Can of Worms - Mike Cressey

Can of Worms - Audio CD

Album Credits

Can of Worms is my first studio album - released in 1998. I am joined by Michael Hughes on guitar & dobro. Kathy Slack helped me on vocal harmony. Josh Tardy plays sax on Those Were the Times. Paul Fackler plays fiddle on Mary's Waltz. I recorded this album on an 8-Track Tascam Portastudio cassette recorder in Topsham, Maine. The album was mastered in Cape Elizabeth, ME.

1. Feed the Fire (Cast Iron) Bed of coals, burning bright
Stoke it up and she will go all night

Cast Iron, glowing red
Damp her down or you might burn up instead

I’ve got fuel, she’s got fire
Fill me up with desire
Come on, let’s feed the fire

Breathing hard, blowing smoke
Sparks shoot up from this old Jotul stove

Find the phone, ring the bell
Dial 911 she is hot as hell

Chorus

It was cold, when I woke up
She was gone and so was my pick-up truck

I should have known about her game
I guess I got burned by an old flame

Chorus

2. Restless Heart There’s a guy I’ve known, for a long, long time
Still on his own, chasing what he hopes to find
Like his women, he keeps no home too long
At signs of boredom, he plans his depart

He’s gotta, gotta restless heart

I knew a waitress, working her way through school
Kept her distance, she was nobody’s fool
Men tried to love her, but she could not choose
I hear she’s the same, single and apart

She’s gotta, gotta restless heart

And me I’ve settled down
I live in a little town
Though it’s better in many ways
I still have restless days

I've gotta, gotta restless heart

3. Now I'm 40 Now I’m 40, I must pick and choose
Got no time to play these cards and loose
Now I’m 40, I have different rules
I don’t stay up all night with a bunch of fools

Now I’m 40, I can laugh and cry
I don’t care who’s got the answers why

When I was 20, I would miss the point
I hid my heart and knocked it out of joint
When I was 30, love still seemed unreal
I guess I hadn’t learned how to really feel

Now I’m 40, I feel more at ease
I know exactly how I have to please

Now I’m 40, the years go by so fast
I barely have the time to make them last
Now I’m 40, my life is half gone
I am trying to undo what I did wrong

Chorus

4. Running Away (from Love) I used to be my own man
Played in a band every weekend
But since our life shattered
Nothing’s matter and I’ve felt scattered

I am running, running away
Running away from yesterday
I’ve been running, running away from love

Love is such a strange thing
You get a gold ring or time in Sing, Sing
And I’ve been through the ringer
Like a blues singer, a real hum dinger

Chorus

5. Those Were the Times We were so young when we first met
So complicated but with no limits set
I did not distinguish between love and sex

With all the freedom
And none of the fear
Those were the times

I know I caused you, pain many times
You’ll have to forgive me, I’d paid for those crimes
But still you suffer ‘cause you’re sentenced to love

Chorus

Won’t you tell me, what I should do
Would you be happy if I had married you?
‘Cause now it’s just anger clouding your view

Chorus

6. The Back Way

Pot holes and icy curves
Frost heaves will jar your nerves
But as long as I’ve got the time of day
I’ll take the back way

Every morning I get up and hop in my car
And head down the Interstate highway
I know where I’m going but I still get lost
Ain’t life just like a road map

Chorus

Every evening I walk out and hop in my car
And head back up the same old highway
I do the driving and my car does the work
Lost in a dream, I roll home

Chorus

7. Still Cressey (After All These Years) When I was a young boy, my mother said to me
Don’t be like your father, he’s no good - can’t you see
My dad was a gambler and he liked to drink a bit
He also had a temper and she had enough of it

She had her fears
He’s still Cressey after all these years

So she up and left him, went back to the farm
There I learned my manners and how to use my arms
I was such a good boy, I did well in school
But then I heard the Beatles and threw out all the rules

She had good ideas
But I’m still Cressey after all these years

So then I went to college, to learn to succeed
I did what I had to but rock ‘n roll took the lead
And now some years later, I have raised my means
Though I live a straight life, the trouble is in my jeans

You know what I fear
I’m still Cressey after all these years

8. Love's Black Hole Where were you when, into love you fell
Who were you with, do you know them still
What did you feel, deep in your heart
Did you lose control, down in love’s black hole

Love’s black hole

Twinkle little star, wonder where you are
You once shone so bright, like Super nova light
But she got too close, to what she could not see
It swallowed her soul, love’s deep, dark hole

Love’s black hole
Love’s black hole
Love’s black hole

9. Never Wrong What you see is what you get
But you ain’t seen nothing yet
If all is fair in love and war
Then why are you keeping score?

If you’re feeling no pain
Then tell me where’s the gain
Where there’s guts, there is glory
But I can tell you another story

I may not always be right
But I’m sure never wrong
I never learned how to fight
But I can sing you a song

10. All the Time (in the World)

I’ve got all of the time in the world
I’ve got all of the time in the world
I got all the time in the world for you

There’s no big deals on my horizon
No itinerary that I must meet
I’m not part of a corporate merger
I’m not a member of the elite

I don’t have much that I can sell you
I don’t have much that I can buy
All I got is warm, tender loving
And just a little to get you high

Chorus

My car has no turbo engine
My hot tub is just a bath
I’ve never been a frequent flyer
And I flunked college level math

Chorus

11. Blue for Jerry

12. Mary's Waltz