1. |
Paper Piano
04:34
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Every good boy does a little bit better
when they practice their scales after school.
And every little girl’s got nothing left to wear,
and who could ever know that you’re cool.
Hair always tangled, fingers always crossed.
Stars always spangled, eyes always lost.
She wrote the keys on the door.
She spilled the cookies on the floor.
And did you never play a Paper Piano?
And did you never ride a bike with no wheels?
Did you never use a milk jug for a baseball glove?
Could you ever know how happiness feels?
Everybody knows when you ain’t got nothing
that you ain’t got nothing to fear.
I put on my Liberties and grab a good book,
get on my best mule and ride outta here.
Oranges on the TV screen, cigarettes on the porch
Sunday dress on a sewing machine, braided mane on a horse.
Go on and dye your blood blood red.
I’m gonna hunt us down some water and bread.
And did you never play a Paper Piano?
And did you never ride a bike with no wheels?
Did you never use a milk jug for a baseball glove?
Could you ever know how happiness feels?
They could put a fence around anything.
It’s just a matter of posts.
You could put your butter on my guitar strings,
but that ain’t gonna make them toast.
I’m gonna fall down a wishing well.
I’m gonna get me a whole buncha change.
I’m gonna burn down that old pawn shop
and fall asleep in the rain.
And did you never play a Paper Piano?
And did you never love a man before me?
Because I never knew a damn thing til I saw you smile,
and I never knew how good it could be.
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2. |
Carpenter
04:43
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You said you thought you kinda loved me.
That’s something I don’t think I could help.
Now you’re drunk at my bar with another homeless Nashville rock star
And I wish you’d just go somewhere else.
Cos Christ knows you bring out the worst in me,
so I don’t know why you’re so surprised.
Cos I don’t really know what happened here.
I have no excuse for my behavior.
But I was never much of a carpenter.
I wouldn’t make you much of a savior.
You got some good things going for you
underneath your empty swimming pool eyes.
You got a blank check torn up in your smile,
like the most believable of your lies.
And Christ knows that I’ve let you down again,
but I can’t be on the cross tonight.
Cos I don’t really know what happened here.
I have no excuse for my behavior.
But I was never much of a carpenter.
I wouldn’t make you much of a savior.
And Christ knows we’ve all been betrayed by a kiss.
Ah, but maybe, baby, I’m just too human for all of this.
Cos I don’t really know what happened here.
I have no excuse for my behavior.
But I was never much of a carpenter.
I wouldn’t make you much of a savior.
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3. |
Dirty Girl
04:43
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Dirty Girl, Dirty Girl, come with me to New Orleans.
We’ll go on down to Oxford Square
at Christmas time and see ol’ Jimbo there.
Then at the Graduate, you gon and messed up my hair.
Say, do you remember what we did in Oxford Square?
Dirty Girl, Dirty Girl, come with me to New Orleans.
We’ll stop off round bout old Clarksdale
at the Repass, where everybody’s dressed so well.
Razorblade and Shankerman and Kings for Sale
Ain’t nothing we can do, it’s all for the family now, in old Clarksdale.
Dirty Girl, Dirty Girl, come with me to New Orleans.
Take me out in Jackson town
to The Underground with Mr. Nutty Brown,
F.Jones and tired bones and rain falling down.
Hey, don’t tell nobody what we did in Jackson town.
Dirty Girl, Dirty Girl, come with me to New Orleans.
When we get there we’ll get some Good Voodoo
Some tasso and trombone, some gator too.
Ah, you know I took the long way home like I always do.
846 miles in a rental car with me, the Pope, and you.
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4. |
About My Falling
03:24
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the right thing to say
just a few days too late
and again your grace is shown
water displacement
a print for The Basement
and the cover of a standard is blown
and I prefer to have my dinner for lunch
and dessert when I start
and I prefer to use the metric system
when it comes to matters of the heart
but you broke all my beakers apart
and I’ve misplaced my conversion chart
liquid antibiotics
cough suppressing narcotics
holding court at the mission on my birthday
pedialite and cigarettes
bags full of cash and regrets
with a good faith mistake what is there to say
and I’d like to think that my problems
come down to ambition more than facility
and I’d like to think that my falling
is just a natural decline in my mobility
but that would excuse me from my own scrutiny
so that this might go on into perpetuity
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5. |
Cemetery Blues
04:34
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I can’t shake you and your
Cemetery Blues.
I tried to sleep but you’re eating me alive.
I can’t miss you.
Don’t miss me.
It’s hard to leave when you can’t be seen.
I’d be alright if I could sleep through the night,
and not wake up to tell you
I’d be ok if I could walk through the day.
I’d be just fine if I could keep you alive.
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6. |
Mrs. Ernst's Piano
05:57
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The neighborhood was changing.
They say it was going down.
They were putting up new houses east of town.
Now, Mrs. Ernst gave piano lessons Sunday afternoons
to the children of the neighborhood. She’d teach simple tunes.
At the old pianola, they’d hammer and they’d pound,
while Mrs. Ernst’s husband read the paper with a frown.
Mrs. Ernst had a visit from a neighbor, Mr. Gunn.
Mr. Gunn wanted piano lessons for his son.
Mrs. Ernst said “I must think it over.” He asked her “Why?”
She said “I have my reasons, sir. Thank you, and goodbye.”
Mrs. Ernst’s husband, he had fixed views.
He saw the world as black and white, and he saw no subtler hues.
Mr. Gunn was surely black, but Mrs. Ernst, she thought
“A child is a child, and children should be taught.”
So that evening Mrs. Ernst asked her husband if she might
give piano lessons to a black child. “Surely it’d be alright.”
Mr. Ernst answered her in no uncertain terms
“Over my dead body!” said Mr. Ernst.
“Over my dead body!” Mr. Ernst replied.
“Over my dead body!” he said, and soon after, he died.
Now, Mrs. Ernst, a widow, did what must be done,
and gave piano lessons to Mr. Gunn’s son.
Now Mrs. Ernst still gives piano lessons Sunday afternoons
at the old pianola in her living room.
While Mrs. Ernst’s husband looks down at her from a frame,
and she knows he wouldn’t like it, but she does it all the same.
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7. |
Fault Lines
05:18
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Running north to south I promise you
when you’re just west of The Great Divide.
And is your heart and mind reminding you
you were better off alive?
Love is the real that’s sentimental
when you’re trapped behind your new found walls.
And I’m not getting any better.
In fact, I can barely move at all.
You break a promise that you never made at all.
San Andreas, hell, I guess it’s not your fault.
Oh, you remap the landscape,
but then you float into the sea.
While you reshape the Cascade Mountains,
and there’s nothing I can do but leave you be.
I guess we both knew this would happen.
I should have known what you would say.
But beneath your trembling depths, there’s heaven.
And it’s strange now, all I can do is look away.
You break a promise that you never made at all.
San Andreas, hell, I guess it’s not your fault.
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8. |
Steel Wires
06:56
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The world walks all over you
You walk all over me.
I’m a beggar that you’re kind to.
And fear is an ocean,
so stay on the island.
and every time you talk,
Your conversations turn into tragedies.
The old car cleans up nice.
And marriage turns men into butlers.
Love is just a clay pot
in a burned down New Orleans hotel.
Steel Wires could open the door.
Set fire to fire, and push me back again.
Your tragedies become mere dinner talk
Nobody’s horse is gonna live forever.
And I’m a schoolboy, mister, play me a cover song.
But this was not my decision,
so don’t ask have I changed my mind.
Steel Wires could open the door.
Set fire to fire, and push me back again.
The Bluesman plays The River.
The walls bleed black with mold.
And Jazz is always running out of incense.
And politics will be.
Hang a flag on your window,
put the blood over the door.
Steel Wires could open the door.
Set fire to fire and push me back again.
Light your cigars and stare at my wife.
Drink your poison.
Enjoy my life.
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9. |
O' Magnolia
05:07
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O’ Magnolia, it’s long past time to change your regalia.
But keep the blue for the Scottish Seas, and for the warm gulf breeze.
Stubborn as it may be, keep the blue for the bravery.
Discard the stars and bars you hid behind when you meant slavery.
O’ Magnolia
O’ Magnolia, keep the red for the warnings we need:
the hurricanes and hunger and heat, and the blood and lessons of defeat.
See the bright and shining stars for what they really are,
and from where they truly come – from the fertile earth of our hearts.
O’ Magnolia
O’ Magnolia, you are not just the crimes of you fathers.
And until you forgive yourself, you will never know all your wealth.
But the world will embrace your new display, and cheer you on towards a new day
to grow strong and sound with your roots in the ground, with your trunk and your
branches the only Gray.
O’ Magnolia
O’ Magnolia, let the white that you pride be your Petals.
But keep the blue for the Choctaw tears, and know redemption will still take years.
Painful as it may be, keep the red and its strength to remind
Unlock the chains you’ve kept your mighty hills and trees and rivers behind
and be free.
O’ Magnolia
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Afton Wolfe Nashville, Tennessee
Afton is a product of his home, Mississippi. It is the birthplace of at least 2 American art forms: country
music
and blues music. Meridian is the birthplace of Jimmy Rodgers, while the Mississippi Delta is the
birthplace of the blues, and the first rock n’ roll notes ever played, according to some music historians,
came from Hattiesburg. Afton also draws much of his style from nearby New Orleans.
... more
Afton Wolfe recommends:
Light In The Window
by Star Anna
A beautiful album that somewhat juxtaposes this artist's normally-abrasive and raw sound which you should also explore. Her vulnerability on this record is stunning.
go to album
Cary Hudson is the man. This is his newest record. It's as fantastic as everything else he's done, which is better than everything else most anyone else has done.
go to album
The Moment Before Waking
by Conrad y Skordalia
Just wow. David and Rebecca made this beautiful record, and I love it. I think you will too.
go to albumIf you like Afton Wolfe, you may also like:
Dakota Blue Moon
by Jackson Harden
Gorgeous acoustic Americana from North Carolina, stripped-back and sublime.
go to album
Caught Up On A Feeling
by Veronica Stanton
Stunningly beautiful orchestral folk songs with just a hint of country, delivered with heart-on-sleeve immediacy.
go to album
A vibrant vision of "Central Americana" from the Costa Rica-based artist, blending heartland devotionals with playful Tropicália grooves.
go to album
