TomFlannery.com

Today’s column is now available. You can read it here…

Today’s column is now available. You can read it here…

Today’s column is now available. You can read it here…

Today’s column is now available. You can read it here…

Today’s column is now available. You can read it here…

I always wanted to get the words “Taylor Swift” into a song. Otherwise not sure where it came from. I do like the line about the family tree that snapped in two though. Sometimes it’s the little things…

Martyrtown
(Tom Flannery)

Daddy got out on parole on my birthday
but he still didn’t have much to say
kissed me on the cheek but wouldn’t look me in the eye
Mamma in the backseat tryng not to cry
Stopped at a 7-11 on our way home
for some slushies and an ice cream cone
put it on his card but it got declined
so I said “here, you can use one of mine…”

Ten miles to the river as the crows flew
was that family tree that snapped in two
when that last big storm touched down
in Martyrtown

He’d lift me on his shoulders at the county fair
one year even Taylor Swift played there
she was still a kid wearing a cowboy hat
with a rickety old tour bus parked out back
But once they leave they never return
like touching that skillet and feeling that burn
there’s a bridge in this town that fell back in 92
that google maps still leads you to….

Ten miles to the river as the crows flew
was that family tree that snapped in two
when that last big storm touched down
Down here in Martyrtown

Martyrtown Martyrtown
not the place to be when that sun goes down
high school heroes giving it all kinds of hell
armed with a grudge and a story to tell

You can run but I can’t get clear
my name is yours and that still matters down here
Mamma scarred like a junkie’s arm
and I’ve been blessed with the family charm

Ten miles to the river as the crows flew
was that family tree that snapped in two
when that last big storm touched down
Down here in Martyrtown

So I got these songs……and I make quiet demos of ’em sometimes.

Before the War
(Tom Flannery)

She met him before the war
in the break room of the WalMart store
she caught his eye and he blushed like a kid in Sunday school
he ran back out to lawn and garden
before his smile could start to harden
but eventually he fell like a well-intentioned fool

It was before the war it was before the war
Love was worth dying for
Before the war

A child’s heart is never wrong
even when it don’t belong
in the kind of place that breathes just to break you down
backseats by the new landfill
they loved hard but quiet and still
they understood the dangers of the backroads of this town

It was before the war it was before the war
Love was worth dying for
Before the war

Two sides weighing in
on the wages tied to this kind of sin
Both pulpits leaving cracks for dollars to get through
to those who died for love
there’s no room in the sky above
you’ll simply need to find something else to do

Before the war one ear-bud each….
they’d fall asleep within reach 
of the other’s heart beating behind a bedroom door
Now it’s two different songs
Going on about who don’t belong
And the heart pierced with an arrow carved in the floor

It was before the war it was before the war
Love was worth dying for
Before the war

Today’s column is now available. You can read it here…

Today’s column is now available. You can read it here…

Today’s column is now available. You can read it here…