The Blue

These are the lyrics to "dress blues" not "the blue". The lyrics should be as follows...

Don't roll away that stone, girl Leave it where it lay You think he's coming home but you know it's not today I think the road will break me and never fill the holes, but every time I'm saved I stop beating out a soul

I'm too scared to ask the right questions and too tired to fill the right shoes so I'll take advantage of the blues I'll take advantage of the blue

There really ain't no difference in Michigan and Maine If you ain't here to see this I'm missing just the same Your skin as soft as water, same temperature as me I'd never know I touched you if you didn't let me see

I'd crawl to meet you if you'd just stay there, and finally have a thing I couldn't bear to lose So I'll take advantage of the blues I'll take advantage of the blue

Mark me up so they can see the best of me Hold me down so I can't find a drink Dance so I don't have to think

I believe this song is about being a recording artist out on the road all the time and how he draws his inspiration from being on the road (I think the road will break me and never fill the holes, but every time I'm saved I stop beating out a soul) but is losing the person at home whose waiting for him to return (You think he's coming home but you know it's not today) However I really have no idea. Love the song though. Looking to find the tabs for this so if anyone can point me in the right direction, that would be Dyn-o-mite!!

Jason Isbell sobered up about a year before me, so my interpretation of his lyrics are always colored by that fact. That said, I think Isbell wrote this song just prior to putting down the bottle for good, and you can see in this song that he's teetering on the brink, wrestling with his demons:

"I'm too scared to ask the right questions and too tired to fill the right shoes so I'll take advantage of the blues"

It's a strange place, when you're just starting to realize you might have a problem with alcohol. To me, he's saying that he probably knows that he should quit, but he's too tired to ask the right questions. The blue is that in between, just nothingness.

"Mark me up so they can see the best of me Hold me down so I can't find a drink"

The closing stanza shows that he knows he shouldn't drink anymore, but that he will if those closest to him don't stop him. "Hold me down" is almost a plea for help -- it's perhaps Jason's first realization that he needs to ask for help.

That time in your life right before you are willing to put in all the work and effort of getting sober is a very strange place, at least it was for me. Life is sort of a haze of self-pity but also helplessness and apathy. That, to me, is what the blue is.

Reminds me of another song Isbell covered, "Rachel's Song" (written by James McMurtry):

"I probably oughta quit my drinking But I don't believe I will"

Fortunately for us, Isbell did ultimately get sober, and his best writing has emerged since. And another brief chapter without any answers blew by. For both Isbell and myself.