A Southern Missive

Tonight I’m packing for my signing tomorrow at the Barnes & Noble in Southlake at 2:00 p.m. It will be a long day, especially when I have to combine it with online college work, but that is what I’ve signed on for. I’ve been in Monroe too long this last spell (at least a couple of weeks) and need to get back on the road. Wish me luck.

I guess it could be said that the songs we carry in our heart are the story of our lives. Having been raised in a home where music and songs had such a prominent place, I saw early, and felt early, how we can connect to certain songs and how we can come to admire certain artists. I’ve been listening night and day to a CD I just purchased by Jeff Talmadge entitled, At that much was TRUE. As a songwriter, I feel there are few who can equal Talmadge. I do hope I can see a performance of his some day, as I do so appreciate his music.  Today, I wanted to post the lyrics to a moving song on that CD, “Because of You.” I

“Because of You” by Jeff Talmadge

You can’t describe a place you’ve never been to,
Can’t escape a place that follows you around,
And you can’t tell a good thing from a bad one
When everything you know is upside down.
Everything you think is so is upside down.

You wouldn’t know a fact if it’s in your face,
You wouldn’t know a lie unless you told it.
You won’t believe that something’s gonna leave
Until you try to hold it
Until you try to hold it.

CHORUS:
And if you see her
Give her this picture
And tell her how it means what once was true
Tell her how a thousand words are missing now and
Tell her how it means because of you
Tell her how it means because of you.

So what are you gonna do
You’re always saying
Like the choices that you made
Were not a choice
In this the way you want it all to be remembered
No breath no face no voice
No breath no face no voice

Chorus:

As with last spring, this spring is chock full of book and program activity. Here’s a condensed version of what I’ll be doing and where I’ll be the next few weeks:

Legacy Books, Pajamarama 7:30 p.m. Plano, TX Legacy Books of Plano, Texas is the largest independent bookstore to open in the United States in more than 2 decades. (I’m waiting on the final word on the date of this one). It was scheduled for tomorrow, but now I think it may be in March. I’ll post a correction as soon as I know.

Saturday, Feb. 21 Barnes & Noble, Southlake, Texas (Fort Worth Area) 2:00-until . . .)

Monday Feb. 23, A Program at the Ouachita Public Library Scottish storytelling, music and my book, The Scottish Alphabet.

After my program Monday night, I’ll drive to my parents house in Oklahoma, drive to the Dallas area Tuesday so my dad can have his pacemaker worked on Wednesday. I’ll spend Wednesday and Thursday with him, and then Friday I’ll drive to Houston.

Saturday Feb. 28, I’ll be at hte Lake Jackson Historical Museum. (Houston Area) You can read about that museum here: I’ll have two presentations that day. Here’s what they say of my event:

10am: Children’s Program and Book signing This program will center on Pittman’s children’s book, Jim Limber Davis: A Black Orphan in the Confederate White House, which tells the true story of how Jim Limber, a free black orphan, was adopted by the Jefferson Davis family during the Civil War.

2pm: Book reading and signing
Mr. Pittman will conduct a reading of his third book, Stories of the Confederate South, an anthology of short fiction presenting a variety of Southern characters, events and issues that capture the spirit and passion of the South.

Thursday, March, 5, I’ll be at the McComb Public Library in Mississippi.

March 6-8, that weekend, I’ll be at the North Texas Irish Festival in Dallas, Texas.

As you can see, I’ll be very busy, but it should be interesting!  And the weeks after this are even more crazy!

The CD of Adrienne Young, Plow to the End of the Row, complete with packet of wildflower seeds, lyric booklet and Adrienne Young sticker, arrived in the mail yesterday. What a great collection of music! I had already published the lyrics of “Plow to the End of the Row” on this blog, and after listening to the CD, I decided I’d post the lyrics  to “Sadie’s Song,” a song of young, tragic love. The song is a reminder that we fall in love seeking redemption, completion, and warmth, but sometimes we only find cold, loss, and death.

“Sadie’s Song” written by Adrienne Young and Mark D. Sanders

Pretty boy, my faithless fallen angel
Took me completely in his arms
In his eyes, I saw Eden’s garden
But the serpent lay hidden in his charms
Well I used to love to sing with the sunlight in my hair
Till that fateful day when I followed him there
Chorus:

He said, climb, little Sadie higher
Spread them downy wings and fly
You will find your crown of gilded glory next to mine
Climb, little Sadie, climb.

Icy winds up on Lookout Mountain
Chilled two bodies to the bone
But for that man, I did gladly lay down my back
Upon a bed of stone
Well I used to love to sing with the sunlight in my hair
Till that fateful day when I followed him there.

Something’s wrong, I heard my voices whisper
I heard ‘em whisper something’s wrong
A single shot, he said, “Fare thee well, Sadie”
The round was cold, my breath was gone
Well I used to love to sing with the sunlight in my hair
Till that fateful day when I followed him there.

Wise Words from Adrienne Young:

Young’s site is here: She is an absolutely fascinating artist. One page of the Plow to the End of the Road CD jacket records her thoughts related to the CD title. It’s writing as good as any personal essay I’ve ever read. One voice—whether real or created persona, I don’t know—tells her, “There’s a price you pay for everything child, and I reckon there ain’t much in this world comin’ easy, nothin’ worth keepin’ anyway. It’s like truth. If it’s gonna stick, it’s got to carve itself into you deep and hard, like a scar.”