songs, I am Whale, Maker of dark symphonies at sea. You're killed me in my mating-ground, I've died to breathe the air. I've died for soap and oil and ivory!

(Chorus) And who will be Whale tomorrow? Will your children know my children, or just a memory? The current of all living things shall treat us quite the same. Who'll know my name, in an empty rolling sea?

Graveyard of galleons, I am Coral Reef. I am the ocean's nursery. I have watched your trade- routes grow, and their treasurers fall below, But Spanish gold buys little hope for me!

Cradle of your origin, I am Ocean, Witness to the mystery of your birth, Life-giver to the land, and the family of Man, And all the wondrous creatures of the earth!

(Chorus) And I will be Ocean tomorrow, Though your children and my children be just a memory. It the current of all living things treats all things quite the same, What will I be, but an empty, rolling sea? If the current of all living things treats all things quite the same, What will remain, but an empty rolling sea?