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Elephant - 3 String CBG

Jason Isbell cover. If this isn't the saddest song of the last 20 years or so, I don't know what is.

She said Andy you're better than your past,
winked at me and drained her glass,
cross-legged on the barstool, like nobody sits anymore.
She said Andy you're taking me home,
but I knew she planned to sleep alone.
I'd carry her to bed and sweep up the hair from the floor

If I hadd fucked her before she got sick
I'd never hear the end of it
she don't have the spirit for that now

We drink these drinks and laugh out loud,
bitch about the weekend crowd,
and try to ignore the elephant somehow
somehow

She said Andy you crack me up,
Seagrams in a coffee cup,
sharecropper eyes and her hair almost all gone.
When she was drunk she made cancer jokes,
she made up her own doctor's notes,
surrounded by her family, I saw that she was dying alone.

I'd sing her classic country songs
and she'd get high and sing along.
She don't have much voice to sing with now

We'd burn these joints in effegy,
cry about what we used to be,
and try to ignore the elephant somehow.
Somehow

I buried her a thousand times,
giving up my place in line,
but I don't give a damn about that now

There's one thing that's real clear to me,
no one dies with dignity.
We just try to ignore the elephant somehow.
We just try to ignore the elephant somehow.
We just try to ignore the elephant somehow.
Somehow.
Somehow.

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Comment by Glen Irven on April 18, 2014 at 6:27am: Really enjoyed the story and the melody, ace :D

Comment by turtlehead on February 22, 2014 at 7:29am: Thanks again Richey!

Comment by Richey Kay on February 20, 2014 at 8:27pm: Gave this another listen this morning. A great performance of a very moving song.

Comment by turtlehead on February 20, 2014 at 5:14pm: Thanks RTZ. I'm glad he's out there writing songs like this. Good CBG material.

Comment by RTZGUITARS on February 20, 2014 at 4:39pm: Turtle Turtle Turle marvelous, great song he is a reach in and squeeze your heart kind of songwriter.

most of us have traveled that road with someone we care about and this just touches that pain. Great work.

Comment by turtlehead on February 20, 2014 at 4:28am: Thanks James O and Wes. He's a good un'

Comment by James O Lunsford on February 19, 2014 at 7:11pm: Great song and performance Turtlehead

Comment by turtlehead on February 19, 2014 at 6:10pm: This song is like a punch in the gut. Stuck with me for days when I first heard it. Real is right UJ.

Isbell was a former Drive By Trucker and this is off his latest solo album Southeastern which is really good. He might be the best songwriter going right now. Almost reminds me of a modern day Townes.

Thanks for the comments on the sound. Recording/mixing is just as fun and addicting as building/playing. EQ and reverb are my friends. Compression and limiting are more like acquaintances at this point, but we're getting there.