Get all 7 Colin Cutler releases available on Bandcamp and save 20%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Live at the Flat Iron, Tarwater, If I Had My Way, I'd Tear That Idol Down, Hot Pepper Jam, Stranger in the Promised Land, Peacock Feathers, and Nelson County Wayside.
1. |
Bad Man's Easy
03:38
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There ain't no joy in it, Bobby Lee,
I said as we drove down Highway 1.
That tiger tattoo on his arm, it grinned,
As he tightened his grip on the butt of his gun.
We might make it to the Carolina line,
But a bad man's easy to find.
Have I ever told you how I feel
When I hear those sirens wail?
Like a pack of dogs nipping at my heels,
Even if I know that they aren't on my tail,
A good man's hard to find,
But a bad man's easy.
My mama said there's two kinds of people:
You're going to heaven, or you're going to hell,
But everybody's got at least a little killer in them
When you touch where you're not wanted, you can tell.
A good man's hard to find,
But a bad man's easy.
Was it love or fear in her eyes?
It was something I'd never seen before.
It was like she saw me and she recognized me,
I must have jerked back when I shot her.
Cause a good man's hard to find,
But a bad man's easy.
Might be the Devil, might be God, might be both.
Might be grace, might be the law, I don't know,
But a good man's hard to find,
And a bad man's easy.
A bad man’s easy,
Yes, sir, a bad man’s easy
Oh, a bad man’s easy,
Yeah, a bad man’s easy.
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2. |
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Mama, don’t know where heaven is,
But I hear that’s where you’ve gone.
Mama, don’t know where heaven is, Oh Lord
But I’ll be there with you before too long.
Father, he says you’ve gone away,
Where there ain’t a heaven nor a hell.
Father, he says you’ve gone away
And you ain’t bad, and you ain’t well.
Mama, don’t know where heaven is,
But I hear that’s where you’ve gone.
Mama, don’t know where heaven is,
But I’ll be there with you before too long.
Sister, she was a baby,
And I hear she’s up in heaven, too.
Sister, she was a baby,
And I wonder if she’s seen you.
Chorus
There’s a boy out on the street says you’ve seen Jesus’ face,
Way up where He hung the stars,
He says there’s no more cripples or crying,
And I want to be there where you are.
Mama, don’t know where heaven is,
But I hear that’s where you gone.
Mama, don’t know where heaven is,
But I’ll be there with you before too long.
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3. |
Save Your Life and Drive
04:42
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I was hiking down the highway to Mobile, Alabama,
Had one good arm and a nine-pound hammer.
I took a turn up a washed-out gravel road,
Found a little old lady squatting like a toad on her porch swing;
Her thirty-something daughter rocked there beside her, drooling out the side of her mouth.
I ain't a smart man, but I saw this thing heading south...real quick. I heard a voice say
Save your life and drive,
You better save your life and drive.
She looked me over like I was an old used car;
Said "There's work to be done, if a working man's what you are."
I said, "You can cut me open, but you won't know what I am";
She grinned and said, "You might have one arm, but honey, I think you're a man."
Out in the barn, I could see her car, and her statement I couldn't deny,
And what's the harm in painting a barn and fixing a few chicken coops anyway?
"You better save your life and drive
Save your life and drive."
You ever seen a mother try to sell her daughter?
Said "Look at her there, she's a pure drink of water."
She was speaking with the chickens and clawing in the dust,
Said "A woman like that won't give you no fuss";
I looked at the paint peeling from the roof, said "Ma'am, it might be a sin,
But give me a hundred dollars, I can paint your house, and get that car running again."
"Save your life and drive,
You better save your life and drive."
The wedding day came on the first of the year;
Got the house painted and that car out of second gear.
Mama slipped me the money and she kissed her daughter goodbye
We stopped five miles away at a roadside diner, I ordered two turkeys on rye.
The boy behind the counter, he gaped at her, said she looked like an angel of God.
I slipped out the door and said over my shoulder, "Tell him hi, and I hope he ain't mad."
"You gotta save your life and drive,
You better save your life and drive."
Twenty miles down the road, I had dust in my eye,
And black cloud heavy as an iron anvil hanging in the sky.
Saw a barefoot boy walking beside of the ditch--
Stopped, cranked open my window, and yelled out, "Hey, boy, get in.
Better thank your mom and your lucky stars that I stopped, storm comin', ain't no place to hide."
He said, "My ma's the meanest bitch that ever cut a switch, you better save your life and drive.
Save your life and drive,
You better save your life and drive."
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4. |
The Cold That's Forever
03:46
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It's cold in the north
For a Georgia boy;
It was colder at home
In my mother's employ.
I went to the city
Just to spread out my wings,
But it was a pity
When my heart couldn't sing
CHORUS
What's wrong with me,
It is far beyond you.
And nobody knows
Where the cold wind blows from
Or where it goes when it's through
I was hell-bent for learning,
But the world kept on turning,
And my heart kept on yearning
For something to hold.
But my head kept on spinning,
And the world kept on sinning,
And my eyes kept on brimming
With tears in the cold.
CHORUS
The crows are all calling,
And the leaves are all falling,
And I feel like I'm crawling
Like the prodigal son.
There's a cold that's forever--
In your heart, at your center--
And all through the winter,
It’s been coming down.
And the train keeps on clacking
On down the tracks, and
I'm heading back to
Where I come from.
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Colin Cutler Greensboro, North Carolina
Armed with a guitar, banjo, a brace of harmonicas, Colin tells stories of love and loss with characters wide open as a Midwest sky and wild as the mountains, with poetry thick as a Carolina swamp.
Colin Cutler recommends:
With a Patsy Cline-powered voice and jazzy rock band, with lyrics dark and deep as swampwater, these guys are the real deal. Also, we recorded my Peacock Feathers EP together.
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featured on Bandcamp Radio Jun 10, 2014
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