I'm doing very well is what I say when people ask How I been today and how I've been doing in the past But lord I've been so weary trying to make it in this world My future's locked up in the snow and my soul's been bought and sold I've been building myself off of things I'll never be I have falsified and reconstructed my identity Tried writing songs about the future with a hopeful twang But they just don't sound like something I would say And this house has just gone up in flames I am grasping at straws for someone else to blame But the sparks that others lit were not the start of this new dawn This is just the road I've set out on Uncertainty is my companion in this world of woe I'm not sure where I'm headed but I got a ways to go I've romanticized and idealized this rambling way of life I'm too young to be this acquainted with mortality and strife And I been playing shows to living rooms no more than ten strong The railroad tracks that call to me don't go on for too long I'm a drifter, I'm a grifter, I'm an outlaw with no foal But I'm climbing out of this six-foot-deep hole And this house has just gone up in flames I am grasping at straws for someone else to blame But the sparks that others lit were not the start of this new dawn This is just the road I've set out on I been torn apart and put together more times than I can count I have followed paths that others made and they've led me to the ground The lonesome wind that beckons me is like a siren's call But there just might be more hidden in that song And freedom might be loneliness with a prettier name Oh won't somebody help me please find something new to say Because I've been finding different ways to say the same three goddamn words And I've just started ending with a hopeful verse And this house has just gone up in flames I am grasping at straws for someone else to blame But the sparks that others lit were not the start of this new dawn This is just the road I've set out on I've got coal and steel all a-coursing through my blood But I need to go somewhere that I can see the sun There I'll write a happy song to sing and pay off all my debts But that hopeful day just ain't here quite yet And this house has just gone up in flames I am grasping at straws for someone else to blame But the sparks that others made were not the start of this new dawn This is just the road I've set out on

Take me back to that day That we sat out in the pouring rain On that broken halfpipe that I saw in the woods just the day before Take me back to the conversation that we had About Politics and for once we weren't sad At least I hope that you were happy because I was happier than I would have been before Lying on the floor I wish I knew you better than I thought I did Maybe now I can say I do because we're not those stupid kids we were back then Back when I wished we were more than friends And life likes to spin things around every now and again So we're right back here I remember something beautiful that night When I saw that burning cop car reflecting off your bright blue eyes And for a moment I wished I'd said it Maybe it's better off this way I hope I don't regret it But I know I will But in this moment we're together and I don't want to kill the mood With an awkward question that I know will never sound too good Because this thunderstorm above us, soaking us right to the bone just feels so good Just feels so good Just feels so good Just feels so good Just feels so good

A brick wall painted pink and blue all built around my chest A hand that's sweating from the cold now placed upon your breast A jewelry box of memories I keep underneath my clothes It's bursting at the seams with memories that we both hold So tell me what you thought we had and I'll tell you the same With those words, we'll both have our own bags that we can take on our own ways A love with lost connection that we knew could never last Seeking out that pleasure that was only in the past The brown birds have stopped singing and the lights have all gone out We're dancing in a dark room speaking I don't know what about The fireplace has been unplugged as light pours through the roof And we both knew this was coming so did everyone we knew So tell me on your travels did you ever speak of me To those gambling with their souls and the broken heart ladies I'll remember you as I ramble on my own Whispering your name to the places where the paper flowers now won't grow A piece of you was stuck in me and leaking down my side Staining my skin with all the tears that you once cried We can sit in circles passing back and forth the blame Or say it feels good to throw our valentines into the flames But I got lost in sorrow and my love just slipped away I wish that I could reel it back but the knot had become frayed So tell me on your travels did you ever speak of me To those gambling with their souls and the broken heart ladies I'll remember you as I ramble on my own Whispering your name to the places where the paper flowers now won't grow So tell me on your travels did you ever speak of me To those gambling with their souls and the broken heart ladies I'll remember you as I ramble on my own Whispering your name to the places where the paper flowers now won't grow

Snickers bars turn into cigarettes Nobody's quite sure what they wanna do yet Maybe that's just me but I think it's you too babe So slide a little closer, it's a frigid one out today Counting halloween candy has turned into Rolling up a spliff in your parents' living room Got my cowboy hat on, repeater on my hip But this time's a little different, now your blood's on my dry lips So come on lay in my arms dear And tell me what it is I'm doing here Playing cat and mouse with the way we want to live I don't know when the next time I'll see you is Runnin' around with sticks in the backyard Don't feel the same when your friends have all moved far away But maybe now, maybe now you'll see Something a little different in the branches of the trees So hold on tight it's a long drive to go Maybe it'll be over sooner than we hoped So pour a little something into your juice box Because now's the time you're finally gonna use those family talks So come on lay in my arms dear And tell me what it is I'm doing here Playing cat and mouse with the way we want to live I don't know when the next time I'll see you is So come on lay in my arms dear And tell me what it is I'm doing here Playing cat and mouse with the way we want to live I don't know when the next time I'll see you is

Hornets nesting in the holes in the yard Watch the neighbor's horses pour some food for the dog Down the driveway try not to fall into the stream Cross the river back through Wheeling again Down in Putnam county felt like living in a dream Aunties frying up some cakes in the pan Smoke is being twirled all around by the fan There's chatter from the living room, the family I got Climb up the mountain rifle on my back Sweat pouring from my skin giving myself a laugh And daddy's coming up with me to make sure I don't get shot Hear momma's stories, taken to work with her pops Coal Miners Daughter playing on the jukebox I know that life here is often in lament But I been longing for that simple existence Back when I was but a young boy no worry of subsistence But we ain't going back to Poca again Up in the big house there were holes in the floor All the termites in the boards ain't getting drunk anymore Not since they torn it down and sold off all the scraps This land is changing not the way that I'd hoped I'm reminded of the days when I would come to this home I'd play around with the bugs and dirt out in the back Catchin crawdads down in the creek Watch for the snakes that slither down by your feet There are many more now than there ever was before Found a pistol in the trunk by the couch .380 caliber nobody knows it was found It's time to head back out don't lock the door Hear momma's stories, taken to work with her pops Coal Miners Daughter playing on the jukebox I know that life here is often in lament But I been longing for that simple existence Back when I was but a young boy no worry of subsistence But we ain't going back to Poca again Mom and pops are sitting back on the porch Me and the cousins shoot some holes in the woods There's food frying out back on that rusty grill Running from the dogs that live down the street Carry a big stick and knife and boots on your feet Down here there ain't no use for a dollar bill Last time I was there was moving furniture out This trailer is empty and the day was a drought The sun beating down and burning us up red Sold the land off got a home in the south Down by the water nothing to worry about Reminding me this is all for the best Hear momma's stories, taken to work with her pops Coal Miners Daughter playing on the jukebox I know that life here is often in lament But I been longing for that simple existence Back when I was but a young boy no worry of subsistence But we ain't going back to Poca again Oh no lord we ain't going back to Poca again Oh no lord we ain't going back to Poca again Oh no lord we ain't going back to Poca again

Way down in the holler where the goldfinch often sing That's where we sat down by the creek back in my nineteenth spring You had said I love you and I echoed back the same But since we parted I been so low I can only see the rain The world is burning all around and we watch it on our screens Say I guess that's just how it be and take a breath of nicotine Crying at a funeral that you did not attend I'm losing hope of seeing fortune just beyond the bend Out in the west where the wildflowers grew Lord, I'm going where the sun is shining and the birds don't sing the blues Lord, I'm going where the sun is shining and the birds don't sing the blues I've been so damn lonesome I could probably cry I swear that when the loon calls out I can hear a faint goodbye So point out all the scars that have been left from words we've said I'm so tired of losing sleep when I lay in my bed Halfway-written songs and twenty-foot-tall halfpipe dreams The chaos we pushed deep inside is slipping out through the seams So I'll make love to my guitar and lie down in my pain And I'll know it's time to leave this town when I hear that old freight train Out in the west where the wildflowers grew Lord, I'm going where the sun is shining and the birds don't sing the blues Lord, I'm going where the sun is shining and the birds don't sing the blues Out in the west where the wildflowers grew Lord, I'm going where the sun is shining and the birds don't sing the blues Lord, I'm going where the sun is shining and the birds don't sing the blues

Lord I been wandering through dried up steel towns Down the hill to the river where I feel I'm hell bound If there ever was spirit guess I'm to blind to see Unless those spirits, were drank or shot down by me Oh the west texas highway where I wish that I was Thats the closest to heaven where the coyote calls And the men who I met there were no angels I knew But then again I thought I saw an angel in you Nursing a bottle smoke rolling from my lungs At what step did I go wrong from the boy that I was And the man I thought I'd be was a stranger to me So what next evolution should I hope to see Been meaning to read the bible or at least a summary Because the people I follow all wear god on their sleeve But I ain't going to church that's not a place I'm secure but I'm so lost in trouble I guess that I can't be sure Been looking for a feeling to replace what I got What I saw in Montana maybe that's worth a shot But even those times were fleeting soon to be overgrown By my lonesome old blues that seem written in stone Wish I could be a preacher wish I could speak to the skies I wonder if Jesus sounds like just another guy Because the Jesus I know he ain't the Lords chosen son He's just some young wise man who left an answer and said run So I'm staring at the ceiling hoping to stop the spin I'm just so goddamn tired of the way that I been And the work that I do seems to be written in sand By the time I wake up it's a blank slate again Wish the lord that I spoke of was more than metaphor Maybe then I'd have purpose something to live for But the world I observe seems to be a burning bridge Bring me the hope back from when I was a kid But I know I can't believe it even if I tried real hard Because if the Lord he is real then he's showing his cards If the Lord he is real he's a son of a bitch Because if the Lord he is real then why did Lorenzo have to die like he did On the day that my times up maybe I'll go up above Am I bound for glory with whiskey in my cup Or will I burn forever in the chaos of hell Or is the true chaos the things we have felt I shall not repent for the things that I've done Without my misgivings who am I to become So I'm headed for alaska when I get there I'll see Because whatever God is that's the closest I'll be Whatever God is guess I gotta wait and see