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Don't stop holding me

by Ken Baake (Kris Olson singing)

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about

I wrote this song from an older woman’s perspective as she fears the imminent loss of a brand new love, but perhaps is still powerless to overcome her own anxieties rooted in childhood experiences. Some of the images are from my own childhood settings, such as the island lake house (Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey). The characters are real and imagined, but all based on my observation that everyone wants to be loved and experience life fully, but everyone has old underlying fears that can get in the way.

lyrics

Don't Stop Holding Me
by Ken Baake

Don’t stop holding me, David
Even though I know you have to leave
The leaving and the holding on
Both shake me.

Today I walked to the grocer’s stand to buy some dinner for us
But I won’t use those words anymore
Still, after all these years if I’ve allowed myself to love
Why didn’t I walk for you before?

When I was a teen-aged girl, at the island house
Hiding in the bushes by the dock
If I only saw my brother’s friends working on their boats
The tingles made me feel I was on watch.

I lay in the back room when my dad and mother fought
“Those boys should never have been left alone.”
“The broken leg would heal all right,” is what the doctor said.
But all I’d seen was bright red blood and bone.

Chorus

“These must be the wrong nails for patching the garage.”
We’re laughing as the side board falls off.
But when I bring you grapes and tea and sit there by that wood.
I feel I a peace I never could have thought.

Chorus

Can I walk to the grocer’s stand to buy some lunch for us?
I’ve never asked that question before.
But if after all these years alone in fear I need to love.
Maybe I should ask you once more.

credits

released March 19, 2014
Vocal: Kris Olson
Guitar: Ken
Mandolin: Drew Brandon, Ken's Lubbock guitar teacher/coach.

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about

Ken Baake image

Ken Baake Lubbock, Texas

Ken was born in Baltimore in 1955. He grew up hearing everyone from Johnny Mercer and Ray Charles to the Beatles on the family hi-fi, with a usual Saturday encore of Wagner's operas. Ken has degrees in English and economics and a background in journalism. He is currently an associate professor of English at Texas Tech, teaching classes in rhetoric. ... more

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