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BONUS TRACK: Charlie's Hands​-​-​version #2

from Cassandra, Cursed by Walter Ehresman

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See the video here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsspReu0C-M

Ehresman tells us: "Since I moved to San MIguel de Allende, I've been hearing some of my fellow ex-pat musicians here in town performing a wide variety of John Prine songs......I had not been that familiar with Prine's catalogue, but I've really now been struck by all the sensitive, insightful vignettes about forgotten older people.....I really haven't done of a lot of 'character study' songwriting in the past, but always wanted to get further into it......And so, with all those thoughts in my head, I dreamed this song."

"And, it being...well, 'me'...I tied in the backstory of the song's titular character, Charlie, to the ever-downward spiraling right wing nightmare in the US these days.......As soon as I'd written the song, I knew I wanted to do two versions of it, with the second one featuring local singer-songwriter John Jessup's expressive baritone vocals and his Prine-like acoustic fingerpicked guitar.......Luckily, he was excited about the idea, and now you have the final results."

The album contains two different treatments of the song (which was the first written for this album).

The first version features Ehresman on lead vocals, flatpicked acoustic guitar, keyboards and synth bass (stand-up bass patch), and electric guitar, with John Jessup singing background vocals and playing fingerpicked acoustic guitar.

The second version (included as a bonus track here) features Jessup on lead and background vocals, and fingerpicked acoustic guitar, with Ehresman backing on keyboard (bowed arco bass) as well as 6-string banjo and acoustic mandolin.

Both versions ache with a wistful melancholy that really reflects the song's lyrics, and shine with an understated, timeless poignancy. This one stands right up there with Prine's "Sam Stone" in terms of drawing tears from the listener. Just gut-wrenching.

lyrics

Charlie’s Hands
(© 2021 Walter Ehresman)

Charlie’d shake your hand before the Cootie;
His grip was firm, but with nothing to prove.
The weight of all the news had not yet broke him;
Though he felt the distant rumble of that truth.

Charlie saw the shaking in his 50s--
hands not as strong as they once used to be.
People said his eyes showed cracked foundation,
though he’d just say there was too much to see.

[chorus]
Children used to sulk and stamp their feet,
‘til an adult told them how to show they’re grown;
But now the parents act like schoolyard bullies,
as they raise some little monsters of their own.
And the splinter of their hatred always festers,
but it’s never aimed at those that put them there;
And the strings tied to their arms control the motion,
while dark seeds grow in ground that they prepared.

Charlie set the pen down in his 60s—
his longhand now a cipher he can’t read.
His vote don’t count ‘cause he won’t wear the Red Hat;
His voice not heard amidst the strident screeds.

Now Charlie’s hands are clean and clipped and folded
for the few who came to make the final view;
In the end, he did not leave a manifesto
beyond the way he treated me and you.

And we will not say that Charlie was a weak man—
it’s just the weight of all he saw that drove him down;
And in this dust and heat and bloody last gyration,
can we really say he should have stuck around?

credits

from Cassandra, Cursed, released October 17, 2023
Walter Ehresman: synth arco bass; 6-string banjo; acoustic mandolin. Special guest--John Jessup: vocals, fingerpicked acoustic guitar.

Produced & engineered by Walter Ehresman at Snipe Bog Studios, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

p. 2023 Walter Ehresman. All rights reserved. Snipe Bog Records.

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Walter Ehresman San Miguel De Allende, Mexico

Called "the quintessential Austin DIY artist" by famed local disc jockey Charlie Martin , Walter Ehresman was an eccentric presence in the Austin music scene from the '80s until his 2015 move to Mexico. A prolific songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and recording artist...and a restless musical spirit, always looking for something new, expressed with fearlessly honest, socially-conscious lyrics. ... more

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