Mary Fagan

A restless heart and devotion to music has made Mary Fagan a true original with wide ranging influences. You can't fit her neatly into any particular musical category. Backing herself solidly on piano or guitar, she moves seamlessly from jazz to folk, blues and rock. With influences that include Duke Ellington, Stephen Foster and The Grateful Dead, it's hard to fit her into any one musical category. But no matter what style of music she is playing, her voice will captivate you. It is bold yet smooth, like it was forged in the blues and then dipped in velvet.

Music has always been part of life for Fagan. She grew up in a house where her parents both played piano. There were piano lessons and also music in school band on the flute. At The University of New Hampshire she studied Math and Political Science, earning a bachelor's degree in each.

It was there, too that she picked up the guitar. It's portability suits her quite well. She's traveled most of the US, with long stints in New York, Colorado, California, North Carolina and most recently Austin, Texas, soaking up musical styles and flavors along the way. She's happy playing music in many settings; solo, duo, trio or with a full band.

The Grateful Dead and Bob Dylan have been big influences, as well as jazz singers like Billie Holiday and Carmen McCrae. Whether with a group or accompanying herself on piano or guitar, her vocals are striking. She is both gritty and pure, with a style winsome enough to give a gray sky the blues.

LYRICS:

From the Album Every Place is Home:

Every Place is Home
Mary Fagan

Tommy B, he lives in Charlotte, you know he never goes far from home.

He eats his mama's cookin, every Thursday and on Saturday, he cuts the lawn.

There ain't nothin in this world that Tommy be, he can't get at home.

Julie C's from California, you know she's never been far from home.

She's got the ocean there to calm her, she's got the city-life to get her going. There ain't nothin in this world that Julie sees, she can't get at home.

If live your life in one place, never wandering about the rest.

Don't you let anybody tell you that you're missing out on the very best

that life can be.

You catch the thrill of life in what you see.

But me, I've been rollin round and round til every place is home.

Bobby Freeze from Colorado, you know he never goes far from home.

Riding horses, on the high plains, damn good rancher, it's all he knows.

There ain't nothin in this world that Bobby's frees, he can't get at home.

Every place is home.

Fast-Talkin, Mind-Walkin Blues

Mary Fagan

Did you ever take a pill, make your mind start walkin, make your feet start talkin, start your neighbors squakin like I did? Did you ever take a swill, make your world start spinnin, set your teeth wide-grinnin, set yourself out sinnin like I did?

Did you come upon a lock, make your startin stop, like you run into a rock just before the top, like I did?

Did you ever catch a ride, when you ask where it was going, the driver lied about the knowin and you end up owing, like I did?

Did you ever try to hide, in a wide-open field, your eyes shut like steel, til they drag you by the heel, like I did?

Ever stopped on a dime, ever taken your time, ever heard, "Your kind shouldn't mingle with mine", like I did?

Chorus:

On down the road. Way on down the road.

There's a light on. On down that road.

On down the road, that's what I've been told, even seen it on my own, callin for my soul. There's a light on.

Ever had a friend who could look you in the eye, make you both wonder why you've fallen from the sky, like I did?

Ever make amends when you said you never would, when you thought you never could, did it make you feel good, like I did?

Ever cop a style that could hold you for a while, run a miracle mile on a sweet-selling smile, like I did?

Chorus

Ever feel mercy lift you from the ground, turn your living around, yet never make a sound, like I did?

Ever feel worse than you was sitting in a hole and the black water cold has froze your broken bones, like I did?

Ever make a living teaching what you was swimming, ever go where you was driven, ever been forgiven, like I been?

Chorus

Don't Call Me
words and music by Alicia Cox

Don't call me when you realize she doesn't love you like I do.
Don't call me if you end up stranded to.
If you ever regret deserting me, remember if you will.
Darling, though you're hurting me now,
I can't help but love you still.

Don't call me with apologies or with a tearful alibi.

Believe me, I don't care to hear you cry.

Don't call me when she sets you free, it takes time to telephone.

Don't call me baby, just hurry, hurry home.

Don't call me when she sets you free.

It takes time, time to telephone.

Don't call me, just hurry, and hurry home.

Savin It

Mary Fagan

My old lover left me, he left me so down and out

That it might take a century to get myself figured out.

Til then I'm savin' it, savin' my love away.

It looks like I'll be savin' it,

Save it for another day.

I thought last night that you and I

Were good for getting something together.

That's allright, you changed your mind.

I'm sure it's only for the better.

I'll be savin' it, savin' my love away.

Looks like I'll be savin' it darlin'

Save it for another day.

I've never been any good at putting away my pennies.

But I tell you hon', when it comes to love,

I've got plenty.

Can't you see my heart's on fire, my knees are weak with desire

From saving up so much love.

I hope and pray there will come a day

When I've got somebody to spend it on.

Til then I'm savin' it, savin' my love away.

It looks like I'll be savin' it darling,

Save it for another day.

Weeping Willow

Mary Fagan

I have lost my desire for the ancient fire

that eludes the blossom of youth.

Let my innocence die with all of my lies,

I am thirsty for a tongue full of truth.

When I laugh, I'm gonna laugh like a waterfall.

When I cry, I'm gonna cry like a weeping willow, strong and tall.

I hate to say it but I am afraid of dying.

I'm not ready to leave these skin and bones.

I hate to say it but I am afraid of dying.

Because I, I've known dying.

I'm gonna weep like a weeping willow.

Let my leaves grow up to touch the ground below.

The wind, the eastern wind, it is my blanket.

As I fly, I am always thanking it.

I hate to say it but I am afraid of loving.

I've built strong walls around my tender heart.

I hate to say it but I am afraid of loving.

Because I, I've been loving.

I'm gonna weep like a weeping willow.

Let my leaves grow up to touch the ground below.

Some of me is sad most all of the time.

But most of me is glad that we're all alive.

I hate to say it but I am afraid of living.

It takes so much to get through just one day.

I hate to say it but I am afraid of living.

Because I, I am living.

Weep, like a weeping willow.

Let your leaves grow up to touch the ground below.

When I laugh I'm gonna laugh like a waterfall.

When I cry I'm gonna cry like a weeping willow,

Strong and tall.

Afraid of nothing at all.

I Was Reminded

Mary Fagan

I went to a gathering of some people that I know. I was not so much invited as obligated to go. As I revealed myself they said, "You are so strange". They said, "If I were you, I would surely change", then proceeded to babble on as if I were their stage. Not a word they said sparked the interest of my mind. Lord, how it struck me that they love being blind. I felt I was released, as I walked out that door.

I was reminded, intelligence, it is hiding with poets and artists and eccentrics, philosophers, secret societies and witches dens and in small homes in small towns alone.

I grew up with white people, in a very white town. At the age of four I saw a man who was brown. I turned to my mama and asked her why. She said "Some people's skin is brown but everyone's the same inside." I knew in my heart and soul that she was right. But I don't understand why I've seen as I grow old, that the world has not learned the simple truth that I was told. And out of fear of each other, we bury our wealth.

And I'm reminded that ignorance, it runs rampant in our schools and thoughts of justice are entertained by fools and my own mind is poisoned by these times and that fear is a force that rules.

Now that where I'm grounded is my choice to a degree, my intellect settles where it's found itself a space to be free. I tend to surround myself with minds like mine, now and then I get to feeling drunk with light. I will assume those thoughts are common insight. And I will walk these lands, deliberate at will until I encounter one whose mind is not so tilled. Shear opacity has got a terrible blow.

And I'm reminded, innocence it is blinding and as I grow I leave behind me a world confined I reach back toward it but no one sees my hand, so I walk on that road alone.

I Call Your Name

Mary Fagan

I call your name in the morning.

I call your name out loud.

I call your name without a warning.

I love the sound of your name.

I don't know what it is that makes me crazy.

But boy, I'm crazy about you.

You walk into the room and I am elated

Just to lay my eyes on you.

I call your name in the morning.

I call your name out loud.

I call your name without a warning.

I love the sound of your name.

Thinking back on all the days that I have loved you.

They turn so swiftly into years.

Every time that I wake up I go to touch you

But now you're not here.

I call your name in the morning.

I call your name out loud.

I call your name without a warning.

I love the sound of your name.

I'm trying to forget you but my mind won't me, it keeps calling your name.

I can't help myself, it just falls right out of my mouth, the sound of your name. The sweet sound of your name.

No Water

Mary Fagan

Ain't got no water, ain't got no water at all.

Driving by the racetrack, on my way home.

Ain't go no money, ain't got no money at all.

Hope there's food in my cupboard when I get home.

If I could make it better, baby I would.

If I could change the weather, maybe I could.

It took me eight years to get here,

From out of my woods and my shoulds and my coulds.

Ain't got no lover, ain't got no lover of my own.

I am as lonely as the night is long.

Ain't got no worries, ain't got no worries at all.

When you're at the bottom, there's no way to fall.

If I could make it better, baby I would,

If I could control the weather, maybe I could.

It took me eight years to get here

From out of my woulds and my shoulds and my coulds.

Ain't got no water.

Mama's Ticket

Mary Fagan

Mama's got a ticket to Heaven.

She won't be stopping at The Pearly Gates.

She don't need no reservation,

It doesn't matter if she shows up late.

I love my mama with my heart and soul

But I won't worry when she goes,

Cuz mama's got a ticket to Heaven

She won't be stopping at The Pearly Gates.

Mama's got a ticket to Heaven.

Saint Peter, hold the door open wide.

She's got her invitation.

When she's ready, she'll just step inside.

I love my mama, thank the Godess she's alive

But I ain't gonna worry when she dies

Cuz mama's got a ticket to Heaven.

She won't be stopping at The Pearly Gates.

Cora Delia Howe

(my great-grandmother)

Mary Fagan

The larder is empty back at home.

Two mouths too many, no we are not full grown.

These famine years have set us here, on our own.

On a boat cross the waters, like the masses we came.

At the mouth of The Hudson, we boarded a train.

On our own, not to see our home, ere again

City signs said Colored and the Irish need not apply.

The signs said Colored and the Irish need not apply.

We passed them by on our ride to our new land.

The two of them deboarded at Little Falls.

Cousins, they deboarded and as they looked around,

The fields it seemed, were not so green as those at home.

Said Bridgit, "I have only my Sunday shoes.

And nine miles of walkin, have we to do"

Shoes in hand, she walked and ran, through their new land.

Said Bridgit, "I won't be just another 'Biddy' from Ireland".

Cora Delia Howe, as the fates allow, in my new land.

Whiskey, Beer and Wine

Mary Fagan

You taught me to be careful, whenever there's liquor around.

You said it's easy to pick up and damned hard to put it back down.

You told me it would fool me to thinking that I was filling some kind of need.

When all it was doing was taking and blurring the way that I see.

You taught me that I don't need it

You taught me to leave it behind

You taught me about the demons

In whiskey, beer and wine.

All of those nights I came home to you sitting there in your chair.

A manhattan in one hand and a Marlborough in the air.

I remember the day you quit it, for a long time you had it beat.

How haven't you noticed lately that the demon is back on its feet?

You taught me that I don't need it

You taught me to leave it behind

You taught me about the demons

In whiskey, beer and wine.

So Daddy, put the glass down. Put the bottle up on the shelf.

For it is late and I am tired of seeing you doing this with yourself.

You have always been a good man, honest in all that you do.

And you have always taught me so well.

Who now can teach it to you?

You taught me that I don't need it

You taught me to leave it behind

You taught me about the demons

In whiskey, beer and wine.

Letting Love Rain

Mary Fagan

Day and night, chasing my dreams.

Knowing love and sacrifice this living brings.

Refusing to trade it for a thing.

It's taken me years to be this close and this far away

from having my day by letting love reign.

Letting love reign.

Living all of your days beneath one sky,

You can have a home to house the whole of your life.

But there is more to me than what is here, for I have spent years flying,

Letting the wind write my plans, yielding to land while letting love rain.
Letting love rain.

One glance of your face

And I feel the blood flowing through my veins.

I feel how fortunate I am to be here, knowing this day,

Hearing the song of you making your way by letting love reign.

Letting love reign.

Mary Fagan - Jazz/Blues

LYRICS: