Matt Caflisch

the debut album

RUNAWAY

OUT NOW

“

Caflisch is a word guy in the best tradition (a little closer to the spirit of Loudon Wainwright III than Leonard Cohen), while musically he would comfortably fit in just as easily with early Seventies singer-songwriters as late Seventies punk pop.

Kevin Avery

author, Everything is an Afterthought:
The Life and Writings of Paul Nelson

Merch

Runaway | Vinyl
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"Simple Wide Trailer" printed on the back.
Sizing is unisex.

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Upcoming SHOWS

August 31, 2023 I Minnesota Marine Art Museum I Winona, MN

September 1, 2023 I Driftwood Char Bar I Minneapolis, MN

September 29, 2023 I White Squirrel I St. Paul MN

September 30, 2023 I Mousetrap Tavern I Eau Claire, WI

Past SHOWS

June 29, 2023 I 6:30 p.m. Sounds Like Summer Concert Series @ Phoenix Park I Eau Claire, WI

June 29, 2023 I 9:00p.m. The Fire House 202 Gibson St. Down Town I Eau Claire, WI

July 13, 2023 I Driftwood Char Bar I Minneapolis, MN

May 6, 2023 I The Portage I Cable, WI

June 3, 2023 I 1 p.m. Matinee I White Squirrel I St. Paul, MN

July 14, 2022 | Sounds Like Summer Concert Series @ Phoenix Park | Eau Claire, WI

June 17, 2022 | The Mousetrap Tavern | Eau Claire, WI

June 16, 2022 | White Squirrel Bar | St. Paul, MN

music videos

I Ran Away From Home

Matt Caflisch and His Music

Simple Wide Trailer

Something Real

Mostly Minnesota Interview

Gallery

Lyrics

I Ran Away From Home

Hey there Austin hesher on the run
Sitting baking in the sun
Vodka Kool-Aid mixers in her car
Learning how to be a star

I ran away from home
I’m just like a rolling stone
Hey lordy lordy mama hey lordy papa
Burning everything that I own

Famous Hibbing rocker with the blues
Had to 23 skidoo
Why is it you look at me so strange?
I better leave the Iron Range

I ran away from home
I’m just like a rolling stone
Hey lordy lordy mama hey lordy papa
Burning everything that I own

I ran away from home
I’m just like a rolling stone
All I need are leather boots
Other sweet forbidden fruits
I don’t know from indecision
I’m not living under your conditions

I ran away from home
I’m just like a rolling stone
All I need is leather boots
Other sweet forbidden fruits
Now you know of indecision
I’m not living under those conditions

I’ll rewrite your history for you
And then I’ll 23 skidoo
Find your freedom anywhere there’s more
That’s why we’re walking out the door

I ran away from home
Just like a rolling stone
Hey lordy lordy mama hey lordy papa
Burning everything that I own

I ran away from home
I’m just like a rolling stone
Time to make a run for it
Before they plow me under it
I don’t know from indecision
I’m not living under your conditions.

I Ran Away From Home

Simple Wide Trailer

Paul Nelson (It Demolished Him)

That Old Devil

I’m In The City Now

Words So True

She’s Not Here For You

Simple Wide Trailer

He was here from Appleton
And she was from the South
Another FM DJ
Who would never shut his mouth
She was just an army brat
Who landed in Eau Claire
Her mom would buy the liquor
So her friends would party there

In a simple wide trailer
That her mom could afford
Praise be to Jesus
Praise be to the Lord
A simple wide trailer
On the edge of the town
Still going to high school
When her mom was around

She threw a drinking party
With Becky, Sue and Kim
All the trailer roommates
Brought some Jack and shot some Jim
Some of them were older then
By six or seven years
But nobody was worried
After six or seven beers

In a simple wide trailer
No parents around
Super 8 camera
Didn’t capture the sound
Of a simple wide trailer
In a simpler time
The gas was a quarter
The phone was a dime

Dad came back from Vietnam
He gave her away
Her marriage lasted twenty years
If it lasted a day
She was Mother Nature
In the nineteen-seventies
She kept a photo album
Of her Kodak memories

In a simple wide trailer
In a park down the road
Not too much to look at
Just a humble abode
A simple wide trailer
That her mom could afford
Praise be to Jesus
Praise be to the Lord
Praise be to Jesus
Praise be to the Lord

I Ran Away From Home

Simple Wide Trailer

Paul Nelson (It Demolished Him)

That Old Devil

I’m In The City Now

Words So True

She’s Not Here For You

Paul Nelson (It Demolished Him)

He wrote it down for Rolling Stone
If Jann could get him on the phone
He covered Zevon’s private hell
But Wenner said it wouldn’t sell

It demolished him – reduced him down to dust
Some cheap piece from the back of the bus
Who knows where you could ask him when
It demolished him demolished him
It demolished him demolished him

No god, no man, this is how it ends.

Artists have to risk it all
Paul Nelson signed the New York Dolls
And wrote about the folk and blues
In little mimeograph reviews

It demolished him – reduced him down to dust
And not some cheap piece from the back of the bus
Who knows where you could ask him when
It demolished him demolished him
It demolished him demolished him

No god, no man, this is how it ends.

He printed what he knew in mags
Recorded the hollers, blues and rags
Bob Dylan loved your records too
Jon Pankake brought them back to you

It demolished him – reduced him down to dust
Like some cheap piece on the back of the bus
All the best laid plans of mice and men
It demolished him demolished him
It demolished him demolished him

No god, no man, this is how it ends.

I Ran Away From Home

Simple Wide Trailer

Paul Nelson (It Demolished Him)

That Old Devil

I’m In The City Now

Words So True

She’s Not Here For You

That Old Devil

If the words won’t change the ones we said
Then I’d rather dream and wake up dead
Alone again in the biggest bed
For one more deal with that old devil if you please

Yeah one more time with feeling please
Overspill your memories

I know you’re gone I helped you pack
That day the sunshine turned to black
I’m glad you’re gone but I want you back
Don’t deal with that old devil if you please

And I can’t blur with alcohol
All those pictures on the wall

So I burned the one where we both grinned
How I wish I had it back again
Old lovers make the worst best friends
So deal with that old devil if you please

The mailman knows you don’t get letters here
I don’t keep the driveway clear

Alone again no one around
Do you catch the noise when I crash down?
There are no ears built to hear that sound
Of bringing that old devil to his knees

That old devil says a deal’s a deal
If that’s the way the devil feels

Then the words won’t change the ones we said
And I’d rather dream and wake up dead
Alone again in the biggest bed

I Ran Away From Home

Simple Wide Trailer

Paul Nelson (It Demolished Him)

That Old Devil

I’m In The City Now

Words So True

She’s Not Here For You

I'm In The City Now

I had to move my town was small
The biggest deal was Oakwood Mall
Oh well, I’m in the city now
I find myself upon the stage
Sponsored by some City Page
Oh well, I’m in the city now

I was big back home, now I feel so small
Driving down West Seventh in St. Paul
Policemen don’t have time for me at all
Too tied up in Midway and Frogtown calls
I’m in the city now

I used to dream about Hüsker Dü
Now I talk to Grant at First Avenue
Oh well, I’m in the city now
I may display Wisconsin plates
Mostly for the auto rates
Oh well, I’m in the city now

I was big back home, now I feel so small
John Lee Hooker’s painted on the wall
Policemen don’t have time for me at all
Randy Moss’s Lexus on the mall
I’m in the city now

The thing I know
I had to go grab opportunity
The other thing
I like to sing the city is where you should be

I still go back where I come from
Once in a while to see my mom
Oh well, I’m in the city now
I like that Joynt on Water Street
Ramblin’ Jack can watch your seat if I’m gone
Off to the city now

I was big back home now I feel so small
Mary Tyler’s standing ten feet tall
Policemen don’t have time for you at all
A Lexus pulls away from city hall
I’m in the city now
I’m in the city now

I Ran Away From Home

Simple Wide Trailer

Paul Nelson (It Demolished Him)

That Old Devil

I’m In The City Now

Words So True

She’s Not Here For You

Words So True

It was hot and heavy
Not just any fling
Wasn’t even thinking
Barely anything

Love comes easy
When you start to sing
Hear the tolling bells say
Just do anything

So the chiming
Turns to rhyming
Those words so true
Sworn to you
Words so true
Sworn to you

Things that go in circles
Are never ending things
Tolling bells say
Please do everything

And their chiming
Turns to rhyming
Those words so true
Sworn to you
Words so true
Sworn to you

Crush
Hush

It was hot and heavy
Now we count the rings
Wasn’t even thinking

I Ran Away From Home

Simple Wide Trailer

Paul Nelson (It Demolished Him)

That Old Devil

I’m In The City Now

Words So True

She’s Not Here For You

She's Not Here For You

She’s not here for you
She went out to a show
She didn’t stay for your act
There’s something you don’t know

She’s not here for you
I heard days ago
She’s not here for you now
And it’s high time you know

So unhand her, you don’t understand her
She is way too cool for you
Caveman tricks never fix
What is wrong with you

She’s not here for you
No one to cheer no one to boo
So not together so it’s for the better
It’s over though for you

So unhand her, you don’t understand her
She is way too cool for you
The caveman tricks never fix
God what is wrong with you?

She’s not here for you
She went out to a show
She didn’t care for your act
Now that’s something you know

I Ran Away From Home

Simple Wide Trailer

Paul Nelson (It Demolished Him)

That Old Devil

I’m In The City Now

Words So True

She’s Not Here For You

Something Real

She says stay with me
All the days all the ways
She says stay with me

He says marry me
I need you, say I do
He says marry me

For something real that sticks right to your ribs
Something real to pass down to the kids
With something real you don’t have to pay
When something is real it never fades away

Don’t say carelessly
Nothing’s real, break our deal
Don’t say carelessly

We don’t speak aloud
The solemn vow we talked about
We don’t speak aloud

For something real that sticks right to your ribs
Something real to pass down to the kids
With something real you don’t have to pay
When something is real it never fades away

Two people in a dream
Who knows what it means?
We don’t know anything

So won’t you stay with me?
All the days always
Won’t you stay with me?

For something real that sticks right to your ribs
Something real to pass down to the kids
Something real you don’t have to pay
When something is real it never fades away

She says stay with me
Always

I Ran Away From Home

Simple Wide Trailer

Paul Nelson (It Demolished Him)

That Old Devil

I’m In The City Now

Words So True

She’s Not Here For You

Winter Hates To Wait

They say spring is a week away
Making deals with that summer day
Fall’s too far the pay ain’t great
And winter hates to wait

Skate around the rink
Miss it if you blink

They say the bar will make you cold
And whiskey takes a toll I’m told
Like too much sun it’ll make you old
Fat winter hates to wait

Skate around the rink
You miss it if you blink

They say a child is like a dream
And nothing fills that space it seems
Show them just how much they mean
Cause winter hates to wait

Skate around the rink
You miss it when you blink

They still say spring’s a week away
So don’t waste one more summer day
Fall is far but you make your fate
Winter hates to wait

Skate around the rink

I Ran Away From Home

Simple Wide Trailer

Paul Nelson (It Demolished Him)

That Old Devil

I’m In The City Now

Words So True

She’s Not Here For You

He's Down The Line

He’s down the line
If there’s anything you need
He’s down the line
No malice and no greed
He’s down the road
Now he rides for free
He’s down the line
An admiral on the sea

You always saw the poetry in things
You flew so high on artificial wings
You let us stay and hang out in the wings
And everybody listened to you sing

He’s down the line
If there’s anything you need
He’s down the line
No malice and no greed
He’s down the road
Inside the admiralty
He’s down the line
Ahead in front of me

You know you see the poetry in things
You flew so high on artificial wings
You were smart and you made up your own brand
You played in a super famous band

But he had to go
I think we all know
He had all the fun
He took his shot and now the bottle’s done

He’s down the line
If there’s anything you need
He’s down the line
No malice and no greed
He’s down the road
Now he rides for free
He’s down the line
Pick one of the, pick one of the, pick one of the three

I Ran Away From Home

Simple Wide Trailer

Paul Nelson (It Demolished Him)

That Old Devil

I’m In The City Now

Words So True

She’s Not Here For You

You’re back in the rain it found you again
Trouble always seems to find you
Do you just cover your eyes and wear a disguise
And hope the mirror won’t remind you

That still you’re out there in need of repair
Trying to hold it together
You need something less cause this is a mess
Always rolling up amongst the heather

So you’re back in the rain and it’s always the same
Cycle of abuse you follow
You cover your lies and sever your ties
Sinking in your sorrow

And yet you’re out there all inflated with air
Pretending that you’re so together
You need something less cause this is a mess
And you’re headed for the heavy weather

Yeah storms are rumbling
Can’t you hear it?
It’s insanity
To be near it

Yeah you’re back in the rain it found you again
Trouble always seems to find you
Do you just cover your eyes and wear your disguise
Hoping the mirror won’t remind you

That still you’re out there in need of repair
Trying to hold it together
Yeah you need something less cause this is a mess
Always rolling up amongst the heather

You’re back in the rain
It found you again

I Ran Away From Home

Simple Wide Trailer

Paul Nelson (It Demolished Him)

That Old Devil

I’m In The City Now

Words So True

She’s Not Here For You