This song is based on the eighth short story in Flannery O'Connor's A Good Man is Hard To Find and Other Stories collection, "A Late Encounter With the Enemy."
lyrics
Five foot four in full dress greys
riding out my hours in a Chickamauga haze
don’t know who you people seem to think I might be my knees are rusty hinges, got the rot in my feet
lots of pretty girls all looking to dance the big dance
I’d know just what to do if someone gave me the chance
there’s a hole in my head, it’s growing deeper than sin
it’s where the slow, black music from the night’s coming in
don’t know how I come to be here
I don’t remember my name
Is this some kind of a game
I wish they’d all just leave me to be
But sure as Shiloh was won
I’ll have my day in the sun
You people see what I’ve done
There’s gonna be a reckoning one day
Until the blade touch the bone
Ask me how I stay so very young
I kiss the pretty girls, every one
Goddamn every goddamn thing to hell
The sword still shines if you polish it well
Got no time . for a life slipped past
But I would’ve danced the dance if you’d ever only asked
don’t know how I come to be here
I don’t remember my name
Is this some kind of a game
I wish they’d all just leave me to be
But sure as Shiloh was won
I’ll have my day in the sun
You people see what I’ve done
There’s gonna be a reckoning one day
Until the blade touch the bone
oh god, where is that gunfire? I can see the ashes climb
stop these words, I can’t do more than one thing at a time
they’ve come to speak their grievance, these faces I forgot
I’m drowning in this black parade, my parting sorrows shot
don’t know how I come to be here
I don’t remember my name
Is this some kind of a game
I wish they’d all just leave me to be
But sure as Shiloh was won
I’ll have my day in the sun
You people see what I’ve done
There’s gonna be a reckoning one day
Until the blade touch the bone
Michelle Stodart’s folk music captures hope in melancholy, addressing the transformational aspects of the most challenging times. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 3, 2023
Folk artist Josienne Clarke revisits music from her back catalog, infusing these lonesome songs with a new luminosity and drive. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 18, 2023