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Kenny Ray Horton: Music

A Canary's Song

(Kenny Ray Horton)
Written by Buddy Mondlock / Garth Brooks (EMI April / Major Bob Music)

I heard this song in the mid 90's when I was living in Nashville. I went to a writers night and when I heard it I fell in love with it. I held on the the name of the song for years and I contacted Mike Doyle at Major Bob and I asked if I could put it on the record and Mike said we could. I am honored to get the opportunity to do what I consider to be one of the greatest songs I've heard and to make it the title track to this album. Thanks to Mike for allowing me to do it and to Buddy and Garth for writing it!

Chorus
While the Mockingbird warbles Near the mountain stream Down in a mine A canary sings In a deep dark hole Where men didn’t belong They listened to their lives In a canary’s song
Verse 1
I remember mountain mornings So quiet I could almost hear The wind in the red-tails feathers And the breathin of the deer Those old tracks seemed to go forever As a child I’d walk all day Findin diamonds in the cinders Pickin chunks of coal away
Verse 2
As morning faded to evening So too came my time To follow down in my Daddy’s footsteps And leave the mountain for the mine Always bring a bright canary Our link to the world of air For we knew while she kept singin We wouldn’t suffocate down there
Chorus
While the Mockingbird warbles Near the mountain stream Down in a mine A canary sings In a deep dark hole Where men don’t belong We listened to our lives In a canary’s song
Bridge
And we’d listen for the sunrise For wings against the sky And we’d listen for the dreams That’d make men try
Verse 3
Once again I left the mountain To find work when the mine shut down Those old tracks don’t go forever They end in this old part of town All I brought was this canary As I wake from dreams of home I pray I’ll hear her singin And fear a silence cold as stone
Chorus
While the Mockingbird warbles Near the mountain stream In a cold water room A canary sings Livin in this hole Where I don’t belong I listen to my life In a canary’s song