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Doug Davis - Coffin Nails and County Jails

from Round 6, Week 2 by Monday Morning 3AM Music Club

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about

A true family story. Sort of. My grandfather was a tobacco farmer. His whole family were dyed-in-the-wool teetotaling Southern Free Will Baptists that didn't smoke or seem to really approve of it. I never sensed any hypocrisy there, but I wished I'd had a chance to talk to him about it. He passed away as the North Carolina tobacco industry was undergoing huge changes, so neither he nor our family really went through any great drama like the folks in this song, but I'm sure others were hit harder. I thought there was great poignancy in the idea that many families have been run out of generations of business due to the the cultural and social stigmatizing of smoking, and that many of these same farmers have subsequently embraced the burgeoning N.C. wine-making industry, and are probably keeping a keen eye on the marijuana legalization efforts.

On a musical level, I've been listening to a lot of John Prine this week, thanks to the release of Eddie Huffman's new book, so there's probably a little of the "Paradise" sensibility in this one ...

lyrics

My father's pa bought this land in '31
Naught but swamp and mud
He brought his bride, put a tin roof o'er her head
sisters said he ain't no good
tried the brightleaf, bought a mule, raised a barn
Credit man smiled crooked smiles
June was warm, the rains were fair, fortune shined
August came, stacked the auction piles (69)

granddad paid his debt, raised the fam'ly tree
Straight as long leaf pine
His son, son in turn, came to cure the leaf
Lee Farm to the county line
surer than the cutworm, good things come to end
'fore we knew the score
war was done, markets closed, auctions' silent floors
No one buys leaf no more (65)

tell me it's not right
tell me it's a sin
same old thing we've always done
Since I remember when
Seven sides to ev'ry tale
Find 'em where you get 'em
Coffin nails and county jails
both kill you if you let 'em (50)

What you do someone change the rules?
Poisons the soil 'neath your feet?
Tells you winter's spring, sweetfern's staggerweed
Vict'ry lap's cold defeat
rows to vines, curing barns to crushing pad
praying for same old rains
Don't suppose anybody dies
From spirits of grapes and grains (62)

tell me it's not right
tell me it's a sin
same old thing we've always done
Since I remember when
Seven sides to every tale
Find 'em where you get'em
Coffin nails and county jails
both kill you if you let 'em

credits

from Round 6, Week 2, released April 6, 2015

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Monday Morning 3AM Music Club Winston Salem, North Carolina

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