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Stafford Hartley

from Mountain Songs by falling off a building

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about

this song was written by my good friend joseph bolick. Stafford Hartley was a real person that lived in the backwoods of North Carolina. he was just a little smarter than everyone around him and felt isolated.

lyrics

up above the chandler field
breyond the cedar church
lived and died one stafford hartley
and he never did much like to work.

so he made trinkets and did odd jobs
anything to get himself by
made funny lookin cars out of old spare parts
turning heads when he went by

now folks said he was peculiar.
they say so to this day
one thing about old stafford hartley,
he always did things his own way.

now everybody's building their houses in the valley
he put his up on top of the ridge
he'd set out at night and light up his pipe
and gaze over those blue, blue mountains.

now he built a giant radio tower
he'd broadcast every evening.
from miles around, no matter where you turned your dial
all you'd hear was stafford singing

CHORUS

the self-proclaimed mayor of Bailey's Camp
i never heard no tell of an election.
he married erlene, the only girl to be seen
who didn't ask too many questions.

now stafford got old, he got to hurtin
he'd walk out in the yard
pull a shotgun out from under his arm
put it up to his chiin and fired.

CHORUS

one thing about old stafford hartley is he always did things his own way.

credits

from Mountain Songs, released March 25, 2008

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falling off a building Columbia, South Carolina

this act began in 2004 and just turned fourteen years old. it's been surviving on the fringes of interest since the day it was first conceived. it's worth doing. it's that thing of realising you are your own best friend and you need to take as good of care of yourself as you possibly can and in so doing you learn to take care of everyone else. ... more

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