THE STORY OF TOUCHE'

After a magical time performing at the VENIS HOUSE CONCERT in Lakewood, CO, I hoped to go back the following year. Our hostess Jalynn pointed out since everyone had bought all my other CDS, I would need to have a NEW CD before there could be a return performance! “Mmmm..” thought I! Not having written enough songs recently for a new album, I decided to go back and find songs I’d written before. Before when? Before now. I found myself going as far back as 1978. I did a Pre-Release of the songs with just myself & guitar in time to perform for the 2nd time at the Venis House Concert.

“TOUCHE, Songs from Before” is a collection of songs written between 1978 – 2000, and never recorded before. As I brushed the dust off these songs, it was like looking at old snapshots of my life…where I’ve been, who I’ve known and hopefully, what I’ve learned. The NEW RELEASE has David Snider adding bass, guitar, a little piano and slide to the project, with Bill Green at BGM Network in S.A, TX doing the mix & mastering.

Thank you to my dear sweet friend Jalynn (JalynnVenis.com) for the encouragement to do this project. It wouldn’t have happened if not for you!

Touché

Beth Williams Music

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“TOUCHE, Songs from Before” is a collection of songs written between 1978 – 2000, and finally recorded in Beth's small home studio in 2015.

“As I brushed the dust off these songs, it was like looking at old snapshots of my life…where I’ve been, who I’ve known and hopefully, what I’ve learned.”

1

Cut Run Don't Freeze 3:41

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2

The Last One to Know 4:43

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3

Kicking Up Dust 3:13

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4

The Boat Joke 3:37

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5

Mexico Song 3:35

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6

No Radio Playing 3:24

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7

She Cries 4:17

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8

Touché 2:26

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9

Your Good Man 3:27

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10

Times Not Healing 4:27

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11

You Have My Heart 3:55

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12

Dogs 3:10

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SONG LYRICS

CUT RUN DON’T FREEZE B.Williams 1990

Don’t worry I heard you loud and clear

Don’t worry I heard you and I’m already outta here

One of us is crazy and your screamin in my ear

Shatters like a crashing mirror

Solumn shadows of the beauty and the balladeer

(Chorus)

It’s time to cut run go and disappear

It’s time to cut cut run don’t freeze

It’s time to cut run go on disappear

It’s time to cut run don’t freeze

Work like a river pullin’ you along

Then 8 years bittered by your belief that I was wrong

You feel like the heroine in some sacred Haggard song

Where noone gives a dog a bone

And lonely victims volunteer too long (Chorus)

Go into your shell girl your fairytales begun

Say you been through hell, maybe you just married one (Chorus)

CUT RUN DON’T FREEZE – Live Performance with David Snider

THE LAST ONE TO KNOW B.Williams 1978

You are a cowboy yea you rope them cows and ya ride the range

You sure love those horses & you love your freedom just the same

I watch you workin’ in the cool of the mornin’, throw that hay

and I laugh as you run yelling’ out the backgate

all those horses tryin’ to get away

(Chorus)

I might be in love with you

Darlin’ you’ll be the last one to know

You could be the one to make my dreams come true

Lord or make me wanna let them go

I been a dreamin’, tall dark handsome man just like you

And it’s been a dream of mine seems like forever

You could be the one to make them come true

But now I’m leavin’ for Texas coz honey

you got your life here and there I’ve got mine

Sweet cowboy take care of you and those horses

While I dream on of love I never seem to find. (Chorus)

KICKIN UP DUST B. Williams

Hey buddy do you wanna kick some dust with me

Bands playin I’m swayin footloose and fancy free

Aint no place else this gal would rather be no no

Than underneath these stars, you kickin up dust with me

Forget about all those nights out on the trail

Silent moon above the coyotes longing wail

Think instead about the sweet perfume you smell.

Come on and dance with me I’ll be your nightingale.

YODEL

Hey buddy do you wanna kick some dust with me

Bands playin I’m swayin footloose and fancy free

Aint no place else this gal would rather be no no

Than underneath these stars, you kickin up dust with me

Forget about Charlene, she was untrue

Only broke your heart and make a fool of you

Think istread about the sweet perfume you smell

Come on dance with me, I’ll be your nightingale

THE BOAT JOKE B. Williams

What do you mean I don’t float your boat

What do you mean I don’t move you

What’s the deal here, I can’t cope

With your unsolicited, unwelcome truth

(Chorus)

It was a dry spell when I fell

Into the dry well I fell (I fell)

Olly Olly in come, in come free

Thought I heard you callin’ me

Olly Olly in come, in come free

Guess the float your boat jokes on me

How am I gonna look you in the eye

Without letting my hurt feelings show

Or be a big girl who don’t cry

When I turn and watch you go

(Chorus) (Bridge)

As I fell, you never tried to catch , help

hold me or lift me up

You set sail in search of a much better deal

Yeah that’s my luck

MEXICO SONG B. Williams Dec. 13, 1983

She packed up her bags and said I’m moving away

I got to find me a sunnier day

My feet are itchin’ and my mind is on edge

I got to find another place for my head

Maybe I’ll head onto Mexico where noone knows my name

Hang out in the bars where noone knows who you are

The whiskey pours like rain…Maybe I’ll just go home

She looked at me with those tears in her eyes

She say somehow I got tangled up in these lies

I gotta get out of this little town

There ain’t nobody here to keep me around

Maybe I’ll take to the highway, take things as they come

Hang out on the road till a pot full of gold

Comes streamin’ in like the sun…Maybe I’ll just go home

I looked in the mirror and saw tears in my eyes

Didn’t I once say time does not fly

Was that old woman lookin’ back at me

Really the young girl I used to be

Yes I made it to Mexico, I took the highway too

And that pot of gold was never within my hold

The whiskey made me blue…maybe I’ll just go home

She packed up her bags and said I’m movin away

I got to find me a sunnier day

SHE CRIES B. Williams July 29, 1988

There she goes again, walkin’ up that mountain

Wishin’ like an eagle she had wings to fly

I hear tell on the top there is a fountain

Where she cries and cries, cries and cries

into a fountain of sorrow she cries

Won’t be long now till that fountains overflowing

What will she do with the sadness she can’t hide

Guess those tears are gonna roll right down the mountain

As she cries and cries, cries and cries

Into a fountain of sorrow she cries

(Bridge)

She hears the night wind calling, it whispers her name

saying let this flowing river ease your pain

Still she knows in her heart, she’ll never be the same

She lost love…now theres nothing left to gain

It’s been years now since she went up on that mountain

Wonder if she ever found the wings to fly

I hear tell she dove right into the fountain

Where she cries and cries, cries and cries

Now she’s the fountain of sorrow she cries

Where she cries and cries, cries and cries

Now she’s the fountain of sorrow, she cries

TOUCHE’ B. Williams 1990

Hey she’s a little troubled waitin’ on Mae West

A hayseed in the rubble, vacillating at best

While romantically weeping “One wish from the well”

She cries, frantically sweeping the heartbreak no tell

CHORUS

Singing…Hey hey hey touche’ Hey touche’ stay away

Hey Touche’ Stay and sway

Hey she’s out of season a fettered borderline

Half crazy in deceiving a red letter dark design

Feeling a little fragile by the sea where shes left

Reelin’ in the agile spirit of Mae West

(CHORUS)

The worn weathered through and through passage of time

Cannot mountains of mem’ries erase from her mind

“Whisper to me,” she said, “run with the wind

Give me one reason Miss Mae to love you again”

TIMES NOT HEALING B. Williams Nov. 27, 1993

Red lipstick on white cigarettes remind me of you

Yellow roses in the backyard are left alone

Cause you’re not home to bring them to

(Chorus)

Times not healing…someone said it would

Times not healing the fact you’re gone for good

Times not healing, whoa times not healing

Times not healing losing you

Quiet footsteps in the kitchen

Whisper softly to me of days gone by

The lonely beating of a heart so needing

to hear you say it’s okay, now don’t you cry

(Bridge)

In the back roads of my mind I know this was meant to be

But the highway to my heart leads straight back to your memory

TIMES NOT HEALING – Teaching myself to play banjo for this song…

KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR GOOD MAN B. Williams Dec. 11, 1983

Girls you better keep an eye on your good man

There’s somebody waiting to catch him if she can

She waits in the shadows like a china doll

Steal your man from you, then she’ll watch you fall

Girls you better keep an eye on your good man – –

Girls you better show your man the way you feel

There’s somebody waiting around this town who will

She’s just like a cat sneakin’ in the dark

Waits for a chance to steal your good mans heart

Girls you better show your man the way you feel.

(Bridge)

Everybody knows what I’m talking about.

It’s the gal with no guy of her own

I been watching her watching your man

Just waiting to catch him alone.

So girls you better keep an eye on your good man.

NO RADIO PLAYIN’ B. Williams

She’s so happy she feels like the star in a picture show

caught up in a fairy tale

The kind where the boy gets the girl, the girl gets the boy

Two lucky pennies in a wishing well

Happy ever after says the street sign on the hill

She’s singing love songs, hanging clothes

while she watches him plow the field.

When he comes down off the tractor,

She got dinner waiting there for him

Dogs howling at their laughter, and

she’s thankful to be living in

(Chorus)

The middle of a hit love song though no radio’s playing

He’s humming as she strums along and

their bodies are swaying

On 1 back porch with 1 guitar

where he’s in heaven and she’s the star

in the middle of a hit love song, no radio playin’. – –

Forty years later she’s watching the garden grow

still singing sweet and low, sheets hanging out on the line

Moo moo says the cow to the kittens meow

chickens peck the ground right in time

to the hum of the distant tractor, she looks up in time to see

horses thunder, beatin’ like a drummer

cross the field running wild and free.

Wind chimes play in harmony, it’s such a beautiful thing

as she starts to dance to the rhythm of the ranch

and her heart strings as they swing. (Chorus)

Nothing like the sight of a gray haired woman spinning round like she’s 14

The old man watching her from the field

thanks the Lord for his country queen. (Chorus)

TWO BONUS TRACKS!!!

YOU HAVE MY HEART B. Williams 2014

For Mozelle
When I lost you I thought I would die
torn from my arms I screamed "Why? Why?"
My whole world was just a falling sky
there was nothing to do my cry
I honestly wanted to die

Couldn't let go, couldn't give in
to you not being here , to see that chapter end
Woke up this morning, heard a new song
telling me to stop holding on
let you go coz you're already gone.

But I want you to know you have my heart
Wherever you go, we're not apart
If you ever feel scared or along in the dark
Remember this. You have my heart.

It's been hard in these mountains here without you
I carried on but barely made it through
I'll never get over this though I believe
You are right now where you're meant to be (you want to be)
I did my best, I know someday you'll see.

But I want you to know you have my heart
Wherever you go, we're not apart
If you ever feel scared or along in the dark
Remember this. You have my heart.

Sometimes this life doesn't make sense
You just gotta hold on and remember this

I want you to know you have my heart
Wherever you go, we're not apart
If you ever feel scared or along in the dark
Remember this. You have my heart.

I LIKE DOGS B. Williams 1999 (Video Below)

I like dogs and dogs like me

but I don’t get along with most people I see

I’m sure the whole problem is I’m just ornery

I don’t play well with others

so glad I discovered

that I like dogs and dogs like me

No matter what I say. No matter what I do.

Can’t get people to act like they should

or should I say like I want them to

I guess I’m just destined to live life almost alone

I don’t worry, I’ve got a bunch of furry

friendly fluffy dogs at home. (Chorus)

If God has a dog it’s an English Mastiff and her name is Grace

She weighs 200 pounds and has a big soft face

He knows she would never ever sin against him

When he created the dog, that wise ole God

made a picture perfect friend.

(Chorus) (Bridge)

My husband says he wants to come back as one of my dogs

in his next life. I treat them better than kings and queens and

it’s the only time I’m really nice.