1. |
Ease Me into Dying
02:48
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I felt you at 36th station tonight when the cold chill took my will
You were facing the distilleries and the run down cotton mills
Now I try to take back that fight, but you pay me no mind
When you left for good that night, you were too damn stoned to cry
There ain’t no use in trying
You’re just easing me
Easing me
Easing me
Into dying
You gave me hope every other week with the still frames in your eyes
And other times you couldn’t speak or even compromise
Now I lay on your doorstep weak with thoughts running inside
When you left for good that night, you hung me up so high
There ain’t no use in trying
You’re just easing me
Easing me
Easing me
Into dying
Did you keep me around to watch me fade inside
Or were you scared of the lonely terrors in your mind
There ain’t no use in trying
You’re just easing me
Easing me
Easing me
Into dying
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2. |
Sally's Amphetamines
03:44
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Sold my ticket home for change
Two dimes a nickel and cheap cocaine
You were back home pacing
Your mouth was a racing
You were naked as a jay bird
As the whole town was facing
Old shop keep said you were talking a big game
You were spreading your legs like you spread my name
To every damn patron that’ll watch you sing
You even bought blow with my wedding ring
I think I’ll stay here in West Killeen
Sally’s back home on Amphetamines
Word got home that I was running around
With a two timin’ flewzy from our home town
Sally started drinking, started getting mean
Threw my Prine records into Lake Marie
Sprayed my name by the old service pump
At the Exxon station where the whole town comes
Traffic lights were down as she hit the post running
And she shook her fist loudly like another thing coming
I think I’ll stay here in West Killeen
Sally’s back home on Amphetamines
She sold all my things out that old house
Ain’t a damn word you heard were true
Now she’s burning bridges like a lighting in a bottle
Gets my ford up to 80 as she pounds on the throttle
Praying to the lord, while cursing my name
Driving through town like a white hot flame
I think I’ll stay here in West Killeen
Sally’s back home on Amphetamines
She shot two straight holes through my windows
She took my heart and bent it in two
It’s been about a year, but it seems like 10
She’s running from the law time and time again
Flashing all the truckers, stealing from others
Cursing every person from her mother to her brother
So I ain’t coming home anytime soon
There’s a rapture waiting on me and the town is praying too
I’m just fine living my life pristine
I ain’t coming home until she hits the ward clean
I think I’ll stay here in West Killeen
Sally’s back home on Amphetamines
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3. |
Tobacco Country
03:56
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I can hear the sounds of them old freights
Through the seas of farm fields
I can hear the crashing of the summer rain
Through the gears of these old ferris wheels
There you are hanging fresh clean linen
With dogwoods in your eyes
I hate to leave you, but I must go to work
I’ve been singing songs now for quite sometime
Cheap roses and whiskey
High rollin’ women
Just a tease on your emotions
When the lights go down and your spinning
The real truth is where your born
You may travel just to weather the storm
But, I just want you to know that wherever I roam
These old tobacco fields are always signs of home
I hear the whispers on the road sometimes
But I trek just fine and straight
My mind may be in Arapahoe county
But my hearts on them Carolina freights
And if those whispers should turn into screams
In the middle of the day or in your dreams
I’ll do my best just to keep you awake
And keep the noises and the fears away
Cheap roses and whiskey
High rollin’ women
Just a tease on your emotions
When the lights go down and your spinning
The real truth is where your born
You may travel just to weather the storm
But, I just want you to know that wherever I roam
These old tobacco fields are always signs of home
There’s blue in these old mountains
But there’s red in my blood
From the hills of that old great piedmont
To the coastal water floods
We might have got a bad rap or two
But there’s good people down here
One who believes in equal rights and freedoms
And for that old southern reputation to disappear
Cheap roses and whiskey
High rollin’ women
Just a tease on your emotions
When the lights go down and your spinning
The real truth is where your born
You may travel just to weather the storm
But, I just want you to know that wherever I roam
These old tobacco fields are always signs of home
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4. |
4th Street Up
03:35
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Well I heard it was the fifty-third murder that year
People started raising their families in fear
From the service stations to the county fairs
Lord we burned like magic in the rarefied air
Is what you want an old ghost town?
It’ll take all of us dying just to lay your guns down
But we’re damned if we do and we’re damned if we don’t
I see the only bridge burning that’ll take you home
I watched my daddy die in an oldsmobile
His hands were shaking against the sharp cold steel
I may never heal and I may never love
I may never travel from 4th street up
Through my window I can see your room
Where we’d spin broad stories until the city came to
And for once I didn’t see the old lights swoon
I was caught up in your beauty and your fine perfume
But I watched us fall apart and unveil
All the truth that took us away from here
I may never feel, I may never love
I may never travel from 4th street up
So I’ll never see my daddy at the dinner table
And in the moonlight I may never hear my love
I can see me singing in an old folk club
Young and perfect with the whole world above
Now I’m burning gas just to get away from here
I’ve seen all the tricks this city can endear
But I watched my dreams die in a village wheel
From the words of a poet that nobody feels
I may never heal, I may never love
I may never travel from 4th street up
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5. |
Burning Flame
03:05
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I rode the rails of this speeding train
To find our love again, to find a way
I’ve seen other women, there ain’t nothing to
I’ll be damned if they hold any candle to you
I send you pictures, I feel your pain
I’m still here falling, calling your name
You’re my burning flame
I’d sing my heart out for you in such a way
Body and soul, I would make you sway
I hope you remember and I salvaged some grace
From Tennessee to Harlem, I’m still seeing your face
I write you letters, I broke the chain
I’m still here hopeless, calling your name
You’re my burning flame
If I could go back to when I turned mad
I’d trim the lamps and realize what I had
Savor in the moment and take you by the hand
Dance with you on 10th street time and time again
I still dream at night, of your embrace
Heard through my fight, calling your name
You’re my burning flame
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6. |
Escaping Southern Heat
04:08
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The night we escaped that southern heat
There were battle scars out on the boulevard
Shots rang out in that Tennessee night
And the whole damn south fell apart
I put my hands up against the glass
And the room was shaking from the aftermath
As an old man sat up dressed in black
And the whole damn past came back
My heart burned in that café in Memphis
There was so much hatred filing in the streets
The night we escaped the southern heat
There were travelers making their way down south
Looking for a room in the night through the angry crowd
They found a place in the middle of town… a nice looking inn
But the whole place was booked by the color of their skin
I put my hands up against the doors
And the city was shaking from the violence before
As an old man sat up dressed in black
And his whole damn life went back
My heart burned in that motel in Georgia
There was so much hatred filing in the streets
The night we escaped the southern heat
There were flashing lights through that Carolina town
As shots rang out through that innocent crowd
As a child laid bleeding on those campus steps
And the whole city of Orangeburg wept
I put my hands up against the wounds
There were bodies shaking into the afternoon
And an old man sat up with blisters on his back
And his whole damn past turned black
My heart burned on those steps of order
There was so much hatred filing in the streets
The night we escaped the southern heat.
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7. |
Wilted Roses
03:48
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You haven’t talked to me like that
Since I caught your lips on a whiskey glass
You shook me to my core, you left me down on my knees
She said remember that night when we were on the edge of sleep?
As we stared straight down Magnolia street
You confessed your love, like you were some kind of hero to me
I know there’s weight upon your shoulders
From the time I left and the time I took
But you haven’t talked to me like that since last October
You showed me our love through wilted roses
You said as our love grew, the roses would bloom
But they just stayed stagnant, you were never home to see the truth
Nor did you ever see the wife or the mother that was laid right in front of you
You always stood strong when you had nothing to lose
Up so straight with something to prove
As stubborn as your father and as wicked as this West Texas heat
Now your warm eyes are growing colder
From the time we left and the time we took
But you haven’t talked to me like that since we left Tulsa
You showed me our love through wilted roses
Now your young heart is growing older
From the time you left and the time you took
But you haven’t talked to me like that since you said it was over
You showed me our love through wilted roses
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8. |
Teach Me How to Mourn
03:24
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They threw me in battle when those buildings came down
I’ll fight for our freedoms, with that I’m proud
But they don’t give a damn about our mental state
They just fire off the canons and expect you to relate
Now I waste in my room wishing I was never born
One thing they don’t teach you is just how to mourn
I watched you wear bullets and there’s nothing that I found
They taught you in training to muffle those sounds
I watched my bunk mate die in my arms
Nothing I took silenced those alarms
Now I waste in my room with the fill of chloroform
One thing they don’t teach you is the right way to mourn
Now I’m home with no purpose
But a wife and two kids
Two tons of bricks on the top of my head
This bottle of liquor is the only thing warm
One thing they don’t teach you is the right way to mourn
These charges of light sit sharp through my brain
These grains of sand tucked in my veins
I’m reminded every morning of the shrapnel you wore
The sickness of evil and the perils of war
Now I waste in my room wishing I was never born
One thing they don’t teach you is the right way to mourn
Yeah one thing they don’t teach you is just how to mourn
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9. |
30 Days
03:28
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I’ve ruined relationships and a stable home
I’ve drank for two on certain nights and left you all alone
You left for your momma’s, I was frankly through
Something strange this one burned more than most girls do
Now your heart sits resting in those Tennessee pines
I started feeling something in the heart of Caroline
I pushed you away so far with the fill of alcohol
Now there’s no one to hold in this old dance hall
I’ve been chasing you all night with drunken eyes
All I’ve earned is emptiness and stone cold lies
You can’t be bold when you’re always down and blue
I’ll be your Johnny if you’ll be my June
I’ll prove my love with a steady hand for you
I’ll chase them demons that made you so blue
I’ll kick that old habit straight through
For 30 days and 30 nights I’ll go away for you
Last we spoke I was too drunk to speak
I’ve seen the sun twice in two damn weeks
You won’t love me with bourbon on my breath
I’m jealous and angry and I act possessed
So give me a chance and give me strength
Help me fight that good fight from week to week
Rid me of this want and this lonely hell
Release me from this sickness and this devil’s spell
I’ll prove my love with a steady hand for you
I’ll chase them demons that made you so blue
I’ll kick that old habit straight through
For 30 days and 30 nights I’ll go away for you
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10. |
Summertime in the City
03:42
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I open the windows wide tonight
I hear them car horns ring
I burned all the feelings out of you
With four simple words and a diamond ring
Two years in you fell out of love I guess
You moved to New York and left behind your wedding dress
I started drinking heavier and lost my mind
I did things to this day that I still regret
I’ve been struggling again with my weight you know
I’m as thin as those rails that run from Mississippi to Chicago
It could be the binge drinking since you left or it could be the dope
It’s summertime here in the city, my love for you is still plenty
Why must it hurt, why does heartache leave you searching
Why must it make you question your worth
There’s a commotion going on down the street
I got an old baseball game on the radio
I can hear the wind blowing off the lake
Everywhere I turn your damn shadow shows
So what’s it going to be tonight that eases my mind
What fingers of fate happen to be in store this time
If my momma happens to call again
Will you please just tell her I’m doing fine
It’s summertime here in the city, all I’ve got is $3.50
My love is true, what is that even worth, when it comes down to it,
I’m nothing to you
It’s summertime here in the city, my love for you is still plenty
Why must it hurt, why does heartache leave you searching
Why must it make you question your worth
I want somebody to call, but I don’t want to talk
Maybe a friend to visit, but I really don’t want them long
I just want some attention in this moment
I guess that’s all.
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Ross Adams Charlotte, North Carolina
Ross Adams just finished up his third studio album “Escaping Southern Heat” in Muscle Shoals, Alabama this past year. Adams
had the pleasure of working with Jason Isbell’s 400 unit as his backing band for the record, with bassist Jimbo Hart producing. Ross created a collection of songs for this record that he describes raw and very personal. The album is scheduled
for release on September 10th.
... more
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