something, somehow

baby, i got your message this morning asking if your letter ever came well baby, that’s your letter on the table
saying you’ll always be with me just the same can you hear me scream can you hear me crawl can you hear
me knocking holes in the wall yeah, i just can’t take it but i got my hands on something, somehow oh, and
baby, i’m going under now baby when you took off for the city when your bigger dreams meant leaving me
behind you should have taken all your pretty pictures ‘cause they lie to me, and say you’ll change your mind
can you hear me scream can you hear me crawl can you hear me knocking holes in the wall yeah, i just can’t
take it but i got my hands on something, somehow oh, and baby, i’m going under now if you could hear me
scream if you could hear me crawl if you could hear me knocking holes in these here walls oh, then i just
might make it but i got my hands on something for now oh, and baby i’m going under now oh, and baby i’m
going under now

late last night

late last night
i was holding you tight
and i blinked my eyes
and you were in flight
but i did not move
i just watched you fly away

understood
it would feel so good
to have you here
in my own world
but i will not move
i’ll just watch you fly away

days will come
when i’ll miss you some
and i’ll pray to god
to have you back home
but i will not move
i’ll just watch you fly away

and i will dream
of a thousand scenes
where i will watch you come to me
but i will not move
i’ll just watch you fly away

so take off now
and think of me another day
spread your wings
ain’t no one gonna make you stay

late last night
i was holding you tight
and i blinked my eyes
and you were in flight
but i did not move
i just watched you fly away

alone on a saturday night

i don’t feel no shame when i hear them speak your name whispering she’s to blame for this change in him
‘cause i don’t really care what’s going on out there i got you, and i don’t wanna share with any of them ‘cause
it feels so right staying out of sight holding you so tight just sitting here alone on a saturday night my friends
used to hang on behind as i’d hit the town like a landslide but these days, i just want to hide right here with you
on the inside where it feels so right staying out of sight holding you so tight just sitting here alone on a
saturday night with my favorite view sharing this armchair staring at you where it feels so right staying out of
sight holding you so tight just sitting here alone on a saturday night

freight train lady

she got eyes of moonlight hair all up in curls
shining like an angel in her dress and plastic pearls
she got an eldorado she got a filty mouth
she ain’t like no other girls i have seen around

she’s my freight train lady she gonna bring me out
she gonna roll me, roll me from this baby town

she can’t wait to kiss me, whiskey on her breath
moaning ‘bout that old husband scares her half to death
he won’t give her nothing hits her when she steals
i got me a father so i know how that feels

and she’s my freight train lady she gonna bring me out
she gonna roll me, roll me from this baby town
and she’s my freight train lady she gonna tug me down that line
she gonna hold me, hold me ‘til she’s only mine she

says when we leave here we’ll go all around
she done been to nashville says i got the sound
well, i don’t have much money but i’m saving every dime
to spend along the highways when she says it’s time

‘cause she’s my freight train lady she gonna bring me out
she gonna roll me, roll me from this baby town
and she’s my freight train lady she gonna tug me down that line
she gonna hold me, hold me ‘til she’s only mine

along the way

only heaven knows where i’m gone today
only heaven knows where i’m gone today
i tried to be so brave and strong just like they say
but only heaven knows where i’m gone today

i had a life way back in tennessee
still got a picture of my bride to be
she said that she would always wait for me

but then the war began and i was young
i got my letter and they made me strong
with words that promised we were justified
and they were wrong

and only heaven knows where i’m gone today
only heaven knows where i’m gone today
i tried to be so brave and strong just like they say
but only heaven knows where i’m gone today

i killed a soldier for the greater good
i crossed the lines and shot him where he stood
i killed a man because they said i should

and another came and shot me in return
screaming at me how i was going to burn
and that’s the last thing that i ever learned
along the way

and only heaven knows where i’m gone today
only heaven knows where i’m gone today
i tried to be so brave and strong just like they say
but only heaven knows where i’m gone today

losing you

i don’t want to start no more
talking about my heart no more
pull the pieces apart no more no more
i don’t want to go out no more
it’s not that i want to pout no more
but i got nothing to shout no more no more
i don’t want to tear myself in two
when i’m already losing you
i don’t want to be strong no more
lead somebody along no more
when i know it’s gonna feel so wrong no more no more
i don’t want to tear myself in two
when i’m already losing you
i don’t want to pretend no more
that nothing’s come to an end no more
that i ain’t lonely again no more no more
i don’t want to tear myself in two
when i’m already losing you

my love was gold

yesterday i had the moon on a string
my own private balloon above everything
and oh, my love was gold

and i had me a boat with a tiller of pearl
and the waves would rock and tumble and curl
and oh, my love was gold

time would roll from the east to the west
and then tuck itself under and leave us to rest
and we’d slip away free from its slumbering eye
and go toasting the town with the stars in the sky

yesterday i had the laugh of a king
my thunderous roar would dumb the lightning
and oh, my love was gold

and i had a guitar that wrote its own songs
i’d just catch me the tune and start singing along
and oh, my love was gold

time would roll from the east to the west
and then tuck itself under and leave us to rest
and we’d slip away free from its slumbering eye
and go toasting the town with the stars in the sky

i had a stone of my own yesterday
that i would not ever be skipping away
and oh, my love was gold

chemicals
by a.j. roach

whiskey’s my shepherd oh and i shall not want it
maketh me lay down in a strange woman’s bed it
maketh me talk out of both sides of my mouth
maketh me feel like i’d be better off dead and
daylight ain’t nothing that a man like me covets
walking that long mile from her bed to her door laid
bare to the morning so you run for the darkness
guilty as sin remembering the evening before and
they say that love is just a chemical reaction but i say
that makes this all too hard to explain chemicals for
me have been my only safe bastion they maketh me
numb when ‘ere they run through my veins when
you get there you’re dusty you’re dirty and desperate
but not desperate mind you for a woman’s sweet
touch just desperate to feel like you belong to
something that something will own you when you
want it too much and they say that love is just a
chemical reaction but i say that makes this all too
hard to explain chemicals for me have been my
bulwark, my bastion they maketh me numb when
‘ere they run through my veins and i say that you are
like a river in my dreams dark as a dungeon, just as
deep as the sea but i’m just a man charged with
wading across it love’s a fifty pound weight paired
with a hundred pound chain so whiskey’s my
shepherd oh and i shall not want it maketh me lay
down in a strange woman’s bed it maketh me talk
out of both sides of my mouth maketh me feel like i’d
be better off dead

two tickets

my friends been asking how i’m feeling
you know, since what’s-her-name’s been gone
i ask them what the hell they’re saying
a grown man has to carry on
yeah, i’ve hardly had a chance to notice
i’ve been so busy every day
but we should all go out for a whiskey
just as soon as i can get away

it took awhile for me to know it
but when it came, it hit me hard
and i was back in ‘87
the first time i was torn apart
she left me stranded at the fairgrounds
trying hard to be a man
and you’ve got me crying in my kitchen
with two tickets in my hand

i sat awhile on the back porch
i pushed the leaves into a pile
i wandered over to the dime store
turned over trinkets for a while
i smiled at someone i remembered
and we ran out of things to say
so i bought a pack of my old standby
mostly to let her get away

it took awhile for me to know it
but when it came, it hit me hard
and i was back in ‘87
the first time i was torn apart
she left me stranded at the fairgrounds
trying hard to be a man
and you’ve got me crying in my kitchen
with two tickets in my hand

when i got home, i found your postcard
it said you both were doing well
and all at once i heard the echoes
of that distant carousel

she left me stranded at the fairgrounds
trying hard to be a man
and you’ve got me crying in my kitchen
with two tickets in my hand

a long time ago (sweet darlin)

take me back home, sweet darlin’ come out and meet me around this old door bring me on through and keep
me close to you a home, it ain’t never the same when you’re living alone but here i am with you and that was
a long time ago

let’s rest us a while, sweet darlin’ ‘cause its been hard work not being with you let’s lay on
the ground and watch the sky burn down a sunset ain’t never the same when you’re watching alone but here
i am with you and that was a long time ago

let’s make it this time, sweet darlin’ let’s seal us all up in an
old mason jar and when the troubles come by i’ll just hold you inside a prayer, it ain’t never the same when
you’re asking alone but here i am with you and that was a long time ago

all sketches drawn by elizabeth foster and colored by jordan brooke hamlin