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WPA​/​Circa ("field" recordings)

by Bill Mallonee

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1.
Purgation 05:16
Purgation Year: 2007 words/music: bill mallonee i wrote this song on an old guitar under the influence of a million stars and with a head full of heaven and a heart full of hell with an audible sigh and a cry for help and if you look real close yeah but not too hard if you run your fingers across the shards it's all a broken glass honey there's no doubt you can fill it up but it all runs out let your hand be gentle let your gaze be warm life falls upon me (us) and shadows they all turn let the doubts disperse and the hope be gathered in let the curse be drowned as purgation begins now i've heard stories where lives reverse i must admit i don't know how it works oh to be safe oh to be hid don't know how it feels but i wish i did if you're a ghost well you're still loved welcome aboard it's a big club all of the fragile and all of the fake ain't no erasing the master tape
2.
Blind-Side 04:45
Blind Side Year: 2007 by Bill Mallonee nothing much left to give falling down short lived pretty broke and pretty fractured couldn't elude the hounds of capture heard a record going round i fell in love with the sound with the sky and with the wind the river underneath your skin you're the joke and the punch line never saw it coming from the blind side the stupid treasures you dug up held them up to the light and wiped off the dirt you find your calling just to lose your trust with your little heart and a wooden crutch it's all one big circus sideshow by now kid hey you should have known where to reach and what to do who left to pray to when the gas is as good as gone kid what you been running on tired of get tired of spend from beginning on down to the end tired of poor tired of wealth tired of my raggedy-ass self and the dues they're never paid up a few nickels in my rusty tin cup no matter how and no matter what more than likely won't be enough it won't be easy but it won't take long close your eyes draw a breath and be gone this thing that has chosen you and the needle spins out in the last groove
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War Wound (Seeing for the First Time) Written by Bill Mallonee BMI 2007 wrote a letter to myself you might call it a way of checkin' in 
love can turn against you and leave you stranded in the wind 
and it's bracing this whole endeavor 
wish you had two dimes to rub together you take leave of your senses just in time to stagger back to the house 
and you got into a jam and connections well they started going south 
your heart's the purse sure enough 
you play your hand but you'd better learn to bluff if there are battles to be fought if there were hills i needed to die on 
hey i surrender all 'cause when it's war baby you've already won 
and the treasures you thought would last 
well there's no vault to hold them fast 
take a drink gonna steal a kiss 
honey it's yours without clinched fist and this diner is a church and the priest he says your order's up 
and you're baptized in the neon and the coffee is your communion cup 
pick up the check and be gone 
the old jukebox is a carillon 
and the dream is what they sell you 
and the risk well there's some things they don't tell you i am seeing for the first time and darling i hope it ain't my last 
there were roadblocks that i sped through there were signs i just ran right past 
did i show you my war wound dear 
did i tell you the bullet's still there well all the songs you wrote the bits and pieces and the sullied parts 
didn't they tell you there are no guarantees just the promised breaking of your heart 
and that faith you used to shout 
poor kid what the hell was that about i am lost beneath a streetlight standing by this naked patch of ground 
and my heart is full of weeds and there is something like barbed wire all around 
and the change is always too spare 
and you vanish into thin air 
here's the bait there's the switch 
you are one failed magic trick
5.
Leaving Trains Year: 2007 | Run Time: 5:19 Written by Bill Mallonee falling rain swinging door no one buying records too much anymore neon glass folks walk past storefront window on the world they trace their feet to an empty seat by that windowpane on the leaving trains the scratch and hiss old stylus come have a listen to his master's voice most of what you know acuff-rose the circle of truth is still unbroken are you chasing or being chased which one are you you might find a deeper voice down in the groove step in here for a minute son sit yourself down dear let me spin you one of those tunes from yesteryear three minutes to explain sure you'll make your train those melodies they ride for free
6.
Orphan Eyes 06:10
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Nomenclature 02:53
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Undertaker 04:40
Undertaker Written by Bill Mallonee undertaker better watch what you do buddy i can see your every move wash off the dust better sew my smile on right make sure you comb my hair real nice me and the girls are going dancing tonight i was brutish at best i was giving it all to the flesh now i'm ready for the Spirit to be coursing through these veins like a river after the rain undertaker won't you please come near yeah i got a little something to whisper in your ear once had a girl she was pretty as pretty could be but i broke her heart took her love from me undertaker let us get this one thing straight there'll be no friends or relations at my grave commit me to Him like a thief upon the cross i was never too good about counting the cost if you need a little extra you can take my watch
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Hollowed Out My Heart by: bill mallonee compass shot to hell maps they're all frayed we were starving from the crumbs we picked up along the way hands were never strong enough to carry all your fears chorus tag line: So i hollowed out my heart my love make a place make a space for your tears and it was never better when lost in the sound yeah just outside the city walls but still sufficiently underground my feet were never quick enough for the changing of those gears no matter what i give no matter what you get all these treasures from the heart well now aren't they all suspect i handed you the wheel as i was too numb to steer once i gave you all my heart all of that has passed once i showed you all my cards well that will be the last last time i ventured forth out into the clear
13.
If I Should Fall From Grace With God Year: 2007. Run Time: 4:36 Written by Bill Mallonee i've been sober for nearly forty winks beating those odds ain't one of my strengths when your faith's a beat dog howling chained in some front yard if i should fall from grace with God sonnets of love and gethsemane carved deep beneath my skin hometown gatekeepers didn't like it much so i never did get in somewhere between strawberry fields my backyard full of stars if i should fall from grace with God now i have stood in large places but mostly they've been small i've ventured into spaces where i shouldn't have been at all remove your shoes figuratively this is holy ground we're on if i should fall from grace with God well faith has its thorns 'cause faith she is a rose you can still smell the scent if you lean in real close make them pry it from your hand after you're dead and gone if i should fall from grace with God judas was the traitor peter the cowardly man which one i most resemble the thirty pieces the silver in my hand my eyes were always set on high the heart so deeply flawed if i should fall from grace with God Did You Know? (left out verse) i never understood it i never was impressed / with the differences people claimed they saw between saint peter and judas iscariot / some poor son of perdition from the very start / if I should fall from grace with God
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about

LOTS of dusty gems. Some powerful songs here.
All done "live" to one track. Maybe some of the most poetic material i've written. Life comes cross-roads. Sometimes all the templates you were trusting & living by seem up for grabs. That's where a lot of these songs "where coming from." After 12 years on the road as a writing, recording & touring musician through some 15 albums, I really did not trust a soul anymore. Not even myself. Not a great place to be. These are songs of earth. Lament songs. Yearning songs. Failure songs...falling off horses and stumbling as you get back on sorta songs...and (thankfully!) falling in love again songs.
~bill

credits

released June 1, 2007

Bill Mallonee;
Guitars, harps, vocals
Muriah Rose: keyboards, accordian, vocals

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about

Bill Mallonee

Bill Mallonee is an Americana artist w/ 80 plus albums over a 30 year career. Voted by Paste Music Magazine #65 in their "Top 100 Living Songwriters" poll. He was the
founding member of Vigilantes of Love. He has worked with Mark Heard, Buddy Miller, Emmylou Harris, & Peter Buck from REM.
His most recent work, "Lead On, Kindly Light" is a 23song double Cd released Feb 2020.
... more

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