Track Insight / Lyrics
I kept the lamp on Matinicus Rock
Thirty years through gale and shock
Now I watch a boat in Chicago clay
Where the bluesmen come to play
This wooden boat keeps watch below
Where saxophone and bass notes flow
No tide to turn, no storm to brave
Just jazz notes on a concrete wave
White oak ribs and cedar plank
Never touched a Great Lake tank
Sits on concrete, dry and deep
While the city never sleeps
Trumpet moans like foghorn low
Drummer brushes, soft and slow
Upright bass walks heavy lines
Boat keeps time with rising tines
This wooden boat keeps watch below
Where saxophone and bass notes flow
No tide to turn, no storm to brave
Just jazz notes on a concrete wave
No salt air here, no gulls that cry
Just smoke and sweat and lullaby
But I know what this vessel knows
Safety comes where rhythm goes
My hands still know the lens and wick
Now they trace the hull's old trick
Guard the groove, guard the sound
Best light that I have found
This wooden boat keeps watch below
Where saxophone and bass notes flow
No tide to turn, no storm to brave
Just jazz notes on a concrete wave
Rowboat dreaming in the deep
Keeping jazz inside its keep
Steady now, steady now
