Kyle Knapp - House of Sod

Down the River Road (mp3) (wma) (ra) words & music by Kyle Knapp

Walk a mile to a magic place down the river road
Where ten years old seems like yesterday
Cross the creek 'til you find a place
Down a path lined with chicory and Queen Anne's Lace
Where you disappear without a trace

Until it's time to go
Down the River road

It's a wonderland of innocence all my own
But the girl next door used to go with me there sometimes
And there was music everywhere underneath the sky
The crickets' song and the droning of the dragonflies
As we tasted young love while the sun was high

And our hearts were free
Down the river road

Well everything changes - innocence gets lost
Still you long for a place lost in time
lost in time...

We landed the moon and the river road became an interstate
I guess that's progress in the real world
But it's hard to hear the oriole's call
Over freeways and cell phones and shopping malls
There's a scent of a dream I can almost recall
If I let my mind wander
Down the river road

© 2005 Kyle Knapp

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'cross the Wide Missouri (mp3) (wma) (ra)
© 2007 Kyle Knapp

(no horses, mules, crickets or other indigenous species were harmed in the recording of this reenactment...)

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the Song that Joe Hears (mp3) (wma) (ra) words & music by Kevin Sullivan

Joe, bring the hearse around
For my Mary’s heaven-bound
It’s been ten years since we were married
Too soon to lay her in the ground

Seven children show our love
I guess one more was one too much
But life is hard here on the prairie
We’ll put our trust in God above

I remember when I first saw Mary
Picking wildflowers in the rye
But those flowers are all dead now
And heavy snow is in the sky

Heavy snow, bury me
Wash away my misery
Got no time for pain and sorrow
Still gotta raise a family
Still gotta raise a family…

© ?

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Daughter of the Snow (mp3) (wma) (ra) words & music by Kyle Knapp
(for more history about Rachel Snowden click here)

When Bill & Rachel Snowden staked their claim in Omaha
July of 1854
Rachel might have been the last white woman for a thousand miles
Men would gather just to see her smile

Tell me Rachel, why did you come here?
What took you so far from your home?
The first few lonely winters in this dusty frontier town
Would've brought an ordinary woman low
Daughter of the snow

As the cabin they called home became St. Nicholas Hotel
Sometimes she served a hundred meals a day
You can hear her pots a-clangin' to announce the noonday meal
One thing you never heard was her complain

Rachel, what was it called you from the folks you loved
To make this cold Nebraska sod your home?
Was fragile femininity a thing you left behind
To build a life where few would dare to go?
Daughter of the snow

A hundred-fifty years gone by erodes a memory
A sprawling city barely knows your name
And the debt that's owed to you most likely will not be repaid
But then I reckon it was not for thanks you came

The reaper finally had his way in 1899
Rachel's bones are resting up on Prospect Hill
But her spirit is still with us living in the legacy
Of a proud heart the prairie could not kill

Tell me Rachel, why did you come here
To make this unforgiving place your home?
You can plead your case to history, but it's a fickle judge I know
Is a graven marker all you'll have to show

If you could see your homestead now, half a million strong
I wonder, was it worth the price you paid?
With your husband and your children, leaving everything you'd known
To make this Nebraskaland your own
Daughter of the snow

© 2005 Kyle Knapp

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Is This Heaven? (mp3) (wma) (ra) words & music by Kyle Knapp

Riding into tomorrow, or west on highway 20
Life can be a lonely road
Where the frozen fields lay fallow, and a few naked trees
Shiver in December’s cold
My heart is cold and empty, like those gray clouds above
As darkness settles in for the night
When my eyes are drawn westward, where the land meets the sky
And suddenly the clouds begin to ignite

Is this tomorrow’s birth or yesterday’s funeral pyre?
The Iowa sky is on fire

Continue On (mp3) (wma) (ra) words by Bob McDonald, music by Kyle Knapp

(below are the lyrics to Bob's original poem, written in honor of slain Omaha police

officer Jimmy Wilson Jr. The version sung in the recording is slightly different)

Mama, please don't cry for me
And don't call me your hero
I only did what I was paid to
Though it's a tragic way to go

And Dad, I hope you remember
All those talks you had with me
I want to let you know right now
Each one meant something special to me

Continue on, don't let your world come to an end
Continue on, the Lord will help your sad hearts mend
Continue on, there's still a future for your life
Continue on, continue on

To those I worked with side by side
Thank you for the times we had
We always knew this day might come
While protecting the good from bad

Continue on, don't let your world come to an end
Continue on, the Lord will help your sad hearts mend
Continue on, there's still a future for your life
Continue on, continue on

This is for the lives I've touched
With my life, or with my death
I just urge you all to carry on
And trust the good Lord knows what's best

And to my family of the shield
Past, present, and to come
We pledge to lay our lives down
For all, not just for some

Continue on, don't let your world come to an end
Continue on, the Lord will help your sad hearts mend
Continue on, there's still a future for your life
Continue on, continue on

© 1995 Kyle Knapp

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Barnswallow Dance (mp3) (wma) (ra) music by Kyle Knapp
© 2006 Kyle Knapp

(what? no lyrics? Oh yeah, this is an instrumental...)

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Sybil (mp3) (wma) (ra) (click here for full-length download offer)
words & music by Kyle Knapp

Sybil puts her boots on
And crunches through October’s cast-off clothing
The wind says Autumn’s over, but her heart still holds the Spring
She walks out on a cold November morning

As the snowflakes gently fall
And kiss the frosty face of the dawn
But no one seems to notice
Another mystic moment come and gone

The days are growing longer
Sybil struggles to shake off Winter’s chill
Will her passion be awakened
As April’s ardent sky draws the dewy drapes of evening

To make love to the trembling earth
And kiss the blushing cheeks of twilight
But no one seems to notice
Eternal secrets whispered in the night

Fragile fruits are waiting to be tasted, Sybil
So stay with me awhile
We’ll savor Summer’s golden glory

As all creation reaches
To touch the tender tears on God’s face
But does anybody notice
The mystery unveiled in his embrace?

All creation reaches
To kiss the tender tears on God’s face
Lift up your face in wonder
Mysteriously lost in his embrace

© 2006 Kyle Knapp

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Mother's Day (mp3) (wma) (ra) words & music by Kyle Knapp

In that moment of passion, I wonder if you knew
that destiny was in the room
Or that seeds of the future had been planted
and conceived within your womb

I thank the Lord above that I'm alive and free
To bless the woman who gave life to me and my family

There was one who fed me, who nurtured me along
the rough and ragged road of youth
The tongue that scolded me, the hand that dried my tears
The heart that helped me see the truth

that life would not be easy, but remember when I'm grown
If I share the love she showed me, I'd never be alone

I'd never be alone

As generations roll on, will they remember those
who sustained them on the way?
As my children, and their children, come into their own
I hope that I will hear them say

I thank the Lord above that I'm alive and free
To bless the woman who gave life to me and my family

I thank the Lord above that I'm alive and free
To bless the woman who gave life to me and my family
We're a family

We're a family

© 1992 Kyle Knapp

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the Road (mp3) (wma) (ra) words & music by Terry Talbot

(below are the original lyrics as Terry emailed me. Some of the phrasing

is slightly differently in my recorded version)

I saw them standing by the road
Around a bus, rusted and old
I picked them up, they numbered 3 to 5
Please take us home, the oldest sighed

Now the sorrow in his voice
Left me with no other choice
And I could tell by the way they shyly sinned
Where they were going, I’d already been

They were like the flowers bent by the breeze
Growing by the highways, the ones you never see
Like living in the shallow pavement cracks
They come from the city, they said they ain’t never goin’ back

Lord, Lord, see the children grow
Give me the light to let them know
I wanna tell ‘em ‘bout Jesus, before they go on home

I saw her standing by the road
She could not have been more than a mere 14 years old
I picked her up, her eyes were numb
Please take me home, they seemed to hum

Her hair grew long over sun-touched skin
And she seemed much stronger than the others had been
And we talked all night, talked time again
And where she was going, I’d already been

She was like the flowers bent by the breeze
Growing in the meadows, the ones you never see
Like living in the fallow farmin' tracts
She come from the country, she said she ain’t never goin’ back

Lord, Lord, see the children grow
Give me the light to let them know
I wanna tell ‘em ‘bout Jesus, before they go on home

Where will they go? How will they know? Who will they be? It’s up to you and me

© 1976 Birdwing Music/BMG Songs/Firewind Music
All rights reserved. Used by Permission

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Desperado (mp3) (wma) (ra) words & music by Don Henley & Glenn Frey

Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?
You've been out ridin' fences for so long now
Oh, you're a hard one, I know that you've got your reasons
But those things that are pleasin' you can hurt you somehow

Don't you draw the queen of diamonds boy, she'll beat you if she's able
You know the queen of hearts is always your best bet
Now it seems to me, some fine things have been laid upon your table
But you only want the ones that you can't get

Desperado, I know you ain't gettin' younger
Your pain and your hunger, they're drivin' you home
And freedom, oh freedom , ha! That's just some people talkin'
Your prison is walkin' through this world all alone

Don't your feet get cold in the winter time? The sky won't snow and the sun don't shine
It's hard to tell the nighttime from the day
You're losin' all your highs and lows, ain't it funny how the feeling goes away?

Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?
Come down from your fences, open the gate
It may be rainin', but there's a rainbow above you
You better let somebody love you, before it's too late

© 1973 Cass County Music/Red Cloud Music

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Mercy on Me (mp3) (wma) (ra) words & music by Kyle Knapp

I came to this land in the spring of 1885

With my wife and three kids, a sack of wheat,

And a dream as big as the Dakota sky

But the crop failed, the well ran dry, and locusts ate everything

that the Sun didn't scorch away

And left me nothing but shame

to show for all the dues that I'd paid

And like a band of accusers surrounding the place where I stand

As my aspirations all crumble to dust in my hand

My pioneer pride laughs at me, like the failure I am

Oh Lord, have mercy on me...

When I was just seventeen, the Almighty called me to preach the Gospel of old
I proclaim words of truth, but somehow my heart has grown cold
“Sinners, repent!” I thunder, but sometimes it feels I’m just acting a part
And each finger I point sends three right back at my own malignant heart

And like a band of accusers surrounding the place where I stand
As all my self-righteousness turns to blood on my hands
A jury of pride and mockery, to decide who I am
Oh Lord, have mercy on me...

The story’s told of two men who went up to the temple to pray
The first said “I’m not like that other guy, guess I must be okay”
The 2nd said with tears in his eyes, “it’s true, I know the kind of man I am today”
Only one went home justified… which one am I?

Which one am I?

Everyone on Wall Street was wailing, it was a Tuesday in 1929
But I made a fortune buying up their losses, ha! Those fools were so blind
Now I live in luxury and ease, in an empire only I control
Master of all I survey… why so little peace in my soul?

And like a band of accusers surrounding the place where I stand
Where my pockets are full, but there’s nothing of worth in my hand
My earthly subjects mock their king, “He’s just a man!”
Oh Lord, have mercy on me

And like a band of accusers surrounding the place where I stand
Lay the crimes of my heart and the unrighteous deeds of my hands
Is there nothing good in me? No, I know what I am…
Oh Lord, have mercy on me

mercy on me...

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House of Sod (mp3) (wma) (ra) words & music by Kyle Knapp
(acknowledgment to Elizabeth Barrett Browning for portions of the 2nd verse)

Some see the father’s glory in the mountains and the deep
Crashing waters call his name
Silent stones his confidences keep
For some the mighty waves are where his hand is seen
But here, on the Great Plains,
The God of all creation speaks to me…

Lord of the prairie, keeper of my soul
Entrusting to this simple heart the mystery of old
You chose to make the dwelling place of God
In this house of sod

Seldom do we see beyond this temporal façade
Yet Earth is crammed with Heaven
And every common bush afire with God
I witness and remove the sandals from my feet
As here, on the Great Plains,
The God of all creation speaks to me…

Lord of the prairie, Lord of my heart
To be with me you left behind your palace in the stars
And chose to make the dwelling place of God
In this house of sod

...as it is written, “the Lord God formed man from the dust of the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul…”

Consider now the mystery of the gospel, which in generations past was hidden from the sons of men, but is now revealed to you, his saints, with whom God was pleased to share his secret treasure: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Do you not know that you are a temple of the living God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? Therefore I beg you, if you have tasted the Lord’s kindness, offer yourself to him as a living sacrifice, for such offerings are holy and precious in his sight. And all who call upon him shall receive mercy…

© 2006 Kyle Knapp

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