Sing Me Out
NOTES / LYRICS / REVIEWS
Release Date: August 10, 2004
Sing Me Out is an all acoustic recording and includes new versions of “Older Angel,” “Jesus And Tomatoes,” “Signs Following,” “Funeral Food,” and more favorites.
Sing Me Out includes the previously unrecorded song “Would You Be A Parson.” The CD cover photo is by renowned Mississppi Delta photographer Maude Schuyler Clay.
“Road-tested gems from a highly original writer.” –J Poet, HARP
LYRICS
Heart Of Hearts
The story is told strange as it sounds
In Louisiana a turtle fell from the clouds
Some just believe, some only doubt
And some proclaim they’ve got it all figured out
Some keep their thoughts to themselves
Afraid to come out of their shell
In my heart of hearts
I want to believe that love never fails
And peace will prevail
And hope lives on
If I can get to the deepest part
Inside my heart of hearts
There is a man who used bowling balls
To make a rosary in his yard on the ground
Some people laugh, some only frown
Some shake their heads and wonder what it’s about
Some walk around counting prayers
Looking to find faith to spare
Some like to hear themselves talk
But seldom say anything at all
Kate Campbell / Ira Campbell / Johnny Pierce
© 1998 Large river Music (BMI) / Cedarsong Publishing (BMI)
Jesus And Tomatoes
I bought a pack of seeds
Tennessee Bradleys
The best homegrown you’ll find
How it happened I don’t know
Must’ve been the Miracle-Gro
Oh I could not believe my eyes
In my tomato bed
A holy image blood red
Smile, God loves you
I see him on the vine
This just might be a sign
Help me I’m confused
So many brands to choose
Jesus and tomatoes coming soon
Folks came from miles around
They laid their money down
To see that ripe phenomenon
It even made the evening news
And had a website too
This vegetable from heaven (or is it a fruit)
What rose up from the dirt
Now sells on t-shirts
The profits kept rolling in
I prayed they’d never end
And filed for tax exemption
I heard a knocking at my door
It was a lawyer for the Lord
Saying don’t do this no more
I said come and dine with me
We’ll have a BLT
Kate Campbell / Ira Campbell / Johnny Pierce
© 1997 Large River Music (BMI) / Cedarsong Publishing (BMI)
Older Angel
I don’t know who dug this hole we’re standing in
All I know is that it’s dark and deep
We’ve cried out to heaven and lifted up our hands
But I kind of got this feeling we ain’t getting nowhere man
We need an older angel if we’re gonna make it through
One who’s been around this block we’re on a time or two
If he knows all the angles then we might have a prayer
We need an older angel tonight if we’re gonna get there
People make their choices I have heard it said
Maybe that’s the truth or maybe not
When you’re lying in this clover with a bullet in your heart
Tell me what it really matters when the shooter finds the mark
One who knows the score
Who’s walked through the doors of heaven
One who’s been around
One who’s fallen down and learned to fly again
Kate Campbell / Walt Aldridge
© 1995 Fame Publishing Co. Inc. (BMI) / Rick Hall Music Inc. / Watertown Music (ASCAP)
Who Will Pray For Junior
Thomas passed away last June
And I’ll be following him soon
Junior will be left here all alone
Oh how it worries me so
Jesus sent him to us late
An angel to brighten up our day
Who will tell him stories and sing him bedtime songs
Who will pray for Junior when I’m gone
Sometimes I can’t help but cry
When I look into my Junior’s eyes
He reaches out and takes my hand
I know he doesn’t understand
A mother’s love a son will sorely miss
I’ve made my peace with everything but this
But that’s the thing that keeps me hanging on
Who will pray for Junior when I’m gone
Suffer the children
This is my plea
Oh Lord could you keep him
In the shadow of your wings
Lord forgive my asking if it’s wrong
Who will pray for Junior when I’m gone
Kate Campbell / Ira Campbell
© 1998 Large River Music (BMI)
Waiting For The Weather To Break
The fairest skies I’ve ever seen
Were in your eyes the day we met
The wind was hard and full of rain
A storm I never will forget
It came on fast and caught us by surprise
A raging flood swept us away
We hid beneath a hollow tree
Waiting for the weather to break
A veil of silence thick as fog
Moves between us like a cloud
How’d we ever get to where we are
And can we find our way out
Now we lie in a bed of years
Under this blanket we made
And here we are again
Waiting for the weather to break
The stars are shining blue in the distance
Calling us away
The storm in me and you once so dark
Will all be clear some day
Waiting for the weather to break
Kate Campbell / Ira Campbell / Johnny Pierce
© 1996 Large River Music (BMI) Cedarsong Publishing (BMI)
This Side Of Heaven
This side of heaven
There’s not much to go on
You never know
Which way the wind will blow
One day there’s caviar
The next a soup bowl
And you’re left wandering alone
This side of heaven
This side of heaven
People look the other way
Don’t stop to listen
Don’t want to know your name
But in this world
Ain’t it finny how things change
And you’re left wandering strange
This side of heaven
This side of heaven
The train is always late
All I seem to do
Is stand here at the gate
Listening for the whistle
And waiting for the day
I won’t be left wandering
This side of heaven
Kate Campbell / Kevin Gordon
© 1996 Large River Music (BMI) / Little Rain Music (BMI)
Ave Maria Grotto
Brother Joseph was a simple man
Collected rubbish for his building plans
Alabama clay, shells from the sea
Broken china plates and rosary beads
Ave Maria
Ave Maria
Well he never saw the wonders of the world
But he built them all in perfect miniature
People talk about the places they’ve been
But Joseph found peace within
And when time erodes all things manmade
True devotion will still remain
Kate Campbell / Ira Campbell
© 1998 Large River Music (BMI)
In My Mother’s House
Photographs and old forty-fives
Stowed beneath a homecoming gown
Pictures of me at sweet sixteen
But everything’s not as it seems
In my mother’s house
When I go home for holidays
There’s so much to talk about
And sometimes we disagree
On politics and theology
In my mother’s house
The chimes in the hall sound every hour
The sun and moon go ’round
Time flies by and fades like the flower
And I can’t slow it down
I spend my days with music and words
Playing these songs from town to town
And everyone sees what they want to see
But I’m just the girl who used to sing
In my mother’s house
I am a prodigal daughter
But in my wandering I have found
There is a wideness in mercy
And there’ll always be a place for me
In my mother’s house
Kate Campbell / Ira Campbell / Johnny Pierce
© 1998 Large river Music (BMI) / Cedarsong Publishing (BMI)
Would You Be A Parson
When he was a baby his mama held him close
And whispered to him closely you’re a special gift to us
The Lord has kept his promise and one day I must too
Return this gift I cherish and so I ask of you
Would you be a parson and heed the father’s call
Would you preach the Gospel he’s burned upon your heart
Would you tell the people of the greatest love of all
Would you be a parson and heed the father’s call
When he was a young man the Lord called out his name
And there was only one path he knew that he could take
And so he lived his whole life in service to the Lord
True to the promise he kept his mama’s word
Kate Campbell
© 2004 Large River Music (BMI)
Signs Following
He used to preach the end of time was near
Set your house in order before the Lord appears
Be not deceived by Satan’s demonry
Brethren, let the Spirit lead
Some say the devil took a hold of him that night
Spirits from the bottle led his soul awry
He forced her hand into the rattler’s cage
Domestic violence with a holy rage
Reach down, pick up
Have faith, live right
If you believe signs following
The snake will not bite
Twelve good apostles decided his fate
Ninety-nine to life the judge proclaimed
But somewhere on Sand Mountain a woman needs no proof
That evil can lie so close to truth
Kate Campbell / Ira Campbell
© 1996 Large River Music (BMI)
Delmus Jackson
Delmus Jackson was a black man
Delmus Jackson was a custodian
He cleaned the church house five days a week
Delmus Jackson talked to me
He’d say I’m working for the Lord
Gonna see his face for my reward
And on that day he will say
Well-done Delmus Jackson
Delmus Jackson had nine children
Delmus Jackson had great wisdom
Do unto others as if they was you
Delmus Jackson spoke the truth
He’d say Jesus loves all his children
And he will welcome everyone
And on that day he will say
Well-done Delmus Jackson
Delmus Jackson bought me Cokes
Delmus Jackson told me jokes
He drank his coffee from a thermos
Delmus Jackson made no fuss
He’d say my bags are packed and I’m ready to go
To meet the Lord on streets of gold
And on that day he will say
Well-done Delmus Jackson
Kate Campbell / Ira Campbell
© 1996 Large River Music (BMI)
Sing Me Out
Down in Mississippi on a winter’s day
They laid his little girl in an early grave
Only the good Lord knows the tears he cried
When the angels sang her over to the other side
Sing me out
Lay my burdens down
Sing me out
Take my body to the burying ground
Sing me over Jordan cause I’m glory bound
Oh sweet Lord won’t you sing me out
Everyone said she was born of shame
From a rich man’s blood bore a poor man’s name
But he loved that child like she was his own
The closest thing to heaven he would ever hold
From where he stands he can hear the sound
Of those old gravediggers turning up the ground
It’s been thirty years since she left his hands
And he’s still waiting on the Promised Land
Kate Campbell / Kevin Gordon
© 1995 Fame Publishing Co. Inc. (BMI) / Little Rain Music (BMI)
Funeral Food
Aunt Fidelia brought the rolls
With her green bean casserole
The widow Smith down the street
Dropped by a bowl of butter beans
Plastic cups and silverware
Lime green Tupperware everywhere
Pass the chicken, pass the pie
We sure eat good when someone dies
Funeral food
It’s so good for the soul
Funeral food
Fills you up down to your toes
Funeral food
Funeral food
There sits mean ole Uncle Bob
Gnawing on a corn on the cob
And who’s that walking through the door
I don’t think I’ve ever seen him before
Isn’t it a shame she passed away
She made the best chocolate cake
Let’s hit the line a second time
We sure eat good when someone dies
Everybody’s here for the feast
But come next week where will they be
Kate Campbell / Ira Campbell / Johnny Pierce
© 1997 Large River Music (BMI) / Cedarsong Publishing (BMI)
REVIEWS
Through seven CDs, Campbell has been something of a musical Eudora Welty, chronicling Southern life with an eye for illuminating detail and a knack for creating memorable, sometimes wacky characters. On these two releases, she revisits 30 tunes from her catalog, breathing new life into oughta-be-classics like Portable’s elegiac “Moonpie Dreams” and Sing Me Out’s wry “Jesus & Tomatoes,” in which Campbell bribes the Almighty’s lawyer with a BLT sandwich. Take your pick – either collection serves as a tempting appetizer to a literate songsmith who’s as satisfying as barbeque and sweet tea. Grade: B+
–Bob Cannon, Entertainment Weekly
The daughter of a Mississippi Baptist minister, Kate Campbell has been putting out finely crafted singer/songwriter albums since 1995. In today’s Nashville her soft country/rock tunes are “too Southern,” or more properly, too working class to get covered. On Sing Me Out and Portable Campbell deals with that problem by covering 29 of the 33 songs from her albums Moonpie Dreams, Visions Of Plenty and Rosaryville. Campbell writes crafty melodies that never resolve in the way you’d expect, while her pleasing, understated voice has a strong Southern accent, which gives her tales of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances an authentic ring. They may sweep floors in a church or build giant rosaries out of bowling balls, but they’re all people you know and Campbell’s compassionate vignettes make the halos they wear sparkle. Sing Me Out is acoustic; The Portable Kate is electric. But both are crammed with solid, road-tested gems from a highly original writer.
–J Poet, HARP