So Much Work to Be Done -- Noah Zacharin

Performance of 'So Much Work to Be Done' (Noah Zacharin) by NZ at Hugh's Room Live, Toronto, June 21, 2024. Video by Laura Fernandez. "For Guy and for whoever is doing the work..."
So Much Work to Be Done (for Guy Clark)
this whiskey made it through the winter
it’s still got a bite
I lift one to the master
farewell farewell goodnight
too many losses for my fingers
hands can’t steady anyone
here on crumbling mountain
there is so much work to be done
I was driving my particular darkness
a radio voice placed him in the past
the whole world dimmed a little
Texas stars at half-mast
can’t blame the constellations
the spirit or the sun
on a one-lane road of moonlight
there is so much work to be done
I don’t have much to hold me here
no pistol pony wife or kid
but I got a sweet cabin and a guitar from Austin
and what little good I did
and if I get another morning
I’ll know it by the sun
angling in on a whisper
there is so much work to be done
he wore denim and a stetson
had a chisel a pencil and a grin
a master with a job don’t ask how or why he just asks
what and when
so play it on your daddy’s dobro
or fire off a twenty-one gun
there’s salt in the rio grande and
there is so much work to be done