Prayer Street Blues, by Jeremy Joyce

Prayer Street Blues

by Jeremy Joyce

supported by

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

$7 USD or more
Full Digital Discography

11

releases

Get all 11 Jeremy Joyce releases available on Bandcamp and save 50%.

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of My Little Peace of Mind, Street Poet, Come Back to New Orleans (Celebrate the Mardi Gras), Why Don't We Get Together on Christmas Eve, Knock Knock, Standing on Saint Claude, Prayer Street Blues, Ain't Got No Love, and 3 more. , and , .

Purchasable with gift card

$20.50 USD or more (50% OFF)

1.	Marie Marie Marie 05:36	lyrics	buy track
She was such a young girl Her cheeks were red and bright Tears were streaming down them On our wedding night Just fresh out of High School We had a little fun To the state of West Virginia We were on the run Now I work for the coal company I run a big machine Since I’ve been a miner I never got clean Blasting off the mountain tops Digging out the vein To the heart of Appalachia To load it on a train [CHORUS] Marie, Marie, Marie don’t you cry for me I stole you from your home, back in Tennessee If I was an angel, straight to you I’d fly No angel I know ever worked that company mine Protesters line the gates I don't look em in the eye I tell myself I do it For Marie and I But she’s hiding her phone from me She won’t tell me who she calls Says she’s going crazy In these trailer walls Her yellow hair beside me As she turns away her breast The coal dust in my lungs That will bring my death Dear lord please forgive Though I really don’t know how I took Marie out of Tennessee Just to cut your mountains down She came to me so softly She came to me so sweet Black hair running down her back No shoes upon her feet She took me to her room Into her bed I fell And all the secrets of The mining operation I did tell Equipment sabotaged Systems being hacked Each night that we’re together Another way that she attacks Marie still waits at home Though I know it’s not for long Only so far a man Can go when going wrong I am at her door with lilies As she greets me with a kiss I can feel my heart racing When she bites down on my my lip I push her away from me Petals falling to the floor The company security Busts right through the door I hear her call me traitor I hear her cry in pain As they dig into her harder She’s calling out my name I sent Marie to Tennessee I sent Marie back home God save West Virginia God damn this dirty hole
2.	Jackson Girl 04:33	lyrics	buy track
That Mississippi river, she runs fast and she's cold She goes to the place my heart wants to go Somewhere out of Memphis they turn out all the lights I've still got one hundred fifty miles to drive When I get down to Jackson, when I get around Jackson way Some folks gonna look at me kind of strange I don't mind standing out in her part of the world I'm just trying to find my Jackson girl [CHORUS] She doesn't mind the East Coast, she doesn't mind the West But with a Mississippi heart she loves her home the best She goes to Church on Sunday, does as she should She's so sweet she kinda makes me feel no good My Jackson Girl I met her in Saint Louis and I wished that she was mine She had the kind of beauty that makes a grown man cry Makes a young boy jump and shout, makes a poet sing Makes the winter wish he could change himself to spring We danced in the bar, out into the summer night I had an ‘87 Dodge, we took a real long drive She stayed with me a while but I really should have known Her big ole Jackson heart was pulling her back home
3.	The River King 06:33	lyrics	buy track
When the moon is at its highest On a riverboat flectin' gold There plays the ancient gambler each chip is another man’s soul Where the dead with the living A pretty woman with corpse-like eyes She lost a game on the River King Now soulless she will never die I sit down with the ancient Had him prove me the game was fair Show me the face of my one true lover When I look she's a standing there I was a poor boy, no land, no money So I traveled this country side Until I met a girl from Kentucky With a face like a diamond shines In the heat of the summer we swam in the river She held me close and then she'd swim away She swum too far and the current drug her Down to the bottom where her body now lay A gold coin on the table, something written in Latin They say its age is two thousand years I hear a voice call from beneath the water A skeletal hand begins to deal The river King has the Ace of Spades showing Tell me boy, what's it gonna be Jack of Diamonds, Jack of Diamonds Why you paired with this lonesome old three He says quit now and keep your soul Leave my kingdom and live out your days But you've never known love like a girl from Kentucky Oh lord won't you send me an eight Then I awake from a dream next to my woman In old Kentucky where the warbler sings Was there ever a current that swept her away Ever a boat named the River King
4.	Two Rivers 07:48	lyrics	buy track
There was one was a river wide and fast Carving through the mountain pass Her water deep her current strong Still she sang a mournful song Starts above what do you see? Will another river run to me? I’ve only got one way to go Where my raging water flows There once was a river never still Who ran the grain and factory mills The big boats they once rode along Still he sang a mournful song All you fish who swim in me What other waters have you seen? What other rivers have you swam? I’ll never cross these muddy banks [CHORUS] Life just rolls on Sometimes love’s wrong All water meets somewhere I’ll meet you in the air If it take me one hundred lives I will find my way to you We will dance at the end of time We are the seekers of the truth When a river sleeps, what does she dream? Does she turn to flesh for he? Her bare feet touch the leafy ground Where she lay her body down She says I am not this honey flesh And I am not this trembling breast I am the river running wild Never mother, never child Can a river feel alone? And want for what he’s never known? A body born of bone and skin And a heart to beat within I am not these lips upon Your dewy flesh in the budding dawn I am the river never tame No man will know my name
5.	The Last Cowboy 04:15	lyrics	buy track
In a dirty city in a lonely bed ain’t no place for to rest my head I’ll take the earth and a starry sky So it’s out the window and away I fly Fying West at a steady speed Away from what I don’t really need Away from a world made of steel Ruled by the automobile [CHORUS] Yippee kay yay oh, yippee kay yay yay Ain’t no work out on the range Yippee kay yay, yippee kay yay oh Bury me down in the Oh-Kee-Oh If I wasn’t born a man somehow I’d like to be a horse with his mane flowing down I would not buck and I would not throw A good cowboy off of me oh no But I ain’t a horse, lord I was born a man Born to run free in your green green land Run em through the valley out to the meadow singing kay yay yay yippee kay yay oh Had a good girl about five foot six she made her living doing pony tricks I guess it’s been about five years now That I had to lay my little Janey down Janey O’ Janey, I’m a coming soon Drawing a bead on the harvest moon When I get to heaven you can hear me say Yippee kay yay oh, yippee kay yay yay
6.	The Pensacola Queen 08:40	lyrics	buy track
She got lost in the big top couldn't find her way back home Just wandering round that dirt lot Till she was standing all alone She wasn't much for hearing From a firecracker accident Not a call she heard or a loving word So the searchers came and went She could feel her body moving when she awoke the next morn’ A gypsy family took her in And just felt that she belonged Nobody there spoke English So there wasn't too much to say She watched the power lines just a fall and rise Three hundred miles away Seventeen years old Hair down to her knees She could ride bare back, she would walk the wire She could fly from them trapeze She could sell you about a hundred dollars Of things that you don't need She could throw a knife within an inch of your life Make you check if you bleed Many men tried to bed her All of them had failed One day a mime put it to his mind That he might prevail She cut off a piece of his finger Threw it in the lion's cage And at the scene they all agreed A queen was born that day The image on the poster A scepter in her hand A leopard coyly by her feet Leashed by a golden strand To many town she traveled Performing defying feats Men professed their love But none were worth the queen Until somewhere outside Wichita Under a pile of matted hair Was a roving street performer Who was both strong and fair Some love is born of words Some love is born of lust Some love is like a flower And one day turns to dust This love was born in Kansas By the side of a country road When she opened the door of her diesel truck To let that young boy roll. for many years they loved but never were they wed like a dog who begged for meat But she only gave him bread Never on her finger Would she wear his pawnshop ring Never take a husband Never have a king So dreaming in the arms Of a Dark Eyed Dancing Girl His Boyish broken heart Had a plan unfurl Where she kept the cash When she took her rest How deep to plunge the dagger Into her royal breast Standing in the Moonlight The August air hung still The unsheathing of the blade The final breath before the kill But hotter than a Summer kiss The Leopard’s teeth cut hard Colder than the Queen’s grey eye His blade he fell upon Blood pooled on the trailer floor Through the window stars fade A Spanish girl stood at the door With the Queen who laid in wait Her leopard at her feet Her maiden softly crying The love born at the side Of the country road is dying
7.	The City Lights 06:06	lyrics	buy track
When Jack he was just seventeen His mama said you’re a little green But I know it’s been a long Time you want to get off the farm I’ll always be your mama still Jackie boy just don’t get killed This world it ain’t a toy I’ll always love you Jackie Boy I know that you want to see the city lights Keep the farm close to your heart, say your prayers at night He was riding on the megabus All he had wasn’t all that much Stuffed into a duffle bag He was boppin’ to the Beaumont Rag At a stop in Illinois somewhere A Backpacker with Auburn hair Passed by every open seat Young Jack’s heart skipped a beat She sat right down and said hello Can you tell me where this bus goes I’m riding all the way out West By the way my name’s Suzette And he said Away I ride But I would go anywhere with you tonight They stopped in a small MidWest town Thought they’d take a look around Missed the bus and then they thought Well I guess this was our final stop Found a room it wasn’t great Cooked a meal on a hot plate Laid sleeping bags out on the floor Couldn’t really ask for more With the first kiss they felt a spark The second kiss the lights went dark As Suzette laid young Jack down Tornadoes tore trees from the Ground Jack lost his virginity Suzette came and when she screamed Lightning strikes revealed the shape Of their teenage twist of fate The wind blew out the windows and the rain came in Falling in love with a French Canadian. Girl. Suzette slung beer at a local bar Jack sold scrap steel and picked guitar Painted portraits for five bucks a piece To make Suzette a New Year's’ feast At Three AM on New Year's’ morn They ate their dinner on the floor Suzette cut a lock of ruby strands And placed them in to young Jack’s hand He made her hair into a pin So he’d always have some of her with him She vowed to never take it back And said she’d always love her Jack They drank and danced barefoot to songs they sung aloud Making wishes for the year that was coming down. But Jack spent too much time alone He kind of wished he could go back home Suzette worked six nights a week As Jackie boy was feeling weak He started putting shit up his nose But you know how the story goes He was longing for the farm The first time he banged it in his arm Jack’s heart skipped a beat before but now it wouldn’t start again His skin was turning blue when Suzette came in She drug him to the shower, ran cold water on his chest But his eyes never opened; he never took another breath He died there in the shower his clothes all soaking wet She thought back to the rain on the first night that they met and they made love on the floor in The Rain
8.	Arkansas Bill 06:02	lyrics	buy track
[Verse 1] Nadine was a waitress working to pay the rent She had a kid, got some money from the government Her baby daddy weren’t nowhere around She never left her home town. [Verse 2] Bill was from Arkansas, got in trouble with the law. Shot a man to death in a roadhouse parking lot Seven days on the run With a hot Crown Vic and a smokin’ gun [Verse 3] Bill had a temper, he’d lose it quick Nadine could take a punch, but she wouldn’t take shit She grabbed the pistol from his side And straddled him with her Missouri thighs [Verse 4] He ain’t felt that way before, at least not since the war He finally had something worth living for Nadine laid the Smith and Wesson down They made hot hot love on the cold ground [Chorus] Nadine did a little work on the side That’s how she met Arkansas Bill and went on one last ride Bill didn’t have nothing in the world Until he pulled of 29 to meet a Kansas City girl Arkansas Bill [Verse 5] They changed cars and plates in about a dozen states They thought that they could make it last Bill kept a guitar, said he was a singer And he didn’t drive too fast [Verse 6] They’d stake out a place for a couple of days Working on a plan Like Bill shooting Nadine with a blank And then her sneaking around back [Verse 7] In New Mexico, Nadine played dead Laying on the floor She spots an off duty cop, reaching for his Glock to point it at Billy boy [Verse 8] Now Nadine loved Bill more than any woman Ever loved an Arkansas man Five shots to the chest, the cop didn't have a vest And out the door they ran [Chorus] [Verse 9] Bill'l left three fingers were blown clean off Running for the car So they headed South for a border town To find a doctor that wouldn't talk [Verse 10] They met up with some narcos Bought armor, C-4, and guns They'd do one last job, move to Nicaragua Then they'd never have to run Arkansas Bill [Verse 11] They walked into the bank, dressed real nice Handed the teller a note Well that teller nearly cried by look in Bill's eyes And Nadine took off her coat [Verse 12] She wore twenty pounds of C-4 She wore a smile ten miles wide. She wore a pretty red dress, and let out a laugh. Said I ain't afraid to die [Verse 13] You better give me all your money You better give me all your gold If you give me any trouble I'm ready to explode [Instrumental Break]

about

Laments, Ballads, Tales

Rivers in Love, Bank Robbers, Runaways, and Mystics.

Recorded in New Orleans on Prieur street which I once mispronounced 'Prayer' street. Mostly before construction started across the street and made recording impractical.

Recorded Between May 2014 - April 2015

credits

released December 31, 2015

All songs, playing, and recording by Jeremy Joyce.

license

about

Jeremy Joyce New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans couldn’t offer a more appropriate musical backdrop for Jeremy Joyce, whose genre-defying songs are born out of Jeremy’s macro-level interest in music history and his micro-level interest in what makes songs tick.