Tim McHugh

This song was inspired by my lovely family and the stunning majesty of the North Cascades that serve as our eastern horizon. 

The clouds of winter they are fading away

I feel the dawning of the newest of days because it's morning...because it's morning

I see the glory of the sun breaking through

the world is shining now and life's feeling new because it's morning  because it's morning

and I'm waiting for you now...waiting for you now...waiting for you now follow me

There's an endless universe of love in my soul

I'll live forever and never get old because it's morning...because it's morning

and I'm waiting for you now...waiting for you now...waiting for you now follow me

This song was inspired by the slow death of a good friend who made bad choices that ultimately led to his self destruction. Thanks to my wonderful band members Jim Lindquist, John Neighbor, Caryn Simmons, and Anna Schaad for their support. 

how many ways can I say that I love you before you understand?

how many words must be spoken before there is a meaning

how many lives must lost before you live

how many times must you lose before you win

how many ways can your heart be shattered before you get it right?

how many nights must we walk through the darkness before there is a light?

Ditto to part one...Thanks to Jim Lindquist, Anna Schaad, Caryn Simmons, and John Neighbor for their great support! 

I never meant to watch you fall from your grace

I never meant to let you down

I never wanted you to live and die alone

in the cage you've learned to call your home

The title cut off of my 1989 release featuring John Weeks on violin, and Randy Omel on keyboards.   I plan to have this available on CD and Mp3 in the very near future. 

I see the shadows race across the land and I want to take your hand

we'll disappear before the dawn and your heart could be my song

I want to love you more than you could know it's so hard to let it show

your eyes have spoke a thousand fears have they spoke a thousand tears

and I see the sun is drifting lower in the sky about to say goodbye for one more day

and I do believe that I've been wandering all along, never see the light before the dawn

before the dawn

I wonder if our hearts could stay the same, or if changes change your name

I felt this feeling long ago like a silent winter snow

shouldn't we go barefoot in the rain just to feel our feet again

then we'll know that we're still here though our thoughts aren't always clear...

An instrumental guitar piece that just sort of came as I was warming up in the studio...  

Maybe if I'd had a little more coffee before picking up my guitar that morning this song would have turned out differently. Thanks to Jon Mack, John Neighbor, Caryn Simmons and Jim Lindquist for their stellar performances on this song!

oh my house is burning down, oh my house is burning down oh my house is burning down oh my house is burning down

green mountains turned to wasteland the ocean's turned to brown

planet turned commodity something's going down

criminals in banker's clothes tell you that it's fine

stealing from the future and they're robbing from the blind

oh, and my house is burning down...

when I was a younger child I used to be so free

before I took a number before they got to me

domestication was their game programming the mind

now I sit and wonder how I made it out alive

oh, but my house is burning down...

This song is meant to shed light on the war profiteering that has been taking place since 9/11. Coupled with the loss of individual liberty and privacy thanks to the Patriot Act, things don't bode well for soldiers and citizens, but they certainly do for some CEOs.   For example, an Army private in Iraq earns, including extra combat pay, about $19,600 a year, far from the $25.3 million, which Vance Coffman, CEO of the leading defense contractor Lockheed Martin, made in 2002, a 433 percent increase over his 2000 pay. 

saw the towers when they fell down saw the ashes on the ground

heard the sirens, heard the cries while the planes fell from the skies

then I heard somebody say there's gonna be some hell to pay

a war on terror has begun and now we got Osama on the run

and as the smoke it filled the air in the backroom of some corporate lair

they made their plans for endless war and the profits they began to soar

and while the people cheered them on the freedom they once knew had gone

auctioned to the profiteers and all that they had left behind was fear

there's a face you'll never see in this at-risk democracy

he hides behind the smoke and flames ringing up his bloody gains

while leaders bow to these same kings who fill their purses and pull their strings

who tell you who must live or die why you must kiss your liberty goodbye

don't let them, don't let them take it

take it all away....

RIP John Ridley.  You will never be forgotten...Thank you Swil Kanim for your stunning accompaniment. 

you almost lived you almost made it through the night almost found a way to be

johnny was a fighter that's what some might say who didn't know his gentle way

your beauty flowed like the river when she was runnin' high

ripping through the valley ripping through the time

and I am searching for the meaning in your unfinished song

when you called to say you were coming home

you really meant "so long"

everything was clear you said you were not angry anymore you found your happiness

you served your time and dreamed of how your life would be coming clean

your beauty flowed like the river when she was runnin' high

ripping through the valley ripping through the time

and I am searching for the meaning in your unfinished song

when you called to say you found your peace

you really meant "so long"

if there's a God in heaven I hope to see you there besides you're better off with him up there

but thanks for the call, you were so kind to say you loved me and I loved you

your beauty flowed like the river when she was running high

ripping through the valley ripping through the time

and I am searching for the meaning in your unfinished song

when you called to say you loved me

you really meant "so long" 

so long...

"All of us are in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."  Oscar Wilde  Thanks to Caryn Simmons, Anna Schaad, John Neighbor and Jim Lindquist!

when I walk into your world

when I stand beside your fire

when I'm running from the people

look for a place in which to hide

you know I'm only looking for

some peace of mind and nothing more

and a reason to go on

maybe find out what went wrong

you are the love I need...

wish I could take back what I said

kill the voices in my head

I often wonder what's the cost

of never knowing what you've lost

you are the love I need

After spending three weeks in Alaska and the Arctic hanging out with the Gwich'in tribe in the most pristine place imaginable, I was on my way to Olympia from Sea Tac airport when this song came to me.  I pulled over on the side of the freeway and wrote the lyrics out.

Thanks to Jim Lindquist, John Neighbor, Dean Evenson and Cha-Da-Ska-Dum Witchtalem's (RIP my friend) performances on this 

Happy Columbus Day! 

can you see Columbus and the Pinta and Santa Maria

we say he found America but the Indians disagree

pain and death his legacy 500 years ago

but if you want to celebrate just dream of the buffalo

if you live in Pine Ridge, Alaska or James Bay

murder on the reservation happens almost every day

they say it's drunken Indians with nothin' left to lose

but this deliberate genocide from the governments never makes the news

look out change is gonna come look out justice will be done

can you see Big Mountain looming through the haze

coal and uranium Indian miners in a daze

slaving for the companies with cancer on the rise

Wall Street's getting richer while those workers drop like flies

look out change is gonna come

look out justice will be done

Native corporations they tear apart the land

sell shares in Mother Nature do the elders understand?

they sell their tribes an empty dream 'cause money is their lord

pocketing the profits while they hang around the fort

look out change is gonna come

look out justice will be done

now the Gwich'in Caribou People's backs are against the wall

because the oil companies they wanna take it all

from America's last wilderness and the home of the caribou

and if they start their drilling then the Gwich'in's days are through

look out change is gonna come

look out justice will be done

have you seen the Lummi Nation or the rest of Puget Sound?

have you considered that we live on Indian ground?

but there's a trail of broken treaties from shore to shore

we're not just talkin' history we're still declaring war

look out change is gonna come

look out justice will be done...

"No need to leave your doorway to see the whole world"  Lao Tzu   Thanks to Jim Lindquist, Jon Mack, John Neighbor and Caryn Simmons for their great performances!

there's a war that burns within me there's a pain you'll never see

there's a world that keeps me dreaming, there's a place I'd rather be

I wander through these smoking ruins I hear the thunder I walk between the battle lines

I need another drink of water in another place and time

far away take me there take me there

far away take me there take me there

Holocaust I see it spreading I hear the thunder of the guns

between the evil and the mercy inside of me the two are one

'cause when I see you dying lonely I know that it's because of me

but there's a world that keeps me dreaming there's a place I'd rather be

far away take me there take me there

far away take me there take me there...

I know only too well how easy it is to live in the past or the future while the magic of the present slips away unnoticed.  This I have learned through experience is one of life's common and simple tragedies... Carpe Diem!

take it in today look around and touch the ground

feel your Mother Earth beneath your feet

take your time today think about the part you play

think of all the ways you could be free

you have to wonder why so many people never see

the colors of the sky their eyes glued to the ground

but life could wash away the fears of your tomorrows

and the pain of your todays

if you learn to open up your eyes

do you wonder who you are?  do you wonder who you are?

lookin' out my window I see the morning sun

I want to love you when the day is done

take it in today look around and touch the ground

feel your Mother Earth beneath your feet

be yourself to day there's no one who could take your place

no one else could ever play your song...

There is beauty admist all the chaos and destruction.

I was just thinking of a place that we could run...that we could run

and if we go there maybe we could touch the sun...touch the sun

'cause I saw the road....and I saw the road

I was just thinking of a place that we could be...that we could be

and if we go there maybe we would never leave...we'd never leave

'Cause I saw the road....

"Whoever controls the present controls the past.  Whoever controls the past controls the future."  George Orwell

I hear the bombs and I don't know why I see the dust rising in the sky

I feel the rage comin' from on high I hear the screams and I wanna cry...

not in my name anymore...not in my name anymore...I won't play the game, not in my name

not in my name anymore

I hear the roar of a great machine, I see the face of a dead marine

I wanna wake but it's not a dream, a war it grows and I wanna scream...

not in my name anymore...not in my name anymore...not in my name anymore...not in my name anymore...