If Whiskey Could Talk - Tyler Childers

I watched you hide the pain too many times Much too often you don't say what's in your heart But you don't have to say it's over, I can see it in your eyes 'Cause if tears could talk, you just said goodbye Without a word, you took our picture from the wall And your dresses from the closet down the hall When I tried to talk it over, you just turned away and cried But if tears could talk, you just said goodbye And if mirrors spoke, they'd tell me I'm a fool For never loving you the way I wanted to And if silence says it all, I guess it means our love has died And if tears could talk, you just said goodbye And if mirrors spoke, they'd tell me I'm a fool For never loving you the way I wanted to And if silence says it all, I guess it means our love has died And if tears could talk, you just said goodbye Oh, if tears could talk, you just said goodbye

He was there when I started In Knoxville, Tennessee Openin' for Patty Loveless November of '93 Four friends, Mom, and Uncle Butch And the crowd was really small He'd say, I was a scared kid If this bus could talk Some nights, we'd dance with the devil Some nights, we prayed to the Lord Between bathproom passes and Margherita glasses He was never really bored We were starry eyed dreamers Bouncin' off the wall Oh, the stories he could tell If this bus could talk He's seen pool halls, in Texas Down at the Corndog County Fair Girls, that we made cry Some crowds, that didn't care When Bobby rolled us down in 'Bama He kept rockin', through it all Oh, the stories he could tell If this bus could talk Late night conversations Full of drunk philosophy On politics and religion Football and family The loved ones, that we missed An' the lovers, that we lost Oh, the secrets he could share If this bus could talk He's seen Virginia Beach Caught in a hurricane Heroes, I wish I'd never met But, he ain't namin' names We learned the call of the road At the Grizzly Rose, and we had a ball Oh, the stories he could tell If this bus could talk 20 years of summers An' I hope it never ends Been down so many highways Full of twists, and turns, and bends We caught lightnin' in a bottle Somehow, we survived it all Oh, the stories he could tell If this bus could talk As I leave the stage Still high, from your applause He'd tell you, that I love you If this bus could talk If this bus could talk If this bus could talk If this bus could talk

It's pushed cattle on a palomino Somewhere west of San Antone It's laid on the church floor as I talk to the good Lord Cussed out him for callin' grandpa home And it hit the dirt, one night in Fort Worth When I thought I was bulletproof And it got stomped by a bull named "Mile High" Yeah, but I scored 82 It might just be a dusty resistor If this hat could talk, it'd tell me to hold on and hang around If this hat could talk, it'd say it's 'bout time we settle down Don't ya think we've done enough ridin' away? Maybe we should take the saddle off the Chevy and stay If this hat could talk, it'd tell me to hang it at your place The first time I met ya, I'll never forget ya Snatched it off and put it on the wrong way Hands like a pistol, said, "Boy, take a picture 'Cause I feel like John Wayne" You pull down the brim and I knew right then If this hat could talk, it'd tell me to hold on and hang around If this hat could talk, it'd say it's 'bout time we settle down Don't you think we've done enough ridin' away? Maybe we should take the saddle off the Chevy and stay If this hat could talk, it'd tell me to hang it at your place Wish I could sit and have a drink with it Man, the stories it could tell From the day I got it shaped and fitted To the day it found its nail If this hat could talk If this hat could talk, it'd tell me to hold on and hang around If this hat could talk, it'd say it's 'bout time we settle down Don't you think we've done enough ridin' away? Maybe we should take the saddle off the Chevy and stay If this hat could talk, it'd tell me to hang it at your place If this hat could talk

In a small corner bar he sits there a'drinkin' Lost as a ball in a field full of corn Further away than he ever imagined That he'd ever end up from the place he was born Now no more forlorn has a Creeker drank whiskey Than the one that you see out the side of your eye Drinkin' alone as he looks out the window At all of the strangers on the corner outside And he'd rather be dead than alive one more minute In this Godforsaken town When he was a kid, Lord he'd never a'dreamt it All the ways that the city can bring a country boy down Now they knew not his name and he knew not their faces And he knew not the how nor the reason for why You could ever wake up and wanna keep on a'livin' In a place where a friend was such a hard thing to find And for e'ryone ya meet there's a whole mess of people Tryin' like hell to pull you on down To the level they're on and the trouble they're tendin' In the mess that they've made in the gutter they found And he'd rather be dead than alive one more minute In this Godforsaken town When he was a kid, Lord he'd never a'dreamt it All the ways that the city can bring a country boy down Some fellas do drugs and things of that nature Some fellas chase girls to hang on their arm Some fellas get by on practically nothin' Some fellas get pissed in a small corner bar And they'd rather be dead than alive one more minute In this Godforsaken town When they were all kids, Lord they'd never a'dreamt it All the ways that the city can bring a country boy down

Works the nightshift at the depot With a pistol and a light And he guards them rustin' missiles Countin' whitetail to pass the time And he's worked there for a long while Since he came home from overseas Helping Kilcorn, fight the good fight And bring Baghdad to it's knees And it was hotter than the mountain But it weren't so ya couldn't stand And it weren't so much the heatwave Nearly as much as all the sand Now his daddy he's a log man With a good leg and fake That he got off of a buddy And a shit shot that he made And he worked them hands to splinters And he raised them youngins right On a little bit of scripture And an acreage of paradise And he'd go out on a weekend And he'd play like Clarence White If Clarence had a real job And picked the guitar when there was time Keeps a trap line in the winter Keeps a line wet in the spring On a lock wall fishin' muskie With his eldest and Steve And they swapped tales about their raisin' And they tell the awfullest lies And they go home when they've a notion And the muskie quit to bitin'

Will you pray for me When the roots of the oak And my ribcage are braidin' If I can think Lord knows that I will fondly pray for you High on the hill where the fox horns blow And down in the grave where they lay me low Catholic girl, pray for me You're my only hope for Heaven When I's a boy I'd drink and love and smoke and snort my fill But all the while I kept in mind the Lord's redeeming grace High on the hill where the fox horns blow And down in the city where the heathens go Catholic girl, pray for me You're my only hope for Heaven Do you reckon He lets free will boys Mope around in purgatory? I know that Hell Is just as real as I am surely breathin' But I've heard tale Of a middle ground I think will work for me When the time has come for changin' worlds I'll hedge my bets with a Catholic girl Catholic girl, pray for me You're my only hope for Heaven