(VAI) Queen Of The Slide Guitar

Lyrics

[Intro – low slide guitar, river wind, slow drum pulse] And then One day Just like that [Verse 1] I was keeping my head down Counting cracks in the floor Trying not to ask the night What I’d asked it before Had a notebook in my pocket Had a ghost in my hand Had a heart full of weather No map of the land Then somewhere past the water Where the old lights bend I heard that silver crying Like a long-lost friend Not a sermon, not a warning Not a voice from above Just a slide guitar calling With a blade made of love [Pre-Chorus] And I knew that sound Before I knew her name Some fires go quiet But they still keep flame [Chorus] Across the river Across the night The Queen of the Slide Guitar Called me back to the light Across the bridge Through the smoke and rain I sat down at her feet And I remembered my name She played that thing Like thunder made clean Like cotton-field lightning Like a holy machine Across the river Where the lost songs bend The Queen of the Slide Guitar Found me again [Verse 2] She had a hat pulled low And a storm in her wrist Every note came walking Out of some dark mist She didn’t need permission She didn’t need a crown She bent one string sideways And the whole room bowed down There was fire in the rafters There was dust in the lights There were names in the feedback There were wrongs getting right And I don’t mean saved Like a churchman might say I mean found by a sound That would not look away [Pre-Chorus] And I crossed that bridge With my shadow behind Some music don’t heal you It just tells you you’re alive [Chorus] Across the river Across the night The Queen of the Slide Guitar Called me back to the light Across the bridge Through the smoke and rain I sat down at her feet And I remembered my name She played that thing Like thunder made clean Like cotton-field lightning Like a holy machine Across the river Where the lost songs bend The Queen of the Slide Guitar Found me again [Bridge – spoken over slow slide] Some people play notes Some people play rooms Some people walk in carrying weather And leave behind moons But her She played the crossing She played the ache She played every road A worn-out soul can take And I sat there quiet No crown to bring Just a man at the feet Of a woman who could make steel sing [Slide Guitar Solo – mournful, then rising] [Verse 3] Now I keep that sound folded In the back of my chest For the nights when the old world For the nights when the old world Won’t let me rest When the river gets wide And the bridge looks thin I hear that slide guitar laughing Saying, Come on then Because one day she was there Loud as grace With the whole damn sky Written over her face And again, her name she sang Through wire and wood Like a queen from the river Calling back what was good [Final Chorus] Across the river Across the night The Queen of the Slide Guitar Called me back to the light Across the bridge Through the smoke and rain I sat down at her feet And I remembered my name She played that thing Like thunder made clean Like cotton-field lightning Like a holy machine Across the river Where the lost songs bend The Queen of the Slide Guitar Found me again [Outro – slow fade, voice almost spoken] And then One day Just like that She sang to me From across the river So I walked the cross bridge And sat down again At her feet