Albie's Note: If you've ever lived in the small-town south for any period of time, you'll probably understand this great song by the great MCC, who I actually had the priviledge of seeing in concert in Fayetteville AR back in the Year Of Our Lord 1989, when she was yet to hit the Country Music big-time. She was one of the most amazing, captivating performers I ever saw in person, and I have seen a good bit of live music in my day. Her music is full of great poetry and beautiful sound. From 1992, here is the truly great "I Am A Town:"
I'm a town in Carolina, I'm a detour on a ride
For a phone call and a soda, I'm a blur from the driver's side
I'm the last gas for an hour if you're going twenty-five
I am Texaco and tobacco, I am dust you leave behind
I am peaches in September, and corn from a roadside stall
I'm the language of the natives, I'm a cadence and a drawl
I'm the pines behind the graveyard, and the cool beneath their shade,
Where the boys have left their beer cans
I am weeds between the graves.
My porches sag and lean with old black men and children
Their sleep is filled with dreams, I never can fulfill them
I am a town.
I am a church beside the highway where the ditches never drain
I'm a Baptist like my daddy, and Jesus knows my name
I am memory and stillness, I am lonely in old age;
I am not your destination
I am clinging to my ways
I am a town.
I'm a town in Carolina, I am billboards in the fields
I'm an old truck up on cinder blocks, missing all my wheels
I am Pabst Blue Ribbon, American, and "Southern Serves the South"
I am tucked behind the Jaycees sign, on the rural route
I am a town
I am a town
I am a town
Southbound.
PEACE
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