This bluegrass a capella betrayal waltz came to me like a lightning bolt as I was driving south through cold, dry flatness out of Glenn’s Ferry, Idaho, listening to car parts commercials on a Boise radio station. I was going to add a murder verse, but I like having it just implied. When singing this, [...]
Written in Brooklyn in 1976 after reading a TIME magazine article about the execution of three Basque separatists in Hoyo de Manzanares.
Winding through the hills on the road to Madrid,
The jeeps and vans came to a stop;
The morning sun had just begun
To warm the mountain tops.
Written in about 1976, and based on my ancestor Uncle Hyland Biddle, wounded at the Battle of Shiloh
CHORUS:
Well, I feel like I’m slippin’ into hell to the sound of a rebel yell;
I only want to be a Union hero,
Most decorated man at the Battle of Shiloh;
But I had to get shot in the knee,
And, as [...]
Written around 1974, loosely based on a bus ride to Indianapolis sitting next to a Marine, heading to Columbus to see Karl play with his band at a Smuggler’s Inn
One evenin’ feelin’ kinda low,
I took the bus to Ohio;
To see my brother play in a band at a Holiday Inn;
And I asked to sit next [...]
Written about 1979
Well, there’s a knock upon his door,
He begins to apologize;
He says, “I guess I should have warned you,”
And you know you’re getting’ wise, he’s got . . .
Based on a conversation I had with a one-armed man in line at the $2 window at the 1974 Kentucky Derby
I met you at the two-dollar window,
At the races on a day in July;
And I could tell you were a regular winner,
By the crazy look you had in your eye.
Written in Brooklyn, New York, in 1975
Movin’ and groovin’ at the deli,
Not exactly sure what I want;
Standin’ at the counter, starin’ through the glass,
Corned beef is nice, but it ain’t got no class.
Written at a booth in Deena’s Diner during the summer of 1975.
Just outta Jackson, headin’ for Nashville,
‘Cause I’m gonna be a country star, too;
When the axel started breakin’ and the van started shakin’,
We pulled off on Highway 22.
Written around 1975 after seeing a Humane Society film on stray dogs
Stray dog, stray dog,
Let me take you home where it’s warm;
Stray dog, stray dog,
Come on in from the storm.
Written in 1974, based on an overheard conversation between a couple in a restaurant.
CHORUS:
I feel you slippin’ through my finger,
And maybe that’s the way it has to be;
But let’s stop the car right here,
Have another cup of coffee,
And tell me why you’re breakin’ up with me.
