Eliza: vocals Mike Alexander: bass Sean Foley: piano Tom Leiner: guitar Jill Fromewick: harmonica Stephanie Morgan: backing vocals Mike Rhodes: drums and percussion

I started writing this song just to have a simple chord structure to begin teaching myself how to improvise on guitar. But I needed words, and when they came, I didn’t try to make them fancy. I got about half way, and one day Mike was driving around and wrote about six verses for me to choose from to finish the song. I love the open energy he brought to the song.

Lyrics

O, they’re weary. O, they’re tired. O, they have tried to get their wheels pulled out of the mire. They’ve had trouble since the day they could walk. Trouble it came to the door, and then, trouble talked. And said, “You’ll have it hard. If the bridge ain’t broke, then the walls are in your face. And the tide, O, the tide is coming strong. This earth, for you, is a hard damn place.” Life stacks the odds. It’s not easy to tell who’s living here in earth in some kind of heaven, and who’s living in hell. O, they’re weary. They might be you, I might be them and they might be me, too. Many’s the day we have stood tall and shouldered the burden when we felt so small. Now you know that it’s gonna be ok, cause this too will pass. Take those helping hands that reach out, that reach out when you ask. And when you’re weary, when you don’t know what to do – you can call me up or come on down and I’ll be kind to you. Just keep moving, one step at a time. I am your loving friend, just as sure as you are mine.

PS. This song has acquired one more verse since we recorded it:

And if you find that you need a hand to hold, reach down and help me up, you can lighten up my load. We can reach out, we can grab on, we can lead hand in hand. Reach out, grab on, if you’re weary, take my hand!