the preacher's son

from eleven letters from a window by Mitchell Snow

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lyrics

the preacher’s son

I
My daddy stood tall
About six foot four
When he was my age now
He’d come home from the war

He took up the Good Book
And laid down the sword
Enlisted his allegiance to the service of the Lord

The first thing I can recall
That ever I heard
Was his thunder booming voice
Just a beltin' out the word

It's as if I were asleep
Until that moment then
When I was ushered into life at his sweet Amen

II
The cancer came on quickly
And he grew so weak
A shrivelled figure in his bed,
That could hardly speak

I knelt down beside him
Begged him not to go
(There were) so many things about him
(I’d) never get to know

I was barely born
When I leaned for sure
Life is stricken with death
And there ain't no cure

I ran my fingers down his wrinkles
Every crease I traced
And I could read the man's life by the lines on his face

III
Even though my mother
Did the best she could
To raise up a son who was gentle and good

Come a few years later
I'm sittin’ in jail
The temporary guest
Of a cold grey cell

Now there ain't no excusing
For the things I done
Seduced by the power and the glory of a gun

And I can hear in every echo
Of these walls of stone
My thunder booming bullets
Ripping flesh from bone

IV
Soon they'll lead me to the gallery
And strap me down
And all those who've come to witness
They will gather 'round

And they’ll send in the preacher man
To pray and then
I go drifting out of life
At his sweet, Amen

In this polished metal mirror
My skin is smooth
Not a crinkle, not a fold
Not a ripple, nor a groove

Just a blank and barren emptiness
That proves the case
That you can read a man's life by the lines on his face

credits

from eleven letters from a window, released April 25, 2021
M. Snow: acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass, vox
Doug Davis: Hammond M3, piano, shakers, percussion programming
Corky McClellan: drums
Special thanks to Brannon Gilliam for the loan of his 1951 00-18 Martin acoustic

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Mitchell Snow Toronto, Ontario

Singer/ songwriter from Mocksville (and Winston-Salem) North Carolina, currently living in Toronto Canada

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