Paula Joy Welter: Music
STILL HIDDEN PLACES CD soundbytes
A Distant Shore
(Paula Joy Welter)
Deep Within Wisconsin Green
(Paula Joy Welter)
DEEP WITHIN WISCONSIN GREEN
copyright 1995, Paula Joy Welter
VERSE I:
Twenty years, we shared a room
We fought a lot, but made up soon.
Laughter, tears, and whispered dreams
Bound us close, as close can be.
VERSE II:
I remember well the day,
She took his name and moved away.
Standing in a winter's sun,
We waved goodbye and ending just begun
CHORUS:
Now far away, my sister lives,
Deep within Wisconsin green,
But sister love can build a bridge
Many thousand miles long...
So every day, I send this song
With the sparrows flying by
They carry love across the sky
To deep within Wisconsin green
VERSE III:
Twenty years have come and gone
Fading ink on letters long
But still I hear old lullabies
Duets we sang when we were five
CHORUS REPEATS:
Now far away, my sister lives,
Deep within Wisconsin green,
But sister love can build a bridge
Many thousand miles long...
So every day, I send this song
With the sparrows flying by
They carry love across the sky
To deep within Wisconsin green
To deep within Wisconsin green
The Tumbleweed Waltz
(Paula Joy Welter)
I wrote this song on a long drive home after performing at the Tumbleweed Folk Festival, in Richland, WA. To me, it is a metaphor for the importance of attitude.
THE TUMBLEWEED WALTZ
Copyright 1997 Paula Joy Welter
VERSE I:
It’s best to bloom where you’re planted,
But a tumbleweed’s choices are few,
They never know a place called ‘Home,’
They’re meant to wander and roam.
CHORUS:
So when the wind whistles through the pine and thistle,
To the tune of a fiddler gone mad.
They practice their dancin’, skitter and spin
Sashay and twirl without a care in the world
They turn a fine…somersault, in the joy of the tumbleweed waltz.
VERSE II:
Some days seem harder than others,
And a tumbleweed learns early on,
Luck changes course, like shifting sand,
There’s no tellin’ where you land….
CHORUS REPEATS:
So when the wind whistles through the pine and thistle,
To the tune of a fiddler gone mad.
They practice their dancin’, skitter and spin
Sashay and twirl without a care in the world
They turn a fine…somersault, in the joy of the tumbleweed waltz!
Gone The Rainbow
(Paula Joy Welter)
Where Two Rivers Meet
(Paula Joy Welter)
Broken Wings Mend
(Paula Joy Welter)
Rivers Run Deep
(Paula Joy Welter)
On Steeds That Could Fly
(Paula Joy Welter)
Uncharted Skies
(Paula Joy Welter)
Where Sparrow Choirs Sing
(Paula Joy Welter)
The Truth In The Gravy
(Paula Joy Welter)
MORNING LIGHT CD soundbytes
Each Brings A Light
(Paula Joy Welter)
Nashville song publishers told me I was too eccentric and 'nobody will listen to folk," so I sat, instead, in a Nashville cafe, The Slice of Life, and worked on these lyrics -- in the process, meeting the ex-wife of John Prine, who suggested some folk-friendly publishers to approach in Nashville.... an ice storm got in the way, but the song was worth the trouble I had there, 'connecting.'
The Kiss Before The Fall
(Paula Joy Welter)
A Sky With No Blue
(Paula Joy Welter)
Sitting on my deck, shortly after a marriage ending, I looked out over the valley of Coloma, across to the Sierra Nevadas...and thought about love and the opposite sides it sometimes presents anyone who takes the chance.
A SKY WITH NO BLUE
Copyright 1995, Paula Joy Welter
Were it not for the valleys below,
Moutains wouldn't seem so high.
Farewell is an end to hello
And goodbyes always make me cry
CHORUS:
A girl without freckles
Is like a night without stars,
Just as songs full of longing
Seem made for guitars
And love without kisses
Is like a child with no wishes
And me without you is a sky with no blue,
Oh, me without you is a sky with no blue
VERSE II:
Were it not for the warmth of sunlight,
Flowers wouldn't grow and bloom.
What would we see at midnight
If somebody stole the moon?
CHORUS REPEATS
Joanna's Gift
(Paula Joy Welter)
A dear friend, Joanne White, inspired this song -- an incident that happened between her and a stranger in a Rancho Cordova, CA store, as she was waiting in the checkout line.
JOANNA’S GIFT
©1995 PAULA JOY WELTER
Verse I:
SHE STOOD IN LINE AT STOP ‘n SHOP,
GROCERIES AND HER PRIVATE THOUGHTS,
WHITE ROSES FILLED JOANNA’S CART,
BUT NOT THE ACHING COLDNESS IN HER HEART.
Verse II:
THEN ABOVE THE MARKET’S NOISE
JOANNA HEARD A WOMAN’S VOICE
“SUCH LOVELY FLOWERS YOU HAVE TODAY,”
AS FINGERS REACHED TO STROKE THE SWEET BOUQUET.
CHORUS:
SOMETIMES STRANGERS TOUCH OUR LIVES
LIKE SOOTHING RAIN FROM SUMMER SKIES.
SOMETIMES STRANGERS HAVE A WAY
OF HEARING WHAT WE CANNOT SAY.
SOME HAVE FLOWERS, SOME HAVE NONE,
BUT THE FRAGRANCE AND THE SORROWS SHARED
ARE COMMON CORDS THAT BIND US ALL AS ONE.
Verse III:
JOANNA KEPT HER TEARS INSIDE,
BUT SAID “THIS WEEK, MY MOTHER DIED. ”
THE STRANGER SAID, “I MISS MINE TOO,”
AND THEN THEY TALKED AS ONLY WOMEN DO.
Verse IV:
JOANNA PAID AND TURNED TO GO,
BUT FIRST SHE LET SOME KINDNESS GO;
IN GIVING HALF HER FLOWERS AWAY,
SHE FELT SOME ACHING COLDNESS MELT THAT DAY
CHORUS REPEATS, then again:
SOME HAVE FLOWERS, SOME HAVE NONE,
BUT THE FRAGRANCE AND THE SORROWS SHARED
ARE COMMON CORDS THAT BIND US ALL AS ONE.
No Matter If...
(Paula Joy Welter)
Blessed Be The Fool
(Paula Joy Welter)
Religious freedom is one of the most important rights granted to us in our US Constitution. This song came from my thoughts on tolerance, prompted by a knock on the door and my thoughts later about matters of faith...
BLESSED BE THE FOOL
Copyright 1993, Paula Joy Welter
VERSE I:
wisdom
And straight is the path of the steadfast believer.
But twisted the road of the questioning Pilgrim;
Truth is a master at clever disguise…
Blessed be the fool who dares to ask why.
VERSE III:
They’d walked a long way in the name of religion
I wanted to tell them that Heaven is wide
But righteous leaves little room for discussion
So the truth of the matter was lost in the void
VERSE IV:
I wished them both well, as they turned to go
But they seemed afraid of an infidel’s love
All I could say is, ‘The god that I know has room for you both in the Kingdom above.”
CHORUS REPEATS
Calling You Home
(Paula Joy Welter)
Long Ago
(Paula Joy Welter)
This song was inspired by the many hours I spent up in a tree, reading mostly hard-bound lovely old books brought home from second-hand stores by my mother. The stories I name in the chorus are six books I never forgot. Stories are like that, when vividly told.
Silence Is Their Only Refrain
(Paula Joy Welter)
A Promise On The Breeze
(Paula Joy Welter)