This is a song about itself. Cheryl was playing her guitar one evening, and this tune came out. She played it several times and really liked it. It was late, so she decided she would write a song for that tune the next day. She laid in bed for about 20 minutes, and the song kept running through her head. She finally decided she wasn't going to get any sleep until she did something about it, so she got up and wrote this song.
This song was re-recorded for Mrs. Pinocci's Guitar. Jonathan Edwards, who produced that album, along with her first two albums, loves this song. Cheryl said once that, if it was up to Jonathan, this song would be on all her albums. 
Piper (and Holding On) is in this C tuning: EGCGCE. Here is a clip of Cheryl performing Piper on YouTube.
- Piper
- Words And Music By
- Cheryl Wheeler
- Early mornin' sunrise come and pull the song from me
- So I can turn away and rest my tired eyes
- I can't escape the haunting of a lonely melody
- It runs around and `round without a compromise
- So where you gonna go, what you gonna do
- You know I can't say no, can't say good-bye to you
- I can't stop the flow 'till you've decided to
- The song runs like a piper like a drummer through my brain
- Silence all around feels so apart from me
- And I could sit and cry for all the love and all the pain
- That brings itself to mind inside a harmony
- The softest mornin' light can't shine as soft as you
- The sweetest love in sight can't love me like you do
- The swiftest bird in flight can't climb the path to you
- Now it's fully dawn and nightly silence breaks away
- Into the distant sounds of cars and factories
- Traces linger on and slowly fade into the day
- And leave me with these rounds all hummin' back to me
- So now I bid you well and take myself to bed
- The tune you had to tell was soft and kindly said
- And I still feel swell from all you comforted
- 9/76
- (P) May 27, 2003
- Penrod And Higgins Music / Amachrist Music
- ACF Music Group
- International Copyright Reserved