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  • Janis Ian playing bass for Rev. Marie Knight on 'Old Woodsongs Hour' - photo by Larry Streun
  • Janis Ian with Pat Snyder & Bette Midler
  • Janis Ian with author J. A. (Judy) Jance - photo by Denise Tschida
  • Janis Ian with Judy jance celebrating her living room concert - photo by Debra Hyslop
  • Janis Ian with Catie Curtis, Patty Larkin, Joe Boles (Mayor of St. Augustine) & his wife Jane - photo by Jane-Gale Burnick
  • Janis Ian backstage at the Ryman Auditorium with Chet Atkins & Garrison Keillor - photo by Barbara Short
  • A 15 year old Janis Ian with television host Joey Bishop - photo by Ivan Nagy
  • Janis Ian at a signing in Japan - photo by Peter Cunningham
  • Janis Ian with Steve Earle, Johnny Cash, Clint Black & Connie Bradley
  • Janis with Clint Black, Mary Chapin-Carpenter and others - photo by Don Putnam
Janis Ian

My Mama's House

Janis Ian

In my mama's house, the men were many
They stood in a line outside the door
When I was a kid, they gave me candy
and seashells from the ocean
they'd stolen from the shore

They came like princes to the wedding
They left like sailors on the hill
When I was younger, I was ready
to receive them in the luxury
of my driftwood heart and still

I never wanted for affection
I never needed any more
All my fathers my reflection,
like the moon reflects the shore
Love came in a wave -- it struck like an ocean
Like a tide it pulled me out to sea
My mama's house is gone
but her devotion lingers on
in the back pages of my memory

Now I live my life in splendor
like some duchess or a queen
but every morning, I remember
when the sea breeze strikes and gathers
what that woman meant to me

And I never wanted for affection
I never needed any more
All my fathers my reflection,
like the moon reflects the shore
Love came in a wave -- it struck like an ocean
Like a tide it pulled me out to sea
My mama's house is gone
but her devotion lingers on
in the back pages of my memory

© Mine Music Ltd./EMI Music Publishing Japan Ltd.
All rights reserved; international copyright secured.

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All tour dates updated on May 11, 2012

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