Mother when you finally get to heaven
can you tell me just what you have found up there
and if you speak to Jesus, tell me
what he really said
because I think we lost it long ago down here

Now I don't mind what you tell me
but I don't know if it's all true
but you're going' and you'll see it
and I know you really care
that's why I wrote this note to give to you

Well, mother, when you find your place in heaven
just in case I never make it there
tell my old friend I can still hear the ringing of his laughter
and I often wish that he was still down here

Mother, when you look down on me from heaven
in the chance that you arrive while I'm still here
tell the angel at the door to leave the porch light on for me
because I know I'll need help finding my way there

Momma tell the angel at the door to leave the porch light on for me
because I know I'll need help finding my way there

© 2009 CJM

Don’t need no body tellin me
Nothing at all
Don’t need nobody to tell me
Nothing at all
Sometimes ya just gotta try it
And its my fault if I fall
Don’t need nobody tellin me
Nothing at all

Don’t need to call me on the phone
Don’t need to call me on the phone
Sometimes this ol boy needs to be left alone
Don’t need to call me on the phone

Don’t need you kissin me goodbye
Don’t need you kissin me goodbye
Just go on and walk away so you don’t see me cry
Don’t need you kissin me goodbye

Sorry if I curse too much
Sorry if I curse too much
Used to read the bible
But lately ive been out of touch
Sorry if I curse too much

Don’t need to tell me not to drink
Don’t need to tell me not to drink
You know I do my best thinkin
Sittin in a corner drinkin
Don’t need to ask me not to drink

Its just the kind of life I lead
Its just the kind of life I lead
Sometimes I win the fight and other times I bleed
But its just the kind of life I lead
© CJM 2012

I'm forever destined to roam
Don’t think ill ever know a place
A place I can call home
I try so hard sometimes
But I don’t fit in
Im here and gone I keep moving on
Like a whistle in the wind

Maybe forever
Maybe just ‘till dawn
Maybe be ill head some place that I’ve never been
Maybe nobody will know I’m gone
I’ll take my chances
Ill take what’s mine
I live my life through the smiles
And the tears and the miles
Ain’t got nothing else on my mind

I'm forever if I'm a day
I'm just the leaving kind
But sometimes I find that I feel inclined to stay
I’ve been the loyal one
I’ve been the Judas kind
I think sometimes I can see it all
And other times I’m blind

- Cyrus James © 2013

Ive got boxes full of memories
Next to the mattress on the floor
My hat still hangs in the same place that
It always hung before
Nothings really changed much
Except now I wash my own clothes
And the hole I try to fill seems to get harder as it goes

Sometimes I miss her
Sometimes shes all that I can see
Theres times I think that life is set to make a fool right out of me
But sometimes I smile
When I think of a memory
Because shell always be texas to me

Theres not a highway I don’t see her
Houston on up to raton
The thoughts they fade into the cracks that have opened in these bones
Sometimes I find a bottle and crawl way down inside
Sometimes I sit and feel the pain to remember I'm alive.
© CJM 2014

I hate to see her go
But there she is walking away
Sometimes I just don't know
I guess its better off that way

She laughs at everybody's jokes
the whole world makes her smile
I guess she just wants to be free
because nobody makes her...

nobody makes her cry but me

She left her key in the door
She left a note on the bed
Sometimes I cant make sense of all the things that run through my head
The tear drops on the paper are dry
so I know she's gone
maybe I'll see her later
maybe she was never here at all

She laughs at everybody's jokes
the whole world makes her smile
I guess she just wants to be free
because nobody makes her...

nobody makes her cry but me

(c) 2013 CJM

It aint just the blue collar or the hands in the dirt

or the coal on the belt line or the paint on the shirt

or the dust from the cowboy and the cattle he's drivin'

or the eighteen wheels rollin and the gravel thats flyin'



my best friends named Sparky, he works in the mine
 six miles deep, come rain or come shine
 dont take lip from no one, ive seen him move fast
 give him some **** and he'll hand you your ***



I got a buddy called Outlaw, he rolls eighteen wheels
 sometimes nine in a corner with the logs on his heels 
he aint scared of nothin, says he dont like to fight
 says hes just exercisin' for the long haul tonight



my ol man swung a hammer for most of his life 
he earned blood sweat and tears
 but he came out alright 
might be a church in the city or a cabin far from town 
but he''ll die in his tool belts before he'll die sittin down.



it aint just the blue collar or the blood in the dirt,
or the coal beneath your skin or the scars from the work,
or the rope burns on your hands and yet you keep ridin


its just the breath thats the difference between livin and dyin.


(c) 2013 CJM

Northbound sittin on a southbound train
No money in your pocket and youre left sittin in the rain
Two way ticket down a one way track
Don’t know where youre headed but you know you aint comin back

It feels like ive reached the bottom but its
Still a long way down
So I ask, the bartender
To pour me another round

Stars don’t have to fall for you to know that its night
Whats left is all you’ve got when youre all out of the right
Started at the ending don’t know where to begin
And so it goes, no one knows about the shape I'm in

It feels like ive reached the bottom but its
Still a long way down
So I ask, the bartender
To pour me another round
(CJM 2013)