Why Do All the Country Girls Leave?, by Myshkin

Why Do All the Country Girls Leave?

by Myshkin

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kataniki Emotion, gorgeous vocals Favorite track: Birds of a Feather.

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Myshkin trying on a plethera of musical styles like pretty hats, with the help of some of New Orleans best players, and they all look good. Packaged in a jewel case with a 12 page booklet including all lyrics, and original collage artwork by Myshkin.

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1.	Country Girls 03:16	lyrics	buy track
janie never ever said boo to us  she only ever talked to dogs and books  she wore her pants too short some days too long  no matter what she wore janie just looked wrong  wrong janie wrong janie is a doctor now in hong kong  she has tea once a week with the grand duchee  and janie never ever even thinks about me  why did she leave? annie was so shy it was ridiculous  she had these chicken white thighs and a messed up face she’d fall in love with any boy that smiled in her direction you could get her drunk and feel her up with no need for discretion ugly annie ugly annie is a model now in sydney she has tea once a week with the grand duchee and annie never ever even thinks about me why did she leave? see how the mist it clings to the hills the most beautiful place you’ve ever seen see how the wet leaves cling to the gum trees that’s how a woman should cling to me louise was the show princess for three years running wet dream of every teen from here to gundy we all whistled when she walked by till she married charlie hunter then she disappeared one wet july and he never did hear from her sexy louise sexy she’s living in the bush now with a commune full of greenies she has tea once a week with the grand duchee and louise never ever even thinks about me why did she leave? why do all the country girls leave? see how the mist it clings to the hills the most beautiful place you’ve ever seen. summer 98 Australia © myshkin 1999
2.	Penn Station 03:14	lyrics	buy track
pulling out penn station sitting backwards on the train watching the shining dream manhattan grow tiny and decay into a dawn of steely industry and ruined real estate  a city fallen like a woman heart hollow edges stained as if she never saw the drop as if she never thought to look as if she never heard it calling with every step she took how many times penn station seen this same story of flight  it could be nineteen twenty seven forty four seventy five she having left her lover sleeping off his drunk and their last fight she having walked here broke from chelsea in the middle of the night this time some angel in the station gave her twenty bucks for free i guess the air of desperation is stinking strong on me i’m in a steep nose dive and it’s almost too late got an engine on fire i gotta drop this weight go on boy you just keep on flying stay high mistaking altitude for strength you won’t be the one clenching and crying when they take what’s left of love away pulling out penn station like it’s the last card up my sleeve the one that says make haste and you may live if you can leave send a wish for muscle to all the girls who come this way hey the hardest hustle is the run away and he will still be sleeping and he will sleep for years  and in a week he’ll have a new girl to act out all his fears and soon she’ll be in a steep nose dive and soon it’ll be almost too late and soon she’ll have an engine on fire she’ll have to drop this weight and him well he’ll just keep on flying stay high mistaking altitude for strength he won’t be the one clenching and crying when they take what’s left of love away ‘cause poor boy never knew it anyway winter 95 New Orleans ©myshkin 1999
3.	Bojador 03:20	lyrics	buy track
this is where your maps show only dragons walk the continent this is where your devil rides the waves this is where your maps say the names of places stop year of your lord 1434 south of bojador prince henry is a man with too much time on his hands prince henry is a man who wants to live forever prince henry told his men sail cross that time honored line prince henry’s men knew better turn back at bojador this is where the sun rains fire on the earth this is where your blood will boil this is what we’ve tried to send as message north you are not ready to explore south of bojador prince henry is a man who won’t be thwarted in his fancy prince henry sent his men back out prince henry’s men returned with a rose of mary proof of a gentle land south of bojador this is where the fruit grows thick upon the trees this is where we lived with our families but when you picked the rose of mary africa began to bleed this is how the blues will be born conceived south of bojador spring 99 New Orleans © myshkin 1999
4.	Her Silver Bowl 04:42	lyrics	buy track
your green house smelled of bumblebees vanilla and sweet yesterday’s beer on the sunny window sill of a california dream and it was always warm in winter the beaches were always empty  there were more stars in the sky than i had ever seen and you cut driftwood into beauty sleek and oiled and lithe in line you never seemed like driftwood to me you always seemed to know your mind but beauty cuts us dreadful slow she cuts as slow as live oaks grow we bleed into her silver bowl i don’t know what it is we owe her maybe we so readily intoxicated should not be where the very air is heady mountains sing and oceans breathe your advice was usually good i carry it like sticks of wood to burn to light the path to see the seven years between you and me never strike a match towards you never swerve to avoid that dog in the road will soon be gone but i’ll be here your whole life long and if that was a promise won’t you try and keep it i am hereby on my knees begging you to see that fear she cuts us dreadful slow she cuts as slow as live oaks grow we bleed into her silver bowl i don’t know what it is we owe her maybe we so stubbornly shrugging off our talents  seed scorched earth as our legacy that’s no response to our ability and your round face it looks like mine and sometimes my voice sounds like yours like yesterday i sang a line like what could have come right out your verse but it has been so dreadful long since i have heard your own true song unguarded by your tin can army not garbled by your tin can throng so cut your dead wood into beauty i’ll burn these sticks up in rhyme don’t mean to speak of debt and duty some habits just outlive their time and habit cuts us dreadful slow she cuts as slow as live oaks grow we bleed into her silver bowl i don’t know what it is we owe her maybe we can tear this tree up by its roots and fuck the pain  we’ve bled enough to feed an ocean i want to hear your voice again spring 99 Port Fairy Australia © myshkin 1999
5.	The Last Year 02:51	lyrics	buy track
the last year she was beautiful she set sail across the plain with a compass and a six pack and nobody at the reins pure horsepower and all the wide and gleaming land caught in the boundaries of her wanderlust every road map ripped up by her hand adding up to prove that she was finally lost but it was only just beginning and the last year she was beautiful she turned the mirrors to the walls sat down with a scissor and a glue pot she set out to recombine it all nothing pure about it and all the features and the facts they look so stupid when you flip them on their backs like horses with their hooves up in the air like she had come to the absolute end of caring but it was only just beginning and the last year she was beautiful everybody said remember when the world was kind and green and blind and free back a generation or two or three pure as the driven horse driven to it’s knees and all the righteous and the wicked caught up in each other’s definitions all nostalgia and all prophesy adding up to prove that this is finally the last year but this is only just beginning spring 98 Memphis © myshkin 1999
6.	Apricot Tree 03:31	lyrics	buy track
i didn't like the way you moved, all jerks and bumps and the way your sneakers stuck out from your rolled up cuffs cause i was sitting in the lonely sweatshirt of the boy you left behind but we started talking and we locked, we gave each other all each other's keys we talked about that boy, you and him, him and me all the way to your house under the apricot tree and every day after work that is where we'd be in that little tiny house under the apricot tree you and your new junky boyfriend and me falling apart under the apricot tree and i did like the rush and the silvery speed but i could never handle all that belly full of need cause my life then was like some very pregnant seed that could not find any soil to scratch a hollow in and breed and every day after work that is how it'd be in that little tiny house under the apricot tree you and your new junky boyfriend and me falling apart under the apricot tree and i would drive home at the end of every shaky night all strung out cross the desert like some sad holiday lights and listen through the wall to the sighs of the boy you left behind and i know a fruit that's too ripe will never last too long and maybe two weeks after all the apricots had come and gone came that bleeding screaming night when it all went so terribly wrong 'cause every day after work that is where we'd be and that night the boy you left behind just had to come and see you and your new junky boyfriend and me, and we all fell apart under the apricot tree now i know that for you the nightmare it went on and on but for me everything after that night was denouement cause after i had saved his life i oh so slowly fell all out of unrequited love with the boy you left behind and by the way i like the way you move, all jerks and bumps and the way your sneakers stick out from your rolled up cuffs and we never even needed all that dope to be tough girl, we were tough already and one day when our work is done i'll tell you where we'll be some little tiny house under an apricot tree you and your true love and my love and me just eating apricots under the apricot tree winter 98 Austin TX © myshkin 1999
7.	Birds of a Feather 06:21	lyrics	buy track
i would be sad if not for you  you would be blue if not for me  good thing we travel well together  birds of a feather in the shivery breeze i would be sitting in some station waiting you would be riding on some aeroplane we would have no one to turn to when the fine weather turned to rain now if i ever am unkind please know i’ll never be untrue ‘cause even when you’re nowhere near my side no one comes as close as you and if the journey should take us separate roads  for a week couple months half a year  well then in turn we can only suppose  that the time we spend together  will be ever so much more dear, dear i’ve put away my pipes and bottles i’ve put away my childish things the only chemistry that interests me is the smoke and fire when you and i sing i could be walking down some city street you could be driving up some motorway we would have no one to break into smiles with when the sunshine break through the gray and then i would be sad were it not for you and you would be blue if not for be good thing we travel well together  birds of a feather in the shivery breeze winter 98 New Orleans © myshkin 1999
8.	Ruby Ann 02:43	lyrics	buy track
ruby ann she’s about 16 feet tall ruby ann don’t take shit from anyone at all ruby ann where you gonna go when the saloon open ruby start to roll slippery susan she ‘s back in town slippery susan she’s got a brand new raccoon fur gown slippery sue i saw her down at that saloon scratchin’ at a lottery ticket with a blackened spoon jimmy john lee’s gone west again jimmy john lee don’t give a shit about the rest of them jimmy lee he’s always got girls never got friends but those girls have wheels and those wheels have wings ruby ann she’s out looking for her man jimmy john lee he done long ago left town slippery sue you should have put that ticket down and looked around you got red red flowers blooming on your raccoon gown slippery sue she was buried in a pauper’s grave and ruby ann died of old age in a prison cage jimmy john lee that bastard got away but wait till sue and ruby see him again down in the devils den wait till sue and ruby see him again now they’re the best of friends wait till sue and ruby see him again spring 98 New Orleans © myshkin 1999
9.	Yvonne's Bar 03:51	lyrics	buy track
kids pass on pogo sticks the ripped screen door of yvonne’s old bar there on the corner two block off the avenue and there’s no oaks at all and the houses are small and the houses are cut in two  and kids aint played with pogo sticks since before me or you existed and there’s weeds in the bayou will pull a boy under  if he tries to go swimming or diving for treasure and there’s boys in the street who will give you hard looks they are trying to compete with the cops with the crooks and yvonne is gone she passed on last december  and that bar has been empty for a fifth of a century she got herself a job selling chicken think that’s gonna keep her alive? she got three kids they want things they keep the t.v. turned high she got her bit of hope for the future in a pretty room in her mind one where she can open the shutter catch a little wind off the bayou you can’t eat fried chicken every damn night watch your baby girl turn into woman right before your eyes people round here don’t know how to let go of the things we held on to to keep us afloat we got cars in our back yards we got roads in our ruts and we love to run in them we’re in love with the rust and there used to be a show here aplace for kids to go before they put the highway where the oaks were cut the cities throat dear and now kids pass on pogo sticks the ripped screen door of yvonne’s old bar there on the corner two block off the avenue and there’s no oaks at all and the houses are small and the houses are cut in two winter 98 New Orleans © myshkin 1999
10.	Colored Corn 02:24	lyrics	buy track
lips curled round that rural past arms curved round that gunny sack she ain’t never going back she’s full of colored corn wade out into that parking lot cold steel sun riding over the truck stop she’s blue as a baker she’s bright as a pepper she’s full of colored corn ships in loving anchor rest trucks all turned to face the west love is spurned love is tested love is never scorned, colored corn dollar spent and a coin tossed  treasure that is buried can be lost fish spin across that parking lot never to be born but treasure that is buried can be reached flights fallen from air and vessels beached  she is blue as a baker she’s bright as a pepper she’s full of colored corn, colored corn summer 98 Sydney Australia © myshkin 1999
11.	Milk and Honey 03:39	lyrics	buy track
oh dear diedre were your forests deeper were your skies not wider before you crossed the water? when the ship puts into ellis after the heaving in the steerage and they put you through the wash and the rine and the wringer and the little man from immigration sneering  at your papers gives you a new name cause he can’t pronounce your mother’s and it’s a ferry to the city it’s like a beehive full of honey and it is tall and full of buzzing and you are small and clean and rusty from the atlantic or the seven seas or the 747 and you’re foreign and you’re frozen and your forever just caught up with you you fall behind just standing still while the bees they buzz about you oh maria were your thoughts not clearer were your breezes kinder before you left the island and all roads lead to alphabet city that’s the kind of place for a drone like you  where the streets they look like alleys and the one room rooms they have no view and the radiators hiss like a dragon and the streets breathe steam like there’s life below and the radiators moan and ring like a jail like the city is a jail not a honeycomb so you find a piece of work in the bowery in a failing all night chop house  chop the onions whistle tangos wait on tables and the impulse to get moving throw your apron down roam the streets to the private sound  of your mama’s old accordion blocking out the honey making buzz of this town to cut a dash in the city must you be flash or pretty or harder than a harley driving sailor riding her hog out to sea? so you hear about the tracks and the trails and the trains and the black dirt for the taking and you’re a farm girl from the balkan ukraine netherland mountain range anyway you buy a ticket stick your thumb out trade your cooking for a wagon seat cause everyone knows that the rivers run gold and the hills are full of silver like a treacly sweet but everywhere you go it’s the same show sure the sun it drips like honey and the rain weeps on the young grain like a generous flow of money but the black dirt for the taking’s all been stolen sold and lost as if the very wealth of milk and honey turned honey bees into paper wasps so you scratch out a living on an acre or ten if you can keep it from the banks and the whistling wind and you’ll never see the fiords or the steppes or the fens or the alps or the yellow river again and you’ll love the country cause you gotta love but you’ll die a foreigner in a foreign land with a snatch of your mother’s song in your lung and a fistful of dirt brown dirt in your hand oh my molly what is this folly what do all the country girls see far beyond the sea? spring 1999 sydney australia © myshkin 1999
12.	Headstrong 02:21	lyrics	buy track
you’re just like your father, you’re headstrong get away but you can’t get along wanna lay low you wanna slip through the cracks but your eighteen and pregnant honey there’s nothing subtle about that you’re just like your old man you’re beautiful got a heart like an ocean watch your eyes overflow and are you just like you’re father are you will weak? that’s something your dad always had in common with me used to be they could offer us anything we’d say yes please even if anything did knock us down to our knees now i never knew your mother and i don’t expect we’ll ever meet but are you just like your father and me do you already have sore knees at eighteen? and if you’re just like your father well then you’ll survive you’ll know how to find the well in the desert honey you’re always gonna make it home alive ‘cause you’re just like your old man you’re beautiful got a heart like an ocean watch your eyes overflow fall 97 New Orleans © myshkin 1999
13.	Sugarman 01:54	lyrics	buy track
one day i’m gonna get tired of sugar, cane beet and corn sweet and bee honey too one day i’m gonna get tired of sugar, sugar man i won’t never get tired of you one day i’m gonna get tired of travelling, gas station gourmet and highway haiku one day i’m gonna get tired of travelling, travelling man i won’t never get tired of you never get tired never get tired sugar man i won’t never get tired of you one day i’m gonna get sick of this city, traffic and trash people acting so cruel one day i’m gonna get sick of this city, city man i won’t never get sick of you and when i get bored with the city i will find a valley home  and when i get too old to ramble round i will stay there all year long and when i get sick of sugar i’ll eat crackers beans and tea oh but sugar man sugar man, don’t you get sick of me never get tired never get tired sugar man i won’t never get tired of you winter 98 new orleans © myshkin 1999
14.	Market Town 04:44	lyrics	buy track
james went down to the market town perched on his father’s knee for to sell their cotton and buy their livestock and trade their tobacco for coffee and tea it was market day in the market town by the red clay riverside and the street was full of strange sights and sounds and james his eyes were wide there were farmers and merchants and dogs in the dust there were pigs and cattle and horses in harness there were sacks of white sugar and tins of molasses cotton in bales and trees cut into planks was a man named green in the market town bound for new orleans the last stop down and james and his father went to see the man’s wares in a little yard hidden from curious stares now green the soul driver a whip in his hand set his stock to dancing said look aren’t they happy  but even young james could see the difference in style  between a grimace of pain and a smile was an old man of sixty boot black in his hair for to make him look forty still plenty of work in there was a woman with two daughters and a girl with one son and jim’s father’s eye fixed on that little one now all down the street of the market town you could hear the girls scream as her son was sold over the barking and bleating over the haggling and cheating her wailing should turn the blood cold but green plied his whip till his both arms were tired and james watched the life leave her eyes and james and his father took their property away  and the scars have not healed to this day so take care what you do for your market town for your oil in barrels and your money in banks you can kick dust over the blood on the ground but you’re still whipping people to dance and even a child will see that and then you will see what you get fall 98 New Orleans © myshkin 1999
15.	Sleep 05:42	lyrics	buy track
and when i watched you sleep i heard the ancients weep tear their hair and gnash their teeth for never having known you sweet and when the soldiers came and the bombs fell like rain i cried not for pain nor hunger i could only cry your name now men in offices will have their reasons but what purpose could it serve this taking you away from me and when you rocked away i heard the harbor waves slap the sides of silver sailors  say that you were gone now safe now men in offices will make their treatied peace but i wonder could they have unleashed their guns dear if they’d ever watched you  how could they if they’d watched you they could not if they had ever watched you sleep spring 99 New Orleans © myshkin 1999

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released January 1, 2000

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Myshkin Warbler Astoria, Oregon

Myshkin and an ever-evolving crew of restless gamblers—string, horn, drum, key, and and wave players. Passions range from tango to electronica, folk-noir to gypsy-swing to modern classical to rocknroll. Literate & spooky. Myshkin mostly plays guitars. When warm, she sings like a shiver down your chakras. Like a heart breaking all wide open. Like one in utter control of uncontrollable things. ... more