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City With No Walls

from Quarantine Kitchen by Jim Ballard

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about

In visiting Last Chance Village, a tent city area just east of downtown Akron, I came away with these impressions of the plight and the challenge of the souls among us who have no home, no rooms, no walls to protect them. No one. In America. In this day and age.... should be without a home. The original version of this song performed onstage with The Strangs is on the album One Night. A 'Studio Version' is planned for the year 2021. This is our coffee house version.

lyrics

City With No Walls ©2020 Jim Ballard

I've seen bagmen under bridges where the campfire girls make their deals
Where the taxis take no riders and the angels ain't got no wheels
And in the smokey hours of twilight frownin
I hear my name called and I look down and see my boots kick the
concrete curbside stalls
Where the city's got no walls

Now the dancin eyed hobos their pockets full of promises
Find the answer to their hunger in the cloud covered emptiness
They know it ain't no use to keep the doorman waiting
Can smell the rain, they know its gettin' late 'n'
The wind is gatherin prowlin dancin howlin thru the halls
Where the city's got no walls

In the shadow of the canyons in the alleys where the sun comes up blue
Written in the overcast sleep the ones who keep falling through
Till it hangs in the sky by gossamer webs
Morning to night it flows and it ebbs
And its warm then its gone, then its gone and thats all
Where the city's got no walls

Then the sloe eyed drummer taps off eight to the crowd's delight
His brushes and his digits beating wild in the black hole night
And he wakes to the dancers gathered all 'round
Swaying out of time to the steam grate sound
Of the souls and the heels and the underground waterfalls
Where the city's got no walls

Now the blind man stumbles in the stairway as he taps his cane
He hears footsteps up above him in the dark and dusty subterrain
And the doorway has dreamers, days spent in dives
Who's treasures are the flotsam of all the other lives
Who's ironbound pillow carries no dreams at all

The famous Gypsy Wire Walker starts his journey in the evening air
He works without a net as the crowd is gathering in the square
He knows he's rollin' it all on this one trick
He ain't ever had a fall but now he's starin at the bricks
And all the faces passin by him down below him all begin to call
Where the city's got no walls

Now the girls by the fire and the hobos starin at the flames
Got one eye on the doorman as the taxi driver's takin names
The drummer's rollin cadence in the alleyway
The crowd in the square has all drifted away
And they've taken down the wires from the buildings that once were so tall
Where the city's got no walls

credits

from Quarantine Kitchen, released February 8, 2021
Hand Drums~Joe Lang
PayPal.me/redpearldrums

Keyboards~Tim Longfellow
www.paypal.me/typhoonmacpro

Guitar~Wes McCraw
www.paypal.me/WesMcCraw

Bass~Bill Watson
paypal.me/BillW65P

Guitar/Vocal/Harmonica~Jim Ballard

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Jim Ballard Akron, Ohio

Jim Ballard
A native of NE Ohio, Jim Ballard has been, for many years a part of the recording/performing community. After touring and performing all over the country with artists from 10,000 Maniacs to Gordon Lightfoot,The Mekons to Pete Seeger, he moved into his studio, Skylyne. There, he has recorded and worked with artists from Michael Stanley to Don Dixon and Alex Bevan. ... more

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