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    On the way home from church to go to work, I heard the end of this interview with Emmylou Harris on NPR. She has a new boxed set out of rare tracks and unreleased material that I am now coveting in the worst way. One of the songs she sang during the interview (accompanied by Buddy Miller) was “Boy from Tupelo”:

    You don’t love me this I know
    Don’t need a Bible to tell me so
    I hung around a little too long
    I was good but now I’m gone

    Like the buffalo
    That boy from Tupelo
    Any way the wind can blow
    That’s where I’m gonna go
    I’ll be gone like a five and dime
    It’ll be the perfect crime
    Just ask the boy from Tupelo
    He’s the king and he ought to know

    The shoulder I’ve been leaning on
    Is the coldest place I’ve ever known
    There’s nothing left for me round here
    Looks like it’s time to dissapear

    Like the buffalo
    That boy from Tupelo
    The old wall down in Jericho
    Maybelle on the radio
    I’ll be gone like the five and dime
    It’ll be the perfect crime
    Just ask the boy from Tupelo
    He’s the king and he ought to know

    You don’t love me, this I know
    Don’t need a Bible to tell me so
    It’s a shame and it’s a sin
    Everything I could have been to you

    Your last chance Texaco
    Your sweetheart of the rodeo
    A Juliet to your Romeo
    The border you cross into Mexico
    I’ll never understand why or how
    Oh but baby its too late now
    Just ask the boy from Tupelo
    He’s the king and he ought to know

    In looking at the play list for the songs on the CDs, I found this one, which seems worth passing along. It’s called “Prayer in Open D.”

    There’s a valley of sorrow in my soul
    Where every night I hear the thunder roll
    Like the sound of a distant gun
    Over all the damage I have done
    And the shadows filling up this land
    Are the ones I built with my own hand
    There is no comfort from the cold
    Of this valley of sorrow in my soul

    There’s a river of darkness in my blood
    And through every vein I feel the flood
    I can find no bridge for me to cross
    No way to bring back what is lost
    Into the night it soon will sweep
    Down where all my grievances I keep
    But it won’t wash away the years
    Or one single hard and bitter tear

    And the rock of ages I have known
    Is a weariness down in the bone
    I use to ride it like a rolling stone
    Now just carry it alone

    There’s a highway risin’ from my dreams
    Deep in the heart I know it gleams
    For I have seen it stretching wide
    Clear across to the other side
    Beyond the river and the flood
    And the valley where for so long I’ve stood
    With the rock of ages in my bones
    Someday I know it will lead me home

    Amen.

    Peace,
    Milton

    6 COMMENTS

    1. it’s a good week for music. Emmylou’s box set, new joni mitchell album, new mark knophler, new herbie hancock, new alison krauss & robert plant. Just got back from seeing Over the Rhine in San Juan Capistrano…it’s a good time for music.

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