Steve Wildsmith

Ever since Cruz Contreras gave me a copy of “Whiskey Angel,” the new CD by his band The Black Lillies, I’ve been fixated on track No. 4.

Don’t get me wrong; the whole CD is magnificent. Great songwriting, spot-on instrumental work and some amazing vocals by Cruz, who’s developed this tenor that reminds me of a cross between Dan Tyminski (the member of Union Station who sang “Man of Constant Sorrow”) and country singer Randy Travis. And the songwriting is well done, too.

But song four … song four is something else entirely.

It’s called “Midnight,” and it’s sung from the perspective of a man who’s been crushed by heartbreak. It’s implied he comes home to find his wife in another’s arms; either way, he never recovers.

When I talked to Cruz about it, he told me it was based on the story of Rodney, a homeless man who’s familiar to a lot of people who patronize Market Square and the Old City. I’ve met Rodney a time or two; he’s a gentle little man who isn’t bold or desperate or trying to manipulate you for money. He’ll offer a poem for a cigarette, and he’ll make conversation, dropping little clues here and there about where he’s been in his travels. He doesn’t tarry, and before long he’ll disappear into the night, head down and walking fast.

Cruz struck up a conversation with Rodney during a walk back to his North Knoxville home. At the time, Cruz himself was having a hard go of it; divorced and relocated to Knoxville from Blount County, he was starting over. No record contract, no band, no real prospects of a musical future; he found himself driving a truck and being a single dad and trying to figure out what to do next.

What struck him that night was just how similar his story and Rodney’s are … that but for the grace of God or a Higher Power or whatever you want to call it, it could just as easily been him asking for a little change of Rodney instead of the other way around.

A lot of people has gossiped and rumored about Cruz’s and Robin’s divorce, and because both are such high-profile members of the music community and quasi-celebrities as far as Blount County is concerned, I’ve found myself having to touch on it in stories about both. I don’t pry, and I’ve never asked what happened … because it’s none of my business. Mentioning it is unavoidable; using it as fodder for a story is in bad taste. I say that because I’m in no way implying that Rodney’s heartbreak is a mirror of Cruz’s; only that the two men found a kinship in the way that life had slammed down its fist like the hammer of Thor and shattered everything they knew.

“Midnight” is a song that touches me. Because of my own past as an addict and the darkness and pain that accompanied it, I know men like Rodney. But for a few blessings, some decisions inspired by a divine nudge here and there and the love of friends and family, I could have been a Rodney. Living in a halfway house off of North Central for two years, I met plenty, living among them and walking those same streets that seemed paved with hard luck and pain as much as they are by asphalt.

Cruz felt that pain radiating off of Rodney like a hot fever, and it touched him as well. That’s the other thing about “Midnight” that touches me — Cruz could have easily wallowed in self-pity and written song after song about heartache and loneliness, poor-mouthing his way through an album that would probably be just as good musically but lacking in depth spiritually.

Instead, he rose up, out of his own head and his own pain, and wrote a song about someone else. It won’t set Rodney up in a cushy new life and won’t bring his love back. But it’s a song about two people making a connection, a song that recognizes that the homeless most of us step over or walk around or just plain avoid have a story and a life; they’re human beings moving through the world just like the rest of us, trying to cope with whatever demons plague them.

Most people may never even know it’s about Rodney. But Cruz does. And I do. And now, so do you. And I hope the next time he approaches, you don’t slink away or take a step back.

Don’t pity him. He doesn’t want it or need it. Just recognize him. Acknowledge him, and say a little prayer of thanks that there but for the grace of God, go us all.

Download “Midnight”: Right click here (choose “Save Target As” or “Save Link As”)

Purchase “Whiskey Angel,” by The Black Lillies: Click here

The Black Lillies — Cruz Contreras, Leah Gardner, Tom Pryor, Jamie Cook, Jeff Woods and Billy Contreras — will celebrate the release of “Whiskey Angel” at 9 p.m Saturday, April 11, at The Square Room, located at 4 Market Square in downtown Knoxville. Admission is $7 advance/$10 door. For more information, visit The Black Lillies on Myspace.