Calaveras: Music

• MP3 short clip, hi-fi play (broadband)
• MP3 short clip, lo-fi play (modem)

Grand prize winner, West Coast Songwriters International Song Contest 2005. This song grew out of living in Linden, California (pop. 1200 or so) and hearing small town jokes as a kid (told by the kids in the nearby bustling metropolis of Lodi).

My Town

My town it’s a drive-on-by town
It’s an if-you’re-going-60-you’ll-miss-it-if-you-blink-your-eye town
It’s a bunch of little houses and a bank and a grocery, nothing much special to see
But my town is the only town for me.

I moved to the city for a couple of years but I could never call it home
Funny how so many people can make you feel so alone
I guess they got some pretty nice women there beneath the perfume and the paint
But you never know which ones are and which ones ain’t
It sure ain’t like

My town it’s a folks-say-hi town
It’s a kids-on-bikes and a flags-on-the-Fourth-of-July town
You can come around for some lemonade and visit ‘neath a big shade tree
That’s why my town is the only town for me

I came back home and married Mary Jo, I’ve known her since I was four
The sweetest girl in the whole wide world and she was livin’ right next door
The best things in life are like that, sittin’ right under your nose
You go chasin’ daisies when you’re already holding a rose
And that goes for

My town it’s an average-guy town
A get-married-settle-down-have-kids-and-eventually-die town
But there’s no place I hold dear like here among friends and family
Cause my town is the only town for me.

You get you’re birthday in the paper, with a coupon for one free beer
And just about every decade, you get to be man of the year
Right here in

My town, it’s an average-guy town,
It’s a folks-say-hi town
It’s a drive-on-by town
Oh it’s my town.