I wrote this song with folk legend, Tom Paxton via Zoom. Tom really liked our initial approach to the song, which was based around a Travis-Picking groove. I liked that too, but wanted to try something different for the studio version. Honky Tronica sounded about right.
lyrics
Somebody dug for twenty years
and made a strike.
He was rich beyond his dreams, overnight.
He longed for even more,
when they heard him hit the floor
and he left it all behind when he took flight.
Oh he tried, oh he tried,
he tried to take it with him
on his trip up to the sky-
but you can’t take it with you when you die.
He had hundred dollar bills
in both his boots.
And diamonds in the pockets of his suit.
Packed gold in every tooth,
Just running from the truth,
when they laid his tired body in the roots.
CHORUS
he’d always meant to take that trip abroad
or change his life and live by word of god.
He always had tomorrow,
now there’s no time left to borrow,
sleeping with his luck down in the sod.
credits
released March 11, 2022
Artwork by Chris Kelly in Austin, TX.
Steel guitar by Josh Kaler, Nashville, TN.
Bass by Mike Facey, Denver, CO.
Everything else by yours truly, Jackson Emmer, Carbondale, CO.
On “Meet Me By the River,” Dawn Landes’s self-described “Nashville record,” buoyant country melodies settle deep into lush instrumentation. Bandcamp New & Notable May 7, 2018