Lyr Req: Waitin' for the Evening Mail

Subject: Thanks for the Riley Puckett Lyrics
From: Annie
Date: 22 Jun 02 - 11:07 AM

Thanks for Lyrics I found in a thread way back in 1997. Thanks Mudcat for an easy search! If anyone has a copy of Riley Puckett's 'Waitin' for the Evening Mail' County 411 (out of circ) they want to pass on, please give me a shout at [e-mail].

Subject: Lyr Add: WAITIN' FOR THE EVENIN' MAIL (B Baskette)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 25 Nov 07 - 11:19 PM

From the sheet music at Indiana University Sheet Music Collections

WAITIN' FOR THE EVENIN' MAIL
Billy Baskette
New York: Waterson, Berlin and Snyder Co., 1923.

1. 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 his song:

CHORUS: Sittin' on the inside,
Lookin' at the outside,
Waitin' for the ev'nin' mail;
Four walls and a ceilin',
Lawdy, what a feelin',
Just a mean old low-down jail
Separatin' me from everything but the ev'nin' mail.
I'm like a ship without a sail.
Wrote my one-time mama, down in Jacksonville,
Said, "Sweet mama, 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 ev'nin' mail."

2. Just as I passed by his way,
I could hear this brother say,
"Looks like I am in the jug to stay,
Till a later day,
My trial is called for Tuesday,
On the twenty-seventh of May."

[The Red Hot Jazz Archive has recordings by
Lucille Hegamin and Her Blue Flame Syncopaters,
Ladd's Black Aces,
Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake,
Clara Smith and Fletcher Henderson, and
Marion Harris,
all made in 1923. Some of these recordings have additional verses that are not in the sheet music.]