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Heart In A Mason Jar

by Alex Culbreth & The Dead Country Stars

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1.
Do you remember when we first met? The barroom stank of beer and clove cigarettes The place was empty but I burned through my set anyways My blood was flammable as pure gasoline You wore black eyeshadow and a grudge it seemed Against them boys who bought you everything you ever wanted She keeps my heart in a Mason jar Filled it with whiskey at the Lonestar Bar Formaldehyde and cheap cigars Do you remember when we first kissed? Out in the alleyway while some drunk was taking a piss I blacked out but I couldn’t forget you, baby You hailed a cab, I got sick in the back The driver kicked us out on 7th Ave. We found a motel and we wrecked the bed for hours (Chorus) Just last December, you up and left Leaving me all the bills and a burning itch A destructive pattern I was bound to repeat again and again (Chorus)
2.
Girl, you've been up all night on Benzedrine You got looks from your mama, your daddy taught you to drink My tolerance is low, my memories are few But darlin' tonight I'll be drinkin' bout you Yeah darlin' tonight I'll be drinkin' bout you Well, your perfume's enough to sober me up And the taste from your lips, it used to get me drunk But now what do I drink when the liquor store's closed And this empty bottle is all I have to hold? Well, the city's in shambles as the seasons shed their skins And you've been making drinkers out of sober men I got some rotgut wine that I’ve been nursing all day It's in a brown paper bag, it tastes better that way Girl, you've been up all night on Benzedrine You got looks from your mama, your daddy taught you to drink My tolerance is low, my memories are few But darlin' tonight I'll be drinkin' bout you Yeah darlin' tonight I'll be drinkin' bout you In the town of my kinfolk, the riverbed's dry But I've heard tales of a stream that runs whiskey and wine I had a dream last night of a mountain town Where I found that stream and drank till I drowned
3.
Where will my troubles go when they go? Will they burst like a firecracker from within my soul? Will they tumble like that old oak tree that the crows all called home? Where will my troubles go when they go? I been drinking corn liquor just to get drunk quicker And drown this lovesick heart Cause my girl's been seen running round on me With every man with an electric guitar But I'll do that woman right I'll call her sister up tonight I'll take her from her daddy's farm and then I'll take her out behind the barn Where will my troubles go when they go? Though I work and plow, they're like a crop that just won't grow But I feel them cold winds blowing, boys, the country's calling me home Where will my troubles go when they go? I’ve been playing Patsy Cline and sipping strong moonshine For seventeen nights and days And all my kinfolk are praying and the preacher man is saying I should change my sinful ways But I'll bet this broken heart can mend On liquor, lust, and sin It's my saving grace and I'll be damned if I'll be led astray Where will my troubles go when they go? Will they no longer burden this lonesome, broken soul? Will I hear that freight train coming, boys, when it's bound to carry me home? Where will my troubles go when they go?
4.
Taste the beer and cigarettes in these songs that I sigh In a town of merchants with nothing to sell but my pride I’ve been strumming sandpaper chords and singing like a crow All these wasted songs that I lived on the road Goddamn the labels and the tapes they returned And goddamn these cities and all the bridges I've burned I'm going to Nashville, I'm going to Nashville I hope it's as bright as it's been in my dreams I'm going to Nashville, I'm going to Nashville As kind as them country songs led me to believe I'm going to Nashville I used to drink corroded wine till my heart would go numb And swallow ink for hours, hoping for the words to come But now I'm doing better and keeping sober as I play the bars And catching stories from barflies in my Mason jar Goddamn these chemicals that are still in my bones And goddamn the miles that have kept me from home (Chorus) Back in Carolina, the city's closed down by five And my mother's singing, keeping all those hymns alive Some nights my chest feels hollow after I play the show Cause my heart's still beating in my sweet, southern home Goddamn these songs and the long, snaking roads They've never killed the longing that I feel when alone Hope it's better in Nashville, hope it's better in Nashville I hope it's as bright as it's been in my dreams Cause I'm going to Nashville, I'm going to Nashville As kind as them country songs led me to believe I'm going to Nashville
5.
Rattle them chains for your drunken father Rattle them chains for the scars You’ve been moving like molasses, like the Mississippi River Rattle them chains from afar A couple pretty women shedding crocodile tears On the day that he bought the farm He had to rattle them chains Rattle your cage by the witching hour Rattle the king from the throne There's a crow perched upon a telephone wire Rattle your aching, old bones Battery acid and a crooked smile The lonely are never alone When they rattle their chains Flutter your wings, outturned empty pockets Rattle them pearly, white gates St. Peter’s just bouncer and you’re not on the list Rally them sinners and the saints Nobody’s name gets remembered for sitting on their ass They all had to rattle their chains
6.
Mercy Me 03:55
Mercy, mercy me Turn up that radio, I want my ears to bleed You hear the sound of the music, that’s the life for me Cry me a river, mercy me I was born in the back of a ’57 Chevy With my daddy doing 90, my mama breathing heavy Her water broke at midnight in the grocery store She yelled, “Cleanup in aisle 4!” Seems like all the girls in my town got hitched to Marines Knocked up and settled by the age of eighteen But I would not be tamed by some small town dame I had one foot on the pedal, the other in my grave In fact one time when I was fifteen I sat a girlfriend of mine on the washing machine My older brother told me though it didn’t make sense “She’ll get the ride of her life for just 25 cents!” I got a malt liquor tan from my old man A busted-up hand me down old Trans Am The rabbit in my blood, itch I shouldn’t scratch The women on my mind and the monkey on my back Mercy, mercy me Turn up that radio, give me room to breathe Crack open that bottle, roll a joint for me Well lordy lordy, mercy me I went down to the pawnshop and bought a guitar A set of steel strings and an old chord chart I stepped into my room and I disappeared I didn’t come out for nearly three years By eighteen the alimony had run dry My daddy up and left my mama high and dry She couldn’t keep on the lights waiting tables at night So I thought I’d get me a job, play some music on the side I looked old for my age so they didn’t ID I played a bar down in Macon a couple nights a week When I started strumming, the strangest thing happened Women started staring, hollering, and clapping And good goddamn I was sure impressed That this old six-string could have such an effect Like a woman in the backseat of my Trans Am I popped the clutch a few times but she made this boy a man Mercy, mercy me Turn up that radio, fix me a drink You see that woman, what she does to me Well thank God I’m a sinner, mercy me Some producer spotted me, now I play all the time I’ve got a big tour bus on the record label’s dime The drinks are always free, so are the pills I grew a taste for them like I did pretty girls I stopped sending mama paychecks long ago You know the court costs are high and I’m deep in the hole My first wife took my heart and she drug it around My second wife took what they didn’t bolt down And I tried getting clean, I tried going straight But you can sell more records once you’re fresh in the grave I'd give the drugs and the fame and the tour bus To go back to when the music was enough The judge can string me up but the rope it’ll snap I’ve cut a deal with the devil and he cut me some slack There’s no rest for the weary, I’ll sleep when I’m dead I’ll leave note on the bureau and I’ll step out on the ledge Mercy, mercy me Shut off that radio, I think they’re playing me You see this life I’m living, what it’s done to me Cry me a river, mercy me
7.
Daisy 04:58
In the Brooklyn Psychiatric Ward Plastic Jello cups and shuffleboard The hospital’s such a scary place But you’ve got such a kind face In the Brooklyn Psychiatric Ward In the looney bin, it’s so good to have a friend Me and Daisy can go on talking for hours on end I get so confused sometimes I’m missing puzzle pieces in my mind In the looney bin, it’s so good to have a friend But the doctors say that you’re not real It’s just a symptom of my condition that makes you appear That medication can ease the strain of the neurons firing in my brain But I was hoping that you wouldn’t disappear Cause I’d hung my dreams out to dry With the other patients’ clothes upon the line I left a breadcrumb trail to find The man I was but I left behind I’d hung my dreams out to dry They’ve been pumping me full of Thorazine Hell, Daisy you’re the only good thing to happen to me Now the visiting hours are through And I ain’t seen hide nor hair of you They’ve been pumping me full of Thorazine (Chorus) The doctor says they’ll let me out real soon They lined me up a job in a Jersey tollbooth I ain’t seen you in a while God, I wish you could see me now So I’m gonna flush the pills once they send me home I’m gonna flush the pills, Daisy, I’ll see you soon
8.
Bang Bang 03:18
Sweet Savannah, you’re the only one To leave me staring down the wrong end of a gun A couple shiners and a whiskey haze That's got the room spinning round A whiff of cocaine and lightning in my veins I told my mama that her boy ain't changed I've got little white pills to give me the strength of thirteen men You always loved that old Motown song I smashed the jukebox, blood running down my arm I couldn't feel a thing so we just laughed and sang along Shots rang, bang bang bang, to the rhythm of the song While James Brown sang You've got a choice, pretty baby, that you've gotta make To burn out and leave a beautiful corpse or just fade away This kinda living ain't good for your soul You get a taste and you lose control Crash your Cadillac into a red oak tree Tom Petty blasting on the radio, “I won’t back down” Bottle of red, a case of the blues Bloodshot, burnt out, battered, and bruised I looked into the mirror And the face that I saw was not my own (Chorus)
9.
Let’s send the politicians off to war To fight for what younger men have been dying for They all don’t know shit, they’ll be the first to fill their drawers Let’s send the politicians off to war Let’s send the politicians off to fight Drop them in Afghanistan and ask them if it’s right If their cause is worth risking their own lives Let’s send the politicians off to fight That’ll be the day when old men fight their wars When they put up or shut up, instead of keeping score Their political agendas won’t mean nothing anymore If we send the politicians off to war I bet they’ll all be shitting in their pants Instead of out of their mouths for once, I guess Bring the boys back home and ship out Congress instead I’ll bet they’ll all be shitting in their pants (Chorus) Let’s send the politicians off to war Cause we ain’t gonna stand for their bullshit anymore If it’s true that the pen is mightier than the sword Then send the politicians off to war
10.
The wretched and the righteous The pushers and the pious No one is forsaken in the end The tycoons and the poor The sweetheart and the whore No one is forsaken in the end There must be a place where they walk together Where all's forgiven, every man your brother Be it the straight and narrow or the primrose path We all fall short of the promised land The politicians and the preachers The loudmouth in the bleachers No one is forsaken in the end The drunkard stumbling home The orphan all alone No one is forsaken in the end (Chorus) The wretched and the righteous The pushers and the pious No one is forsaken in the end Not Caesar or Brutus Not even Jesus and Judas No one is forsaken in the end (Chorus)
11.
I don't need your liquor, boys, don't need your wine Cause I get more loaded off of turpentine I been buying funny shrooms off of cowboy June And just burning out my eyes from that Colorado moon Like an anarchist in Texas that I used to know I’ve got a wine jug grin and a kerosene soul Boys, I'm through with them turpentine blues I’ve been writing all these songs on my dead flaking skin With a freight train voice that's off the tracks again There's a black mountain angel and I sometimes like to see her Singing something sweet down by the river stream The women south are easy, boys, it's just my luck They're like apples on the orchard waiting to be plucked Boys, I'm through with them southern belle blues I’ve been strumming on these dead strings instead of doing time For bootlegging whiskey mixed with turpentine Back home my woman's waiting with a pot of possum stew A suicide novel and a loaded .22 Cause the girls all go rabid in the morning when I crow With my steam engine heart and my Oklahoma soul Boys, I'm through with them turpentine blues
12.
Singing these songs is my salvation, my death sentence, and my damnation All night diners and filling stations They’ll swallow body and soul Like the graveyard with its teeth of alabaster stone But for now it’s brown liquor, burnt rubber, interstate signs A man needs a little sumpin’ sumpin’ on the side I’ve got nothing to lose but to lose my mind and my money to get myself a honey Negotiations in the parking lot of a Parkersburg Denny’s Snakeskin sweaty boots, cottonmouth blues, my mama didn’t raise no goddamn fool I heard Gabriel’s trumpet ‘neath a seasick moon I awoke behind a liquor store Hell, it was only my head resting drunk on the horn Sometimes I feel like I just can’t take it, got a premonition and I just can’t shake it Dead like Elvis on the toilet bowl naked These dreams, they’re never what they seem Like 25 cent rubbers from vending machines Singing these songs is my salvation, my death sentence, and my damnation Following visions and hallucinations Broke, I can’t carry a note Hell, I’m as rusty as the razor held up to my throat
13.
By and By 05:46
All the gamblers seem to come from Odessa, lady luck wrapped round their arms With a nudie deck and railway whiskey as strong as southern charm But I don't mind it much, I just grin and bluff with four queens hid in my sleeve Till one lays down his hand, it's the royal family, he takes a swig and says to me Boy, take it slow down the dusty roads and you'll get there by and by Take your soul and sell it for scrap to any fool that's willing to buy Find yourself a woman with a hundred-proof heart that can drain any bottle dry And when the going gets tough, you'll make it by and by Well, the hounds they bayed on the night I was born in the spring of 1904 And Jonesborough stayed as sweet as summer fruit, as old as Alabama folklore He said, "I bottled the nectar of the Appalacian and I sold it through Tennessee You've got the strongest liquors west of Roanoke and the prettiest women I've seen" (Chorus) He said, "Son, Odessa's got a golden-haired beauty who once gave her love to me But she's betrothed to a Philadelphia lawyer with prospects and property And so I traveled the South, hopping passenger trains to get just as far as I could Without a penny to your name, a heart of gold just ain't no good." (Chorus)

credits

released December 7, 2012

All songs written by Alex Culbreth
except "Daisy" by Alex Culbreth and Josh Lightfoot

Vocals, guitar: Alex Culbreth
Fiddle, vocals: Eddie Dickerson
Banjo: Jimbo Carrico
Standup bass: Joanna Smith
Drums, vocals: Ryan Hale
Piano: Jenna Kole
Vocals: Rachel Childress

Cover design: Jeb Carter
Artwork: Sherri French

Recorded and mastered by Thomas Seim at Deep Woods Collective
Mixed by Alex Cloud at Deep Woods Collective

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Alex Culbreth & The Dead Country Stars Fredericksburg, Virginia

Breaking strings and breaking hearts. alexculbrethmusic@gmail.com

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