I was wandering around Vancouver not knowing what I was about to find
Had a room at the Cambie hostel and I was just killing some time
When I heard this lonesome sound coming from down the street
There was an old man picking a guitar with a case opened at his feet
He had long white hair beneath an old cap and a long white beard
He was picking some John Prine tune for everyone to hear
I leaned up against the wall and held on to his every word
Then he started playing some mining song that I'd never heard
He called it Dark As a Dungeon and it was enough to make you weep
When you hear it played by an old man on a street corner of Gastown on an old guitar with nylon strings
A man walked by and flicked a penny which landed outside of his case
And he stopped the song before it was through and said, Sir let me tell you one thing
I'm down on my luck with no roof over my head
But I'm an artist not a beggar and this is the only gig I could get
And as he placed the penny back in that man's hand he said, You can keep your charity
And if you're still feeling giving later on go see them winos down the street
That man closed his hand on his penny and his face got all red and he started walking down the street
And that man with the guitar turned and said to me,
Son I've never had the finer things but I'm doing all that I love
That makes me as free as the rich down here and them birds flying up above
Then he went back into that old mining song and he never missed a beat
And the hair stood up on the back of my neck when he began to sing
I took a twenty out of my pocket and dropped it in his case
And he smiled at me and said, thank-you son before I could walk away
And whenever I'm playing in a bar someplace where the crowd can talk louder than I can sing
I just think about an old man standing on a corner in Gastown picking an old guitar with nylon strings
Gastown
Brock Zeman
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Lyrics by Brock Zeman
10 Day Rut 10 Dollars & a Dime 50 Dollar Bill A Different Kind of Ground A Song to a Girl Ain't Nothin' All These Roads Amanda Another Song Better Half Billy N' Me Blood Of Christ Blues Bones Bonnie N' Clyde Boxcars Breanna Harrison Caroline Chanelle Cindy Claws D'Arcy Plunkett Danny's Song Dark As a Dungeon Dear Father Don't Think About Your Anymore Down By The River Down In the Basement Dragged Through the Dirt Drop Your Bucket Dust Dust and Dirt End of the Tunnel End of the World Everybody Loves Elvis Girl With a Gun Gone Guitar Fool Hollar Out In Days Ahead Jefferson County Keep Movin' Killer In the Corn Length of Your Chain Life Is Good Light In the Attic Mary Anne O'Toole Mississippi River Moccasin Road My Heaven Never Step On a Train Nothing On The Radio Once Upon a Saturday Night Percy's Daughter Picture of You Plain Wild Porch Light Pulling Your Sword out of the Devil's Back Push Them Stones Rain On the Roof #1 Rain On the Roof #2 Raise Your Hands Ridin' On the Rims Saturday Night Scarecrow Blues Season of Sleep Since You've Been Gone Sink Like a Stone Sittin' In Hock Small Town Tongues Soldier's Prayer Some Things Stay Somebody's Comin' Someone for You Storm's A-comin' Sweet Charlotte Talking Reality Show Blues The Greasy Skillet Boys The Mason Gang The Sun Went Out Tires On the Gravel Train In Me Triple Crown Two Steps Back Until It Bleeds Walking in the Dark Where You Leave Your Car Whistle While I Clean My Gun White Freight Liner William P. Rambler Ya Ain't Crazy Henny Penny
