THE THING I DONE

“Biscuits, gravy, guilt.”

WHAT IT’S ABOUT
One Saturday morning last year, I awoke, as usual, at about 5:30. Sick. I know. Who wakes up at 5:30 in the morning on Saturday? I don't know if I was stuck in some strange dreamland scenario, or if I was tapped into some Jungian collective unconscious or what, but I awoke fully in the persona of a coal miner from eastern Kentucky.

Now, I know folks from Kentucky. I have close friendships with folks who are the progeny of Kentucky coal miners, but my family cleverly sidestepped Kentucky on their path from Ireland to North Carolina, on to Tennessee and Alabama, and west to Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. The closest I come to the Kentucky coal miner experience (beyond the aforementioned friendships) is a grandfather with black lung disease from working in coke plants in Oklahoma (and smoking unfiltered Camels).

Anyhow, as a coal miner relishing the luminous beauty of his one day above ground this week, I fixed myself a pot of extra strong coffee, began humming to myself, and cooked the best batch of biscuits and gravy I ever made before or since. The hum turned into this song about the crushing weight of Protestant Calvinist guilt. I imagined my fellow coal miners and me sitting in the blessed fresh air of the wooden front porch of my coal miner’s shack trading solos and songs.

Why a song about guilt? I don’t know. Maybe it was part of the dream. Maybe guilt is a fundamental human condition–guilt about what we did, what we didn’t do…wishing things had been different. Wishing we had been different, hoping always for forgiveness and redemption. If we never felt guilty, why would we ever want to be better? I will not elucidate here the connection between guilt and civilization. But I will mention the utter absence of any sense of guilt that afflicts so many so publicly in today’s world, and you can bet I think of that every time I perform this song.

A few hours later I was me again. But damn. That batch of biscuits and gravy was good.

Ed Skibbe, Cave Creek
August 2023


CREDITS
Ed Skibbe: acoustic guitar, vocal
Spencer Pyne: bass
Brian McClure: drums
Donald Young: banjo
Eric Ramsey: resonator guitar

NOTES
We tracked the basic rhythm tracks and the banjo in Colorado. Fascinating that our friend Don Young, keyboardist extraordinaire with Dotsero, plays banjo here. He played keys on our old single “Bridges,” and has contributed trumpet and now banjo on other songs. The one and only Eric Ramsey contributed the centerpiece wonderful resonator guitar, here at Coyote Tongue. To me, this is a modern take on pure Appalachian front porch music. Sort of a Carter Family thing.