The Life of a Storyteller

🎵 The Life of a Storyteller (Angora Version) 🎵 (Talkin’ country / documentary style — more spoken than sung) ⸻ [Intro – low fiddle, almost spoken] You spend enough time around Marble Falls… Smithwick… Down along the River… You learn pretty quick— Stories ain’t somethin’ you keep… They’re somethin’ you pass along. ⸻ [Verse 1 – spoken] For some reason I’ve always felt the need To tell just about everybody I meet… Standin’ on a courthouse square, Or leanin’ on a pickup door somewhere… Everything that’s ever happened in my life. Good or bad… But truth is— I lean a little harder on the bad… Than I do the good. ⸻ [Verse 2 – spoken] ’Cause talkin’ about the good Feels a little like braggin’… And that never did sit right with me. But talkin’ about the bad— That feels more like cleanin’ house… Like sweepin’ out an old cedar shack After a long, dusty summer. And for better or worse… It all just comes out… Like the River After a hard Hill Country rain. ⸻ [Chorus – simple, grounded] I’m just livin’ the life of a storyteller, Turnin’ hard times into somethin’ a little better, Every mile and every scar I ever knew— That’s the truth. Yeah I’d rather be alive and talkin’, Than carved in stone and slowly forgotten, If I’ve got breath, I’m gonna say my say— While I’m here this way. ⸻ [Verse 3 – spoken] Now folks might wonder… “Don’t that ever embarrass you?” Not really. ’Cause if you’ve lived any kind of life at all, You’ve got things you ain’t proud of… And things you are. Most people keep ‘em tucked away… But me? I tend to lay mine out on the table. ⸻ [Bridge – reflective, slow] I’ve sat with old timers Out around Smithwick… Heard stories that’d never been written down— Just passed from one voice to another. And I figured… That’s about as close to livin’ forever As a man’s gonna get. ⸻ [Final Chorus – fuller, but still restrained] I’m just livin’ the life of a storyteller, Ain’t sayin’ I’m worse or any better, Just a man tryin’ to make some sense of it all— Before the curtain falls. Yeah I’d rather be alive and talkin’, Than a name nobody recalls, If I’ve got a voice, I’m gonna use it while I can— That’s who I am. ⸻ [Outro – spoken, slower, more intimate] So if you see me out somewhere… And I start in on a story… Just let me go on. Might be the only way Any of this Gets remembered. [Tag – quiet, honest] Now… there are things I don’t say. Not ‘cause they didn’t happen— But ‘cause some folks are still livin’… And I don’t see much sense In hurtin’ hearts that already carry enough. So I tell what I can… And I leave the rest Where it belongs.