Category Archives: Joanne

Joanne, Songs

Make It Last

Audio


Getting old with someone sounds romantic — and honestly, it is.

Joanne and I have collected a beautiful pile of moments: dances, road trips, quiet mornings, strange adventures, deep talks, little laughs, and all the ordinary magic that somehow becomes a life.

But “growing old together” has two parts. The together part is lovely. The old part can be a little rude.

This song is about that sweet and stubborn wish to slow the clock down, hold the hand a little longer, and make the moment stay put for once.

Can we make it last?

Let’s make it last.

Make It Last
I’m thinking ’bout my days as I get older
And the questions that I’ve learned from the past
How many days are left for me to hold her
All the memories seem to come and go so fast
Can we make it last?

Or can’t we just make these moments last?
‘Cause there’s days when the sun won’t shine and days that just get older
And there’s days when I have you here with me
These days I call you mine but just around the corner
There’s days when we’ll set my spirit free
Can we make it last?

Or can’t we just make these moments last?
[acoustic guitar continues fingerpicking pattern]
I need my jacket now as it gets colder
All the shivers seem to come on me so fast
These days I call you mine and though we’re getting older
There’s nowhere else on earth I’d rather be
Can we make it last?

Or can’t we just make these moments last?
Can we make it last?
Let’s make it last

Joanne, Life Stories, Songs

I’ve Got You

After more than twenty years, she still stops me in my tracks. Not because life has been perfect—but because through all of it, she’s been there. The noise of the world comes and goes, the stories change, the worries shift… but some things don’t. This song is my way of saying that when everything else falls away, the thing that really matters is that I’ve got her. THank you Joanne for being a steady and constant beat in my artistically sometimes chaotic life. I love you deeply – or as they say nowadays: I love you so much!!

There was a time in my life when I thought everything important had to be fought for—truth, direction, meaning. I spent a lot of years out there in the noise, trying to make sense of a world that never quite settles down. And maybe that’s just the way of it… the world keeps turning, the stories keep changing, and there’s always something pulling for your attention.
But somewhere along the way, I found something different. Or maybe I should say… I finally recognized it.

This song is about what happens when all that noise fades just enough for you to see what really matters. Not in a grand, dramatic way—but in the quiet, everyday kind of way. The kind that shows up in the morning, sticks around through the hard days, and doesn’t ask for much except that you notice it.

For me, that came in the form of a woman who walked into my life after I’d already lived most of it. It took me forty-four years to find her, and I wouldn’t have known to look for her any sooner. Some things don’t arrive until you’re ready to understand them.
So if you’re younger and listening to this, thinking you’ve got to figure it all out right now—you don’t. Life has its own timing. The world will always have something to argue about, something to worry over. But don’t let it distract you from the one thing that might steady everything.

Because when you find that person…
the one who quiets the noise without even trying—
you’ll understand why the rest of it never mattered quite as much as you thought.
And if you’re lucky enough to say it and mean it—
“I’ve got you”—
you might just find that’s everything.
I love you Joanne!!

I’ve Got You

I’ve got hope and inspiration
Even when I sing the blues
So I avoid the aggravation
I’ve got better things to do
I’ve got you

Back when I’d fight for truth and freedom
I’d stand my ground for what is true
Now they’ve got different news to feed ‘em
And I’ve got better things to do
I’ve got you

Some say the world will end tomorrow
There’s folks to tell you that it’s true
Some say the future’s filled with sorrow
But I’ve got better things to do
I’ve got you

You say the news can make you crazy
Don’t let ‘em take it out on you
They don’t have facts ‘cause their too lazy
Guess they’ve got better things to do but
But I’ve got you

So if their right and all the lights go black
If the war comes crashing down our railroad track
Don’t let them take it out on you
I’ve got you

I’ve got hope and inspiration
Even when I sing the blues
So I avoid the aggravation
I’ve got better things to do
I’ve got you

Joanne, Songs

The Fabric of My Dreams

Audio


Some loves don’t arrive loudly.
They come quietly, in the middle of the night, like a melody you didn’t know you were listening for—until it’s already living inside your heart.

This song is one of many I’ve written for Joanne over the last twenty-plus years. Sometimes she’s the subject, sometimes the setting, sometimes just the gravity that keeps the song from floating away. By now, she’s appeared—directly or indirectly—in more than sixty songs. I stopped counting because the counting didn’t matter anymore.

What matters is this:
Love, when it’s real, becomes part of the architecture of your inner life.

These lyrics aren’t about romance as spectacle. They’re about devotion as residence—about choosing a heart to live inside, even when temptation knocks, even when the world offers shinier prizes. This song arrived the way the best ones do: unannounced, unforced, and fully formed. I didn’t chase it. I listened.

At its core, this is a song about choosing love over ambition, connection over noise, and presence over promise. It’s about waking at dawn and realizing the dream didn’t leave—it stayed.

Some songs try to impress.
This one simply tells the truth.

[Verse 1]
Dreams can live
Deep inside your heart
And last for a lifetime long
My dream lives in the rhythm of my heart
And beats in the lyrics of my song

[Verse 2]
Yes, it came in the night like a melody
And it sings in my heart, right or wrong
So now I reside in the walls of a heart
That listens for the dream inside my song

[Pre-Chorus]
Now, oh, if the devil came
Just to tempt me with fortune, fame, and stars
I’d have to say no if you couldn’t go
And it left me alone without your heart

[Chorus]
‘Cause dreams will come in the middle of the night
And find me with an angel here at dawn
So I’ve come to live in the walls of a heart
That listens for the dream inside my song

[Instrumental]

[Pre-Chorus]
Dreams will come to live inside your heart
And they’ll stay for a lifetime long
I have a dream that lives inside my heart
It came with an angel and a song

[Chorus]
Oh, it came in the night like a melody
And it lives in the lyrics that I sing
So I’ve come to live in the walls of a heart
That dances through the fabric of my dream

Yes, I’ve come to live in the walls of a heart
That dances through the fabric of my dream

[Outro]
(Hmm-mm-mm)
(Oh-oh-oh)
(Hmm-mm-mm)
(Oh-oh-oh)

Joanne, Songs, Tango

Lilacs For Anna

Audio

Every so often, a story drifts into your life like the scent of lilacs on a spring breeze — delicate, vivid, and impossible to ignore. This one came from my dear friend Anna, whose tale carried the kind of detail that refuses to stay silent. It whispered melody. It tugged at rhythm. It had to become a song.

It’s about love… not just the poetic, heart-thumping kind, but the everyday, sideways-glancing kind. The kind that says yes to muddy shoes and fence-hopping moments. The kind that delights in lilac heists and accidental cuts, and still laughs about it later. It’s about falling for someone who doesn’t just walk through life — she dances through it, sometimes barefoot, sometimes in stilettos dancing tango, sometimes with a scratched pinky, always with boldness in bloom.

So this song isn’t just about her —
It’s about how I adore her.
And maybe about how we all long to love —
Adventurous. Unapologetic. Alive.

???? I’m a sucker for adventure… ????
Press play, and you’ll see what I mean.

Best of Rusty, CDs, Joanne, Love

Cold Hard Canyon

Audio

The Meanings and Metaphors of “Cold Hard Canyon”

The wind can blow hard in the canyon
When the cold air falls from the sky

When our Arizona monsoons build an anvil out of a cloud it gathers cold air that eventually falls, sometimes at over a hundred miles an hour creating a down-burst of air that is turbulent and violent. The past few years has brought age and great pain to my body that feels at times like an ice cold blast of air is coursing through my body.

I can still feel your heart beating
And taste your warm lips in my sighs

I still feel my youth. It hasn’t disintegrated or disappeared yet, though I suspect it will one day in the no longer distant future. It is something I am trying to accept, fight off, defend and deny all at the same time… usually in this condition I reflexively let out a unconscious sigh.

My lantern is starting to flicker
As the lightening and thunder do clash

canyon moonI have come to realize that the light at the end of this tunnel really is a train, and it is on its way to run me over somewhere in the unknown future. This again creates a polarization of energy in me that feels like lightning and thunder.

The cactus has ripped my old slicker
As the lantern’s obscured by the sky

As my joints have worn out and arthritis has taken a hold of my knees and my wrists (making it very hard to play the guitar and dance) it feels like cactus needles poking into my flesh. At times like this I find it very hard to bring forth the virility and youthful feeling that still resides in my bones.

Whoopee tie yie yo get along little doggies
I’ve got a long way to go
Whoopee tie yie yo get along little doggies
Tucson was never your home

I have know for too many years that the earth and my current physicality is temporary, thus, “Tucson Was Never Your Home”. This makes me feel like I need to whip things into a frenzy around me because time is running out. Oh I may have decades still to live (or may not), but my youth is dissipating and I feel like I need to capture all of the moments I can before it is all gone. There are so many things I still want to do. “Let’s dance, come on get that right! Turn it on let’s go!” At times I feel bad for Joanne, because since I drive myself so hard, even though I try not to, as her dance partner, I sometimes drive her too hard as well.

The storm makes the cattle so restless
The darkness makes them hard to read

canyon lightWhen I slip out of the brilliant light of my own existence I almost always screw something up and make a mess. I slip into the darkness that resides in my artist and I lose track of what and who is real sometimes and it begins to feel like everything is dark, even though it is only me that I can take in or out of the light.

So I’m sitting low in the saddle
Praying that they don’t stampede

Sometimes in a crowd, I withdraw into myself for fear I will say the wrong thing and piss someone off. Too often I am quite frank in my observations, and I have a knack for being observant.

I’m holding a torch for your love here
Like a match in a cold hurricane

I have come to learn that even though love is abundant, it is not always easy to keep a relationship together, consequently I hold my love for Joanne in the highest of esteem I honor and guard it like a knight errant wanting to preserve and hold it sacred for as long as we may freely love one another.

My light is a bright yellow lantern
That’s pelted by cold winter rain

cactus canyonThere is that dimming light again. I am trying so hard to accept the inevitability of my aging without capitulating to becoming the same old man my elders were. I am determined to stay in shape to the best my body and pains will allow, but lately the pain is frequently making me back away from a strain as I workout.

Repeat Chorus…


I look through the night to tomorrow
Seeing the depth of your soul

I see Joanne and how she loves me, she loves my artist, all of him. I have never been so fully accepted by any other person. I feel for her, she didn’t choose a rich man, or a successful business man that put money away for his old age. I worry sometimes that I will not be able to provide what she needs as she ages… and then she shows me once again, that not only is she capable of taking care of her own future, she loves me just as I am and she happily shares all she has with me.

Rusty-Good-smallKnowing I’d beg steal or borrow
To warm you when you are cold


Repeat Chorus…

Thank you for loving me Joanne, I will do whatever it takes to keep you safe, happy and well traveled!

I love you Joanne Lee Canalli!

balcony view Maui 2007
Best of Rusty, Joanne, Songs

Souvenirs

balcony view Maui 2007

Maui 2007

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There’s a cup on the counter that proves you were here
A gentle reminder of what once was was clear
Should it be in the sink or with my souvenirs?

The bed is a wreck where you once slept
The love that we shared there it made such a mess
The sheets are reminders of something we kept

I’ve got this feeling that you won’t be back
Is this a pain in my chest or a heart attack
As it stabs my truth or or was that my back

Chorus:
But what I collect now are lines on my face
The gray in my hair it is no disgrace
Its one more reminder of these past few years
Should I wash these sheets or put them with my souvenirs?

There’s a cheap little magnet that I bought in Perth
It pays rent in the kitchen for all that it’s worth
It lights up a spot for all that come here
But it earns its keep among my souvenirs

There’s a folder on my desktop from Portland I think
It’s real swell reminder if I want to wink
At the time spent with you that took all these years
It stands in the my life amoung my souvenirs

But what I collect now are lines on my face
The gray in my hair it is no disgrace
Its one more reminder of these last few years
Should I wash these sheets or put them with my souvenirs?

Tango Atlanta GA
Best of Rusty, Joanne, Songs

What do we do for and encore?

Audio


A tribute to a five year partnership… thank you Joanne!

This song was written and recorded in one take. There was no script, melody or outline, just me a guitar and a microphone, pure stream of consciousness.

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Its a good day to show you the best and worst that I feel
Cause I’m feeling bad and it’s such a deal…
Its a good day to tell you exactly what I’ve on my mind
Cause I’ve got you on my mind and I’m still on my time
Leaving my heart up there on my sleeve
Just won’t stop the way that it bleeds

They always told me that nothing would do what I do
And a moment is something that I wish I could do
Besides all the laughter what did we gain?
Besides all the bleeding why is there pain

What do we do for an encore when encores are all that we do?
How do we take a bow for all we’ve been through?
Lessoned by hope and learning by time leading my answers one at a time
I’m losing my dreams again here in the night

Tango Atlanta GA

Tango Atlanta GA


Relax and hold on just let it go
These words comfort a place in my soul
Crowded by new beginnings shoved into old endings

What do you do for an encore when encors are all that you do?
Where do you bleed when your heart’s on your sleeve?
Whose got the truth whose got their needs?
And we’ve got nothign but time on our hands
And the time is running away from me here my friend

What do we encore with nothign to do?
Who do we turn to when nothing is turning to you?
Its belief in my heart that tells me I must let it go
Playing again playing playing so slow

Its just another waltz and a waltz is all I can play
And a good waltz ended I danced to it many days
So long farewell to my old best friend
Hello and hope are all that I have in the end

Turning my heart away from my sleeve
I might seem cold but this is the thing that I need
Watching you run through the reasons you are
Letting me know that your gone by the sound of your car
And the whole world is watching thanks to the tricks that you use
I guess times have changed and this is the way breakups do

What do you do for an encore when encores are all that you know how to do
And what do you with your love when you love is now through
Where do you go for an answer to questions you feel
When you know the answer the answer is sit here and heal

Watching beginnings crash to the end
Watching my love roll down the street once again
Who did what and what was that thing that you said
If we’re all running then who is that lying in bed

What do you do for and encore when encores are all that you do
Who do you turn to when questions are what you produce
Where do you put all the love thats not used today
Like minutes on cell phones the love it just goes away

What do we do for and encore…. the whole world is watching!!!

Best of Rusty, Joanne, Songs

There’s A Whole

Audio

A hole in me created by the knowledge of all of
our mistakes
our deficits
our fears
our ignorance
our blind capitulate compromise

I am sometimes so affected by the world around me I have to expound and expel the feelings so I can move forward… I am okay now…

Ah…
the power of writing…
I touched on what was really happening for me here:

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