from Greetings From Michigan: The Great Lake State (2003)
selection made by Lisa Cerbone:
This song is just beautiful. For me, it is like a short story about the longing for a mother who will never be there. It’s a hard lesson for the main character when he realizes that she will never be in his life the way he wants her to be. His singing is so detached in this song, but that just makes the emotional impact of the story even stronger for me.
Once when our mother called,
She had a voice of last year’s cough.
We passed around the phone,
Sharing a word about Oregon.
When my turn came, I was ashamed.
When my turn came, I was ashamed.
Once when we moved away,
She came to Romulus for a day.
Her Chevrolet broke down.
We prayed it’d never be fixed or found.
We touched her hair, we touched her hair.
We touched her hair, we touched her hair.
When she had her last child, Once when she had some boyfriends, some wild.
She moved away quite far.
Our grandpa bought us a new VCR.
We watched it all night, but grew up in spite of it.
We watched it all night, but grew up in spite of it.
We saw her once last fall.
Our grandpa died in a hospital gown.
She didn’t seem to care.
She smoked in her room and colored her hair.
I was ashamed, I was ashamed of her
I was ashamed, I was ashamed of her
I was ashamed, I was ashamed of her
I was ashamed, I was ashamed of her
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