Waitin' For The Evenin' Mail 1923

by James Pitt-Payne, London UK - 23 Dec 2009
2009

Passing by the jail this morn
heard a hard luck brother moan:
"I'm in here,
right where I don't belong,
Never done no wrong."
As I passed by his window,
I could hear him moaning this song:

Sittin' on the inside
lookin' at the outside,
waitin' for the evenin' mail.
Four walls and a ceilin'
Lawdy what a feelin'
Just a mean old lowdown jail.
Separatin' me from ev'rything
but the evenin' mail,
I'm like a ship without a sail.

Wrote my one time Mamma,
down in Jacksonville
said: "Sweet Mamma, I'm in jail,
Honey please don't fail me,
Hurry up and mail me, bail."
That's just a year ago
and I'm still on the inside,
Lookin' at the outside,
waitin' for the evenin' mail.

Sittin' on the inside
lookin' at the outside,
waitin' for the evenin' mail.
Four walls and a ceilin'
Lawdy what a feelin'
Just a mean old lowdown jail.
Separatin' me from ev'rything
but the evenin' mail,
I'm like a ship without a sail.

Wrote my one time Mamma,
down in Jacksonville
said: "Sweet Mamma, I'm in jail,
Honey please don't fail me,
Hurry up and mail me, bail."
That's just a year ago
and I'm still on the inside,
Lookin' at the outside,
waitin' for the evenin' mail.

Had a letter handed to me,
yesterday,
from a Mamma that I met
on Mobile Bay,
She said: "Honey won't you please
send me down some bail,
they caught me foolin'
with the evenin' mail."
Had another letter
from a man named Stout,
saying he was gonna get me,
when I get out,
said that he was gonna meet me
right at the gate
but he don't know
how long he has to wait.

Wrote my one time Mamma,
down in Jacksonville
said: "Sweet Mamma, I'm in jail,
Honey please don't fail me,
Hurry up and mail me, bail."
That's just a year ago
and I'm still on the inside,
Lookin' at the outside,
waitin' for the evenin' mail.

Just as I passed by his way
I could hear this brother say:
"Looks like I
am in this jug to stay
'till a later day,
my trial is called for Tuesday,
on the twenty seventh of May."

Sittin' on the inside
lookin' at the outside,
waitin' for the evenin' mail.
Four walls and a ceilin'
Lawdy what a feelin'
Just a mean old lowdown jail.
Separatin' me from ev'rything
but the evenin' mail,
I'm like a ship without a sail.

Wrote my one time Mamma,
down in Jacksonville
said: "Sweet Mamma, I'm in jail,
Honey please don't fail me,
Hurry up and mail me, bail."
That's just a year ago
and I'm still on the inside,
Lookin' at the outside,
waitin' for the evenin' mail.

Sittin' on the inside
lookin' at the outside,
waitin' for the evenin' mail.
Four walls and a ceilin'
Lawdy what a feelin'
Just a mean old lowdown jail.
Separatin' me from ev'rything
but the evenin' mail,
I'm like a ship without a sail.

Wrote my one time Mamma,
down in Jacksonville
said: "Sweet Mamma, I'm in jail,
Honey please don't fail me,
Hurry up and mail me, bail."
That's just a year ago
and I'm still on the inside,
Lookin' at the outside,
waitin' for the evenin' mail.

Had a letter handed to me,
yesterday,
from a Mamma that I met
on Mobile Bay,
She said: "Honey won't you please
send me down some bail,
they caught me foolin'
with the evenin' mail."
Had another letter
from a man named Stout,
saying he was gonna get me,
when I get out,
said that he was gonna meet me
right at the gate
but he don't know
how long he has to wait.

Wrote my one time Mamma,
down in Jacksonville
said: "Sweet Mamma, I'm in jail,
Honey please don't fail me,
Hurry up and mail me, bail."
That's just a year ago
and I'm still on the inside,
Lookin' at the outside,
waitin' for the evenin' mail.

Soft karaoke
Words
piano 1
piano 2
piano 3
piano 4
lyric
pizz str bass
*
Waitin' For The Evenin' Mail 1923
by Billy Baskette
© MCMXXIII by Waterson, Berlin & Snyder Co.
*
sequence & karaoke by James Pitt-Payne, London UK
on Wednesday 23 December 2009 at 12.10
in association with Veda Meyer-Castens
*