Lyrics & Stories Whisky Priest
Track 03
Don't Tell Em Nothin'
Dustin Welch, Super Rooster Music (SESAC); Cary Ann Hearst, Noberta Jean Music (BMI)
Well you are sitting there biting your fingernails rawWith your eye on the door and your back to the wallNobody else knew, nobody else sawThen your heart goes bang and betrays your trustYou are helplessly leaning on your nervous crutchThe blood in your eye already said too much
ChorusDon't tell em nothin'No, don't tell em nothin'I say, don't tell em nothin'And they won't have nothin' on you
Man you gotta get yourself under controlThe furnace is burning somewhere down belowAnd you can hear the turning of the gearbox echoCause they are watching through the windows, and they are shaking down your spineThey will step on you the second you trip that lineAnd catch you in their claws, it's just a matter of time
Repeat chorus
You see that fish hanging on the wallIf he'd have kept his mouth shut, he wouldn't be there at allBear that in mind when the man comes to call
Repeat chorus (2×)
Played by
- Dustin Welchresonator guitar, vocals
- Drew Smithacoustic guitar, vocals
- Kyle Ellisonelectric guitar
- Trisha Keeferviolin
- Joe Beckhamelectric bass
- Joe Humeldrums
The story
Me and my buddy Cory Younts, who now plays with the Old Crow Medicine Show, went down to Charleston, SC to record an album with our old friend Cary Ann Hearst, who we had a band with all through high school. Cary is an exceptional artist who I love dearly, and Charleston is one of my favorite places to visit. We wrote two songs for the record one day, one of which is titled 'Dresden Snow,' based on a novel by called Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. The second song was 'Dont Tell Em Nothin' which we cut but didn't end up making the record. She had the lyrics for the chorus and the last verse after a story about a confidence man pulling the newbie aside telling him, "You see that fish hanging on the wall? If he'd have kept his mouth shut, he wouldn't be there at all." I needed an opening line and I was sitting on her porch chewing my fingernails trying to come up with something. All of am sudden, I went "You're sitting there biting your fingernails raw..." and the rest of the thing just wrote itself.