We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Bramble Patch Blues

by The Fights

/
1.
A bulb burns, with a fire hazard, cobwebs, and chewed wire, hits the dust and sparks like the sun through the cracks in a hayloft. A record spins, warbled and slow shifting pitch, People dance, but you don’t. There’s rhythm and then there’s the Blues. Everyone’s got love but you. And I wanted you there, beneath that Unflattering Light.
2.
Honey, there’s no need to justify your wanderin’ eyes to me. I’ve seen you sweeping the floor since we walked through the door for another’s empty arms and company. And if you want him, even half as much as it seems, by all means- take him and leave. I’ll pick up the tab, go on and get yourselves a cab. There’s a motel between here, heaven, and hell. But if he’s not all you see when you close your eyes and try to sleep, just meet me in the morning and we’ll agree that we’ll keep this between you and me.
3.
Sun, why don’t you shine down my alley? I’ve watched your light pass me right by. From 2:12 to 5:00, from 8th Street to 9th, Sun, why don’t you shine down my alley? There’s a neon sign in the shape of Texas, where surely you’ve been burning up the range, but I’m stuck in Illinois, outside a bar hunting coins, with a forecast that’s full of nothing but rain. Sun, why don’t you come down and blind me? I’ve watched your light pass me too many times. There’s ice in July, my frostbitten insides Sun, why don’t you come down and shine? From my empty beer box bed, I cross my heart and bow my head, Tomorrow, Lord, Please send that Sun down my alley. Sun, why don’t you shine down my alley?
4.
Coffee Cans 03:24
I’d be off this salt ranch if it weren’t for my two sticky hands, scratching like a chicken for them backyard coffee cans. Papa, he never trusted suits so what he left he buried beneath the roots. Folgers tins all filled with loot, with a spade, I get paid. Every time that I get an itch for a drop of drink or a cigarette, I’m like a water witch with my dowsing stick, a whistle pig getting rich down in them tunnels full of gold. Years they pass, I got nothing to show. Crops don’t grow in a yard full of holes. Just beer guts, yellow teeth, and dissatisfied souls. Every night when I try to dream my thoughts always turn to that caffeine It drove the old man to work the land, day after day using his hands to refill them coffee cans.
5.
Last night I dreamt of another plane where instead of you a faceless woman shared my name. And I sat with her on a couch in a room so strange. It had barber shop walls and Raggedy Ann dolls. The TV was off, but turned up loud. Everything was something I could live with, just nothing I couldn’t do without. And I woke up lonesome, missing you. And I woke up believing in a love I forgot I knew. And I woke up singing a love song, like I’d known it all along. Everything is something I could live with, it’s you I couldn’t do without. Everything is something I could learn to live with, it’s just you I couldn’t do without.
6.
Woke up laughing, lying in the street. Woke up laughing with you whispering to me. You said you don’t love me, just love having me around. You said you don’t trust me, you wrote everything down. I try to describe our distances in feet, but you only understood us in meters. You grow so out of touch, your self-help books thick with dust, and a love so salty it’s gone and dried me up. Try and you can see the light from the moon is just the sun, Then you might sort of see where I’m coming from. I wish I could see the light, know which side of you I’m on, but when I awoke I realized it was neither. You’ll see it’s maddening. To consume everything you love, to consume until it’s used up. You’ll see, kept the right parts of you for me, but I had to cut the rest. Yes, I had to save myself from you.
7.
Spend my mornings in a bramble patch Sun and the world’s weight hot and heavy on my back Picking berries and pulling weeds for minimum wage in cash And every time I get pricked with that rasp, I realize there’s work left to do So much so that by noon, them little lines of blood, they’ve been drawing up the pictures of my thoughts They’ve got art scrawled all up and down my arms They run just like sweat and red chalk One looks like the Son of God, Another’s in the shape of a guitar. Biggest one, it’s a woman with child I’m not sure what it all means, but I’d like to think I believe that somewhere, something, or someone is waiting for me
8.
Your mother’s heart you broke when you swore you’d never move back home, and you still wont, but that don’t stop the thought that you could find a way to make peace with God and Family, that your identity is a curable disease. You can’t choose your roots everytime you change your clothes. In the end, it’s still a dirt road leading to a tree lined horizon and a house upon a hill, out where them stars burn like it’s the end of the world. Straight from the sky to your heart, a fire in the dark. It’s a life I left, I thought I’d never want it back, but now I can’t help but try to make my way towards what might have been. I’ve been gone, but I’m returning. I admit that I was wrong. I just can’t say it to your face, but be sure that in the night I’m making moves. And I’ll do my best to pretend that it’s just on the way, but in the morning I’ll be closer to you.
9.
Take the boot off my driving foot, It’s gonna take a while. The low fuel light’s burning, but we can make it a few more miles down the road. Out past the strip mall doctor’s offices. Just wanna get the heck out of this town. You gotta use your arm to get that window down, but baby when it’s down and you’re wearing that windblown crown, Queen of the Road, nothing’s gonna stop you now. These highways make that interstate seem like the most God-awful place. That’s why we’re running parallel to all them suckers driving straight through hell. We got farmers out tilling in the field, while I-57’s billboards will tell you how to think and feel. Them sad bastards they are missing the real deal. Like a factory the same color blue as the sky. It makes it hard to know where people go to work and where birds begin to fly. We just follow that curve and drive right on by. Reaching a Southern enough location, start picking up a St. Louis station. Them Blues singing truth to me and you. Pass a painted sign, saying that “Jesus Is Lord.” And that’s fine, we’ll make it home by suppertime.
10.
It's Alright 03:30
It’s alright, you don’t need to speak a word. I’ll ask for nothing, no, I don’t want nothing, in return. But I’ll stay here, if you’ll have me, all night long. For I just wanted to sing you a song. Not for radio, or a TV show, or some hot new, trending blog. No, I just wanted to sing you a song for them days that get you down, when them nights last too long. I just wanted to sing you a song.

credits

released October 14, 2016

Bramble Patch Blues is available for purchase via the Undertow Store at the following address:

undertowstore.com/products/bramble-patch-blues?variant=32425487495


The Fights are Clayton Deering, Nicholas Stine, David Pride, Joe Gerard, and Cole Rabenort

Additional musicians:
Samuel Payne (mandolin), Jeremy Koch (banjo), Dan Andree (violin), Abby Heras (clarinet),
Tim McGee (noise)

Bass and Drums recorded at Earth Analog in Tolono, IL by Matt Talbott.
Everything else tracked and mixed by The Fights in The Coal Recording Closet, Urbana, IL.
Mastered by Mark Wyman at ToneGood, Champaign, IL.

Original artwork by Elzie Sexton.

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

The Fights Urbana, Illinois

contact / help

Contact The Fights

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

The Fights recommends:

If you like The Fights, you may also like: