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J​.​W. Teller

by J.W. Teller

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1.
Your father ran out the screen door screaming at me All about his faith and the morals in which he believed Though he never could hold on to all things that he loved That’s how he lost you your brothers and your mom While driving hard on faith and gasoline Into the ditch where he could not be seen In the night I hid in the fields of cotton and corn And I made my home in the tall oaks on the tree line There I kept my things all the photos and the letters you wrote In that old cigar box we bought in New Mexico While driving hard on faith and gasoline Into the ditch where we could not be seen In Mexico
2.
Here I am and here I go feeling all the love heartache loss and pain Bury my mind in the soil I hear the dirt feels cool upon the dying skin Babe would ask me questions I did not know She said I have not seen enough of life And time will tell all the reasons I guess sometimes I’m too afraid of mine Car broke down cars fly by They’re all racing from the point of their return Curtain calls and old country band Drank themselves to sleep singing to be free Still babe would ask me question I did not know She said I have not seen enough of life And time will tell all the reasons I guess sometimes I’m too afraid of mine I guess sometimes I’m too afraid of mine I guess sometimes I”m too afraid of mine
3.
Ghost 03:22
Through mysterious nightfalls And swamp-covered lake beds The moss hangs to talk to the moon She resides where there’s no one Says the city it is undone Full of heartache envy and fear Yes and I held her one time She fled for the sunshine For what was thought to be light A lady of mention in all conversations Though fleeting like some kind of ghost I searched the Southland I looked up I looked down Though I could not trace her steps Rumors she could fly They swirled around the campfire A legend can’t be untied I recall one night she stood on the sidewalk The crowds they all chanted suicide She jumped from the bridge line Into the dark pines Her body was never found
4.
Down the trestle far past Davidson’s Market Store I’d leave the lumber and walk Grace Virginia home She’d smile to say this town hell it knows what’s going on I smiled back to say fuck this town as we both carried on Your innocence hell it’s what I love But I’m afraid that these doves Won’t fly for long before put down Then it’s you and I just buried deep in the ground Judge Bill Owens he’s a hard headed son of a bitch He’d choose his women any way that he saw fit And he chose Virginia at the age of only fifteen Yes a judge must be judged and I don’t plan to be discrete Your innocence hell it’s what I love But I’m afraid that these doves Won’t fly for long before put down Then it’s you and I just buried deep in the ground
5.
Kentucky 04:58
Take me home where I can fear nothing anymore I’ve grown tired slightly weary lost a bit of all I am Honey can’t you see I’m as earnest as I can be I was turning for that apple though it turned away from me Every since Kentucky taught me how to doubt It’s a lonesome feeling that I just can’t live without I’ve been searching for answers and the keys to this cell There’s a ghost here that haunts me claims to be my own self Hollowed eyes but he shimmers when he swears I was broken to the floor as I made my way for the door I was grinding tooth through the hollers and the lakes Shining bright lights of heaven yes but angst with the likes of hell She sat alone on a creekside alway yelling as she swayed Every since Kentucky taught me how to doubt It’s a lonesome feeling that I just can’t live without I’ve been searching for answers and the keys to this cell There’s a ghost here that haunts me claims to be my own self Hollowed eyes but he shimmers when he swears And I knew I just had to get back home
6.
Sadie Trix 03:34
In the spring of ‘91 I met that woman At an old truck stop on the southside of L.A. I was fueling up my diesel Headed north for San Francisco She caught my eye in that beat up Chevrolet And all the other boys They all miss their fix Off of you Sadie Trix At the Pink Palace Club Now it’s this trashed-out camper van The smell of morning sickness And I’m late for work at that Moonlight Video I’m still strung out from Daisy’s Dancing Hall I was tasting rails down porcelain bathroom stalls And all the other boys They all miss their fix Off of you Sadie Trix At the Pink Palace Club
7.
Well the good ol’ boys are gathered now at the diner down the street Talking ‘bout that sophomore quarterback last night blew out his knee And the smoke-stained teeth and coffee breathe it is hot upon the press Stealing glances from the waitress in her flowered dress And the bar across the way there we use to always go I still play rummy till the morning light cracks shadows on the floor I know your evenings are filled up with lovers and their gin And I know the city’s lively with shows and all the men Lately I’ve been losing sleep to thoughts of us back when You never liked the small town darling you never were a small town darling You were so dead set on leaving here and nineteen years of age So fluent with your Spanish and concrete in your rage And I recall the times you use to always say This town can’t hold the two of us so you might as well just stay Honey I’m here to tell you now this town just ain’t the same There’s only that one waitress at the diner down on Main I know you’re evenings are filled up with lovers and their gin And I know the city’s lively with shows and all the men Lately I’ve been losing sleep to thoughts of us back when You never liked the small town darling you never were a small town darling
8.
Looking back I see it in your eyes There’s no surprise you feel the way you do I had a song that no one was singing But it went away when I quit drinking There’s a spirit that resides in the pines How she toils me how she toils me Sarah said our love could start a war I’d go down and see her when I could But all our fighting it just laid her to dying Sometimes the odds they’re stacked so high There’s a spirit that resides in the pines How she toils me how she toils me
9.
The Closer 05:08
Well we were tripping over headstones While you were laughing at the cops The corn path led us back to the white chapel cross There we toasted with a ghost Hung with medals around his throat He said if fear is an option I suggest you let it go You have to fight To stick around And the fist-felt cinder blocks They left me sleeping at the docks The houseboats tethered crashing They were thrashing on the rock And I woke up to the sirens The dispatch static hum We got a kid lost out on the diamond He’s strung out on the mound The closer came and shut him down The closer came and shut him down The closer came and shut him down
10.
With a finely tuned perspective Drawn sour with contradiction And a packing mule that could no longer go He started out from Kansas City To ramble out to Reno In search for things always in himself Got hemmed up in Boulder Sent that letter that he wrote her With the only words he could find I hope you’re doing well up north Though I don’t care how as to why I hear it’s the thought that counts Honey if that’s true I can give you that Legs went lame in Sante Fe Giving way to his decay And the time for the greed that was chasing Spent some years down on the border Fell in love with some young hoarder But she cared for him unlike any other And the ranch it did him well She taught him how to catch what fell How to dust it off and put it back to use Once he woke to find her missing Only needles and syringes You see sometimes the wise one still runs dry He found her down in the barn Lying on a hay-bale calm With a note to him for measures Don’t be mad for what I’ve done Purpose lies in how we spun In the time we’ve held together Once a broken child to hold Now a grown man to weep Take the mare out of the stable Shoulders straight and set her able Life has these ups and downs But I hear it’s the thought that counts honey if that’s true I’ve given that At least all I have

about

Thank you, Rick Potts, Drew Danburry, and Adam York.

Recorded summer 2018 in Missoula, Montana.

credits

released January 4, 2019

J.W. Teller - vocals, guitar, songwriting
Britt Arnesen - upright bass, vocals, producer, recording engineer
Ryan Scott - lap steel, accordion
Tom Wolverton - dobro, pedal steel
Isaac Callender - fiddle
Spencer Hoveskeland - upright bass on "Kentucky"
Brian Hazard - piano, mixing/mastering engineer

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about

J.W. Teller Jackson, Mississippi

“His songs reflect this sensibility, along with sometimes painful experiences from living under what was essentially a small-town theocracy.” (Doug Hill, Norman Transcript)

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