As I was listening to my Americana station on cable TV, I heard this song that I knew I had to learn. Jeff Tamadge is a super talented musician and songwriter. His website is here: Here is an biographical excerpt from his website.

Jeff Talmadge Bio

Born in Uvalde, Texas, Jeff grew up in small towns scattered across Texas–ones like Crystal City, Boling, New Gulf, Iago and Big Spring. The ghosts and memories of these places appear often in his songs-distant trains in the night, unread letters lying in weathered mailboxes, and memories of the things we love-and leave-blowing across the vast Texas plains. 

Layered with lyrical imagery and textures that whisper their way effortlessly into the heart, Jeff’s CDs are haunting treatises on longing and remembrance. Says PrimeCD recording artist Annie Gallup, “Jeff has a gift for writing lines that are absolutely fresh but that run so deep that I’m forever quoting them to myself to explain and validate events in my own life.”

Jeff’s 1999 debut CD, Secret Anniversaries, his 2000 follow-up, The Spinning of the World, and 2001’s “Bad Tattoo” have received extraordinary reviews and extensive airplay on over 125 stations in the U.S. and overseas-startling achievements for these independent releases. Jeff has appeared as a songwriting finalist or showcase artist at some of the nation’s best folk festivals.

It’s further testament to the quality of his music that Jeff has attracted a veritable who’s who of outstanding musicians into the studio to record with him, including: Iain Matthews, Eliza Gilkyson, Annie Gallup, Gene Elders, Bukka Allen, Mark Hallman, Stephen Bruton, Frank Kammerdiener, Glenn Fukunaga, Chris Searles and Paul Pearcy.

A graduate of Duke University, Jeff won the prestigious Academy of American Poets Award and went on to receive a Master of Fine Arts from the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers in North Carolina. Jeff is an active member of the U.S. Folk Alliance.

Here are the lyrics to the song I heard. This is a transcription, so if I made a mistake let me know. Jeff contacted me about the post and said that he plays the song using an open D tuning:

The Hard Part’s Letting Go by Jeff Talmadge

You can’t fight the undertow
Touch a live wire and you can’t let go
It’s easy to hang on to the love to the love you know
But the hard part’s letting go.
The hard part’s letting go.

You can’t let go when you’re in the lion’s grip
You can’t unlearn the things you know
It’s easy to hang on to a sinking ship
But the hard part’s letting go.
The hard part’s letting go.

Holding on is easy sometimes
It’s just going with the flow
But any fool can just hang on,
But the hard part’s letting go.
The hard part’s letting go.

You can act like an acrobat on a high trapeze
Hope someone will catch you down below
And you can pray a prayer that will knock you to your knees
But the hard part’s letting go.
The hard part’s letting go.

You can’t fight the undertow
Love’s a live wire and you can’t let go
It’s easy to hang on to the love to the love you know
But the hard part’s letting go.
The hard part’s letting go.