Don't Blame Me
Ace High Bluff
Generational Sickness · Working-Class Resentment · Dark Americana
#VERSE
Momma never did
much for me
Smoking Salems all day
Watching tv
In that rusty double-wide
Down at Cyrano Beach
Nope, not by the ocean
Just a dried-up old creek
#VERSE
She lived off fifty K
That came from my dad
Government’s guilt for cancer
That killed the life and love they had
Damn nuclear tests decades back
Down at Cyrano Beach
Dad’s long gone
She’s broken beyond reach
#CHORUS
And all she can say is
“Don’t blame me
I was dealt these cruel cards
By rich men and their greed
They sacrificed my husband
And hundreds like him
Now I’m left to deal with their sin
I’m left to deal with their sin”
#VERSE
I grew up with nothin’
And what I had pissed me off
A runaway older sister
And Mom’s endless cough
Learned how to whittle
Like the backwoods kid I was
Hanging by that cruel creek
That seemed to trickle Dad’s blood
#VERSE
Mom was gone many nights
Felt I was raised by our hounds
She worked concessions
At Smith’s Theatre in town
Walked up there with friends once
When I was fifteen
Some dude yelling at Mom
“Bitch! You’re rude and you’re mean!”
#CHORUS
And I heard her yell back
“Don’t blame me
I was dealt these cruel cards
By rich men and their greed
They sacrificed my husband
And hundreds like him
Now I’m left to deal with their sin
I’m left to deal with their sin”
#BRIDGE
Turned eighteen last month
In May, I’ll graduate
Mom’s looking frail
That cough don’t sound great
Guess us backwoods folks were disposable
When they chose our “Beach” for their tests
Half this town’s died of cancer
And Mom might be next
#INSTRUMENTAL
#VERSE
Mom’s hanging in there
She’s still kinda young
But at my Spring Sports Physical
Doc saw spots on my lungs
Now it’s clearer to me
How Mom felt about Dad
And how she tried hard for me
With what little she had
#CHORUS
And now I want to yell
“Don’t blame me
All this sickness handed down
By a legacy of greed
The anger rushing out
Is from me, her, and him
And generations in this town
They sacrificed on a whim
Now we’re left to deal with their sin
We’re left to deal with their sin
We’re left to deal with their sin”
v261001c