Dead Horses - Lay Me Down

I wish I could remember where I first heard this song, but I can’t. It may have been on one of the radio programs “River City Folk” or the “Folk Sampler”, maybe I heard it on my Spotify discover, or maybe someone showed it to me in a bar once upon a time, but I’m not entirely sure. However, I do remember when I first heard it, that the song struck a chord with me (no pun intended) and after I heard it I wanted to listen to it again and again and again. But in order to do that I needed to know the name of the song, or at least the name of the band, neither of which I had a clue. Trying to track down this song, (no, seriously this pun was not intended), led me to an extensive Google search of the lyrics that I remembered, which were pretty few, (maybe I did hear it in a bar), but eventually I found it. It was a song titled “Lay Me Down” by a group from Wisconsin called Dead Horses whose lead singer, Sarah Vos, wrote this song.

After I began writing this particular blog post I went to Google to find the lyrics, but to my dismay, they were not readily available. So, while I extensively listened to the song, I typed the lyrics up on my laptop. (I think it’s in the Key of C if you want to play along)

Lay Me Down – Dead Horses

I am a midnight writer

I am a soul/sole survivor

I am chemicals colliding

I am a dirty misfit

I am holy bullshit

I am still in transit

So lay me down, let me weep let me weep

Lay me down, sweet sleep

Lay me down let me weep, let me weep

Lay me down, sweet sleep

I am that deep red bloodstain

I am a graffiti ghost train

I am tiring refrain

I am a cracked up mirror

I am no where near hear

I am old man's war tears

I am that red kite flying

I am a dead woman rising

I am smoke on the horizon

I am a budding fruit tree

And you are my skeleton key

I am a thriving city

Old Casey told me so

It don’t matter how many rounds you go

We all share the same, the same soul

The lyrics to this song, in my opinion, are really impressive. Initially it reminded of John Lennon’s song “God” and Walt Whitman’s poem “Song of Myself”, because of the use of anaphora, which is the repetition of a particular word at the beginning of a phrase. In the case of this song, it’s the phrase “I am a.” Overall, the lyrics to this song are rather depressing, but are also slightly hopeful, which is evident in the third verse.

The concept of something being hopeful and depressing simultaneously is one aspect of the bluegrass genre that separates it from others. Bluegrass music often contains dark and disturbing lyrics, it is usually accompanied by driving rhythms, major and seventh chords, and often a lead singer who sounds very “Appalachian” or “southern.” Contrary to the stereotypical bluegrass singer, Sarah Vos has an incredibly soulful and bluesy, whiskey drinking, cigarette smoking kind of a voice, which gives this bluegrass-structured song quite a bit of uniqueness.

Although this song does not perfectly fit into the bluegrass genre, it encompasses a lot of the aspects of the genre. “Lay Me Down” includes the instruments commonly used in bluegrass music, a driving chord progression, and, most importantly, dark lyrics accompanied with a hopeful musical arrangement.

One portion of this song’s lyrics that confused me while listening is the bridge. Which is:

Old Casey told me so

It don’t matter how many rounds you go

We all share the same, the same soul

The second and third lines, I think, illustrate a form of separateness and unity among differing individuals. The first line, “Old Casey told me so”, slightly confuses me as a listener. Who is Casey? What or who is this referring to? Initially I thought this was a reference to the song “Casey Jones” by the Grateful Dead, which is a possibility. Personally I think it is actually a reference to the song that the Grateful Dead song was inspired by, which is “The Ballad of Casey Jones” by Wallace Saunders. The Saunders song depicts Casey Jones (who was a real person) picking up double railroad shifts and making multiple “rounds” which ultimately lead to his death. Or, perhaps the song is simply referencing the real “Casey Jones” whose name was Jonathan Luther “Casey” Jones, who died in a fatal railroad crash. But I’m not certain.

This uncertainty within lyrics is one of the reasons I enjoy the poetry within lyrics and music so much. Although the writer of a song may at times be unaware of what they are writing, ultimately it will mean something to someone, even if it is only one person.