W. Earl Brown
&
Feisty Heart
From ANDRAS JONES: W. EARL BROWN is one of those actors who makes you like people who you would otherwise probably not want to meet. His characters are often violent, generally not very smart, and more often than not, a little too comfortable with casual racism. From Deadwood to I’m Dying Up Here, Brown reminds me of the great Warren Oates. He’s both a character actor and a star. A shape-shifter who never loses his essential shape. And it turns out, all he wants to talk about is music. So that’s what we did. Whether he’s doing a spot-on impression of his friend Steve Earle, talking about “playing cowboy” with ZZ Top, or telling the origin story of his own band, The Sacred Cowboys, his love for the music is as evident as his natural talent and down home charisma. It reminds me of something Dick Cavett once said about a conversation he had with John Wayne. They were discussing some great sophisticated playwright like Noel Coward (or someone like that) and Cavett was impressed and a little surprised at how thoughtful the big “Aw shucks” cowboy was on this topic. Then it struck him, “Oh. He’s an actor”.
ROOTS
You’ve got feet
runnin’ in your mind
You’ve got a clear misconception
of our passing time You’ve got
clocks for eyes
no sheep in your bed
Cellophane dreams of fame
blow away like another day
You got caught
in a line of thought
You let the hands of deception
hold you when you fought against the
ending days no matter what I say
Minutes are pearls hours slip away
with all the moments you try to save
Cut these roots that got a hold on me
from sittin’ too long in my own misery
Cut the line off where my mind got caught long ago
When I was someone
Now I am not
You’ve got trains
runnin’ in your sky
You’ve got a wheel of misfortune
a self-imploding lie you’ve got
feet in the mud and clouds in your head
blame the work how does it hurt
on a scale from one to ten
Take your time
Take your time
You’ve got no reason for asking
time to change its mind
You got tangled up in a sticky web
Wouldn’t you say your lost your way
rippin’ these roots right outta your head
Cut these roots that got a hold on me
from sittin’ too long in my own misery
Cut the line off where my mind got caught long ago
When I was someone
Now I am not
Long ago
When I was someone
Now I am not
