Unofficial, uncertified Red Dirt Girl Appreciation Thread

Rickypt · #1 03-13-2007, 03:59 PM

I know we've had some Emmylou love threads, but this one is specific to "Red Dirt Girl". The song and the album. I've recently decided this album is in my top 5 faves of all time.

Anyone see the Soundstage with Emmylou and Knopfler? Emmylou does "Red Dirt Girl" and I swear I started crying 30 seconds into it and couldn't stop. Still haven't figured out what happened, but very cathartic.

...could have been the whiskey....could've been the pills

What a masterful storyteller.

And "Bang The Drum Slowly": please let someone play that at my funeral.

Share your "Red Dirt Girl" love, please.

Rickypt · #2 03-13-2007, 04:00 PM

Me and my best friend Lillian
And her blue tick hound dog Gideon,
Sittin on the front porch cooling in the shade
Singin every song the radio played
Waitin for the Alabama sun to go down
Two red dirt girls in a red dirt town
Me and Lillian
Just across the line and a little southeast of Meridian.

She loved her brother I remember back when
He was fixin up a '49 Indian
He told her 'Little sister, gonna ride the wind
Up around the moon and back again"
He never got farther than Vietnam,
I was standin there with her when the telegram come
For Lillian.
Now he's lyin somewhere about a million miles from Meridian.

She said there's not much hope for a red dirt girl
Somewhere out there is a great big world
Thats where I'm bound
And the stars might fall on Alabama
But one of these days I'm gonna swing
My hammer down
Away from this red dirt town
I'm gonna make a joyful sound

She grew up tall and she grew up thin
Buried that old dog Gideon
By a crepe myrtle bush in the back of the yard,
Her daddy turned mean and her mama leaned hard
Got in trouble with a boy from town
Figured that she might as well settle down
So she dug right in
Across a red dirt line just a little south east from Meridian

She tried hard to love him but it never did take
It was just another way for the heart to break
So she dug right in.
But one thing they don't tell you about the blues
When you got em
You keep on falling cause there ain't no bottom
There ain't know end.
At least not for Lillian

Nobody knows when she started her skid,
She was only 27 and she had five kids.
Coulda' been the whiskey,
Coulda been the pills,
Coulda been the dream she was trying to kill.
But there won't be a mention in the news of the world
About the life and the death of a red dirt girl
Names Lillian
Who never got any farther across the line than Meridian.

Now the stars still fall on Alabama
Tonight she finally laid
That hammer down
Without a sound
In the red dirt ground

JazmenFlowers · #3 03-13-2007, 05:12 PM

I effin love this whole cd. One Big Love, Michelangelo (sp?), Bang the Drum Slowly and Red Dirt Girl are my favorites. I can't listen to RDG without crying.

foxyluva · #4 03-13-2007, 05:36 PM

Oh god, I could rave about this album for days. Everything about this album is perfect. "Michelangelo" "I Don't Want To Talk About it Now" and "Red Dirt Girl" are my favs.

Oh yeah, and RDG from the Real Live Roadrunning is the highlight of the whole DVD - and her performance of "Boulder to Birmingham" is just as good. I cry everytime

carrie721 · #5 03-13-2007, 07:05 PM

omg, don't get me started. i don't know if i can say it's my favorite album, but it is the album that touches me the deepest. it speaks to me on such a personal level, i don't even know how to describe or explain it.

that soundstage is a.mazing. i have it on dvd - it is worth every penny! i may have to watch it again right now.

foxyluva · #6 03-13-2007, 07:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by carrie721

it speaks to me on such a personal level, i don't even know how to describe or explain it.

Its great when albums have that effect

carrie721 · #7 03-13-2007, 07:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by foxyluva

Its great when albums have that effect

it is. and i have to say that almost everything emmylou's done speaks to me that way. damn, i'm listening to the pearl now. just damn.

foxyluva · #8 03-13-2007, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by carrie721

it is. and i have to say that almost everything emmylou's done speaks to me that way. damn, i'm listening to the pearl now. just damn.

Emmylou definately has a profound affect on me - especially "Red Dirt Girl", but no other album speaks to me more than TISL...

carrie721 · #9 03-13-2007, 07:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by foxyluva

Emmylou definately has a profound affect on me - especially "Red Dirt Girl", but no other album speaks to me more than TISL...

mm, i just listened to TISL this morning. it is a damn fine album, but there's a warmth about RDG that appeals to me more than TISL.

foxyluva · #10 03-13-2007, 07:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by carrie721

mm, i just listened to TISL this morning. it is a damn fine album, but there's a warmth about RDG that appeals to me more than TISL.

TISL signified not only my change in music-taste, but a big turning point in my life. I think alot of what I feel from that record is my from my own experiences - its just so personal...

Rickypt · #11 03-14-2007, 05:18 PM

I swear, I've been playing RDG daily for about 3 weeks now. I can't figure it out yet, but it is somehow cleansing me.....it's reaching me in a really deep way.