Suzy Bogguss "Lucky" Album Credits and Lyrics

SUZY BOGGUSS
“Lucky”
Produced by Suzy Bogguss and Doug Crider
Recorded and Mixed by Doug Crider at The Office, Franklin, TN
Pat Bergeson: Guitars, Harmonica
Charlie Chadwick: Bass
Chris Brown: Drums, Percussion
Charles Treadway: Organ
Will Barrow: Piano, Electric Piano
Chris Scruggs: Steel Guitar, Mandolin, Rhythm Guitar on “Chase Each Other”, Lead Guitar on “December”

© 2013 Loyal Dutchess Records
www.suzybogguss.com


Today I Started Loving You Again
Merle Haggard, Bonnie Owens
Sony/ATV Tree Publishing BMI

Today I started loving you again
I'm right back where I've really always been
I got over you just long enough to let my heartache mend
Then today I started loving you again

What a fool I was to think I could get by
With only these few million tears I've cried
I should have known the worst was yet to come
And that crying time for me had just begun

Background Vocals: Suzy Bogguss, Doug Crider

Silver Wings
Merle Haggard
Sony/ATV Tree Publishing BMI

Silver wings shining in the sunlight
Roaring engines headed somewhere in flight
They're taking you away, leaving me lonely
Silver wings slowly fading out of sight
‘Don't leave me,’ I cried
Don't take that airplane ride
But you locked me out of your mind
Left me standing here behind

Background Vocals: Jon Randall Stewart, Jessi Alexander

The Bottle Let Me Down
Merle Haggard
Sony/ATV Tree Publishing BMI

Each night I leave the bar room when it's over
Not feeling any pain at closing time
But tonight your memory found me much too sober
Couldn't drink enough to keep you off my mind

Tonight the bottle let me down
And let your memory come around
The one true friend I thought I'd found
Tonight the bottle let me down

I've always had a bottle I could turn to
And lately I've been turnin' every day
But the wine don't take effect the way it used to
I'm hurtin' in an old familiar way

Background Vocals: Jon Randall Stewart, Jessi Alexander

I Always Get Lucky With You
Merle Haggard, Gary Church, Freddy Powers, Bobby Whitson Sony/ATV Tree Publishing o/b/o Shade Tree Music, Inc. BMI

I've had good luck and bad luck and no luck, it's true
But I always get lucky with you
I've been turned on and turned down when the bars close at two
But I always get lucky with you.

I keep two strikes against me most all of the time
And when it's down to a phone call I'm minus a dime
I've had good days and bad days but when the day is all through
I always get lucky with you.

If We Make It Through December
Merle Haggard
Sony/ATV Tree Publishing BMI

If we make it through December
Everything's gonna be all right I know
It's the coldest time of winter
And I shiver when I see the falling snow
If we make it through December
Got plans to be in a warmer town come summer time
Maybe even California
If we make it through December we'll be fine

Got laid off down at the factory
And their timin’s not the greatest in the world
Heaven knows you’ve been workin' hard
Wanted Christmas to be right for daddy's girls

Now I don't mean to hate December
It's meant to be the happy time of year
But our little girl don't understand
Why Mom and Daddy can't afford no Christmas here

Let’s Chase Each Other Around The Room
Merle Haggard, Freddy Powers, Sheril Rodgers
Sony/ATV Tree Publishing BMI

Let's chase each other 'round the room tonight
Let's play the games we played on our wedding night
To lock and bolt the door is only right
Let's chase each other 'round the room tonight

Seems like lately people love to play with fire
And the other games they play are just as bad
I'd rather stay at home and feel your burning lips
And play the kind of games that make me glad

Oh, let's chase each other 'round the room tonight
Let's play the kind of games we played on our wedding night
To lock and bolt the door is only right
Let's chase each other 'round the room tonight

Let's don't chase around and make each other weary
Let's keep all our love at home and out of sight
Let's leave everything like jealousy behind us
And let's chase each other 'round the room tonight

Background Vocals: Suzy Bogguss

Running Kind
Merle Haggard
Sony/ATV Tree Publishing BMI

I was born the running kind
Leaving always on my mind
Home was never home to me at any time
Every front door found me hoping
I’d find the back door open
There just had to be an exit for the running kind

Within me there's a prison, surrounding me alone
As real as any dungeon with its walls of stone
I know running's not the answer
But running's been my nature
And a part of me that keeps me moving on

Background Vocals: Matraca Berg, Gretchen Peters, Beth Nielsen Chapman

Going Where The Lonely Go
Merle Haggard, Dean Holloway
Sony/ATV Tree Publishing BMI

Rollin' with the flow
Goin' where the lonely go
Anywhere the lights are low
Goin' where the lonely go

Makin' up things to do
Not runnin' in all directions trying to find you
I'm just rollin' with the flow
Goin' where the lonely go

And I've got to keep goin'
I can't lay down
Sleep won't hardly come
Where there's loneliness all around
I've got to keep goin'
Travelin' down this lonesome road
I'll be rollin' with the flow
Goin' where the lonely go

Someday When Things Are Good
Merle Haggard, Leona Williams
Sony/ATV Tree Publishing o/b/o Shade Tree Music, Inc. BMI

Someday when things are good, I'm gonna leave you
I can't seem to go when things are bad
I'll be one more love that you can dream about
And one more woman you can say you've had

You'll always be the kind to dream of yesterday
And a way of life I never understood
And someday soon I'll be just one more memory
And you'll call my name when things are not so good

I Think I’ll Just Stay Here And Drink
Merle Haggard
Sony/ATV Tree Publishing BMI

You could be holding me tonight
You could quit doing wrong, and start doin' right
You don't care about what I think
I think
I'll just stay here and drink

Hey, puttin' you down, won't square the deal
At least you know the way I feel
Take all the money in the bank
I think I'll just stay here and drink

Listen close and you can hear
That loud jukebox playin' in my ear
Ain't no man gonna change the way I think
I think I'll just stay here and drink

Hurtin' me now, don't mean a thing
Since love ain't here I don't feel the pain
My mind ain't nothin' but a total blank
I think I'll just stay here and drink

Background Vocals: Suzy Bogguss

Sing Me Back Home
Merle Haggard
Sony/ATV Tree Publishing BMI

The warden led a prisoner down the hallway to his doom
And I stood up to say good-bye like all the rest
And I heard him tell the warden just before he reached my cell
'Let my guitar playin’ friend do my request'

Let him sing me back home with a song I used to hear
Make my old memories come alive
Take me away and turn back the years
Sing me back home before I die

I recall last Sunday morning a choir from down the street
Came by to sing a few old gospel songs
And I heard him tell the singers 'There's a song my mama sang
Can I hear it once before you move along?'

Won’t you sing me back home, with a song my mama sang
Make my old memories come alive
Take me away and turn back the years
Sing me back home before I die

Background Vocals: Harry Stinson, Doug Crider

You Don’t Have Very Far To Go
Merle Haggard, Red Simpson
Owen Publications BMI

You always find a way to hurt my pride
If I'm not cryin' you're not satisfied
I don't know why you want to hurt me so
If you're tryin' to break my heart you don't have very far to go

You don't have very far to go before the heartaches begin
I already feel the sadness of a heartbreak settin' in
You're turnin' down the flame of love too low
If you're tryin' to break my heart you don't have very far to go

You don't have very far to go before the heartaches begin
I already feel the sadness of a heartbreak settin' in
You can’t love me and still love to hurt me so
If you're tryin' to break my heart you don't have very far to go 




Suzy Bogguss: "Lucky" Track-by-Track

“Today I Started Loving You Again”
“I really relate to this song just for the fact that between my husband Doug, our son and I, three creative people are in our household, and we’ve had times when we’ve really had to try to get out of each other’s way so each creative spirit is able to grow and thrive. I just feel that Merle had his finger on that whole thing of -- it’s not really all that natural for people to stay together forever. It’s a really difficult thing and there’s a lot of dynamics that go with it, a lot of push and pull. Somebody is the boss for a while and then the other one may be the boss for a while. There’s just all this drama that goes on in our lives.”

“Silver Wings”
“‘Silver Wings’ is one of those songs for me that’s just like a little movie in my head. My grandparents, aunt and uncle moved to California when I was young, and in 1969 I took the train out from Illinois to Barstow with my mom, and believe this or not, my grandparents and aunt and uncle lived on the same block with Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. So as a sixth-grader, I’d get to go over and have TV dinners at Roy and Dale’s house and hang out with them. I had already been really infatuated with country music at the time because my dad would play it in his car, and going to the desert for the first time, having come from Illinois, was such a trip for me. And then there I am with a cowboy singer! So ‘Silver Wings’ has a very desert-like vibe to me and makes me recall that time, especially with the harmonica. But when I sing it, I picture a scene of a girl sending off her soldier. That’s the story that is in my mind.”

“The Bottle Let Me Down”
“This has been a favorite of mine for umpteen years. I love Merle’s version, and I loved Emmylou Harris’s version. In a way, it was kind of scary to cover this song, and that’s one of the reasons I wanted to give it my own kind of bluesy take on it. I wanted to sing it in my low register so I could get down there and get into my moodier voice. I’ve got Jessi Alexander and Jon Randall singing background because they’re two of my most favorite, most genuine musician friends out there. I just thought they’d be perfect for this.”

“I Always Get Lucky With You”
“Merle wrote a lot of songs with Freddy Powers. I heard an interesting story from Fred that he had started this song a couple years before it actually turned into ‘I Always Get Lucky With You.’ He kept picking it backstage and one day Merle just said, ‘Are you ever going to write that damn song?’ Because he kept hearing him mess around with this chord progression, and he said, ‘I can’t do it. I can’t get it done.’ And then Merle sat down and they wrote ‘I Always Get Lucky With You.’ Finally, it came to fruition. I love it because it has a swingy, bluesy kind of vibe to it and I am drawn to those kinds of melodies.”

“If We Make It Through December”
“This really says that things are so bad, we almost have to laugh about them. I relate to this one big time. My dad worked for International Harvester and there were strikes and layoffs. And my mom went to work when I was in first grade and at one point they had three kids in college—and I was 9 years old. When something would happen like a strike or a layoff, it was some serious stuff at our house. You get pretty close to going down the tube, but I love the fact that they were hanging in there together and they are going, ‘You know, this really stinks, but if we make it through December, we’ll be ok.’ That’s one of the reasons I did such a boppin’-along melody with this version. I wanted the contrast between the lyric and the sound.”

“Let’s Chase Each Other Round the Room”
“When we were kids, we used to think of this song as being sort of naughty. You’d hear something like that and go, ‘Man, that’s an adult song.’ I just love the tease of it. It was a little taste of what happens behind closed doors with the grownups. And Country songs always felt like that to me. They always felt like they were a little bit about serious things, subjects like D-I-V-O-R-C-E and cheatin’ and beer and all those big words. I loved that. We need to get more of that back in our Country music. There needs to be some more mystery, and less bonfires and trucks.”

“The Runnin’ Kind”
“When I heard this, I thought, ‘There’s one more way I relate to Merle.’ I’ve sung lots and lots of songs about taking an outbound train or driving South, or writing songs about someplace to go. I’m a runner. If stuff is bugging me, I’m going to get in the car and just go. Get me out of here, and let me think about this on my own, whether it’s just to cool off or to get away from what my head is doing to me right now. I just need to go and get mindless for a while.”

“Going Where the Lonely Go”
“To me, this song is all about the vibe, but before I could sing it, I had to come up with my own story behind it. So I thought, ‘I just got the crap beaten out of me in love and I’m going in a bar by myself.’ Then, I was able to tackle it. Because hearing Merle sing that song made it hard for me to sing. I had to find my own treatment and de-Merle-ify it before I could sing it. It was probably the hardest song for me.”

“Someday When Things Are Good”
“Ouch. This song particularly hurts. It’s so easy if you’ve been a fan of stone Country stuff to imagine a situation like this happening. And again, it’s really relatable, when you get creative people together. It’s easy for me to conjure up in my own life how hard sometimes it can be when one person is getting all of the limelight and the other one’s trying to work on something. It’s a very tumultuous situation when two people are together with creative heads.”

“I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink”
“That was the most fun! It’s all about, ‘I’ve had it for today. You’re not even getting my attention today because, forget it, I’m blowing it off.’ I felt like I had to change the gender and a few little words, just to make it clear what my side of the story would be.”

“Sing Me Back Home”
“I really wanted to have something on this record that showed some of that early work of Merle and how he played off of things, adjusting from his youth, but this was difficult for me because of the way he sang it. What I ended up doing is thinking of it like it was a folk song, like I was telling the story from a third-party standpoint, even though I was really telling it more first-person. But somehow you get away with that when you do a Folk song. That was the way I came at it, and I embraced it from that angle.”

“You Don’t Have Very Far to Go”
“This is about arriving at that point in a love relationship where you’re just so hurt, but the way that I treated the production on this one was really influenced by the California Country-Rock scene. There’s a whole slew of us girls that were taught how to sing by listening to Linda Ronstadt records and Emmylou Harris. It’s that mixture of styles that they put into their singing and phrasing. I was pulling from those initial influences that I had from when I first picked up a guitar and started singing. That’s how I tried to treat it.”