We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

The Mills (The Ballad of Robert Forest)

from The Roads That Make Men Weary by Simon Balto

/

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $1 USD  or more

     

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

  • Physical CD -- OUT OF STOCK
    Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Physical copy of "The Roads That Make Men Weary." The physical CD features the gorgeous artwork of Minneapolis artist Joel Starkey, which is itself worth the price of the ticket. It's beautiful.

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Roads That Make Men Weary via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

lyrics

Robert Forest was a good man, though a drinker and a fool;
He'd worked down at the mills on the river since 1982.
He married once to a girl he met when they were both sixteen;
The year then was '76, but by '83 she'd leave.

Underneath a canopy of trees in a small midwestern town,
With Rob wearing a rummage sale suit and his bride a secondhand gown,
They were wed by a traveling preacher who barely knew their names.
By all accounts it was an awkward service, though Rob loved it just the same.

And at the dance that evening Rob picked up his old guitar;
He didn't have much talent, but he played it with his heart.
He sang shitty couplets about love and knowing right from wrong;
And as his bride looked on distracted, he bathed her with his song.

The day she left was a pretty one sometime in the month of May;
She left her ring on the kitchen table and moved westward toward the bay.
Rob got home in the evening from a day working at the mills,
And found himself alone in the house they'd built nestled in the hills.

With everything inside him Rob tore down his old guitar,
And though he couldn't think straight, he played it with his heart.
He poured a glass of bourbon down, and another three fingers long;
Drunk and broken he spent that night trying to turn her into songs.

So it went for months and years, with Rob working at the mills;
Home at night with a song and a drink, and a stack of unpaid bills.
He never heard once more from his wife, though he heard she loved again.
The rumor floated on down the river and swirled 'round his head.

And as his hands grew crippled from years working at the mills,
Rob couldn't play his guitar, though every night he did try still.
Until one night it was nothing but a hunk of ash and rosewood;
Rob wrote his last song then, and he played it with his blood.

credits

from The Roads That Make Men Weary, released November 5, 2013

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Simon Balto image

Simon Balto Indianapolis, Indiana

Alt-folk. Midwest. Big voice, full heart, can't lose.

contact / help

Contact Simon Balto

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this track or account

Simon Balto recommends:

If you like Simon Balto, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Beans joins the show to discuss his album release, "ZWAARD".

listen now