Big Wind Songs, by Jennifer Mansfield Peal
Ten Songs from her first recorded album of original songs: Big Wind
Originally released and (c)1992 on cassette by Jennifer S. Mansfield
(p) Scatterbranch Music Publishing, May, 2008

1. Big Wind
(c)Jennifer Mansfield Peal

There was a big wind that blew
Blew down your fence and hurt your roof
And in the attic where the squirrels would do their running
Now the rain is running too
And the foundation's gone awry
It's hard to keep the plaster dry
There's been a rattle in your pipes for three days running
Where the rain goes running by

Old man, you can fix your house now
You can paint your walls - I won't call
May it stand until it falls

What's with these big winds today?
You know it hit us different ways
But when a hurricane hits in Corpus Cristi
Do they know in Santa Fe?
So you've got time now, fix your fence
Go straighten up what the big wind bent
But you know living by the shore is much too risky
For a shelter-loving gent

Old man, you can fix your house now
You can paint your walls - won't call
May it stand until it falls

And as for me, I?ll change my name
My house fell when the big wind came
There's no more rattle in my pipes to keep me humming
No more walls to keep me tame
I hope these big winds are past
I hope this year goes by real fast
But as the years go by, the winds keep coming
'Till they knock you down at last

Old man, you can fix your house now
You can paint your walls - I won't call
May it stand until it falls

2. Angel Ann
(c)Jennifer Mansfield Peal

Angel Ann lies back and spreads her legs on a sears green ford pick-up truck
Adjusts the windshield wipers behind her back
And thinks "if they expected me to suit up for last period P.E. then they're
Shit out of luck ...

February, and the first real day of that spell Central Texans call spring
The fields still exhausted from a hot summer's sun
And the cold winter's wringing rain, but now the sun is warm again
And the breeze sends a whisper of green, raising goose bumps on our angel in Killeen

Oh, Angel Ann, Angel Ann, Angel Ann
Oh, Angel Ann, Angel Ann

Far a-field she hears the school bell ring
She thinks "Lord, he's bound to be by this way soon ..."
Books and clarinet slung over his back
She knows the boy from the trailer park and in the stadium after dark
And in her home room

As her arms recall his smooth tight chest, on her lips the sun is beating soft and warm
The ford is feeling chalky and her head is falling faint
And all the sky so blue today will be her lover anyway
A gasp and shuddered new alarm - tender lightning of a sudden summer storm

Oh, Angel Ann, Angel Ann, Angel Ann
Oh, Angel Ann, Angel Ann

Raindrops pock the ragtops - cool my racing heart
V-8 visions drive me now - bearing down on me like headlights in the dark

Derelicts resume their slow decay, left behind again the fords and chevy's wait
Patience is much to hard a task for sixteen years
She steps around the fire ants and thinks, "well, he had his chance ...
Band hall must have kept him late."

3. Two Sisters
(c)Jennifer Mansfield Peal

The flock is in, the gate is barred; father's fowl have left their yard
His riding horse is curried down; he stands and watches all alone
These Ozark Mountains, Ozark kin; they hide their secrets old as sin
White River mist will rise and roam; when is my sister coming home?

My sister's name is Anna Lee; she lays her head here same as me
She never lifts one dainty hand; she'd catch the eye of any man
My mother died when we were small; my sister has her rings and all
My father's what was left to me; and his beloved Anna Lee

My father calls his Anna fair with her little waist and her yellow hair
But I'm the one who tends this farm; he says I'm near good as a son
He doesn't see her for her kind and that she stole what's rightful mine
He doesn't know that he has seen the last of lovely Anna Lee

This morning on a rocky ledge, she was wandering by the water's edge
Wet stones betrayed her pretty foot; I saw her fall from where I stood
White River mist can't hide my shame; she clutched my hand, she called my name
I watched her eyes as she went down and I was glad my sister drowned

Now night must fall as night must do; Father stares off in the blue
He doesn't even notice me; he's waiting for his Anna Lee
These Ozark Mountains, Ozark kin, they hide their secrets old as sin
White River mist will rise and roam; when is my sister coming home?

4. Do You Remember?
(c)Jennifer Mansfield Peal

Do you remember, my old sweetheart, how we were virgins our first night alone
Chapel bells woke us to new dreams together
And we are parted but shortly now.

Do you remember, my old sweetheart, learning our lessons of grief and of loss
Making a new life brought strength to this old heart
And we are parted but shortly now

Do you remember, my old sweetheart, plans built through years then abandoned in haste
Walking the world and fighting a good fight
And we are parted but shortly now

I can't remember, my old sweetheart, what could have caused me let go of your hand
I know we had reasons - I hope they were good ones
And we are parted but shortly now

5. When Our Bed Was a Boat
(c)Jennifer Mansfield Peal

When our bed was a boat and we sailed all alone
Sweet days were adrift trailing hands through the foam
Were my eyes a bright island? Was peace on my shore?
Then why can't we travel by boat anymore?

Oh the wind's fresh young women stretch out by the sea
Like the gales of false love that have blown you from me
Teasing waves to a fury they take all they can
But the moon is his lover when the tide comes again

And the moon old and barren sits high and alone
But she calls to her lover when each day is done
And he rises to meet her as you once came to me
When we pushed our boat gently between the moon and the sea

When our bed was a boat and we sailed all alone
Sweet days were adrift trailing hands through the foam
Were my eyes a bright island? Was peace on my shore?
Then why can't we travel by boat anymore?

6. Church in the Wilderness
(c)Jennifer Mansfield Peal

Tell about the wagons, the trains, the cars
Making tracks across the blackland loam
Women, men, families, from Arkansas and Tennessee
On their way to build a Texas home
Tell of want, and hardship, and desperate times
Backs bent over cotton in the sun - No -
I will tell of Jesus, my soul's abiding peace,
And testify great works my Lord has done

I will be a church in the wilderness; I will rise up a temple of the Word
I will sing joyful praise through the fullness of my days
And live a witness for my Lord

Hands to hold a needle, a child, a plow
Often helpless to ease trouble's toll
Weary eyes, sure of pain, they've seen it through and back again
See that sorrow is the aging of the soul
Strive for home, security, a family's good name
Will I cry when to misfortune all is lost? - No -
I'll cry to think of mercy my Savior showed to me
In suffering for my soul upon the cross

I will be a church in the wilderness; I will rise up a temple of the Word
I will sing joyful praise through the fullness of my days
And live a witness for my Lord

Children of our children, we've seen them grow
In an age so unimagined in our youth
Choices dimmed, right obscured by lesser goals and city lures
Will they stray too far to hear the Bible's truth?
Will they bring what we've taught them to question our lives?
To their mothers' dreams unanswered will I call? - No -
I'll call them to the Gospel, eternal in its truth
In service to the one who saved them all

I will be a church in the wilderness; I will rise up a temple of the Word
I will sing joyful praise through the fullness of my days
And live a witness for my Lord

7. Barbara Asked
(c)Jennifer Mansfield Peal

There was a time when on the rocks the moss was green
Against the cliffs the wandering waves were swelling
Young Barbara came to me and asked me
Not to go to sea no more

It was a time when young men's fortune was the sea
And though so many found a grave beneath the foam
Their parents and their children mourned their loss,
But not their lives, from shore

She was my life - with her I shared my every dream
In her I found my strength, in her I found my pleasure
And her love for me was true and strong and much to fine
To ever be a widow's

I scratched a farm in soil far less fertile
Than my lovely Barbara
Her faith and sweetness matched our troubles
As the years rolled through our lives

So it was time that finally robbed my only jewel
It stole her breath but never stole her grace
Our children and their children keep their mother
Living in their eyes

My Barbara's hands had never knit the woolen sweaters
That, when washed ashore, our fishermen are named by
But of all the deaths a man could face
The solace of the sea, to me, seems welcome

Now left alone I walk the piers I might have worked
I watch the salt of young men's toil enrich the ocean
She sings her invitation as her chilly hands caress the shore

And now my time, my days stretch endless as the waves
The waves that call to me and fill my heart with longing
For now my youth and strength are spent
I'll never go to sea no more

8. Southwind (traditional Irish melody, words by JMP)
(c)Jennifer Mansfield Peal

A tuberose said to the gay south wind
"When angels ride stars through the sky,
Will grasses and reeds sing a last grand hymn?
Will dandelions learn how to fly?"

"Oh tuberose, tuberose," sighed the breeze,
"The grasses now sing all the day
And dandelions burst into cloudy seeds
For my breath to carry away"

Oh, wonderful, wandering ways of how
So kindly she kisses her kin
And angels may sing with us even now
So sayeth the lovely south wind

9.) O'Rourke
(c)Jennifer Mansfield Peal

In many a town of any size in English-speaking nations
There will gather such a crowd unmatched in all creation
Composed of those who'll pick a string or rosin up a bow
To play the songs of Ireland, not for money or for show
And so it was in Dallas at the Tipperary Inn
That as I sang on a summer's night a stranger wandered in

Now, I am a singer and not always in demand
My business was to welcome, introduce him to the clan
But as I sat beside O'Rourke he sadly shook his head
And he sighed his love for another land, and this is what he said:

"If my breath o'er the flute could blow me o'er the water
I would breathe such a air not heard by land or by sea
Won't the sweetness of that gale be the least of what I brought her -
No, I swear I won't hear reason until Erin hears me!"

O'Rourke was from Chicago, only second generation
The first to go to college, elevate his family's station
And there he studied music, standard repertoire and thought
But his uncle's flute from the County Down was the inspiration sought
Disciple of the Celtic, studied late into the night
He played for us that evening, his obsession our delight

Now, the sound of his flute was as liquid as birdsong
Playful as pebbles and dark as the night's long
Sad as the angels at a child's first lie
And with every note I could hear O'Rourke cry:

Well many a life's been lost to dream and many a soul to folly
But those to seek to please the muse find comfort in her calling
I hope O'Rourke's in Ireland, or that he'll be there soon
To sit with those who bred the spark in every fiery tune
And we who hear the echo play to keep that flame alive -
What an ocean can't drown we'll keep on the other side

10. You Can't Blame a Man for Taking You at Your Word
(c)Jennifer Mansfield Peal

A series of misperceptions has made me think again
Our weakest moments, washed of faith
Rage, exhaustion, pain
The things we say in moments that screw up years of peace
Our darkest voices finding words too dark for disbelief ...

He's acting like you meant it, like decisions made by lunatics are final
And maybe it's for better, since you can't recall him ever asking why
And maybe accusations and threats will clear the air, bring some reward
It's absurd
'Cause you can?t blame a man for taking you at your word

You can blame a man for lying; you can blame him if he's caught
And if he acts suspicious, you can blame him if he's not
But once you've said you're leaving for the sake of all those lies
Your traveling time's upon you so let the birds sing your goodbyes

So wander through your new life feeling like what women wear on washday mornings
And every evening take a break to study some new angle of a sigh
Resist that old temptation like a cat to sniff the chimney for a bird
You once heard
'Cause you can't blame a man for taking you at your word

You can blame him if he's callous, you can blame him if he's cold
The ones that act like children and the ones that act too old
But once you've said you're through with what was never all that strong
You've got your life without him left to wonder if you?re wrong