1. |
Hoarse Whisperer
02:08
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2. |
Blue Endless Highway
03:29
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Blue, blue driver, just driving along
Searching this endless highway for a shoulder to cry on
For a shoulder to cry on
It don’t make no difference, which way you go
I’m so doggone lonesome, anywhere I go
Anywhere I go
Foot upon the throttle, watching the old smoke roll
Looking in the rearview mirror for the highway patrol
For the highway patrol
I made my coffee stop, and everything was wrong
The little waitress that I love, she done come and gone
She done come and gone
That big old lonesome moon, and the stars above
Carry me and my old truck to the one I love
To the one I love
Foot upon the throttle, watching the old smoke roll
Looking in the rearview mirror for the highway patrol
For the highway patrol
I’m looking down the highway, far as I can see
There ain't nobody coming, just my old truck and me
My old truck and me
Foot upon the throttle, watching the old smoke roll
Looking in the rearview mirror for the highway patrol
For the highway patrol
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3. |
All Bad
03:26
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Amongst the cypress and quartz I roamed
I learned to wince at the church bell’s toll
Preferred katydids and thunder’s roll
It never felt all bad
Wanted for nothin with a bad luck streak
I turned a rock over in every creek
Whistled strong because my body was weak
I didn’t feel all bad
Can’t complain, cuz who would listen?
You wouldn’t envy my position
Engineered imploding or the way that she goes
Only my eyes will glisten
Moved to a hollow at the plateau’s cusp
I talked to barred owls and bats at dusk
Cornered by cul de sacs and craving the rust
It kinda felt all bad
I grew a little into deafening rage
Every hometown is a well built cage
Be it high iron, highway or stage
Don’t let it be all bad
I’ve been indebted to a surgeon’s blade
Probation officers and nerves that frayed
Only the choiceless every gladly stayed
Refuse to be all bad
Can’t complain, cuz who would listen?
You wouldn’t envy my position
Engineered imploding or the way that she goes
Only my eyes will glisten
We bury friends and try to share our pain
November hurricanes and acid rain
They built to burn but we will live to maintain
Because it ain't all bad
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4. |
Hook Line and Sinker
02:42
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Sometimes we wait, to pull in our slack
Sometimes we wait, because of barbs in our backs
But for all the bait, that we take in the end
Every love has a linger every river a bend
There’ve been times I’ve been a large-mouth bastard
I’ve been blue and bull-headed you see
I’ve been crappie to some of my sweethearts
And I’m hook line and sinker for thee
Oh I am hook line and sinker for thee
Some folks find love, when they cast a wide net
Some folks find joy, in their tales of regret
But for the rest, we will just stay afloat
While we wade for our answers and rock every boat
There’ve been times I’ve been a large-mouth bastard
I’ve been blue and bull-headed you see
I’ve been crappie to some of my sweethearts
And I’m hook line and sinker for thee
Oh I am hook line and sinker for thee
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5. |
It's the Best?
02:59
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My heart flutters for you like a tattered cloth
The sputtering flames of your passion don’t even draw moths
Is sanity simply dedication’s cost?
Or has the reason we chose to be here just been lost?
If it's the best we can get, why am I tryna love you?
If it's a sure-fire bet I’d do most things for you
And lest I forget, you can do better its true
Just like every sun sets, it's the best we can get
My body burns for you like a day old fire
You work endlessly to find things in me to admire
And just when we thought, we couldn’t grow more cold
We buckle, we crumble, we cave, but we never fold
If it's the best we can get, why am I tryna love you?
If it's a sure-fire bet I’d do most things for you
And lest I forget, you can do better its true
Just like every sun sets, it's the best we can get
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6. |
Toast First
04:17
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Didn’t burn the toast, the potatoes cooked through
Made up some beans like in england they do
The eggs had a good run, I guess we did too
If I had known what to say, I’d have said it to you
Give a name to a feeling just to try and explain
But even then there’s no good way to say
Without giving more credit to words than they’re due
If I had known what to say, I’d have said it to you
And I’ve got a passtime, lack of something to do
I tried forgetting as often as jesus got rocks in his shoes
I’m quiet in my worries and I act out in pride
An old love takes the long road from crossing my mind
Just cause you didn’t know it, doesn’t make it new news
If I had known what to say, I’d have said it to you
And I’ve got a passtime, lack of something to do
I tried forgetting as often as jesus got rocks in his shoes
Didn’t burn the toast, the potatoes cooked through
Made up some beans like in england they do
The eggs had a good run, I guess we did too
If I had known what to say, I’d have said it to you
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7. |
Arkansaw Troubler
02:13
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8. |
Mama Tired
04:11
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Beckoned by boredom’s yawn
At the crack of every dawn
I default to you by no fault of my own
I wonder if I stare more at you, or the things I oughta do
I truly wish that I knew life without a screen
Remember when we used to read?
when we remembered all our dreams
I scroll to be sold my favorite nightmares
But you’re the first light that I see
And I crane my neck for thee
I truly wish that I knew life without a screen
I can feel my poor eyes tire
If I ain't hooked then I am a liar
I’ve never felt so close to so many yet so far away
Where do our precious hours fly
If our brains hurt we all know why
Who can blame a body for not wanting to be alone
Remember when we used to read?
when we remembered all our dreams
I scroll to be sold my favorite nightmares
But you’re the first light that I see
And I crane my neck for thee
I truly wish that I knew life without a screen
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9. |
Up the Ouachita
02:31
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Days on end, endless fields in the sun
Payday ends I might spend up some fun
Played a die once too high, now I’m done
Put me in the ditch and my family on the run
I drive cattle down the bayous and draws
My poor gals won’t know what befell their Pa
My bones rest out of sight of the law
And my heart’s up that muddy Ouachita
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10. |
Long Spring
01:58
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It’ll be a long spring
Autumn morning won’t bring
The cold that we all crave
That carried voices through the sting
I can hear the frogs sing
When snow it should be glistening
A frost-kill line never happened in my time
But I’m told that it's fine
I can hear the tide roar
A future’s all I’m hoping for
The roots that I desire
Must run deeper than fire
You may never see the worst
But my soul dwells where floodwalls burst
It ain't about blame, it's about living in flames
But I hope that you live all the same
I just want to live
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11. |
Appreciate'cha
03:43
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If you ever lent me your coat I appreciate’cha
If you ever kept me afloat I appreciate’cha
If you were patient beyond your term
And my habits made you squirm
If your couch was warm and firm I appreciate’cha
If you tolerated my noise I appreciate’cha
If I was your awful employee I appreciate’cha
If any solace can be found
It's never long that I’m around
You set ‘em up I’ll knock ‘em down I appreciate’cha
Workers of the world I appreciate’cha
For your poorly compensated toil I appreciate’cha
If the coal you dug today keeps the lights on far away
Overdrafted and underpaid I appreciate’cha
Though you live on tabs and tips I appreciate’cha
For this modern world we’re not equipped and I appreciate’cha
If it aint just, it aint a law worth obeying for any of yall
Turn us loose and let it fall I appreciate’cha
You did your best when I was at my worst and I appreciate’cha
You cared for me though I’m kinda cursed and I appreciate’cha
Look that gift horse in the eye or be unbroken by and by
Hang my hat and have a cry I appreciate’cha
If this land is your land I appreciate’cha
If abolition was your stand I appreciate’cha
Kings and dollars, stars and bars, crosses, swastikas and tsars
If you are skeptical of all I appreciate’cha
If you’re doing your damned best I appreciate’cha
If every new day is a test I appreciate’cha
Doce do and do re mi, so far so good yet we’re far from free
If you refuse to let it be
If you don’t call the cops on me
I appreciate’cha
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12. |
Won't Fence Us In
02:34
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There once was land endless land
Under starry skies above
But they fenced it in
Now its interstates and interchanges
Monocrop and truckstops
‘Cause the fenced it in
I wish that every golf course became a WMA
And every politician knew the rent that we paid
Just to drink ourselves to death
And go to jobs that we hate
Oh to be fenced in
Turn us loose and let us rattle off our chains
And lift the pain from all our faces
And every hour on the clock or in a classroom
Or a cell could not contain us
I just don’t see any glory in industrial cattle
And truckers’ bodies twist from a life in the saddle
Is it freedom ringing in your ear or just a death rattle?
You won’t fence us in
I wish ancestral lands belonged to indigenous people
And I didn’t have to live in fear of law from the steeple
Does grievance make you strong?
Or is it what makes you feeble?
You won’t fence us in, though you might try
You won’t fence us in, ain't you listening?
You won’t fence us in
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13. |
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Damned if you do, damned if you don’t
Whooped if you will, whooped if you won’t
Burnt out or burning at both ends
Impending doom? It all depends
You can’t win them all, but I hope you win a few
Damned if you don’t, damned if you do
I count on you, to count each minute apart
I lean on you, when the lean hours start
It ain't always what you do, sometimes it's what you do not
I will try to remember, all the good times I forgot
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t
Whooped if you will, whooped if you won’t
Burnt out or burning at both ends
Impending doom? It all depends
You can’t win them all, but I hope you win a few
Damned if you don’t, damned if you do
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14. |
Empty Yodel No. 1
02:27
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Bored of me, so bored oh why did I ever leave my home for the highway
Call your mama call your bluff, call on me when things get rough
I never meant to let you get so low, never meant to let you get so low
Board it up, reach for the sky, some are worse but there truly aint no right way
Fill your hand and try your luck, chaos reigns - embrace the suck
I never meant to let you get so low, never meant to let you get so low
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Nick Shoulders Fayetteville, Arkansas
Here to put the "Try" in country. Wielding a high yodel and whistle crafted from a lifetime chasing lizards through the Ozark hills, Nick combines his family's deep ties to southern traditional music with years singing to empty street corners to create this hybridized form of raucous country music: born of some dark holler and bred to be stomped into the New Orleans dancefloors it now calls home. ... more
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