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Hicksville (single​/​neo​-​traditional country)

by Faith Michele Current

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about

I spent my first 16 years and a lot of time since living in small towns. I've also lived in some of the world's largest cities, and in small cities and tiny towns and in the middle of nowhere, and sometimes, I've lived nowhere at all.

It's only lately that I've realized that this isn't normal. Most people I know are either country mice or city mice, and know almost nothing about what it's like to live any other way. We know so little about one another in so many ways, and that not-knowing is at the heart of so much that is so very wrong with our world.

"Hicksville" is written out of my deep and genuine love for small towns and their unique and endangered culture. The lyrics echo my experiences growing up in small towns in Texas, New Mexico and the Pacific Northwest, as well as a magical winter spent in a tiny town on the Oregon coast and the even tinier town in which I currently live in rural Maine.

It's also an oblique homage to Billy Joel, whose music originally inspired me to live an unconventional life, and who grew up in the small-ish town of Hicksville, New York, which I'm guessing is almost nothing like the Hicksville in this song.

PS -- The girl in the photo is me, and yes, I know that you should never ever ever ever wear sandals to ride a horse.

lyrics

HICKSVILLE

Just southeast of the Alden county line
Hard right at the old Sunoco sign
Keep on going till you pass the spot where Eddie flipped his Chevrolet
Welcome friend, you’ve just arrived in Hicksville

In Hicksville, there’s a grange and a Dairy Queen
A Dollar Store where old Annie’s used to be
For cheaper gas you gotta go a little further north on Highway 4
But everything I need is here in Hicksville

Fourteen farms and a traffic light
Three churches and a football team
Population 1017
A marching band, a rooster crow
And the prettiest Homecoming Queen that you’ve ever seen

In Hicksville, we’re all broke but we get by
We layaway for Christmas in July
We’ve learned to bend so we don’t break and we catch a few breaks now and then
That’s how we’ve always done it here in Hicksville

Hicksville’s where my daddy’s dad was born
A hundred years of wheat and barley corn
Planting in the spring, picking in the fall and cussing and praying for rain
Everything I love is here in Hicksville

Fourteen farms and a traffic light
Three churches and a football team
Population 1017
A marching band, a rooster crow
And the prettiest Homecoming Queen that you’ve ever seen

Been about a year since the mill shut down
Don’t know how much longer I can stick around
I heard there might be work just a little further north on Highway 4
But if I do that, I’ll never make it back to Hicksville

Daddy says he ain’t gonna plow this May
My best friend Janie just moved away
We learned to bend so we don’t break but I’m afraid we’re gonna break this time
I think this is a long goodbye to Hicksville

Thirteen farms and a traffic light
Three churches and a football team
Population 917
A marching band, a rooster crow
And the prettiest Homecoming Queen that you’ve ever seen.

credits

released March 28, 2021
Music & lyrics by Faith Michele Current

Lead vocal -- Faith Michele Current
Acoustic guitar, electric guitar, percussion, bass, piano -- Dusty Hughes
Violin -- Krystel Phoenix
Background vocal -- Kate Cardiff
Co-produced by Dusty Hughes and Faith Michele Current
Mixed/mastered by Dusty Hughes

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Faith Michele Current Maine

Classic influences: Beatles/McCartney, Billy Joel, Stevie Nicks, Jessi Colter, John Denver, Emmylou Harris, Townes van Zandt. Autotune-free zone.

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