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Ode To Billie Joe

from Pretty Bird by Kathy Mattea

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    Hailed by The Washington Post as “one of Nashville's finest song interpreters,”
    Kathy Mattea has enjoyed the kind of success many artists only dream of: two
    GRAMMY wins, four CMA Awards, four #1 country singles, and five gold albums
    (plus a platinum collection of her greatest hits). The dream almost ended,
    though, when Mattea entered her 50s and began to find her voice changing.
    What followed was a three year journey through life challenges and vocal
    glitches that she describes as her “dark night of the soul,” a trying time of
    personal anguish and professional uncertainty that threatened to silence her
    permanently.
    “The hardest thing was facing the question of whether I would still be able to
    sing well enough to enjoy it. That was the acid test for me, and I had to be
    willing to walk through a process that bumped me up against the very real
    possibility that, in the end, the answer might be “No.”
    Instead, Mattea dug in with a vocal coach, re-committed to her music, and
    emerged with the most poignant album of her career, “Pretty Bird.” Working
    with her old friend, music roots wizard Tim O’Brien, producing, “Pretty Bird” is
    a chronicle of her journey, song by song, back to singing for the sheer joy of it.
    It’s an emotional, moving collection, one that draws its strength not only from
    Mattea’s touching performances, but also from her uncanny ability to weave
    seemingly disparate material into a cohesive whole. From a playful take on
    Oliver Wood’s “Chocolate On My Tongue” to a tender rendition of Mary
    Gauthier’s “Mercy Now,” from a British traditional to a Bobbie Gentry classic,
    these are the songs that helped Mattea reclaim her voice, and she inhabits
    each as fully as if it were her own.
    Exquisitely arranged and delivered with the kind of subtlety and nuance that
    can only come from a lifetime of heartbreak and triumph, ‘Pretty Bird’ is a
    title Kathy Mattea inhabits quite literally, and it’s a welcome reintroduction to
    one of country and Americana music’s most enduring and beloved figures.

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lyrics

It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day
I was out choppin' cotton, and my brother was balin' hay
And at dinner time we stopped and we walked back to the house to eat
And mama hollered out the back door, Y'all, remember to wipe your feet
And then she said, I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge
Today, Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

Papa said to mama, as he passed around the blackeyed peas
Well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits, please
There's five more acres in the lower forty I’ve got to plow
And mama said it was shame about Billy Joe, anyhow
Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge
And now Billy Joe McAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

Brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billie Joe
Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show
And wasn't I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night?
I'll have another piece of apple pie, you know, it don't seem right
I saw him at the sawmill yesterday up on Choctaw Ridge
And now you tell me Billie Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge


Mama said to me, child, what's happened to your appetite?
I've been cookin' all morning, and you haven't touched a single bite
That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today
Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday, oh, by the way
He said he saw a girl, looked a lot like you, up on Choctaw Ridge
And she and Billy Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge


Well a year’s come and gone since we heard the news about Billy Joe
Brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo
There was a virus going ‘round, papa caught it and he died last spring
And now mama doesn't seem to want to do much of anything
And me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge
And drop ‘em into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge
I drop ‘em into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge

credits

from Pretty Bird, released September 7, 2018
ODE TO BILLIE JOE
(Bobbie Gentry)
Northridge Music (ASCAP)

Jim Brock: Drums
Victor Krauss: Bass
Bill Cooley: Acoustic Guitar
Tim O’Brien: Acoustic Guitar
Dan Dugmore: Steel

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Kathy Mattea Nashville, Tennessee

Twice named Female Vocalist of the Year by the Country Music Association, Kathy Mattea is among the most successful women in the genre’s history, yet her creative spirit has led her to explore musical territory well beyond its confines. Her recent recordings have intertwined Celtic, gospel, and bluegrass influences with the folk and acoustic music that have served as her artistic anchor. ... more

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