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Listen to the Blood

by THE KERNAL

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1.
U Do U 03:54
Well, hell I started out as somebody else Bulldozed by some bygone dreams and left with just myself From college onto Carharts to hardly even getting on base I said, hey I know how to fix this, I’ll take it out on some interstate As another Gibson-flashing upstart, tinged in some vintage style Seeding wind from Memphis clear on to the Ego Islands Till I met the downside upside my head By the igloo’d hand of an Indiana HVAC man Well he wopp’d me once across the jaw, he said I said something weird I don’t recall what it was but I couldn’t shave my beard For nearly 9 weeks after that, the scar tissue’s still there He said you better get started thinkin' son or that’s gonna be happening everywhere How long since you loved somebody? How long since you loved somebody? How long since you loved somebody, a little more than U DO U? Well I fished for premonition off the docks of waking time A little injured and engendered by some addled battle cry Belonging to a long-gone buncha hunches of the mind So aweigh I yanked the anchor, see what else that I could find Casting nets, deep in debt, down some past forgotten hall Where the only Chick-Fil-A back in the day was in the mall Where even where you crash and burn nobody’s there to hear you call And the only eyes in my own was just my mirror on the wall How long since you loved somebody? Love somebody Love somebody A little more than U DO U
2.
I been feeling a little anxious as any sane man may Ripping through these liquid-modern kinda nights and days Sweatin’ in the Food Lion line and locking every lock up twice So certainly uncertain that I sought out a little advice I said, Hello Nurse…is the doctor about? Not to be terse but I bout flipped out Sure, I’ll hold, I’ve been holding as long as I can If you can’t help me, can you tell me who can? Doctor said, “The way I see you got about two options, Now the church might say there’s more But we can set you some appointments up, put that duress to the test galore Bout one week and waist-size later, anesthetized, in bed by 9 I got a call up from the clinic, they said it turns out that you’re fine It’s a pistol in the pillow or a pill for in the head I know the world is cold but you’re too old To bellyache and make em hold your hand Keep your liver off that liquor And the shiver off your bed It’s a pistol in the pillow or a pill for in the head I had a little lunch with Hank and Eddy, a little tuna fish and wine I was listing off my symptoms that’s when Hank said, “That’s the same as mine” Well we swapped tales of our ailments and swallers of that wine Made ourselves a plan, man, to take what we can in time
3.
Well Lollie cussed up his mama when she said “you can’t move to France” He went ahead and got mean on a vending machine but he still got them M&Ms So he traipsed it on down to New Orleans and boxed a big boy in the jaw High-stepped out and outran the crowd and got to bragging down at the bar Green, Green sky this time your trouble is a half-mile wide Green, Green sky hold your breath and it might blow by Now he’s a double-clutching weasel a-grinding up all his gears on the Lost Highway With his wife at home a-pounding out the biscuits for the babies praying Lord they make it one more day But he moonlights wagging one finger, gripping his pistol with the other four Saying “Lady throw the bag down, whatchu doing downtown, ain’t you never seen a movie before?” Green, Green sky this time your trouble is a half-mile wide Green, Green sky hold your breath and it might blow by C’est la vie he made his run for mayor, that little town down the river Where nobody sees what you get for free or whose hands are feeling down in your jeans Got his cabinet cocking buck-shot, keep your bead on your enemy But the tit-for-tat teaspoon’s stirring round the night moon, naw that ain’t no summer breeze I heard he got himself a new girl, wrapping up the whole world around the high heel of her shoe But the gravy in the gravity is gonna have a field day cashing in the Golden Rule If you can’t get your way, hey babe what’s the use, blow your fuse and you can take control Go on ahead and send a rocket through the mailroom, man, you just ask forgiveness in the hole Green, Green sky this time your trouble is a half-mile wide Green, Green sky hold your breath and it might blow by
4.
I was heading down to Alabama to see a friend I was thinkin’ bout all that was and not all that is I was making pretty good time Thought I’d stop and cop a cup of joe When I saw the roadside sign saying welcome to Tupelo I hit a little bump of speed and hit a speed bump on the Trace They only let you run 55 inside that place Where the long, clear tail of a golden mare whips sunlight side to side Red-tail hawk squawking high atop a yellow pine Came up on a spot where a hundred trees were down A storm came through, I heard em talking bout that in town About a daddy battening down the hatches but the Natchez hatched another plan Death, oh death, why can you tell it better than I can I saw the burying grounds of an early tribe of rambling man Now that’s the kind of freedom I don’t guess I’ll ever understand Everybody around here knows a lady with that native look to her eye Every time she sees you, man she leaves you something good behind I pulled off for a spot of 87 down around Cherokee An old man buying noon booze took a long look at me I kicked a kid sock by the dumpster, the Norfolk Southern sang a baritone German Shepherd running like water down an access road I took a left on Alabama and all the rest were right I pulled my hair flat-back in the mirror till it looked alright I opened up the front door, he said, “You’re a little bit late, ya know,” I said I know well I took a wrong turn down to Tupelo
5.
The Limit 04:37
I been living in the limit so long If I had a rod I couldn’t bait it and I probably couldn’t even crank a chainsaw You know, I saw some old buzzard and I thought it was a red-tail hawk Been living in the limit too long I set my headin’s on hacking up the heavens in the Air Force But my dream got shattered when I shattered my shoulder on the ball court I put up a picket fence and ever since I did something’s felt wrong I been living in the limit too long I been living in the limit too long I been living in the limit so long Saw an old buzzard and I thought it was a red-tailed hawk I been living in the limit too long Oh all that I been given living in the little limit this long Is just a 6-pack a day, pay the state to haul my garbage off Little street-lamps clicking, every single little starlight gone Feel like I’m sinning living in the limit this long I been up on the down train, down on the upside too Short on my long-gaze, deep into my data-use So long since i heard the clopping on the road of an old horseshoe My time to leave my living in the limit’s long overdue If everybody takes an acre when they’re taking up a few square feet Man, they’ll cram you all together till the roads are called a city street Readin’ the Bha-ga-vad Gita, eatin’ Abita by the 12 oz. can I been living in the limit longer than I oughta been Might just up and move where Uber in a million years would never go Where the oak tree sheds and Black & Decker machines don’t blow em In the shade by the river, every little glint mine alone
6.
Longmire smoking at the edge of the street, rolling up his flag and drawin’ that hard bead on me Like “Go get a job, kid you’re whittlin’ it all away, I don’t even see the reason you’re breathin’ anyway” I said I don’t believe you met my lady, she’s workin today I’m just a part-time painter but I clean up the place Ever since last winter when the work ran out She’s been steady shaking, making uncle Sammy so proud To have a good busy woman in these trying times Like you stumble on a quarter when you’re looking for a dime She likes her low-cal soda, a little bit shook Takes her morning devotion in her coupon book My daddy built some houses down around Tennessee But it didn’t take me long to learn that wasn’t for me With all these good, busy women all over this land All you 16 pennies stay outta my hand Ooh Ooh Ooh Mona Lisa she’s on your heels With them long, cool fingers on that church bus wheel I’m rehearsing my sonatas, I don’t go to work To keep my head above the water since I moved in with her I’m reciting all my sonnets All night into the morning While she hustle, bustle, cuss me if I toot my own horn Ooh Mona Lisa she’s on your heels With them long, cool fingers on that church bus wheel
7.
I don't like the way you talk with other men Or when you walk by other guys in restaurant lines Anymore it seems to me that we can't even disagree Without fighting and inciting signs of World War III You say I don’t hear you when you speak Until you’re in the bathroom weeping And even then I’m still trying to get even Maybe I've been livin’ all my life being scared of all that I can’t do... But if we hold what we got I believe we might find a little breakthrough We’re like two strangers on the street Whose eyes are near and never meet I’m not saying I was right I’m not saying I was right I’m not saying I was right To get jealous on your Instagram The other night, got all jealous again And then I took it out on you Like you wasn’t even my friend We don’t spill our guts to us But to him who we call therapist He probably tells his wife at night that we’re both a couple of nuts Cause I don’t like to fight... And you don’t like to fight... But we fight every night…
8.
Everybody’s telling me what I don’t want to hear Everywhere I go someone whispers in my ear Even them that ain’t around, it’s like they set some message on the air She’s seeing somebody Well you’d think I knew a million folks by the way they all brought me the news Yeah I know he’s rich and handsome and he’s good with the kids, I get the paper too While I’m laid up in these neon lights, bridled by these idle afternoons She’s seeing somebody Well the kids are whizzing by on bikes and by and by I’m trying to make it through If I can keep my mind from drifting in the past and too far forward too These changes going in and out of life, might be I been overdue She’s seeing somebody
9.
Near the corner of Route 1 and Nakimi Avenue A woman and her little dog dance around the living room But not because they put up that Gap right in beside the Five Guys But a 7-minute drive to Van Dyne and they can be kite-high At the Super Marijuana Wal-Mart The town hall meeting was heated but the motion passed Then out come the picket signs said Keep off the grass! Well, we hearken to the jargon of the market every chance we can But how could we imagine that we’d be the first to get A Super Marijuana Wal-Mart Of the insidious cities you could've asked You just wanna pick on little guys again And then the manager manned the mic with pride and he said: Hello folks my name is Hal and here’s just some of the deals that we have The best pot pie for miles around and almond butter utterly a Xanax tab Lashes, sashes, succotash and ashtrays the shape of Johnny Cash Hammocks of hemp, all hemmed and hewn by exotic hands and bristle brooms And oils and foils and a leash for your dog, backpacks and paper for school in the fall Drops and pops and beauty creams for face and all the in-betweens Candles and sandals and sprays for stings, sheets for a California King And low-sweat socks and shocks for cars, and buddy if that don’t beat the tires Just think, it all came from the ground and so long it’s just been sittin’ around Super-Marijuana Wal-Mart

about

NOTE: THE RELEASE DATE OF THIS ALBUM IS JANUARY 14, 2022. Bandcamp digital pre-orders will be released on that date and physical orders will be shipped to arrive on or before that date.
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With a storyteller's eye and sly sense of humor that echoes not only his “honorary uncle” Del Reeves, but Tom T. Hall and Roger Miller, The Kernal delves deep into everything from family dysfunction to road trips to matters of the heart on his new LP, Listen to the Blood.

The music, which he describes with a laugh as “diet country,” embodies the spirit of that genre without any of the slavishness or self-seriousness of much modern Americana. Rolling Stone has called his style “sweetly subversive, intellectual and addictive,” while Lo-Down said “the songs have an air of nostalgia but they sound far from old - modern, yet timeless. ”

From the joyous, southern-fried grooves of “U Do U” and “Pistol in the Pillow” through the revved-up rockabilly stomp of “Green Green Sky” and the cinematic travelogue of “Wrong Turn to Tupelo” to “The Fight Song,” a sparkling '80s style duet with Caitlin Rose, it's a nine-song sequence that showcases The Kernal's warm, confidential voice while managing to make profound connections with the head, heart and feet.

“When people ask me what kind of music I play, I say, 'It's like sixteen-foot trailer country music,'” he says. “You pull up a hay trailer in a field and you barbecue a bunch of stuff and there are people setting off fireworks and there are kids running around in diapers with ice cream running down their bellies. You get up there, turn it up and have a good time. I just love seeing people have a good time, and I think that's why I like country music. The groove of it. It speaks to people's legs. They loosen up and enjoy themselves and it's no big deal. I love that. And I love to be able to contribute to that.”

credits

released December 14, 2021

Producers: KERN & Ben Tanner
Co-Producer: Jerry Bernhardt

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