What is “Copper Still Confession” about?
"Copper Still Confession" is a mountain murder ballad in all but name, told by a man who has kept a secret for forty years. At seventeen he fought a twenty-two-year-old over a girl, a debt or a property line, buried what he did beneath the laurel, then helped the missing man's mother tape up flyers. He has carried it through a marriage, three kids and Sunday pews, confessing only to his granddaddy's old still. It is the eleventh track on The Last Porch Light and its darkest turn.
Copper Still Confession lyrics
Up past the ridge where the creek bends twice
There's a copper still my granddaddy built
Ain't been touched since the night it happened
Except by rain and rust and guilt
I was seventeen and full of thunder
He was twenty-two and full of shine
We argued over something stupid
A girl, a debt, a crossed property line
I buried what I did beneath the laurel
Where the mountain keeps its mouth shut tight
The copper still remembers every detail
I go up there and confess to it some nights
Lord, I confess to it some nights
His truck sat in the church lot for a week
Before anybody thought to wonder
His mama put up flyers at the diner
And I helped her tape them to the windows
Shook her hand and said I'm sorry
Looked her dead straight in the eye
The sheriff searched the hollow for a season
Then winter came and let the whole thing die
I buried what I did beneath the laurel
Where the mountain keeps its mouth shut tight
The copper still remembers every detail
I go up there and confess to it some nights
Lord, I confess to it some nights
Forty years I've carried this
Through a marriage and three kids
Through Sunday pews and Wednesday prayers
Through every single thing I've built
And some nights the copper still
Looks at me like it's had enough
Like even metal has a limit
For how long it'll hold your stuff
I buried what I did beneath the laurel
Where the mountain keeps its mouth shut tight
The copper still remembers every detail
I go up there and confess to it some nights
And one night I won't come back down
Lord, one night I won't come back down
The mountain keeps its mouth shut tight