Rosetta, please (a love story)

http://archives.nodepression.com/2007/01/dan-montgomery-rosetta-please-a-love-story/ 

New Jersey raised, Memphis based journeyman Dan Montgomery knows that the best stories are told in the most dive - like bars. This one's the tale of an ex-con who falls for a prostitute, a love-hate relationship that's heavy on the former with intermittent howers of the latter. Montgomery's depiction, presented across this album's nine well-crafted roots-rock songs, is so unflinchingly detailed that at the record's end, your clothes carry the smell of cigarette smoke and desperation. "Baby baby,when you coming home?/Baby baby, are you coming home?" Montgomery's protagonist asks in a voice that damn well knows the answer.

This is the same guy who, bitterness somehow coexisting with affection, later offers "She wasn't what you'd call the girl next door/ Unless you lived next to the local whore". Montgomery's most brilliant stroke is also giving Rosetta a voice, on a pair of songs that recall Alejandro Escovedo at his most brooding, down to the interplay between cello and violin. "Long Long Night" is especially effective: "I work for the money/ The money's for the drugs/ The drug's for the pain" is one of the most succinct definitions of vicious cycle ever put to record. This is the kind of astonishingly good album that will inspire you to bend the ear of the person the next stool over.

All the best stories start with either that line or "Once upon a time", and this ain't that kind of story...

I walk into a bar one night and this guy says to me "Sit down buddy; let me tell you my story.   more info... A guy walks into a bar...

All the best stories start with either that line or "Once upon a time", and this ain't that kind of story...

I walk into a bar one night and this guy says to me "Sit down buddy; let me tell you my story. I'll buy you a drink or two". Drinks are poured, time can be bought. This becomes a pertinent point over the course of the evening.

This guy's mad and blowing off steam. "Problems with the old lady he says. Familiar story, I think. "She's a whore he keeps repeating. It's nothing I want to hear, but he's buying. Hes running hot & cold. He loves her/He loves her not. A few drinks in and a few more stories/rants and I realize she really is a whore. I think that is worse on her than him. I try to imagine where she is at that moment and how someone ends up there.

You can see how confused this guy is and feel for him, although he's pretty pathetic. He can't even get it together enough to be her pimp. So I try to get him to tell me more. It's the usual: Jail, Drugs, and Temptation. He'd rather talk about how sorry she'll be when he gets his shit together and leaves her. Then he veers back to how he needs her despite it all. "Do you know what she's doing; do you know what she's doing right now? My mind drifts to where she's at right now and what she's doing.

Then, as the bar lights come on, he say's "There she is. She looks worn out. She pays his tab and leaves with a man who waits in the doorway. They stumble out, arms around each other. It was hard to tell who was holding up whom.

My new friend looks up as they leave and says Rosetta, please

Since I got straight - put on a little weight
But i'm hardly ever late - since I got straight

Since I got clean - i'm hardly ever mean
And I ain't afraid to be seen -
Since I got clean
Since I got clean

Since they taught me how to pray -
I hardly miss a day
And I don't gotta figure out the way
Since they taught me how to pray

Yeah and since I seen the light -
I don't gotta figure wrong from right
And I don't hang out all night
Since I seen the light -
Since I seen the light

Since they let me out of jail
I paid back all my bail
And I make my meetings without fail
Since they let me out of jail