[Intro] [Mid-tempo blues-folk groove starts at 90 bpm] [A rusty acoustic guitar begins a steady, rolling fingerpicked riff] [A low slide guitar moans quietly in the background] [A simple, rhythmic wooden porch-stomp kick drum sets the pace] [Verse 1] Somewhere along the line, the mercury began to drop She didn’t want me either, but she didn’t know how to stop I kept my coldness silent, locked behind a heavy screen But she brought out the lightning, fueling up a war machine And my blood was already boiling, cooking right beneath the skin Unprepared and totally untrained for the storm that I was in Grew up in a quiet kitchen where the folks would disagree But they knew when to drop the hammer, knew when to let it be She kept going and going, pressing every open wound Maybe waiting for the moment that my sanity was ruined. [Verse 2] [Bass guitar slides in with a warm, steady blues walking pattern] [The porch-stomp gets heavier, accompanied by a light, rhythmic tambourine] It all came to a head when the screen was glowing bright Sitting on a Skype call in the middle of the night She told me it was funny, told me it was just a joke But the camera was a weapon and the mirrors were all smoke Perfect little angles in a strange, perverted frame To make it look like I was violent, to put a label on my name But I never hit her, let the record show it clear I never raised a hand, despite the poison in the air. [Chorus] [The music swells, guitars getting bigger but staying grounded and rootsy] [The mood hits that exact middle ground—not purely sad, not purely happy] The ticket was already bought, the suitcase on the floor If she wanted to walk away, I’d have opened up the door But she chose to play the game, she chose to use a lie Said she was meeting church girls underneath the Sunday sky. [Verse 3] [The instrumentation drops back to just the acoustic guitar and the slide] Then she left, she hit the highway, she was running down the track And I felt it in my marrow, no more weight upon my back Freedom in my blood, yeah, freedom in my bones Rushing through the hallways of a house of empty stones But the high is just a shadow when the winter starts to crawl And a heavy dark depression slammed me right against the wall Lost the house we rented, lost the life I used to know Lost the destination where a man is supposed to go. [Bridge] [The stomp drum stops; just a bare, stark acoustic guitar strumming] [Vocals are intimate, honest, and grounded] But I held onto the anchor, held onto the daily grind Kept the job inside my fingers just to occupy my mind The only piece of timber floating in the stormy sea The only piece of normal that was left inside of me Looking at the wreckage in a bittersweet embrace Not smiling, not crying, just staring at the space. [Guitar Solo] [A soulful, dusty acoustic slide guitar solo] [Melancholic but moving forward, perfectly blending blues grit with folk warmth] [Chorus] [Full band returns for a final, driving groove] The ticket was already bought, the suitcase on the floor If she wanted to walk away, I’d have opened up the door But she chose to play the game, she chose to use a lie Said she was meeting church girls underneath the Sunday sky. [Outro] [The tempo slowly trails off, instruments thinning out one by one] [The porch-stomp drum beats slowly like a steady pulse] Freedom in my blood... Yeah, freedom in my bones... But I kept the job... The only thing I kept... [A final, warm acoustic guitar chord resonates and fades cleanly into silence] [End]
