Iris DeMent Album

(Iris DeMent)

When my mornin' comes around, no one else will be there
so I won't have to worry about what I'm supposed to say
and I alone will know that I climbed that great big mountain
and that's all that will matter when my mornin' comes around

When my mornin' comes around, I will look back on this valley
at these sidewalks and alleys where I lingered for so long
and this place where I now live will burn to ash and cinder
like some ghost I won't remember
When my mornin' comes around

When my mornin' comes around, from a new cup I'll be drinking
and for once I won't be thinking that there's something wrong with me
and I'll wake up and find that my faults have been forgiven
and that's when I'll start living

(Iris DeMent)

There's a wall in Washington
and it's made of cold black granite
They say 60,000 names are etched there in it
in that wall in Washington

A father, he traveled from far away
to walk the path 'til he finds that name
He reaches his hand up and traces each letter
The tears they fall as his memories gather
for the boy who filled his heart with pride
is now but a name that's been etched
in the side of this wall in Washington

A mother she traveled from far away
to walk the path 'til she finds that name
She reaches her hand up and traces each letter
The tears they fall as her memories gather
She feels the baby at her breast
but her heart it breaks because all that is left
is this wall in Washington

A boy, he traveled from far away
to walk the path 'til he finds that name
He reaches his hand up and traces each letter
He stares at the name of his unknown father
His heart is young and it's filled with pain
in anger he cries out

"Who is to blame for this wall in Washington
that's made of cold black granite?
Why is my father's name etched here in it

(Iris DeMent)

Living in the wasteland of the free...

We got preachers dealing in politics and diamond mines
and their speech is growing increasingly unkind
They say they are Christ's disciples
but they don't look like Jesus to me
and it feels like I am living in the wasteland of the free

We got politicians running races on corporate cash
Now don't tell me they don't turn around and kiss them peoples' ass
You may call me old-fashioned
but that don't fit my picture of a true democracy
and it feels like I am living in the wasteland of the free

We got CEO's making two hundred times the workers' pay
but they'll fight like hell against raising the minimum wage
and If you don't like it, mister, they'll ship your job
to some third-world country 'cross the sea
and it feels like I am living in the wasteland of the free

Living in the wasteland of the free
where the poor have now become the enemy
Let's blame our troubles on the weak ones
Sounds like some kind of Hitler remedy
Living in the wasteland of the free

We got little kids with guns fighting inner city wars
So what do we do, we put these little kids behind prison doors
and we call ourselves the advanced civilization
that sounds like crap to me
and it feels like I am living in the wasteland of the free

We got high-school kids running 'round in Calvin Klein and Guess
who cannot pass a sixth-grade reading test
but if you ask them, they can tell you
the name of every crotch on MTV
and it feels like I am living in the wasteland of the free

We kill for oil, then we throw a party when we win
Some guy refuses to fight, and we call that the sin
but he's standing up for what he believes in
and that seems pretty damned American to me
and it feels like I am living in the wasteland of the free

Living in the wasteland of the free
where the poor have now become the enemy
Let's blame our troubles on the weak ones
Sounds like some kind of Hitler remedy
Living in the wasteland of the free

While we sit gloating in our greatness
justice is sinking to the bottom of the sea
Living in the wasteland of the free
Living in the wasteland of the free

(Iris DeMent/Elmer McCall)

We both know the reason why you've called
so stop wasting time trying to soften up my fall
I know you wanna sweeten up the taste
but if you don't mind, I'll just take my sorrow straight

You almost make it seem like something nice
the way you take your bad news and you pour it over ice
That's a kindness I don't appreciate
'cause I like to take my sorrow straight

I wouldn't say that I'm stronger than the rest
but no matter what you say it ain't gonna hurt me any less
'cause in the end, there is really no escape
so I go on and I just take my sorrow straight

I wouldn't say that I'm stronger than the rest
but no matter what you say it ain't gonna hurt me any less
'cause in the end, there is really no escape

(Iris DeMent/Merle Haggard)

I traveled high, I traveled low
and there was no place I didn't go
looking for this kind of happy with you
I had a love, it wasn't right
and I spent so many lonely nights
yearning for this kind of happy with you

Happy with you, happy with you
I love the things that you do
It took such a long time that I thought I'd never find
this kind of happy with you

Happy with you, happy with you
This kind of happy with you

And some day when I draw my final breath
I'm gonna know I had the best

(Iris DeMent)

A cold wind against my shoulder woke me up in the middle of the night
An Autumn leaf was scraping against my window
like it was trying hard to get inside
and then a ghost that I had met before kept me up 'til dawn
and everything I thought was right was suddenly all wrong
He said, "Your score is looking pretty bad"
and then he asked me what it was that I had to show

So I went running down a list of things
some were real, but on some of them I lied
'cause I felt I had to justify each breath that I'd been breathing in this life
Then I realized I was playing into someone else's rules,
trying to keep my score up in a game I did not choose
Then I looked that ghost straight in the eye
and said "You'd better not be coming back by again"

And it's true that I don't work near as hard
as you tell me that I'm supposed to
I don't run as fast as I could
but I live just the way I want to
and that's the way I should

October's leaves were dancing 'round
like angels dressed in robes of Red and Gold
but November's come and gone now
and they're lying in the gutter out along the road
They're gonna make their way out to the ditch or someday to the sea,
they'll get to where they're going without the help of you or me
and if each life is just a grain of sand
I'm telling you man, this grain of sand is mine

And it's true that I don't work near as hard
as you tell me that I'm supposed to
I don't run as fast as I could
but I live just the way I want to
and that's the way I should
but I live just the way I want to

(Iris DeMent)

I wrote my mother yesterday 'cause I had some things that I had to say
and I know that when she reads them she's gonna cry
But in the end I hope she sees
that I'm just trying to break free
'cause I've been walking 'round with secrets now, too long

Back when I was barely ten Mom brought home a new boyfriend
and I know that times were bad and he made her feel good
but one night he climbed into my bed
and he left me wishing I was dead
and I've been walking 'round with secrets now, too long

You say I'm digging up the past and it's not wise to go back
but for me it's just as close as yesterday
and I'm not the kind for breaking rules
and I'm not wanting to be cruel
I've just been walking 'round with secrets now, too long

All my life I've felt ashamed, 'cause I thought I was the one to blame
and I vowed to God that no one else would ever know
how he crushed my childish pride
and left me tears that never dried
and I've been walking 'round with secrets now, too long

You say I'm digging up the past and it's not wise to go back
but for me it's just as close as yesterday
and I'm not the kind for breaking rules
and I'm not wanting to be cruel
I've just been walking 'round with secrets now, too long

(Iris DeMent)

It was a long time ago, I was a girl 'bout 12 years old
on my back staring up into the dark summer sky
when I said, "God, tomorrow I can't see
but I'll stick close to you if you'll stick close to me!"
and that night I prayed "Keep me God! Keep me God."

Now, I don't know just where God lives
ain't all that sure just exactly who God is
I don't know if there's a church
that deserves to take God's name
I just know that when I look around here I see
the hand of someone or something
that is bigger than me
and I call that God
and then I pray "Just, keep me God"

I'm in a plane up in the sky
A storm surrounds us as we fly
and below, the big black ocean is all that I can see
When all at once I realize: Don't really matter if I live or even if I die
Just so long as you keep me God

Now, when my days draw to an end
and I've said goodbye to my family and friends
When the tide that turns my life is standing still
as I turn my final bend, I betcha I'm gonna be asking even then
Keep me God, keep me God, keep me God

(Iris DeMent)

She's got a phone in one hand, a hairbrush in the other
and she says, "Life's too short to stay home and be a mother"
She says she can have it all 'cause that's The New Deal
so God give her a hand, 'cause she needs one for the wheel

When he gets home from work, it's well after seven
But he drives a nice car so he thinks he's in Heaven
and his kids hardly know him but they've all got nice clothes
and in just a few hours more overtime he can pay-off that boat

And they've got nice big houses, and they've got nice big cars
and it looks, from the outside, like they're really going far
but there's trouble in the engine and we're junkyard-bound
if some moms and some dads don't start hanging around

When they get around to dinner they're damn near half-dead
so they drive through McDonald's and put the kids off to bed
But they're upwardly mobile and everything is fine
'cause when they do get together, it's quality time

And they've got nice big houses, and they've got nice big cars
and it looks, from the outside, like they're really going far
but there's trouble in the engine and we're junkyard-bound
if some moms and some dads don't start hanging around

They want stickers on the music, they want the laws turned around
They want the cops to run Beavis and Butthead outta town
They say they care about their children, but it's just too damn hard
To turn off that TV or sell off that car

And they've got nice big houses, and they've got nice big cars
and it looks, from the outside, like they're really going far
but there's trouble in the engine and we're junkyard-bound
if some moms and some dads don't start hanging around

There's a whole lot of people who can't make ends meet
and on the wages that they're earning, I know a family can't eat
But I'm talking 'bout people who would sell their kid's soul
to keep up with the Jones', no matter the toll

And they've got nice big houses, and they've got nice big cars
and it looks, from the outside, like they're really going far
but there's trouble in the engine and we're junkyard-bound
if some moms and some dads don't start hanging around

(Iris DeMent)

I'm walkin' home tonight
The streets are glowing 'neath the pale moonlight
I look around, there's not a soul in sight
and I'm walkin' home
Once again I hear my mother's voice
and all us kids making a bunch of noise
If I'm not careful I might start to cry
Just walkin' home tonight

I turn my head and hear the screen door slam
and there he is, that tall and dark-haired man
He looks my way but all alone he stands
and I am walkin' home
He's my Dad, you know I was his girl
He taught me all he knew about this world
and then he traveled right on out of sight
and I'm just walkin' home tonight

I'm walkin' home tonight
The streets are glowing 'neath the pale moonlight
I look around, there's not a soul in sight
and I am walkin' home

Old worn-out couches and a bunch of kids
Four to a bedroom and all Mom's plates were chipped
but I never knew about the things I missed
and I'm walkin' home
You see, it's just the place where I come from
and, good or bad, it's where the deal was done
Mom and Dad, their daughters and their sons
and I'm just walkin' home tonight

I'm walkin' home tonight
The streets are glowing 'neath the pale moonlight
I look around, there's not a soul in sight
and I'm walkin' home
Once again I hear my mother's voice
and all us kids making a bunch of noise
If I'm not careful I might start to cry

(duet with Delbert McClinton)
(Iris DeMent/Elmer McCall)

I went to church on Sunday, I swung my chariot low
Reached up to kiss the deacon, he said "You'd better go"
Trouble, I'm in trouble with him
Trouble's where I'm going
Trouble's the only place I've ever been

Let's buy a watermelon, swallow all the seeds
Forget what Mama told us, do everything we please
Trouble, trouble again
Trouble's where we're going
Trouble's the only place we've ever been

Let's pour a little whiskey, drink a little gin
Listen to Merle Haggard like he's loving me again
Trouble, I'm even in trouble with him
Trouble's where I'm going
Trouble's the only place I've ever been

Let's turn off the TV, I'm tired of CNN
Let's throw a little party, invite some sinners in
Trouble, trouble again
Trouble's where we're going
Trouble's the only place we've ever been

I'll paint your toenails baby, you paint my toenails too
We'll take a walk down Main Street and watch what people do
Trouble, let's get in trouble with them
Trouble's where we're going
Trouble's the only place we've ever been

There's people building prisons for people like you and me
Some people just can't stand people like us being free
Trouble, what's trouble with them
Trouble's where we're heading
Trouble's the only place we've ever been

Sooner or later, darling, everybody's gotta go
Let's you and me leave early, get a seat on the first row
Trouble, trouble again
Trouble's where we're going