A few months ago, Jeni's friends from Hendersonville High School (where Taylor Swift did a brief stint in public school) near Nashville, Tennessee, began posting their senior photos on Facebook. Jeni found one of her own, posted it, and, shortly thereafter, found this lyric and melody insisting that she pick up her guitar.
I was pretty back then, but you never told me
When we’d sit in your car, did you even hold me
I could have been a movie star
in a parade on a rag-top car
I was pretty back then, but you never told me
I was smart back then, but you never said so
Just another teenage girl, easy come and easy go
I won the science fair
finished the test with time to spare
I was smart back then, but you never said so
I had so much love
Love you couldn’t see
I hope someone loves you now,
but I’m glad it ain’t me
I could fly back then, but you didn’t know it
I had wings all that time, but I didn’t show it
There’s someone who sees me now
Who sees my wings even when I’m down
I could fly back then, but you didn’t know it
I had so much love
Love you couldn’t see
I hope someone loves you now,
but I’m glad it ain’t me
I wrote you a letter, I’ll never send it
No words I can say will ever mend it
Are you in jail, are you dead
do you have a family now instead
No matter how, you can’t defend it
I had so much love
Love you couldn’t see
I hope someone loves you now,
but I’m glad it ain’t me
credits
released August 25, 2020
Written by Jeni Hankins, BMI.
Music by Jeni Hankins, Vocals, Guitar, and Trombone, and Alfred Hickling, all additional instruments.
Mixed and Mastered by Jeni Hankins.
Jeni Hankins grew up in the coalfields of Appalachian in Southwest Virginia among a family of miners, moonshiners, and
journalists. Her writing pulls the grit, gumption, and keen sense of observation out of that heritage like drawing water from her grandmother’s well.
In every song, Jeni’s “true sense of place shines through – old as the hills, but brand new at the same time.”...more
For me, this is the best of folk music, what it's all meant to be. After years of listening to Rebecca & Ken, I still get shivers up my spine when I hear them together. Jeni Hankins
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