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Upland Stories

by Robbie Fulks

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1.
A red-tail hawk sat watchful at the faded edge of day The phone poles and the pines rose form the scoured clay The sun was slipping toward the gulf in its own good time And you would not think of death if you drove on past the signs   The old men at the roadhouse weren’t too polite to stare Where we’d come from wasn’t home, and we were far from even there The camera round my neck drew suspicious eyes to me We were not there to talk, we were only there to see   And when their faces had said nothing Was then I stepped outside And in the instant I knew I’d not forget the sight Alabama at night, Alabama at night   You took the wheel up 119, I scanned the road ahead Trying to let all I could see cover up all that I’d read The hotel would not likely let a working man lie down Like a current through its walls ran the sorrow and the sound   I knelt down to let it in me Sure it would come if I gave it time I fumbled ‘mongst 100 words but words don’t do it right Alabama at night, Alabama at night   100 words mean nothing But what 1000 others say they might   Through sunlit rooms the wealthy walk and the pale unshaven men To stand before each frame 5 seconds maybe 10 And to unveil all the maker wanted to portray But I’m not there to talk, and if I were I wouldn’t say.   A cross of roughcut branches in the wide grey-shadowed sky A child not far from birth, with the end etched in her eyes The morning star above her and a hymn upon the breeze But poor’s no sacred song, poor is a disease   And no hand reaches down from heaven And no one denies it might So patiently we wait here, as onward it rolls Alabama at night, Alabama at night
2.
Sister did the jig and brother beat the drum And baby rocked her dolly baby rocked her dolly As I sit here in this old folks home my hair is white as snow I remember when I was young again how everything was jolly When sister did the jig... Well them kids of mine they've all grown up they write every now and then As I read the letters it makes memories of all our fun and folly When sister did the jig... That wife of mine God rest her soul she's gone on before me I bet she's told the Lord about the times our house was filled with jolly When sister did the jig... That man across the hall is a lonely man he's never had a family So he asked me to tell him all about my kids when he's feelin' melancholy When sister did the jig... When sister did the jig...
3.
Maybe time has wrought some changes, maybe I remembered wrong Stands to reason I've grown softer, I was married for so long I took a chill late last April, lost 30 pounds by mid-July Not that old home was the answer/Just one last thing that I could try. I had scarcely laid my bag down when my misjudgment hit me square I was welcomed like a guilty prisoner, old grievances fouled the air 400 miles change nothing, one man's troubles are his own The land is rundown and ragged, I should have never come home. There's a couple babies in the cradle, Sister's gone east for a time Mama's warming water at the woodstove, neighbors stealing glances through the blind Now she's looking at me through their eyes, and I see the thought she hides in vain All my years among the silken-tongued, the fallen, have made this cancer in my brain. Cheap coal's spilling from the hilltops, the earth is shaking from them old draglines But when these little towns lie sleeping, it's like it must have been before mankind Watch the wild midsummer moonlight drifting slow across the lawn Catch the outline of creation, as morning comes on. There's cousins dropping in from Bryceville/With self-regard these Baptists fairly shine Mama grants them high admiration/Contempt is the best that I can find 400 miles change nothing, one man's troubles are his own Sick and torn from wife and children, I should have never come home. I hear them whispering my name, late at night beneath my room Their voices rise as they grow drunker/Black vultures gathering at my tomb Humbled by the ancient Jewish prophets, dazzled by the distant network feed Borne by the promise of tomorrow, they'll bury me with all speed. I was poor in New York City, down here I'm near a slave Can't hardly take in one more body, and can't afford another grave 400 miles mean nothing, one man's troubles are his own The land is rundown and ragged, I should have never come home.
4.
Sarah Jane 02:26
I was young in Charlottesville That was a long long time Now I'm homesick and I'm poor Poor is at least no crime Long as I'm a dollar down Tomorrow might be better If I could erase each place I've been I could stop singing forever Oh my Sarah Jane Long years since I met you Oh sweet Sarah Jane How many till I forget you I went to bed in Galveston Dreamed about Tennessee Woke up thinking the man I was Is not who I was born to be Filled my pockets with shells from the bay Kids far away need minding I'll be home next Saturday And put my dreaming behind me.
5.
We came up the hill to meet him/In the dirt patch he was weedin' That was our first look at Aunt Peg's new old man. Uncle Hank was 75/He lived well and then he died None of us had nothin' against her new old man.   She liked his fiddlin', no doubt Liked his help on the rural route And the rest didn't bear thinkin' about Aunt Peg's new old man.   We sat down, we got fed/A long grace, but what a spread The chicken was just an hour dead/And the stew was made from barley. Pulled out my banjo after ?while/But he didn't like the Scruggs style “Listen up boy, this ?yer's called Goin' Down To Raleigh.” Old Aunt Peg begun to frail/They got goin' on the Texas Gales Hit my ears like an awful wail/I wish I could hear it again.   No he had no use for the modern stuff Back was strong, hands rough But he rocked her old age, sure enough Aunt Peg's new old man.   They played dances, made the rounds/Galax to Rocky Mount The tunes they knew no one could count/It was all in their heads and hands. And you can do worse as a widow/Than find a man to spade and hoe And raise a little hell with a long bow/Aunt Peg's new old man.   She liked his fiddlin', no doubt Liked his help on the rural route And the rest didn't bear thinkin' about Aunt Peg's new old man.  
6.
Needed 05:07
In Daddy's car with three stoned friends and a fake I.D. Fresh out of school, not a care in the world at all In my 18th summer life never was so free And it was just then that the chains began to fall She was dark-haired she was wild-eyed I was helpless and spellbound What she made me feel was strange back then But I know what it was now Needed....Something ?bout needed Leaves every other word/Weak and small Needed...When you're really needed You can rise to meet it/Or you can fall For what happened next I offer no excuse Maybe we were drawn to what our parents said was sin But in our passion we saw one clear thing to do Throw ourselves at each other and caution to the wind She longed to keep it, I said No I had my future to think of And in her darkest hour she learned What young men won't do for love Needed...Something bout needed Pointed straight at my freedom/Like a loaded gun Needed...When you're really needed Some rise to meet it/And some of us run Can you imagine all those years ago, how I thought I'd reached the end But passion cools, life goes on, and old wounds mostly mend When your mom and I got married, such better days began And when you were born is when I became a man Where you're headed now's not really mine to say You've been more than patient hearing my story through But now you are 18 and on your way There are some few simple things I wish for you That you will steer past shallow freedoms As you follow your own star And when your life is at its darkest Please remember that you are Needed...Something ?bout needed Leaves every other word/Weak and small Needed ...I hope you know that you're needed And that you'll rise to meet it/And never shall fall.
7.
You see them as the trees turn on Colfax Avenue These lonely girls they come out in the fall With hearts they drag behind them like long black bridal trains At my age I feel a father to them all. I see more than I need to from my front porch swing These days pale to old remembered joy Sometimes when I'm not thinking I fall to my knees and sing Where is my boy? Where is my blue-eyed boy? This midwest that I love proved little more to him Than a place you watch grow smaller from a train If he came back a grown man his eyes would surely swim To see this place where so much is the same. One God assures our freedom, two armies keep control The U.S. for the young ones, Salvation for the weak and old Keep your burdens from your neighbor, Leave a good name when you're gone People last but a lifetime, South Bend soldiers on. Now the widows of last season flirt in the summer shade Their griefs are torn like bad fruit from the vine The touches of lost lovers, they burn and then they fade While dreaming never lets go of your mind. Me, I look each evening at a photo by the bed And each morning at another sunrise And if all that we're made of is the ghosts inside our head Who could blame us for pretending otherwise?
8.
Some rule from the sky, some inch ‘cross the ground Their bent backs turned to all heaven above sends down Scratch and pull from this earth what gold it may give Fattening on feasts to come, laboring now to live.   Sent to a savage land, Mother knows not why To plant a seed in rocky soil, and perhaps to die Freedom, come it may to this child instead Freedom comes, freedom goes, Father is surely dead.   Paid by thanks nor praise, yet we soldier on Trials to test our hearts, doubts to make us strong Cheered by loved ones who from the graveyard say: “All my tears, surely gone, after I fly away.”   America is a hard religion Not just anyone may enter America is a hard religion Some never do surrender.
9.
A Miracle 03:19
For a kid from Tennessee things seldom move as majestically as planned But I was born with a decent hand, and I played the cards well Now over the Hudson westward we were shocked The city turns out to be smaller than a fantasy It’s these lost little towns that make the heart swell   To come up Southern is a troubled way, no matter what the writers say It’s the telling that makes it lyrical A kid swears to God, there’s gonna be a change, but do people and places ever truly change? In ancient times, they called that a miracle.   The ground shifted to slag and clay and the Jersey fields gave way to the softwooded trees The pines the oaks and the hickories, old friends of my childhood There in the care of the Brothers of the Holy Cross To our hero, 10 years old, a terrible thought takes hold That the land at his feet is steeped in wild blood   Father, father, first of my earthly loves Know that nothing was lost, young though I was The fireflies ‘round the lamps as the day softly pales In this hour we’re alive, get down the details Who would describe that summer of ’15 Would have to dream, the only way is to dream And what of the dreams of the wretched, broken and on their knees? So help me God, I’m one of these   The road from the South is a troubled way, pay no heed what the writers say It’s the telling that makes it lyrical “Nothing to lose” they say “but your chains” but suffering people don’t just come unchained In ancient times, they called that a miracle.
10.
Baby I'm coming fast as the law will let me If it wasn't for the money, I'd never leave you alone Being close by you lifts the whole world from me Your arms are my home sweet home I try not to wonder where I would be without you I just glide along thanking each and every lucky star Since you came to me, I'm all done searching I know nothing could be sweeter than you are. Sweet as the laurel, sweet as sugar cane rum Girl you're just as sweet as sweet comes Sweeter than bluegrass in the warm Kentucky sun You are just as sweet as sweet comes. I couldn't find no love nohow That was then -- now my heart knows the music that the poets sung The way you make me feel inside, “love” don't half describe It's like a smile through my whole body It's like honey on the tongue
11.
Katy Kay 03:16
I set out from Poor Valley, for wealth I had to have it I wed a wellborn woman, as skinny as a rabbit Now I'm here at this payphone a-beggin' “Katy, listen I'll trade you half a million for your sweet Poor Valley kissin'.” Hey now Katy K Heaven never made one cuter If I didn't love my Katy K I'd prob'ly have to shoot her Now some give all their favors to a girl that's lookin' fine But a girl that's sad and weepin' will always win mine When I see a pretty girl weepin' I run to her and fix it When I see a pretty girl smilin' I run to the nearest exit. The rule to Love Thy Neighbor is a thing I bear in mind It's the love-him-as-thyself part I can't get behind Each greeting he cold-shoulders, each smile met with a sneer His wife can love him all she likes while I gaze at the mirror. The man who is a Mormon, his values are askew Got more women than he can count, all I need is two A bag of bones in a diamond ring to siphon off my pay And a sweet thing down on the edge of town to love my nights away.  
12.
Those loose-limbed girls would swing their feet down the Airport side of Franklin Street And I'd watch them in the not-quite-innocent way I'm looking at them this evening Thinking ?bout the plans I put on hold while the town got smaller and the days unrolled Now there ain't but 2 stories told, and this one's about leavin' I remember Katie, then Rosalee, I was pressing my luck when I tried for 3 Some shrink from a shameful deed, me I do it gladly If I hand you a line, girl you know it's true, if I give you a couple then it's yours to choose One story from a total of 2 has got a good chance to end badly So fare thee well, Carolina gals, I'm goin' where you can't find me There'll be trouble in the days to come and a lot more fools behind me. I was just a lad, about yay tall, sniffin' that glue in the Northgate Mall Down where the anchormen say “you all” and kindness is a show for strangers All them B-school boys and old hippie men, sweatin' in the sun to no clear end I made a medium-to-poor boyfriend and a pretty good housepainter From his home Dad's heart couldn't be hewn, like a simple phrase in a well-made tune But Stack-o-Lee'll sound good on the moon, you don't need a cane chair and a hound " dog He'd sing the blues, I just smiled, I was such a calm and settled child Thanking the Lord, never dreaming the while He was laying out my downfall So with my hair in my eyes and my chest outswelled, I stood on her porch and I buzzed the bell Peeking ?round the blind, knowin' full well that her folks was gone to Boston Now they mean “quiet” when they say “lights out,” but that was lovemaking and it made me shout Daddy woulda come home fast, no doubt, if he knew what that weekend'd cost him If a cruel word escapes my mind, don't worry honey, it's just the wine On second thought, it not's the wine, it's just me talkin' We men pour out our problems like we think that they're unique They cheer when a baby starts to speak, they oughta give him a prize for stoppin' Baby doncha be too surprised if I cash in the farm after Mama dies Get a Cadillac and just ride till the Pacific meets the bumper Stop looking at me like I've lost a screw, like things had to lead where they led to With the house half gone to kudzu I'd be lucky to get a clunker Yeah, by luck I landed in the upper South, by God I gotta make my own way out I shoulda read the signs by now, I shoulda heard the locusts buzzin' For old Tommy Thompson's dead and gone, and I've been feeling...not so strong... Chapel Hill hasn't done me wrong, it was fine, until it wasn't

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released April 1, 2016

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Robbie Fulks Chicago, Illinois

Robbie Fulks is a recording artist, instrumentalist, & songwriter living in Chicago. His most recent release, Upland Stories, earned wide-spread recognition & 2 Grammy® nominations. His early work helped define the 90s "alt-country" movement while his newer work extends that tradition with old-time rambles, reflections on love, & the troubles the people. ... more

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