Slow Night Lyrics

Blue Highway

Shadows dance on the rose
Traveling down this winding road
To return going home
Along the Blue Highway

Source of life, gift of love
To the sea she must run
To return from above
Along the Blue Highway

Along the Blue Highway, my friends
Along the Blue Highway
To return back again
Along the Blue Highway

Ides of March rushing down
Flooding out river towns
Life and death goes round and round
Along the Blue Highway

Along the Blue Highway, my friends
Along the Blue Highway
To return back again
Along the Blue Highway

Black and white, red and yellow
Blue above, green below
All are one within her flow
Along the Blue Highway

Along the Blue Highway, my friends
Along the Blue Highway
To return back again
Along the Blue Highway

Words & music by Larry Long
Copyright Larry Long Publishing 1982 BMI, Renewed 2018 BMI

I
River, you were calm
as a blind grandmother
humming over your knitting
for long October days
while the last red leaves
fell into you lap
and floated south.
II
A bird made of water,
your wet stone wing
flap out to guard
the thousand islands
of sand and sumac
where fires are kindled,
stories told, love made.
III
Three old friends sat
in a boat beneath an umbrella
reading Mark Twain
to fish who stayed in
your muddy stomach
and would not be charmed
out into the grey light.
IV
But then, going north,
you tried to kill us
and I loved you best
the hard grey chop
of your hundreds of hands
trying to soften the meat
before you eat at last
V
Whatever else, you are alive:
aorta of the continent
pumping out muddy blood
of cattle yards, corn fields,
and black sinkhole towns
grown up like barnacles
on your whale skin bluffs

– Bill Holm

I Love You 

(Honoring Virginia McKnight Binger)

She was rich to the core

A friend to the poor

I love you

From her heart she would give

So others might live

I love you

Some people have

So many have not

Enough to get by

The dream lives

The dreamer dies

I love you

Often she’d read

Of people in need

I love you

God has many names

To their doorstep she came

I love you

To fall through the cracks

To never get back

Without a hand to hold

Like Lazarus of old

I love you

Mothers unwed

No place for their heads

I love you

To get a degree

Childcare they need

I love you

One plate full at a time

Until all children find

The love, the comfort of home

To be safe, and never alone

I love you

Surrender your self

To love

Someone else

To share

In love

Not control

To see in each face

The whole human race

I love you

To see the gift

Not someone at risk

I love you

Wonders made real

Through God’s grace revealed

Through human compassion combined

To share this world as divine

I love you

Words & music by Larry Long

Copyright Larry Long 2018 / BMI

I Love You was written in honor of Virginia McKnight Binger.   Mrs. Binger was the matriarch of the McKnight Foundation, which has given generously to our community. Virginia discovered that many people whom she wanted to support didn’t fit within the parameters of McKnight funding.  In response Mrs. Binger set up the VMB Fund, where she had a scout go out into the community to find those who are doing good work.   Virginia McKnight Binger would invite many of them into her home to learn more about their calling and if so called she would help fund their efforts.   I was one of those fortunate recipients of her generosity through my work of bringing elders, who reflect the many faces of children in the classroom, into schools to share their life story with youth.  The children in turn write a song in their honor to be sung at a large community celebration through a program entitled Elders’ Wisdom, Children’s Song administered through Community Celebration of Place (501 C3).   I remain forever grateful for Virginia McKnight Binger and may her song serve as inspiration for you to carry it forward.

My Love For You 

(For my daughter, Alana)

You will always be my friend
I am yours until the end
If I could I would start again
My love for you

Beautiful in every way
In my heart you remain
Of my joy and of my pain
My love for you

To be born to be set free
To be all that you can be
Through this life for the world to see
My love for you

Dreads of color, face a glow
You will always find a home
Here with me wherever I roam
My love for you

I will never turn away
From your love on my dying day
These words you will hear me say
My love for you

With each note that takes flight
Through this world of candlelight
Peace on earth for the world tonight
My love for you

Words & music by Larry Long
Copyright Larry Long 2018 / BMI

from Slow Night, released January 1, 2019
Larry Long: Lead Vocal
Antwaun Stanley: Background Vocal
Cory Wong: Electric Guitar
Kevin Gastonguay: Keyboards
Joe Savage: Pedal Steel
Yohannes Tona: Bass
Petar Janjic: Drums

Producer: Cory Wong
Recording Engineer: Matt Patrick, Library Recording Studio
Mixing Engineer: John Fields
Mastering: Cory Wong

Puerto Vallarta

Puerto Vallarta
Such a beautiful night
As blue as the ocean
In dew-drops of light
South from Alaska
To Banderas Bay
Lovers embracing
Along the malecon walkway

Puerto Vallarta
Such a beautiful night

Puerto Vallarta
Cathedral bells
Ring for the dolphins
The humpback whale
From north of the border
To burn beneath the sun
Where the trabajadores
Ends up with none

Puerto Vallarta
Such a beautiful night

Puerto Vallarta
El mercado now full
Mi mujare linda
Bialando juntos we go
Clouds white and wispy
The pelicans dance
Over the ocean
Diving down in a flash

Puerto Vallarta
Such a beautiful night

Puerto Vallarta
Dulce amore
You look so beautiful tonight
Puerto Vallarta
Mi amore
You look so beautiful tonight
Dulce amore
Such a beautiful night

Words & music by Larry Long
Copyright Larry Long 2018/ BMI

Additional Verse:

Puerto Vallarta
Streets of cobblestone
Wind down from the mountains
To the river below
A rooster is crowing
Alone on the hill
Morning has broken
So quiet and still

Puerto Vallarta
Such a beautiful night

Slow Night

Slow night
My baby wants a slow night
Don’t want to start no fight
She’s in the mood for a slow night

She don’t want to play my fiddle
With a wiggle in the middle
Not even for a little
She’s in the mood for a slow night

Slow night
My baby wants a slow night
Don’t want to start no fight
She’s in the mood for a slow night

She don’t want to ride my cycle
Not even for a nickel
Guess I’m in a pickle
She’s in the mood for a slow night

Slow night
My baby wants a slow night
Don’t want to start no fight
She’s in the mood for a slow night

Oh no, my baby’s sleeping
Look at me I’m just weeping
Oh no, my baby’s sleeping
It’s going to be a slow night

Think I’ll go watch the TV
Read a book or some magazine
Take my dog for a long walk
All the way about the block

Slow night
My baby wants a slow night
Don’t want to start no fight
She’s in the mood for a slow night

Don’t you know that I love you
Don’t you know that I want you
Don’t you know that I need you
It’s you and only you

Words & music by Larry Long
Copyright Larry Long Publishing 2018 / BMI

Thanks to Amy Cordova for her beautiful front cover artwork Chiri Biri Bi.  

Back cover photograph by Tim Bonea, courtesy of the Woody Guthrie Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Special thanks to these incredible musicians:

Cory Wong: Electric & Acoustic Guitar

Joe Savage: Pedal Steel, Lap Steel, Harmonica

Kevin Gastonguay:  Keyboards

Yohannes Tona:  Bass

Ian Allison: Bass

Petar Janjic: Drums

Antwaun Stanley : Background Vocals

Michael Nelson : Trombone, Arranger

Kenni Holmen : Sax

Steve Strand : Trumpet 1

Adam Meckler : Trumpet 2

Recording Engineer: Matt Patrick, Library Recording Studio

Mixing Engineer: John Fields

Mastering: Cory Wong

Words, Music, Lead Vocals and Harmonica by Larry Long

© (P) Larry Long Publishing 2018 (BMI)

Spoken word poem written by Bill Holm