The Knife Song // September 2009

At the end of a humid Ypsilanti summer in 2009, I started the first of many recordings that become Yellow Rail Family.  I had bought a cassette four-track I had hoped young Klay could use for a creative outlet (he still has and uses to my knowledge).  I would spend hours in his room recording these songs that Casey later deemed "creepy country".  I left windows open to let the sounds of crickets and cicada bugs into the room and didn't mind if barking dogs or sounds of my family living became part of the recordings.  I loved the limitations of the four-track and the way the simple songs sounded on the tapes.  A lot of the recordings were mixed to an old Sears reel-to-reel that needed servicing, further antiquing the sound.  On this, and a couple of other tracks, I sang through a soup can I drilled holes in for old-timey effect (kind of just sounds like I'm singing in a tin can).  It's a simple song with only vocals and a guitar and I never felt compelled to add more.  I also sang a lot of these YRF songs in a higher register than I'm accustomed to making old uncle Young proud.  On the occasion I pick up my acoustic guitar these days, this is one of my favorite songs to sing and play.

The Knife Song

Let's take a walk outside, break someone else’s windows
Let's seize the summer like our heads dream on our pillows

What will they tell us there beneath the weepin’ willows

Our words will come and go just like the autumn wind blows

Cuts like a knife

Who will be the right?

Our loosening ties

Who will love the light?

Who will be the knife?

Don’t say you’re sorry

I can’t even recall your wrongs

A thousand rains came to wash away all your names

If you find you’re really here maybe bring me along