Story Behind The Song

When I was serving in the US Army, I fell in love with a girl from Tenessee. After a year we decided to get married, but not before the Army shipped her away to Germany. After she went over seas, the only times we could really be together were when we were on leave, and in the company of our families in our hometowns. The differences in where we each came from tore us apart. Me, a dark skinned yankee, and her a classic southern belle, neither of our families would accept the other. Oh, the heartbreak.

Song Description

Very sharp and poignant poetry over an ambient musical backdrop, this song never fails to make the girls cry. Almost a modern day Romeo and Juliet story of ill fated lovers trying to cross the geographic and cultural distance from New England to the souther hills of Tenessee.

Lyrics

Southern Girl

You were a good southern girl

And I was a yankee from up north

at least that?s what your mamma thought

when you showed up next to me at her
door

it was amazing

we got as far as we did

you were young and surrounded

by confederate flags

and I grew up always wondering

why niggers like me

seemed to have it so bad

but you had this voice

that seemed to make it all alright

made the hair stand up on the back of
my neck

and I know now

that I never could have told you to stay

away

cause I?m a perfect nervous wreck

I remember the soft light of the fire

As it gleamed on the sweat beading up
on your ivory skin

And the whole rest of my life wont live

up to the sight of you there breathing in

The facades that we bear

are as windows on houses

and striving to clean them

we find we?re inept

but I can still see you

and remember all too late

you?re a promise that I never kept


CHORUS

So I?m sorry

For everything

If I could I would take it all back

But I?m a train

That went speeding through town

And those are the ones that go flying off track

And you

Were in the wrong place

With the wrong one

At the wrong time

So desperate

For a hand that could heal

But those hands

Are not mine

Not mine


So we whispered our way

Around some jagged memory

The ones that will still cut you

Despite the better days you?ve seen

Like our fathers

Spending our innocence away

Like tossing nickels

Drunk and fickle

Into a slot machine

We both came

From places of pain

And fear

They were part of who we are

And what we had to give

Though you may feel

Alone in the and in the dark

Remember that?s how all the brightest lights feel

As long as they live

You said marry me

And I said ok

I gave you a modest ring

That I paid for

For years

And I wouldn?t blame you

If it went right in the trash

After I traded in

all our laughter

For tears



So this is the bed that I made

Where I toss and I turn

In gasoline pools

that I drink down

just hoping to burn

just to burn

CHORUS