Better Days 164

better days ________ www.coopradio.org
.
BETTER DAYS episode 164
SOUTH MOUTH
Thursday 21 April : 10:00 pm - 12:00 am
cfro 102.7 fm http://www.coopradio.org

Juke-joints, swamps, crickets, copper kettles,
Baptist banshee gospel, sunflowers leaping up
from ground too dry to grow sunflowers, people
pretending to joke when they really mean what
they say, talking in tongues, rats pissing on cotton,
the moon floating in a blind truckdriver's eye...
and a young all-nite-diner waitress pressing F-6
at 4:13 in the morning because it's her tip money
and that's what, mister.

South Mouth is a two-hour drive along dangerous
roads, the radio exploding with music from down
below the Mason-Dixon, array of wide-nostril night
rhythms, slippery, sensual, blurring county lines with
that lethal combination of righteousness and humidity.

You'll hear Tony Joe White, Drive-By-Truckers,
Kentucky Headhunters, Lucinda, Steve Earle,
Jon Dee Graham, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Gurf
Morlix, Buddy Miller, Wayne The Train Hancock,
Malcolm Holcombe, James McMurtry, Blind Boys Of
Alabama, Robert Randolph, James Blood Ulmer,
Bobby Taylor and as many more serpentine 18-wheelers
as we can fit on to one soft-shouldered two-lane highway
toward tension and trouble. Buckle up, baby. We just
passed the Last Chance Texaco.

GOOD OL' BOY (Steve Earle/Richard Bennett)

I got a job but it ain't nearly enough
A twenty thousand dollar pickup truck
Belongs to me and the bank
and some funny talkin' man from Iran
I left the service, got a G.I. loan
I got married, bought myself a home
Now I hang around this one horse town
and do the best than I can

Gettin' tough, just my luck
I was born in the land of plenty
now there ain't enough
Gettin' cold, I've been told
Nowadays it just don't pay
to be a good ol' boy

Been goin' nowhere down a one-way track
I'd kill to leave it but ain't no turnin' back
Got the wife and the kids
and what would everybody say
My brother's standin' on a welfare line
And any minute now I might get mine
Meanwhile it's the I.R.S.
and the devil to pay

I hit the beer joints every Friday night
Spend some money lookin' for a fight
It don't matter if I lose or win
Monday I'm back on the losin' end again

Watch the Rich Man's War video at
http://www.steveearle.com

Bring a memory,

DL