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The No​-​Hit Wonder

by Cory Branan

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1.
You Make Me 03:10
Was a songbird nesting in the head of a scarecrow Low and free, Woe is me Now I’m happy as a bluebird in a bottle tree Baby you make me Baby you make me Nature knows I’m prone to overanalyzing the roses Ques que c’est, C’est La Vie There’s just something ‘bout your loving’ let the bumble be Baby you made me an escapee When most of me was rusted shut And love was left for deadbolted You jiggled with the key There’s a red door standing in a halo of kudzu What to do with the mystery Gon’ cakewalk on thru it to the jubilee you make me Baby you made me…
2.
Years of living blood to string Years of living hand to mouth Years just getting gig to gig East to West, North to South He could have been making a killing Peddling the Dream But if you found him at all you found him just scraping A living blood to string So sing a song for the no hit wonder Though it isn’t one of his He’d sing ‘Shovel me under Boys, it is what it is’ He broke free from the way they raised him He knows a heart is hell enough and never full He never sang that music would save him Knows never trust an evangelical He’d say ‘You wanna know what true love feels like? It’s the next best thing to death Feels like after an elbowed windpipe Just before the next breath” So with your next breath sing a Song for the no hit wonder... But at night he can hear the fireworks From his tunnel underground And he’s carved himself a little crawlspace Just to lay his body down To fade out of sound To the thunder under town Sing a song for the no hit wonder... Yes, I slipped and sipped astray It only took one taste to see the way Back to Tennessee to stay Tennessee my darlin When I go below the gloomy ground… I don’t want no Beaujolais Sake, Cider, Chardonnay You keep Tequila far away You know what i’m cravin Ain’t Champagne all fine and chill It’s not all rot-gut, shine, and swill You ask me life’s a cask Of bitter-sweet sour mash When I go below the gloomy ground…
3.
The Only You 03:47
I hear you got another boy I hear he looks a lot like me This one come with some kinda guarantee? I got me another girl She looks like you- at 23 But while she sleeps i trace the places Where your tattoos used to be We don’t gotta lie Have you ever known Us to take the night Lying down alone? I don’t wanna pry Just hoping you were home Hoping this is still your phone When I get lonely Sure, she’ll do But you’re the only you We were never very smart We were sticking to our guns We knew added up, babe We just knew we were the ones Forever barely starts And suddenly someone Is saying all is said and done When I get lonely... I sprayed our names across the bridge So the whole damn town would know That bridge is gone, but some recall That “What’s-his-face hearts So-n-so” And so it goes And when I get lonely...
4.
Sour Mash 02:24
The town i come from’s mostly sky Even though the county’s dry That didn’t stop the stream nearby From giving us a daughter She was born in a barrel of American oak Made of sugar, maple, and charcoal smoke She just goes to show your folks What God can do with water When I go below the gloomy ground You better buy the room a round Let her weep and lift a glass Of bitter-sweet sour mash Once when I was going through Those same old famous same old blues Tired of either crying to you Or cussin up a quarrelin Cheers Here’s to you Cheers Missing you fierce
5.
C'mon Shadow 02:51
C’mon shadow I know you remember feeling nine feet tall But c’mon shadow Did you forget the times she had me climbing all the walls C’mon shadow Wander with me yonder ways a spell C’mon shadow Tonight i’d rather not be by myself She made it clear that we’re not welcome What are we waiting for aw hell C’mon shadow Must you lag so far behind each step we take C’mon shadow It does no good to drag your heels when passing by her place C’mon Shadow… I know you don’t believe it’s true but please pretend Because it looks like it’s just you and me again C’mon Shadow Don’t exaggerate the tragic shape we’re in C’mon shadow Would it kill you trying out the bright side now and then C’mon Shadow…
6.
At least that last sip of whiskey was warm and wet As good a goodnight as I’m gonna get I’ve been missing you woman and wishing you here Been missing you something fierce Been riding that late night bus where we got scandalous Through the jaws of Los Angeles Into the wild blue wanderlust Been riding it just because The strobe lights flared on You were there and gone You said “always’ then you just left You left hallways in my footsteps And this radio nothingness coming in clear Has got me missing you something fierce I’ve got this new drink you helped me stumble upon Take the empty glass once the whiskey is gone Garnish with fire & chase with tears
7.
The water made it through the roof To the busted baby grand The drops are dripping on the mute yellow keys Like the Dead remembering a melody Play for me, play for me She is all i got and gone Baby used to harp and jaw She’d argue with a weathervane Tonight the wind is riled and raw Go on let it rave Maybe I will finally get my chance to cave Anything, i’d give everything She is all i got and gone I tore this place up for a note Sideboard, bureau, wardrobe, shelf But the heart has four darkened drawers And secrets from itself So let that darkness take this room And all these so called furnishings I got a snapshot of the moon I took inside of me Yellow eyes crying over yellowed ivory Goodbye to me, say goodbye to me She is all i got and gone
8.
I park the car by the river One of our rivers Of course this song would come on I let it play by the river I wade way into the river Just to stand up neck deep boots n’ all As the current crashing past me lashes Both arms red and raw But all the rivers in Colorado couldn’t wash you off of my mind Not that I’m trying, just a thought though Might be nice to keep from crying like all the rivers in Colorado You would float down in my arms Now you’re gone and though they know that These stupid arms still hope to hold back All the rivers in Colorado Still the white river Still the night river Still the silver swordplay in the sun Still the crystal blue clear, muddy root beer Colored rivers run But all the rivers in Colorado… John is on the radio But i’m at an all time Rocky Mountain low And all the rivers in Colorado… …Now you’re gone i get it though I’ve got to learn to let it go like All the rivers in Colorado That old Gibson I sold will hopefully hold us through winter It’s gonna get cold girl, but I’m going gold with you Little work on this last verse, then I’ll come down to dinner Reheat a dream with some hell in the meantime blues Right at home in-between Find me honing a dream While i’m moaning the meantime blues After dinner and dishes i sit down and switch on the TV And unfreeze as the chorus occurs to me: Rock’ll burden coal until the coal begins to sing Every crushing blow is ever-focusing a dream
9.
Daddy was a skywriter Momma was a rock-stemmed rose Papa shaped this place with grease and grace Momma loved me I been told it shows Tried and true as the color of his collar His eyes grew bluer as he searched for words But words are crumbs and the lesson of a father Is how to hack your way through the hunger and the birds Hopefully they’re right about the pen being mightier That any weapon anyone’ll wield But where they mark off men with the cross of a pen I’ll carry my old man’s steel Daddy was a skywriter… She said build your house on the solid rock of Jesus Fool to choose the sand of sin I run out and sign myself a long lease On a little place made of rain and wind But she learned me pretty good about the CouldaWouldaShoulda And the cripplin weight of a crutch She wasn’t dead on about every little thing But she weren’t dead wrong about much Daddy was a skywriter
10.
Ice is forming between the wheels and the asphalt Ice is forming between my skin and bones But that ice is warming to the sweet at last thought Of taking the highway home Taking the highway home Taking the highway home In the wake of the ice and snow I am Taking the highway This old road can be cold and mean Halos of vultures and road kill dreams Startling darkness on a windy ridge Rockin my heart like an empty rig Taking the highway home… Sing of your sweet country roads You can keep ‘em they’re way too slow I don’t need no scenery There’s only one scene I see She’s why i’m taking the highway home Taking the highway home Her sunny day gonna melt me away and I’ll be Taking the highway home
11.
Walking around talkin down to myself for a fight Yet another unknown in the famous Nashville night The old grey sky got the writer’s block O.K., I have the writer’s block The sky is just over it ever as always anew While I’m frozen between times moanin’ the meantime blues Stacks of old bills the mounting molehills i dread It’s hard work keepin the roof off of your head Dream my way through the day job straight home to pay my dues Roll up my sleeves have a go at me some meantime blues

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released August 19, 2014

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Cory Branan Nashville, Tennessee

Throughout his decade-and-a-half-long career, Cory Branan has been too punk for country, too country for punk, too Memphis for Nashville, and probably a little too Cory Branan for anyone’s damn good.

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