Will T. Massey is an amazing singer-songwriter. He is also my cousin and he struggles with schizophrenia. I have written many posts about Will through the years, including this piece about the last time I saw Will in December 2016. Though he has disappeared back into the woodwork, his powerful and intensely personal songs remain.
Here are the various songs of Will’s that I have posted to the blog with transcribed lyrics and video and/or audio recordings. The songs cover a lot of territory, from his earliest performing days to his later songs, so this list can be divided into early songs and more recent ones.
Early songs from Will T. Massey — some included on Pickin’, Poker, and Pick-Up Trucks, Kickin’ Up Dust, and Slow Study, his independent cassettes released before he signed with MCA and released the well-known eponymous first album, Will T. Massey. Several are previously unreleased.
Pickin’, Poker, and Pick-Up Trucks
Kickin’ Up Dust
- Then The Lone Star Will Stop Shining
- Hard Working Man
- Half as Lonely
- Cost of Living
- The Dark Side of a Dream
- Fading Away Like My Jeans (co-written by Mark Luke Daniels)
- Waltz Across My Mind (co-written by Mark Luke Daniels)
- That’s Texas
- Road of Roses
Slow Study
- See You Around
- Homeless Heart
- The Hell You Raised
- Highway Hearse
- Slow Study
- Long Distance Love (co-written by Peg Miller)
- I’ll Be Gone
- Closin’ Down My Heart (Last One to Leave)
- A Dying Breed
- The Road That Brought Us Here (CD bonus track)
- Mr. Johnson’s Store
Chicago House “Slow Study” CD release party — 9-9-89
- What Heaven’s Worth
- My Old 64
- Mama Never Liked Traveling Songs
- Waiting On You (co-written by Rosie Flores)
Will T. Massey (MCA)
- I Ain’t Here
- Send Up the Smoke
- It’s Midnight All Day Long
- You Take the Town
- Barbed Wire Town
- Coffee Break
- The Bravery to Weep
- A Summertime Graveyard
Post-MCA material
Will’s other songs that I have posted come from much later, spanning his recordings and performances from 2005-2016. Some of theses songs appear on albums released during that time: Letters in the Wind, Wayward Lady USA, and The Weathering. Several of these are previously unreleased, or only released in limited editions.
Letters in the Wind
Wayward Lady, U.S.A.
- A Soldier’s Love (Bring ‘Em Home)
- My American Prayer
- Wayward Lady, U.S.A.
- You Work for Me, Mr. President
Private CD prerelease
iPhone
- A Little Bit of a Heartbreaker
- Broken Heart for You
- The Old Crazy Goat
- Playing Hurt
- Roses as You Go
- Drinking for Two
- The Darkness Now
The Weathering
- Haunted Eyes
- Sometimes I Sing
- Weird Again
- Poor Girls
- That Isn’t Me Any More
- A Heartbreak Away
- Once Upon Forever
- Out of This World
- The Remembering
- Drunken Cupid
- The Weathering
Live recording
- I Can See Heaven From Here
- Always Working
- High Rollers, Roll My Way
- I Will Take the Wheel
- Goodbye
- The Great Beyond Near
- Hardest Mile
- Always Saying Goodbye
- Last Lover’s Waltz
- The Moon’s Got the Blues Tonight
- I Forgive You, God
- Got to Be All Right
- Long Lonesome Look
- A Little Bit of a Heartbreaker
Soundcloud account
I will continue to add to this list on a regular basis, as I want to make sure that Will’s amazing legacy of song does not fade away.