I am a child of Judah and the mark of Cain is on me I am a fugitive in every place I go. and my name is Joseph Friedman and I tend the olive orchards on a hillside just a short walk from my home. There, the silver trunks are ancient and the olive branches fruitful but the breeze that shakes the leaves still low, "Where is God? Where is God?" I am a child of Esau. I am Ali Abed. I once lived...olives near my home. I would prune the trees in winter when the sap sinks deep in Gaza and the children won't be throwing their stones But the soldiers came at midnight with their power saws remarking and now the sap has nowhere left to go. Where is God/ Where is God? My name is Jimmy Taylor and I am a Future Farmer and my project is nine trees out by the road. and the trees have been neglected all these many years untended a home now for a solitary crow. So, I climb with my saw and clippers up into the brittle thicket busy choosing what will stay and what will go. And I note my meter progress and I wonder if I'll ever rid the olive trees of dead wood, I'm so slow. And I read the Sunday paper and I daily read my Bible and I see the scars of pruning down below. (c) 2002 Royal T Music

lovely ..

Had forgotten how good this was! (It is, and always was, a complicated song to sing).

Nice song. I hope that life in Colorado meets this family's expectations.

as usual james another haunting ballad,comes to life.

awwe, now i love the girl with the purple cheek,didn't finish listening you guys are so beautiful...love this!!!!

awwe i love this lil' boy with the purple elbow poor baby, love this song, so cool!

love that song brother God bless

riveting essay on the realities of this well known avenue

Yeah, very nice! Everything is given proper space to "breathe", so to speak. Really draws me in in that intangible sort of way that music sometimes does.

As Colleen Dillon said, haunting. Crying.

Hokey lyrics (every lab coat is contaminated)??? Music doesn't match the sstory. Run, HeLa Run?? Thumbs down

My friend, George Sluizer was making a film with River Phoenix and asked me to submit some music to possibly be used in the movie. He didn't end up sing this but he did use four other of my submissions.

Great lyrics, love the vocals and music Bravo James

Love this.

very nice sir!!

wonderfully quirky as usual... where u get these ideas ? lovely vocals as per ususal james

Red Dirt Music is a genre into itself. I was just in Stillwater and heard a lot of new, for me, Music.

I meant Tiger Lilies not Threepenny Opera, Lol

Love it! Shades of Leonard Cohen meets Threepenny Opera! Thanks JMT!

Kat Angel PRICELESS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love the song, love you singing it just to me (in my imagination)

Bruce Balmer Beautiful.

Shirley Crawford Hello…old friend. This one hits me in the heart. When we moved here to NM back in June… we left behind in the house, our old couch that we’d used for 22 years. It had been my parents before that. It was probably close to 40 yrs old. And yes, it made into a bed.

Candy Davis Beautiful, poignant memory song. I could just picture that old couch and what it meant to you.

Perrin Gardner Beautiful song, James Michael Taylor!

Carolyn Wade Sending love ❤️. Love it and remember the memories of us. Button your shirt.(Gladys Burcham).

Becky Byrd Spicer Wiping a tear for all the relics I have kept, and those discarded.

Scarlett Maneikis So beautiful, n heart felt. I love it.

Doreen Peri Wonderful. Thank you for sharing this!

Daniel Payne This one hits. Heavy reflections on all the stuff that served me faithfully, and all the leaving was my doing. To reward all that loyalty, I do to my stuff what I always hate other people to do to me.

...as Buddy holly said, "RAVE ON!"

...really gets the feeling of that path!

I don't understand being criticized for a track being TOO LOUD. Doesn't everybody have a "volume" knob?

That is fun...

How old is that song? Was rhatvwritten from a personal stance if I may? LeAnna LeAnna M Christian Overall good song; performance and production JMT - I wrote/recorded this in 2011. Just looking at the poor man's perspective, (which I have knowledge of) noticing no matter how much he prays he's still poor. "Must be the wrong prayer."

How old is that song? Was rhatvwritten from a personal stance if I may? LeAnna LeAnna M Christian Overall good song; performance and production

Rosemarie Kempton wrote: Just finished listening to your memories of your horse Babe. Your words painted such a vivid portrait of your night rides that I felt like I was riding Babe, too. Beautifully done!

The heart can hold a lot of things: the sunshine and the flowers The chill that springs the falling leaves. Winter's darkest hours The rains that quench the thirsty earth. The buds that sprout and bloom Sometimes it tries to hold too much and there isn't enough room Sometimes it tries to hold too much The heart can hold a multitude. Family and Friends. There are things that life will give and things it only lends A wife becomes a mother, a son becomes a man There are things the heart can't hold And still it thinks it can There are things the heart can't hold The holdings of the bank are cold, but holding hands are warm The holdings of the mind are thoughts that in the moment form The hands that hold the tools that build the brushes for our art None are as enduring as the holdings of the heart The holdings of the heart are self-renewing On holdings of the heart, high interest, paid Holdings sometimes best be liquidated, yet we stay The heart can hold the music. The voices of the Time. The heart collects the little things. The pennies and the dimes The heart can try to measure the stature of a dream Pounding like the waters on the stones that block the streams Pounding like the waters The holdings of the bank are cold, but holding hands are warm The holdings of the mind are thoughts that in the moment form The hands that hold the tools that build the brushes for our art None are as enduring as the holdings of the heart None are self-renewing like the holdings of the heart

Well, Rosie's like a lot of folks She's just trying to stay afloat But she's got a broken boat She's a going down And Rosie's got her problems, friends She just tries to do her best Who's gonna do the rest She's a going down If god had longer arms, you know He'd reach on down to Rosie Reach on down to Rosie Reach on down (2) Etc...

This came out of a story in the Star Telegram about a guy that lived under one of the bridges near Trinity Park. I was angry at a reporter who did a story about him and it got him removed.