Kathleen, Queen of the Desert

Written around 1976

He gets up every day at 7:30,
Every morning starts the same:
A quick cup of coffee, a long look at the map,
And a few low calls of her name.

(Continued)

Written around 1975 for my Henry Regnery Company co-worker friend Mary Mack’s October wedding to John Eley in Chicago

I knew a girl in the valley of the sycamore,
And every evening she’d stand by her cagin door;
And sing this song to the swaying sycamore trees,
And you’d hear the words come back on the breeze.

(Continued)

Country-western waltz written in 1976

Pullin’ off the highway to eat where there’s some room to park
He orders the steak combination as it’s getting’ dark
As he waits for a refill, the diner gets real still
As the newest sad song fills the room.

(Continued)

Written in New York in 1976.

CHORUS:

I wish the sea would roll you back to me,
So I could see your face again;
I wish the sea would roll you back to me,
So you would marry me,
And I’d feel fine again.

(Continued)

Written around 1977 after hearing stories from Isabel Bridget Montague, mother of Eileen Montague Brown (my mother’s best friend) and grandmother of Pam Brown Yarbrough. Izzy left for Canada with her sister Anne in 1911, and returned to Ireland to visit but never saw her father again. He was lost at sea. Izzy’s father’s last name was Bridget, but “Montague” (Izzy’s married name) scanned better.

Well, someone should go and tell Montague
That his daughter’s at the agent’s door;
And that means that she’s goin’ to America,
And she’ll never see Ireland no more.

(Continued)