You Make Me The Only You

Was a songbird nesting in the head of a scarecrow I hear you got another boy Low and free, Woe is me I hear he looks a lot like me Now I’m happy as a bluebird in a bottle tree This one come with some kinda guarantee? Baby you make me I got me another girl Baby you make me She looks like you- at 23 But while she sleeps i trace the places Nature knows I’m prone to overanalyzing the roses Where your tattoos used to be Ques que c’est, C’est La Vie There’s just something ‘bout your loving’ let the bumble be We don’t gotta lie Baby you made me an escapee Have you ever known When most of me was rusted shut Us to take the night And love was left for deadbolted Lying down alone? You jiggled with the key I don’t wanna pry Just hoping you were home There’s a red door standing in a halo of kudzu Hoping this is still your phone What to do with the mystery Gon’ cakewalk on thru it to the jubilee When I get lonely you make me Sure, she’ll do Baby you made me… But you’re the only you

We were never very smart The No-Hit Wonder We were sticking to our guns We knew added up, babe Years of living blood to string We just knew we were the ones Years of living hand to mouth Forever barely starts Years just getting gig to gig And suddenly someone East to West, North to South Is saying all is said and done He could have been making a killing When I get lonely... Peddling the Dream But if you found him at all you found him just scraping I sprayed our names across the bridge A living blood to string So the whole damn town would know That bridge is gone, but some recall So sing a song for the no hit wonder That “What’s-his-face hearts So-n-so” Though it isn’t one of his And so it goes He’d sing ‘Shovel me under Boys, it is what it is’ And when I get lonely... He broke free from the way they raised him He knows a heart is hell enough and never full Sour Mash He never sang that music would save him Knows never trust an evangelical The town i come from’s mostly sky Even though the county’s dry He’d say ‘You wanna know what true love feels like? That didn’t stop the stream nearby It’s the next best thing to death From giving us a daughter Feels like after an elbowed windpipe Just before the next breath” She was born in a barrel of American oak So with your next breath sing a Made of sugar, maple, and charcoal smoke She just goes to show your folks Song for the no hit wonder... What God can do with water

But at night he can hear the fireworks When I go below the gloomy ground From his tunnel underground You better buy the room a round And he’s carved himself a little crawlspace Let her weep and lift a glass Just to lay his body down Of bitter-sweet sour mash To fade out of sound To the thunder under town Once when I was going through Those same old famous same old blues Sing a song for the no hit wonder... Tired of either crying to you Or cussin up a quarrelin Yes, I slipped and sipped astray Cheers It only took one taste to see the way Here’s to you Back to Tennessee to stay Cheers Tennessee my darlin Missing you fierce

When I go below the gloomy ground… All I Got and Gone I don’t want no Beaujolais The water made it through the roof Sake, Cider, Chardonnay To the busted baby grand You keep Tequila far away The drops are dripping on the mute yellow keys You know what i’m cravin Like the Dead remembering a melody Ain’t Champagne all fine and chill Play for me, play for me It’s not all rot-gut, shine, and swill She is all i got and gone You ask me life’s a cask Of bitter-sweet sour mash Baby used to harp and jaw She’d argue with a weathervane When I go below the gloomy ground… Tonight the wind is riled and raw Go on let it rave C’mon Shadow Maybe I will finally get my chance to cave Anything, i’d give everything C’mon shadow She is all i got and gone I know you remember feeling nine feet tall But c’mon shadow I tore this place up for a note Did you forget the times she had me climbing all the walls Sideboard, bureau, wardrobe, shelf But the heart has four darkened drawers C’mon shadow And secrets from itself Wander with me yonder ways a spell C’mon shadow So let that darkness take this room Tonight i’d rather not be by myself And all these so called furnishings She made it clear that we’re not welcome I got a snapshot of the moon I took inside of me What are we waiting for aw hell Yellow eyes crying over yellowed ivory C’mon shadow Goodbye to me, say goodbye to me Must you lag so far behind each step we take She is all i got and gone C’mon shadow It does no good to drag your heels when passing by her place All the Rivers in Colorado C’mon Shadow… I park the car by the river I know you don’t believe it’s true but please pretend One of our rivers Because it looks like it’s just you and me again Of course this song would come on I let it play by the river C’mon Shadow I wade way into the river Don’t exaggerate the tragic shape we’re in Just to stand up neck deep boots n’ all C’mon shadow As the current crashing past me lashes Would it kill you trying out the bright side now and then Both arms red and raw

C’mon Shadow… But all the rivers in Colorado couldn’t wash you off of my mind Not that I’m trying, just a thought though Might be nice to keep from crying like all the rivers in Colorado Missing You Fierce You would float down in my arms Now you’re gone and though they know that At least that last sip of whiskey was warm and wet These stupid arms still hope to hold back As good a goodnight as I’m gonna get All the rivers in Colorado I’ve been missing you woman and wishing you here Been missing you something fierce Still the white river Still the night river Been riding that late night bus where we got scandalous Still the silver swordplay in the sun Through the jaws of Los Angeles Still the crystal blue clear, muddy root beer Into the wild blue wanderlust Colored rivers run Been riding it just because But all the rivers in Colorado… The strobe lights flared on You were there and gone John is on the radio But i’m at an all time Rocky Mountain low You said “always’ then you just left You left hallways in my footsteps And all the rivers in Colorado… And this radio nothingness coming in clear …Now you’re gone i get it though Has got me missing you something fierce I’ve got to learn to let it go like All the rivers in Colorado I’ve got this new drink you helped me stumble upon Take the empty glass once the whiskey is gone Garnish with fire & chase with tears Daddy Was a Skywriter That old Gibson I sold will hopefully hold us through winter It’s gonna get cold girl, but I’m going gold with you Daddy was a skywriter Little work on this last verse, then I’ll come down to dinner Momma was a rock-stemmed rose Reheat a dream with some hell in the meantime blues Papa shaped this place with grease and grace Momma loved me I been told it shows Right at home in-between Find me honing a dream Tried and true as the color of his collar While i’m moaning the meantime blues His eyes grew bluer as he searched for words But words are crumbs and the lesson of a father After dinner and dishes i sit down and switch on the TV Is how to hack your way through the hunger and the birds And unfreeze as the chorus occurs to me:

Hopefully they’re right about the pen being mightier Rock’ll burden coal until the coal begins to sing That any weapon anyone’ll wield Every crushing blow is ever-focusing a dream But where they mark off men with the cross of a pen I’ll carry my old man’s steel

Daddy was a skywriter…

She said build your house on the solid rock of Jesus Cory Branan ‘The No-Hit Wonder’ Fool to choose the sand of sin I run out and sign myself a long lease PRODUCED by Paul Ebersold On a little place made of rain and wind MIXED & ENGINEERED by Paul Ebersold ASSISTANT ENGINEER Aaron Drake But she learned me pretty good about the CouldaWouldaShoulda MUSIC & LYRICS Cory Branan And the cripplin weight of a crutch copyright 2014 Chin Up Music (ASCAP), BMG Chrysalis She wasn’t dead on about every little thing RECORDED & MIXED at the Bakery and But she weren’t dead wrong about much Sound Kitchen in Nashville, TN MASTERED by Steve Fallone at Sterling Daddy was a skywriter MUSICIANS Dave Cohen- Keys and Accordian The Highway Home - Vocals “Slick” Joe Fick- Doghouse Bass Ice is forming between the wheels and the asphalt Craig Finn- Vocals Audley Freed- Guitars Ice is forming between my skin and bones Adam Gardner- Bass But that ice is warming to the sweet at last thought - Vocals Of taking the highway home Austin Lucas- Vocals John Radford- Drums Taking the highway home Caitlin Rose- Vocals Taking the highway home Steve Selvidge- Vocals In the wake of the ice and snow I am Robbie Turner- Steel Guitar Taking the highway Saddler Vaden- Guitars DESIGN by M Greiner, Cory Branan This old road can be cold and mean PHOTOGRAPHY by Rebecca Branan (cover) Halos of vultures and road kill dreams and Nicole Kibert Startling darkness on a windy ridge Rockin my heart like an empty rig THANKS and love to my wife Rebecca Branan and my kids Jane & Clemens Branan. Taking the highway home… Thanks and love to my mother Peggy, sister Katie, brother Daniel, and to the rest of the family. Sing of your sweet country roads SPECIAL THANKS to my Bloodshot family, Ronny Russell, , You can keep ‘em they’re way too slow Travis Hill, Drag the River, Matt White (and rest of the Whitewater gang), I don’t need no scenery Chris Carrabba, The Gaslight Anthem, Jeff Colvin, Lisa Stanley, Tim Barry, There’s only one scene I see Ken Freeman, Nick Leichty, Dave Hause, Devan Power, Hugo Mudie, Jamey Wood, Todd Snider, Lachlan Hodgson, Tom Chippendale, Bryn Perrot, David Howard, Joe Ginsberg, John Allen, Lauren “Uncle Larry” Spratlin, Brandon She’s why i’m taking the highway home Jazz, Joshua Phillips, The Pahanish family, Eric Martin, , Taking the highway home Mike Grimes, Lucero, Rosemary Thomas, Jon Gaunt, Amanda Isbell, Laura Her sunny day gonna melt me away and I’ll be Barnaby, Guy Malvezzi (and the rest of the Shack Up Inn gang), Michael Taking the highway home Casey, Charlene Chew, The Keough clan, Bayard Blain. and the Gill clan. THANKS to all my no-hit wonder buddies that inspired the song (surely you Meantime Blues know painfully who you are). I’ll see y’all everwhichawhere.

Walking around talkin down to myself for a fight BS209 CP2014 BLoodshot Ltd., 3029 W. Irving Park Rd., Chicago, IL 60618 Yet another unknown in the famous Nashville night bloodshotrecords.com The old grey sky got the writer’s block O.K., I have the writer’s block The sky is just over it ever as always anew While I’m frozen between times moanin’ the meantime blues

Stacks of old bills the mounting molehills i dread It’s hard work keepin the roof off of your head Dream my way through the day job straight home to pay my dues Roll up my sleeves have a go at me some meantime blues