Lyrics & Stories Whisky Priest
Track 10
Poor House
Dustin Welch, Super Rooster Music (SESAC); Scotty Melton, Scotty Melton Music (BMI)
Orphan child ain’t got no one to loveAngels cry in Heaven aboveHell’s bells and buckets of bloodShovels brake the cold hard groundYou ain’t never heard such a lonesome soundPray, tell me Lord what have they foundWhen her momma’s singing sweet and lowShe tells the bitter winds to blowAnd I know they'll always be alone
ChorusEvery night I go to townBlow for blow, and pound for poundC’mon pass that bottle roundWe’re bound to bring the poor house down
Into this wicked world she’s castPaying for someone else’s pastI won’t lie if you don’t askIn the distance there’s a rumbling trainThe whistle wailing through the rainJust give me whiskey for my painSend shivers up the devils spineThe moon is shining through the pinesLike pennies from a dead man’s eyes
Repeat chorus
I'm heading back to them lonesome hillsNow I know just how they feelOne more drink and I’ve had my fill
Repeat chorus (2×)
Played by
- Dustin Welchbanjo, vocals
- Micky Braun, vocals
- Drew Smithacoustic guitar, vocals
- Kyle Ellisonelectric guitar
- Trisha Keeferviolin
- Joe Beckhamelectric bass
- Joe Humeldrums
The story
On the return of the trip me and Cory took to Charleston (see 'Don't Tell Em Nothin'), we stopped off in Johnson City, TN to do a couple gigs with our buddy, Scotty Melton. This is gonna be hard to explain to anyone who's never been to the Tri-Cities area of East Tennessee or has never encountered the Melton family. Regardless, Scotty was telling about this place way back in the holler his dad used to take him to where there were always tons of kids running around, all with mothers but never any sign of their fathers. Scotty finally asked his dad about this once he got older, and was told that since there were moonshiners on practically every ridge, one of the ways they would boost their business would be to whore out their daughters, which led to a significant amount of wild children running around. I had recently read a book by a guy named William Gay called 'Provinces of Night.' The book opens with a scene where a construction crew are digging up a river bank, plowing the area to prepare the valley to be flooded to build a dam. They dig up a dusty mason jar, which at first they figure is full of cash, but it slips from the guys fingers and shatters as tiny bones scatter everywhere. It comes out later the moonshiner up the road had been offering his daughters as extra incentive to his customers. Like I said, it's a different kind of place. So, I showed Scotty this banjo part I had and the beginning of a lyric, and we wrote the rest of this thing about the character on the other side of the story.