Bridges

pullin’ into town
I admire new architecture
but as I drew closer
I began to hear them whisper
then I heard them yell
“Boy, what the hell you tryna do here for?
We told you after the fire, we don’t suffer liars
and we don’t like you.”

well I roam this land perpetually
tryna find a reason to just be me
and she lived here
among the tall wallflowers
I left her here
by the old clock chimin hours

she was there with me
on the killing floor
but it was only me
who walked through
the door
I just came back to
see if there’s any chance that
she plays in the same band
does she got a new man?

well I roam this land perpetually
tryna find a reason to just be me
and she lived here
among the tall wallflowers
I left her here
by the old clock chimin hours

pullin down her street
I can feel my heart racing
as the crowd gathered round
they began to pick up stones
I climbed those stairs alone
the crowd swarmed around
but when I knocked on her front door
her porch light went out

there’s a train rollin’ in
there’s a moon in the sky
there’s no reason to live
and no reason to die
but she lived here
among you tall wallflowers
I left her here
won’t the old clock chime a year?

she lived here
I saw her in a dream once
years ago, before the fire
before I knew what losin was

Recorded live at Melodies Cafe on 1/9/15 for the Bluebird Cabaret, Songs of Sadness&Light, featuring
Savy Avrimedes Guthrie
Mark Thousands
Andrew Meoray
and Cardinal Arms.

Live at Melodies Cafe

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A post shared by Jim Trainer (@goingforthethroat) on Jun 9, 2014 at 10:16pm PDT

Tonight at Melodies Cafe
Songs of Sadness&Light
with
Mark Thousands
Andrew Meoray
Cardinal Arms
Jim Trainer
and very special guest Savy Avrimedes Guthrie
Friday January 9, 2015
7:30 Melodies’ Cafe
2 East Lacaster Avenue
Ardmore, PA
8 PM
Photos courtesy of Kettle Pot Tracks, setlist&photos from Jim Trainer’s performance at Melodies in June

Philadelphia Blues

walkin down Hazel street one day
I heard a man say “I’ll kill you.”
a little ill at ease when I’d walk these streets
I don’t know about you
but there’s no such thing as paranoia
in a town where they shoot you fer yer shoes
no respite, no mercy, the Philadelphia blues

in a city of millions I can’t see how
the two of you could end up at the same hotel
you sit at the same table share the same scenic view
what my ex-wife and my girlfriend
are discussing I haven’t a clue
must be hatchin plans to give a man the Philadelphia blues

little umbrella girl in the pourin rain
with the snout of an elephant or a shrew
gonna get it all down with her pad&pen
dirty whore knows what to do
gonna get it all down gonna mark it all down
maybe put it on pay-per-view
a sad little movie starring you, called the Philadelphia blues

ain’t a bar in town that’ll serve me now
their doors closed to me and their bolted, too
but if there’s a bar in Hell, gonna order me a whiskey&vermouth
and say “Hello Satan! Something I wanna talk about with you.
You don’t have to giver cancer Just give her some
Philadelphia blues.” 

walkin down Hazel Street today
I slapped my pistol down in that pig’s face
we all got things in our lives we can’t undo
rain pourin down on the beltway, I’ll be in Little Rock around 1 or 2
put the pedal down makin miles from the Philadelphia blues

Jim Trainer returns to Melodies’ Cafe this Friday January 9, performing with a stellar lineup including Mark Thousands, Cardinal Arms and Andrew Meoray.
Songs of Sadness&Light
this Friday January 9
at Melodies’ Cafe
2 East Lacaster Avenue
Ardmore, PA
8 PM

“summer’s here and the time is right for fighting in the street”

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Bob Dylan’s Birthday Bash
Hosted by D.C. Bloom
at the Whip In
1950 S I H 35
Austin, TX 78704
7-11pm

You ain’t going nowhere else than to the Whip In on May 24th to celebrate Bob Dylan’s 73rd birthday! And the time it ain’t a-changin’ … It’s pretty firm. It’s gonna start at 7 pm in the beer garden! … The Man in me – D.C., that is – is gonna host this million dollar bash that will cost you NOTHING to attend! (Tips appreciated, though, natch … ) I want you, I want you, I want you (to come) so bad! … I pity the poor immigrant and/or native born citizen who misses this party!! Bob’s gonna be 73, but we’re gonna be forever young on the 24th cuz not even a hurricane or an idiot wind is gonna keep the following folks from singing a few Bob Dylan songs for ya’ll! … As host of the evening, all I really wanna do is open the evening by singing a couple myself and then introducing Ashley Monical, Don Pedigo, Mo McMorrow, Jim Trainer, Nathan Hamilton, B Sterling Archer, Pete Minda, Danny Fast Fingers, Amanda Pearcy, Josh Luckenbach, Dana McBride, Leeann Atherton, Amy Zamarripa, Cary Cooper, Jean Synodinos, Penny Ney, and the Girl From the North Texas Hill Country. Pete Minda’s band will be serving as the house band for the evening! And we’re gonna be callin’ em the Elston Guns, after the stage name a youthful Robert Zimmerman used in Hibbing, MN. Performers being added hourly, so check back! … Oh, and there WILL be cake!!! Come!!!

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Bedpost Quickies

A Sex&Relationship Based, Open Performance Series, And Spinoff of the Wildly Successful Bedpost Confessions

Tuesday June 2
at the
ND
502 Brushy Street
Austin, TX
Sign Up’s at 7
Show Starts at 7:30

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Friday June 6
Melodie’s Cafe
Cardinal Arms
Mark Thousands
Jim Trainer
Kettle Pot Black
Andrew Meoray Milgore
2 E Lancaster Avenue
Ardmore, PA 19003
7:30pm

After cutting his teeth for years backing legendary bluesman Shakey Lyman in Philadelphia, Jim Trainer came down to Austin, TX following that Americana sound. He wanted to emulate the taut economy of song and high lonesome poetry he heard coming from all those great Texas folk and country outlaws.
Enlisting the talents of Justin Kolb (Jesse Dayton/Bobby Flores) on upright bass and Billy Brent Malkus (The Texas Sapphires/Nathan Hamilton) on telecaster and harmonies, Trainer was able to realize his roots-rock sound and vision. The acoustic combo has performed at Momo’s, the Scoot Inn and Romeo’s when not attending to residencies at the Whip In and the Beale Street Tavern. Trainer now plays solo the Third Thursday of every month at House Wine in the 04 (details below).
The characters Trainer writes of know pain and heartache but it doesn’t stop them from being in love with the gamble of life. His songwriting takes the listener with him down that dusty road where his anti-heroes might find redemption and Victory even if it means losing on their own terms.

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Saturday June 7
An Evening of Poetry&Spoken Word
Don Bajema
Charlie O’Hay
Jim Trainer
Big Blue Marble Bookstore
551 Carpenter Lane
Philadelphia, PA 19119
SHOW TIMES TBA

Please join us for a great night of poetry and spoken word. Jim Trainer returns to Philly to perform and read with great writer Don Bajema and wonderful poet Charlie O’Hay.

Jim Trainer is a communicator. Growing up in the hardcore scene of the early 90’s taught him everything he needed to know about the real work. Jim Trainer believes in rock and roll. It may be our only salvation in this dark world. He’s carried the torch for independent media, broadcasting as one of the early voices of Radio Volta(88.1fm)and writing for the Philadelphia IMC’s Wire in the early aughts. He’s appeared as The Reason, broadcasting on WKDU 91.7fm while writing for its Communiqué. He’s been the driver for several internationally touring metal bands taking him to every state in the Continental U.S. He’s followed that Americana sound all the way down to Austin, TX where he works as a Singer/Songwriter and contributes to Verbicide Magazine. “We are not that different, you and I.” If you hear his voice on the air or read his words on the page, Jim Trainer is trying to break down the separation they have built between us. Jim Trainer believes you can be set free and that communication is the key.

Novelist, screenwriter, actor and performer Don Bajema was born in St. John’s, New Foundland, Canada in 1949. He is the author of two highly acclaimed collections of short stories, Boy In The Air and Reach, now published as one volume, Winged Shoes and a Shield, by City Lights. As an actor, Bajema first appeared on stage in the West Coast premiere of Sam Shepard’s “Curse of the Starving Class”. With a lead role in the 1983 film “Signal Seven”, Bajema began a long-time collaboration with groundbreaking independent film director Rob Nilsson. He had a lead role in Nilsson’s 1988 Sundance Film Festival Grand Prize winner “Heat and Sunlight” and he wrote and starred in the 1996 film “Chalk,” which Nilsson directed. He has appeared in more than a dozen feature films, most recently Carl Franklin’s 2002 film “High Crimes”. A favorite on the “spoken word circuit”, Bajema has toured extensively in the US, Canada and Europe, performing at hundreds of clubs, theaters and universities. He has shared the spoken word stage with the likes of Hubert Selby, Lydia Lunch, Henry Rollins, and Jim Carroll. He is a former world-class track and field athlete who competed in the 1972 US Olympic trials and played football for legendary coach Don Coryell at San Diego State University. He currently lives with his family in New York City.

Charles O’Hay is the recipient of a 1995 Pennsylvania Council on the Arts fellowship in poetry. His poems have appeared in over 100 literary publications including Gargoyle, South Carolina Review, Brooklyn Review, West Branch, Mudfish, and New York Quarterly.
The author lives with his wife and daughter in eastern Pennsylvania. Far From Luck, his first full-length collection of poems is out now through Lucky Bat Books and available on Amazon.com.

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Austin’s No Shame Theatre
5 Minutes Anything Goes
Salvage Vanguard Theatre
Manor Road
Austin, TX
Sign Up’s At 9:30 PM
Show Starts At 10:00 PM

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Third Thursdays at House Wine
Roots, Blues&Rockabilly provided by
Jim Trainer
every Third Thursday at
House Wine
408 Josephine Street
Austin, TX 78704
7-10 PM
The Next Third Thursday is Thursday June 19

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