Amy Holland McDonald

the journey to miracle river - lyrics

1 - Don't Lose Your Faith in Me
(Robben Ford)
Tamale Music/Universal Music Publishing

I let you down
And I know it
And it was hard for you to take
My love is real
Let me show it
So I never see
Your heart break

Chorus:
And so I'm here with you now
Looking for forgiveness
Looking for forgiveness
Asking please
Don't lose your faith in me

So many things
I could have done
To let you know
That I was there
A selfish heart
Will take for granted
The beautiful things that come
When someone cares

Chorus

Bridge:
The road
I sometimes must call home
Can take you to your limits
You're someone you don't know
Don't lose your faith in me

Chorus

Personel:
Amy Holland McDonald: vocals
Bernie Chiaravalle: guitars, bass, percussion, keyboards
Shannon Forrest: drums
Stuart Duncan: violin

2 - Backdown
(Amy Holland McDonald / Bernie Chiaravalle)
Dutch Girl Music ASCAP/Bernoit Music ASCAP

You're been talking a lot about nothing
You've been giving me hope about us
You've been talking a streak about something
Now it sounds like your giving it up

Chorus:
You wanna back down baby again
So go and back down baby again
But if you back down baby again
Then I won't let you back on in
I know I won't let you back on in

Sixteen years of you driving me crazy
I've been following you like a dog
You say I've been nothing but trouble
It's been going on for too long

Chorus:

Bridge:
Oh you don't know
Which way to go
Or if you'll be around
So, why don't you go on
Unless you're willing
To work the damn thing out

You've been lying to me about something
I've been buying it all like a fool
You're idea of the truth is so twisted
Won't be living my life by your rules

Chorus:

You wanna back down baby again
You're talkin' love down baby again
So go and back down baby again
But you're not getting back on in
Because I won't let you back on in

Bridge

Back down baby
Back down baby again
But if you back down baby again
Then I won't let you back on in
No I won't let you back on in

Personel:
Amy Holland McDonald: vocals
Bernie Chiaravalle: guitars, slide guitar, bass, keyboards, vocals
Tim Akers: organ
Michael McDonald: vocals
Shannon Forrest: drums and percussion

3 - Miracle River
(Amy Holland McDonald / John Goodwin / Bernie Chiaravalle) Dutch Girl Music ASCAP/Queen's Knight Music BMI/Bernoit Music ASCAP

They say that when you get there
That's when the real magic starts
Go through the plains of desire
Past the waterfall of sparks
Ten thousand burning deserts
Will weed the taker from the giver
But it's less about arriving
Than the journey to miracle river

Some live for the sparkle of the water
That will heal their achin' souls
Turn back the restless hands of time
And make their broken spirits whole
But sometimes promises of love are sweeter
Than the visions they deliver
So bless the good and the bad
On the journey to miracle river

Chorus:
When you're finally free
You will see
The diamond's a child of the mine
Not just a prize you saved
From the jaws of fate
It was in your heart all the time
When you finally reach your destination
Fall down on your knees and thank your maker
For all the crosses and the blessings
On the journey to miracle river

Every heartbeat is a piece in the puzzle
We're all here to solve
You can face it or just turn away
But either way one day
You'll see it all
Oh winding in the distance
Like shimmering molten silver
It will wash away the shadows
Of your journey to miracle river

Personel:
Amy Holland McDonald: vocals
Bernie Chiaravalle: guitars, bass, autoharp, keyboards, vocals, hands
Michael McDonald: organ
Shannon Forrest: drums
Jonathan Yudkin: cello

4 - Hate Love A Little
Dutch Girl Music ASCAP/Bernoit Music ASCAP/Genevieve Music ASCAP
(Amy Holland McDonald / Bernie Chiaravalle / Michael McDonald)

Some people talk about it
Learn how to live without it
Love
Some people fight about it
Go through the night without it
Love
I've been hanging out with a broken heart
I'm not even sure how we made it this far

Chorus:
And baby don't you hate love a little
Hey don't lie
Can't you admit you're a little afraid to try
Cause you get hooked just a little more inside

Some people write about it
And change the truth about it
Love
Some people dream about it
Don't even know they've found it
Love
I'm not hanging out with you're broken heart
I'm not giving up till I get what I want

Chorus

Personel:
Amy Holland McDonald: vocals
Bernie Chiaravalle: guitars, bass, percussion, keyboards, piano, vocals
Tim Akers: organ
Michael McDonald: vocals
Stuart Duncan: violin
Shannon Forrest: drums and percussion

5 - A Few Short Hours
(Amy Holland McDonald / John Goodwin / Bernie Chiaravalle)
Dutch Girl Music ASCAP/Queen's Knight Music BMI/Bernoit Music ASCAP

Early in the morning
Before the night has shed its coat of darkness
And I remember how to be
The one that everyone expects to see
There's a certain light of innocence
Before I put my solders on the line
The border between love and fear
As the world I left behind appears

Chorus:
For a few short hours
Everything is possible
I forget the game and all the rules
That hold my spirit in
For a few short hours
I remember who I really am
In the colors of the rising sun
Before the day begins
For a few short hours

Early in the morning
Before I put my dreams away
If I can put a pen to paper
Or some colors on a canvas
I surprise myself before the traffic fills
The deserted empty streets
Where the buyers and the sellers meet
I love the inspiration

Chorus

We all do what we have to do to get by
But in the land between dreaming and the world
I can fly

Chorus

Personel:
Amy Holland McDonald: vocals
Bernie Chiaravalle: guitars, mandolin, bass, percussion, keyboards, vocals
Shannon Forrest: drums

6 - Witness
(Amy Holland McDonald / Bernie Chiaravalle)
Dutch Girl Music ASCAP/ Bernoit Music ASCAP

There's a star that shines tonight
I promise this to you
And even when the morning comes
It watches over you
I know because I've said a prayer
To keep a loving heart
And though I've made mistakes with you
I think we've come so far

Chorus:
Oh I have been a witness to a miracle
If it wasn't for forgiveness
Then I would never know love
I would never know love

When you think you can't go on
Remember where you've been
There was a time I couldn't hold you
You wouldn't let me in
So many times I've said a prayer
That you would find your way
I'll never lose my faith in you
Believe it when I say

Chorus:
That I have been a witness
To a miracle
If it wasn't for forgiveness
Then I would never know love

Personel:
Amy Holland McDonald: vocals
Bernie Chiaravalle: guitars, bass, drums, percussion, keyboards, piano, vocals
Tim Akers: organ
Michael McDonald: vocals
Shannon Forrest: drums and percussion

dylan mcdonald

7 - You Move Me That Way
(Amy Holland McDonald / John Goodwin / Bernie Chiaravalle)
Dutch Girl Music ASCAP/Queen's Knight Music BMI/Bernoit Music ASCAP

I can remember baby
The first time I saw you
You were so beautiful
And still a little shy baby
Eyes so blue
I re-live that moment
Whenever I look at you
Remembering love on those back roads
In this place they've taken us to
Cause you still move me that way

Chorus:
Lead me to water baby
And I will drink for you
I would do anything
You ever want me to do
And I still feel you
I still see you
I still want you that way

Do you remember baby
When I left my red boots on
A room full of candles burning
Slowly but surely turning
Into the light of dawn
You get the matches baby
We'll burn the whole house down
Nothing to stop us baby
No body else around
And you still move me that way

Chorus:
Lead me to water baby
And I will drink for you
I would do anything
You ever ask me to do
And I still feel you
I still see you
And I still want you that way

I still feel you
I still see you
I still want you that way

Personel:
Amy Holland McDonald: vocals
Bernie Chiaravalle: guitars, percussion, keyboards
Dylan Morrison: fretless bass
Shannon Forrest: drums
Tim Lorsch: violin ("low boy") and cello

8 - Everybody Wants To Be Your Friend
(Amy Holland McDonald / Jon Vezner / Bernie Chiaravalle)
Dutch Girl Music ASCAP/Mini-Apples Music BMI/Bernoit Music ASCAP

I don't want to tell you what to do
But it hurts me to see what you go through
It's a job never done when you're everything to everyone
Till you don't have nothing else
You don't even have yourself

Chorus:
Everybody wants to be your friend
They will pull on you and you just bend
Yet you never break
Can't you see that that's no way to live
They will take as long as you will give
But that's a choice you make

Bridge:
May not be true but it's what I believe
Just trying to tell you what I see
From my point of view
It's like you're losin' you
If you could see it through my eyes
Maybe you would realize

From my point of view
It's like I'm losin' you
Guess I'm lookin' through my eyes
Tryin' to make you realize

Everybody wants to be your friend
Everybody wants to be your friend

Personel:
Amy Holland McDonald: vocals
Bernie Chiaravalle: guitars (rhythm and solo), bass, keyboards
Vince Gill: vocals
Jon Vezner: guitar
Tim Akers: organ
Shannon Forrest: drums and percussion

*Vince Gill courtesy of MCA Nashville

9 - Surrender
(Amy Holland McDonald / Jon Vezner / Bernie Chiaravalle)
Dutch Girl Music ASCAP/Mini-Apples Music BMI/Bernoit Music ASCAP

I climbed my favorite mountain
And I looked out to the sea
And wondered if we'd still be here
If it hadn't been for me
In all my restless searchin'
The answer echoes back
The think for which I'm yearning
I already have

Wish that I knew then
All that I know now
If I had a chance again
Maybe I'd know how
To stop holdin' on
I don't have to be so strong
To surrender

In those moments of acceptance
That's the time when it's most clear
My real weakness is resistance
My real enemy is fear
So then why do I keep fighting
When I already know
That the answer for the faithful
Is simply letting go

So please deliver me
Let me have a taste
Of how it feels to be free
Take me to that place
Where I stop holding on
I don't have to be so strong
To surrender

Please deliver me
Let me have a taste
Of how it feels to be free
Take me to that place
Where I stop holding on
I don't have to be so strong
To surrender

Stop holding on
I don't have to be so strong
To surrender

Personel:
Amy Holland McDonald: vocals
Bernie Chiaravalle: guitars, bass, keyboards, vocals
Tollak Ollestad: harmonica
Jon Vezner: piano
Shannon Forrest: drums and percussion

10 - Nothin' Left To Believe In
(Bernie Chiaravalle /Charles Frichtel)
Bernoit Music ASCAP/Chazzmanian Music SESAC

A long way from nowhere
Just beside myself
Re-living each moment
I'm not taking it well
Words became weapons
And I'm black and blue
It may mean nothing to you
But it's everything to me
Just look back in your memory
Even you will see

Chorus:
I put my faith in you alone
Every piece of my heart
Every bit of my soul
And I'm beginning to see
There's nothing left to believe in

What good did it do me
Just what did I learn
That the light of desire
Can so easily burn
But you put out that fire
Just like you always do
It may mean nothing to you
But it's everything to me
Just look back in your memory
Even you will see

Chorus

Bridge:
I gave you every piece of my heart
Every bit of my soul
What good did it do me
I've got nothing to show for it

What good did it do me
I lose after all
It may mean nothing to you
But it's everything to me
Just look back in your memory
Even you will see

Chorus

I put my faith in you
Every bit of my soul
Nothing left to believe
I put my faith in you
Every bit of my soul

Personel:
Amy Holland McDonald: vocals
Bernie Chiaravalle: guitars, bass, percussion, keyboards
Dylan McDonald: vocals
Shannon Forrest: drums
Tim Lorsch: violin ("low boy") and cello

11 - My Little Rebel
(Amy Holland McDonald / John Goodwin / Bernie Chiaravalle)
Dutch Girl Music ASCAP/Queen's Knight Music BMI/Bernoit Music ASCAP

The last few years you have been running away
From the warmth and the shelter from my embrace
Finding your own world and not needing mine
Never thought I'd be the one you left behind

Chorus:
My little rebel
I will be there for you
If our heart gets broken
And the moon turns blue
My little rebel
I'll stand faithful and true
And love you no matter
What you have to go through
My little rebel

I know you're searching for your own way to be
These days you don't tell your secrets to me
But one day you'll find what's right for you
And you'll let me back in the day that you do

Chorus

The hardest thing for me
Is to somehow let you know
That I believe in you
Even if it means
That I have to let you go

My little rebel
I will be there for you
If our heart gets broken
And the moon turns blue
My little rebel
I'll stand faithful and true
And love you as long as you are you
My little rebel
I will be there for you
If your heart gets broken
And the moon turns blue
My little rebel
I'll stand faithful and true
And love you no matter
What you have to go through
My little rebel

Personel:
Amy Holland McDonald: vocals
Bernie Chiaravalle: guitars, bass, keyboards, vocals
John Deaderick: piano and organ
Shannon Forrest: drums

12 - Honest Emotion
(Michael McDonald / John Goodwin / Charles Frichtel)
Genevieve Music ASCAP/Queen's Knight Music BMI/Chazzmanian Music SESAC

I know that there is more to life
Than this little piece that I've broken off
And keep suspended closed behind these four walls

Or have I just blocked out the sky
That fills this ol' river with
Pure water of love stronger than pride

Chorus:
Honest emotion so hard to come by
Once it hurts you enough to last a lifetime
Would honest emotion even know me
If I walked through that door
I'm a skater on the lake of love
Always gliding on the surface of deeper feelings
But never fallin through
On my blades of flashing steel
Between the sky and the deep blue clear
Crystal waters of true love

Chorus

Got wings on my shoulders
I never thought to use them
And these shadows in my heart
I never thought I'd lose them

Personel:
Amy Holland McDonald: vocals
Bernie Chiaravalle: guitars, bass, keyboards, percussion, vocals
John Deaderick: piano and organ
Shannon Forrest: drums
Jonathan Yudkin: violin, viola and cello