Singer/songwriter Eric Taylor is best known for the coterie of musicians who have performed his compositions — including ex-wife Nanci Griffith, Lyle Lovett, and June Tabor. Although a Georgia native, he landed in Texas in the early ’70s. His influences, which range from the folkie Townes Van Zandt to the distinct blues of Lightnin’ Hopkins, informed much of the often tragic lifestyles and figures in his vignettes. Although considered a central figure in the hugely successful Houston folk music scene of the 1980s, Taylor’s criminally underrated debut effort Shameless Love (1981) did little to boost the artist’s career. Although he performed live, it would be almost a decade and a half before he would issue this 1995 eponymously titled follow-up. While there is not a dud among the dozen sides on Eric Taylor (1995), several stand out as minor masterpieces. At the head of the list is arguably the best-known track, “Deadwood” — which Griffith issued as “Deadwood, South Dakota” on her One Fair Summer Evening (1988) album. The nod to Beat Generation avatar Neal Cassidy on “Dean Moriarty” sets the tone with intricate acoustic instrumentation surrounding the honest and straightforward verse. This is, in essence, what separates Taylor from the likes of John Prine. Although both bring realistic interpretations of lives lived and lost to their craft, the simplicity in Taylor’s imagery is beautiful in its unadorned starkness. This is even true of the mod-tempo “Hey Little Ryder.” The brisk “Shoeshine Boy” is perhaps the lone exception, however, as it is recalls a well-worn slice of life. However, with lines such as “I even got a wife/See this scar?,” the characters remain tethered to Taylor’s undeniable and unmistakable reality. – All Music
1. Dean Moriarty
Dean Moriarty don’t live here no more
He’s off in California, works in a liquor store
Where it’s two packs of cigarettes and one half a pint
Then he’s back to his room on the Mexican side
Says he’s through with the railroad freight-car line
The fight between the moon and the lantern light
Says I’m goin’ cross country but I might come back
Stickin’ to the highway, to hell with the tracks
Chorus
I can’t take what you may give me
I’ve always wanted more
And my Mercury hummin’ road may put me
To sleep outside your door
I got a brand new baby, she’s got a new pair of shoes
He’s drivin’ somebody’s car but he don’t know whose
Been up all night, but it don’t show
He won twenty-five dollars in the hammer throw
It’s a three-fingered guitar, it’s a saxophone that bites
Jack’s been readin’ her poetry, he’s been spillin’ her wine
Her hair’s so pretty, she smells like Juicy Fruit gum
Her old man’s the black guy over on the congo drums
chorus
Maybe he should call her, he just ain’t go the dough
Maybe he’ll slip on outside and check the radio
It’s playin’ her song but it just ain’t his
Man like him’s got no business with a wife and the kids
It’s the last of the red wine from a night full of thrills
It’s a coast to the bottom of a Frisco hill
How can a body begrudge another body a ride?
I didn’t steal your car, man, I just borrowed it a while
chorus
1st half of 1st verse
Eric Taylor – guitar and vocal
Michael Ramos – piano and Hammond B-3 organ
Glenn Fukunaga – acoustic bass
Kris McKay – supporting vocal
Elias Haslanger – saxophone
Marco Python Fecchio – electric guitar
James Gilmer – percussion
2. Prison Movie
Well, you the spotlight runnin’
With legs so long and pale
Learn to cry in the cradle
Learn to lie in jail
Handsome man from Atlanta
Georgia queen of the South
Where you get a little kiss from your mama
And your daddy hits you square in the mouth
Met a little girl named Rachel
We had a little boy named Ray
I killed a little man down in Macon
Who had a mouth too big for his face
Just another white trash cracker
Livin’ on hate and shame
I only pulled the trigger boys
The bullet was to blame
Chorus
In a line, we all walk in a line
While the world outside is spinnin’ ‘round
In a line, we all live in a line
While your moon comes up and your sun goes down
If I could leave here tomorrow
I probably wouldn’t know what to say
I’d probably go live with my mama
And steal all her pocketbook change
I’d take her stupid station wagon
Fill it up with whiskey and gas
Take it on down to Macon
And sit in front of Rachel’s house
They can write a book about me
I can sign a movie deal
And the lawyers can take all the money
As long as Johnny Cash plays me
He can hit the spotlight runnin’
With legs so long and pale
He can learn to cry in the cradle
And he can learn to lie in jail
chorus
chorus
chorus
Eric Taylor – guitar and vocal
Glenn Fukunaga – acoustic bass
Rafael Gayol – drums and percussion
Michael Ramos – Hammond B-3 organ
Bradley Kopp – electric guitar
Iain Matthews, Mark Hallman, Bradley Kopp, Denice Franke – supporting vocals
3. Hey Little Ryder
Hey little ryder
Who you been talkin’ to?
Would you feel any better, girl,
if I’d lied to you?
I’ll tell it to you like she told it to me
The woman I love is runnin’ free
Only promise I’ll make to you is
the sea is green and the sky is blue.
Hey little ryder
Who said I’d be fair
If we had that conversation
then, mama, I was not there?
Stop lookin’ at me and stop lookin’ at you
It ain’t last night, it’s this afternoon
Brand new bottle, just cracked the seal
My legs’ll bend, but I won’t kneel.
Now straight little ryder
Your coffee tasted fine
But, hell, it’s only coffee,
last night you fed me wine.
I tried to tell you who I was
and you just wouldn’t listen
Missin’ me is wrong because
she’s the one I’m missin’.
Now straight little ryder. . . .
I tried to tell you who I was
and you just wouldn’t listen
Missin’ me is wrong because
she’s the one I’m missin’.
Eric Taylor – guitar and vocal
Rafael Gayol – drums
Michael Ramos – Hammond B-3 organ
Glenn Fukunaga – electric bass
James Gilmer – percussion
Ted Roddy – harmonica
Lyle Lovett – supporting vocal
4. Deadwood
The good times scratched a laugh from the lungs of the young men
In a deadwood saloon South Dakota afternoon
The old ones by the door with their heads to their chests
Told lies about whiskey on a woman’s breast
Some tell the story of young Mickey Free
Lost an eye to a buck deer in the Tongue River valley
Some tell the story of California Joe
He sent word that the Black Hills were a mountain of gold
Chorus
And the gold lay cold in their pockets
The sun sets down on the trees
They thank the Lord thank the Lord for the land that they live in
Where a white man does as he pleases
Some flat-shoed fool from the East comes runnin’
With some news that he’d read in some St. Joseph paper
And it’s drinks all around because the news that he’s tellin’
Is the one they call crazy has been caught and been dealt with
The Easterner reads the words from the paper
The old ones drew closer so’s that they could hear better
“It says here that Crazy Horse was killed while he’s tryin’ to escape
Sometime last September it don’t give the exact date.”
chorus
The the talk turned back to whiskey and women
Cold nights on the plains and fightin’ them Indians
The Easterner says he’ll have one more ‘fore he goes
He gives the paper to the Crow boy that sweeps up the floor
chorus
Eric Taylor – guitar and vocal
Glenn Fukunaga – acoustic bass
Gene Elders– violin
John Hagen – cello
Chris Maresh – bowed acoustic bass
James Gilmer – percussion
5. Mission Door
Through the mission door
The winos sing hymns for their supper
Blind Sally talks back to the preacher she says
She can’t tell one sin from the other
Chorus
Put your hands on the bible and tears in your eyes
Kneel on the corner and pray for more wine
It’s beans and it’s bread it’s a small price to pay
To hold hands and go dancin’ on the old devil’s grave
Night falls through the mission door
You get a cot with blanket don’t you spit on the floor
Sister Teresa she’s friends with the Lord
No smokin’ in bed no sleepin’ late in the mornin’
** chorus **
Look comin’ through that mission door
It’s Tokay Sam and his best friend Dollar Bill Hines
I ain’t really a preacher I’m Tommy the Frenchman
And I like Lucky Strikes, Jesus and wine
chorus
Now when you leave out through that mission door
If you got any money you better keep it down in your shoes
Every hard luck story from Houston to Hell
Ain’t worth 25 cents towards huggin’ the moon
chorus
Eric Taylor – guitar and vocal
Glenn Fukunaga – electric fretless bass
Iain Matthews and Mark Hallman – supporting vocals
6. Tractor Song
Mama walked that plow John
Mama walked that plow
She just weren’t worth nothin’
Come sundown – down
Daddy walked that plow John
You know my daddy walked that plow
And he just weren’t worth nothin’
Come sundown – down
A white man in a blue suite
John, he comes up to this door
He said, woman, you won’t work sho hard
As the ones before you
As the ones before you do – he said
Chorus
Thanks to Mr Roosevelt and Henry Ford
Won’t have to gee them mules no more
Honey, you’ll be cuttin’ rows
Up to your back yard
Git up John, sit down mule
Let me hear that jinglin’ sound
You can get a new Ford for
Only fifty down – down, down, down
Down, down, down, down
John say – If I pay you fifty
When you gonna ask for more?
Are you gonna take my money?
When you gonna bring my Ford?
When you gonna bring my Ford?
Man say –
chorus
Look ’a yonder comin’
It’s shinin’ in the sun
It looks to be a new Ford
I believe my toilin’s done
I do believe my toilin’s done
chorus
1st verse
Eric Taylor – guitar and vocal
Glenn Fukunaga – bass
Rafael Gayol, Mark Hallman, James Gilmer – percussion
Robert McEntee electric slide guitar
Lyle Lovett and Iain Matthews – supporting vocals
7. Visitors From Indiana
Somebody up there went crazy
Started shootin’ down here below
Other than that I can’t say see
I live up in Kokomo
My wife loved the pretty little pill-box hat
My children thought Texas had snow
I told ‘em life is full of disappointments
We live up in Kokomo
Chorus
If it can happen to you then it can happen to me
Oh, I miss Indiana
And I wish I knew now what I knew then
Oh, I miss Indiana
Got a brother from the Wildcat River
Standing over by the grassy knoll
He’s got a wife that’ll make you shiver
She’s back up in Kokomo
Got a sister that’s around here somewhere
Probably missed the whole damned show
She ain’t been right since he left here
Sittin’ there in Kokomo
chorus
I guess I ought’a call my friends and family
I’m sure they’re listenin’ to the radio
Somethin’ like this can hurt you
All the way to Kokomo
I wonder what that girl is goin’ to do
Left her roses in the car, God knows
We’ll buy her a baker’s dozen
If she ever comes to Kokomo
chorus
Eric Taylor – guitar and vocal
Glenn Fukunaga – electric fretless bass
Gene Elders – violin
John Hagen – cello
Lyle Lovett and Iain Matthews – supporting vocals
8. All So Much Like Me
Billy’s got a girl as cold as a switchblade
And walks the wires at night
She was born and raised on a Carolina midway
And she likes my songs alright
Likes my songs alright
Kasaban is a fiddlin’ juggler
Outside Baton Rouge
We got laughin’ drunk on tennis balls
And fiddlin’ Blue Suede Shoes
He looked like Elvis too
Chorus
These were friends of friends of mine
Strictly first-name basis
Memories, a stitch in time
I’m no good with faces
They all had smiles that I remember
All were born in late September
All so prone to cabin fever
All so much like me
They were all so much like me
They were all so much like me
They were all so much like me
They were all so much like me
Sonny was a Philipino boy
He lived in my backyard
Broke my grandma’s dandelions
Catchin’ snakes in jars
And she whipped us much too hard
John had an El Camino car
Dressed it up in primer
He took his girl to the wedding church
She never did look finer
He went to Mexico without her
chorus
Eric Taylor – guitar and vocal
Glenn Fukunaga – electric fretless bass
Gene Elders – violin
Denice Franke, Iain Matthews, Mark Hallman – supporting vocals
9. Whooping Crane
I think I’ll look around for a whoopin’ crane
I think I’ll look around for a whoopin’ crane
What do you think this pain is, God?
You think I’m crazy but I’m not
It’s just I look around for a whoopin’ crane
And I can’t find one
I think I’ll look around for a drinkin’ stream
I think I’ll look around for a drinkin’ stream
They say He turned the water into wine
Well they must have been right this time
Because I look around for a drinkin’ stream
And I can’t find one
Bridge:
Mighty red man painted ponies proud
Fallen eagle feathers on the ground
The bullets spin your dreams around
And you paint your face on a penny brown
I think I’ll look around for the yellow stones
I think I’ll look around for the yellow stones
Turn your eye towards the eagle’s flight
Because the eyes of God seem to lose their sight
When you look around for the yellow stones
And you can’t find none
Bridge
Eric Taylor – guitar and vocal
Glenn Fukunaga – electric fretless bass
James Gilmer – percussion
Bradley Kopp – electric guitar
Iain Matthews – supporting vocal
10. Hemingway’s Shotgun
I’ve heard about the rivers in these Texas towns
Careful of the current and the cottonmouth
Bad muddy water with a poison tooth
Never heard a word about you
Out on the highway into San Antone
Careful of the cafe with the jukebox moan
Crazy little fat man in a corner booth
Never heard a word about you
Chorus
There oughta be a bolt of lightnin’
There oughta be a sign from God
Oughta be some kind of warnin’
Comin’ with who you are
There oughta be two hawks flyin’
The sound of the diamondback
The cry of the black freight haulin’
Something on the track
I’ve heard about the card games in these back-room places
Fold ’em gently when it’s eights and aces
Never pull your gun until you plan to shoot
Never heard a word about you
Beautiful danger wears two faces best
Like the beaded lizard of the West
Hemingway’s shotgun finalaly told the truth
Never said a word about you
chorus
Eric Taylor – guitar and vocal
Rafael Gayol – drums
Michael Ramos – Hammond B-3 organ
Glenn Fukunaga – electric bass
Ted Roddy – harmonica
Kris McKay – supporting vocal
11. All Day Saturday
Don’t scuff up your new shoes
And you be home by dark
Don’t take a ride from no one
I don’t care who’s in the car
Don’t forget your bus fare
You be careful in the streets
Don’t sit on the front row
I don’t like those damned 3-Ds
Chorus
Saturday is all day
No matter how you’ve grown
Saturday’s the only day
You’ll never be alone
You be careful with that car, boy
And you be home by twelve
And I’ll know if you’ve been drinkin’
I’ll smell it on your breath
Now about this girl you’re seein’
It wouldn’t hurt you none
To bring her ’round for supper
Introduce her to your mom
chorus
Now don’t run up the phone bill
I’m surprised to find you home
She was such a nice girl
I’m sorry that she’s gone
That’s about the news from here
Except that Eddie Macon died
Goodnight, son
And don’t forget to write
chorus
You should never be alone
Eric Taylor – guitar and vocal
Gene Elders – violin
John Hagen – cello
Michael Ramos – piano
Glenn Fukunaga – acoustic bass
Denice Franke – supporting vocal
12. Shoeshine Boy
Down at the pool room beggin’ a light
Payin’ off the games I lost last night
The sun she’s creepin’ in the corner of the room
I get to feelin’ this way every afternoon
It’s a pack of crackers and a coke with a straw
And maybe a shine to dust the city off
A baseball cap and three gold teeth
Said it’s a dollar for the shine, the conversation’s free
These old boots are on their second sole
What’s a young man like you doin’ worn so low?
If you ain’t got money at least have charm
And a couple of women on every arm
You think I worry about shoes to shine?
I make my money after closin’ time
I got one on the outside and one in here
I got one around the back somewhere
I even got a wife, you see this scar?
She’s got great big clothes and a big fine car
And every cop in the neighborhood
Stalks me grey but they tip me good
Now let me tell you, son, life’s to enjoy
And it ain’t so bad as a shoeshine boy
Now ain’t you glad I took this time
To sit and talk, and that’s a buck for the shine
To sit and talk, and that’s a buck for the shine
Eric Taylor – guitar and vocal
Glenn Fukunaga – bass
James Gilmer – percussion
Ted Roddy – harmonica
Betty Elders and Iain Matthews – supporting vocals
Terri De Loach – laughter