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SONGS FOR THE JOURNEY & BEYOND​/​WPA 12

by Bill Mallonee/WPA

/
1.
CALIFORNIA WAVE words & music: bill mallonee No, it's never been a problem For me to light up a stage i could ride that moment like a California wave make you glad to be alive next moment break your heart but it's when those big lights went out well, that where the problem starts you'll go back to your fine homes with some new stories to tell and me? well, i'll just crawl back to a lonely motel with a bottle as an only friend after all's been done and said with Gideon's Bible in a drawer beside my bed chorus: Now you can be a pauper or you can be a king but if you've never ever known yourself It don't mean a thing It don't mean a thing now, I musta left a part of me way back there on this ride now, the mirror, she's like a camera and you know cameras' never lie No, it's never been a problem for me to light up a stage Hey, i could ride that moment like a California wave like a California wave
2.
BARSTOOLS & BAGGAGE (DEBTOR'S SOUL) words/music: bill mallonee Now there's the sound of your wounds you keep tryin' ta' keep hid there's the sound your dreams make....hittin' the skids mile marker countdowns and the rooms where we grieve where we all meet for a moment...and try to believe CHORUS: Barstools and baggage happy hour language hey, look in the mirror Everyone i know has gotta debtor soul.....in here when the well of good luck has long given out It's as dry as an East Texas drought string it together, kid, all your bailing wire dreams and those wasted, rusted-out-might-have-beens the picture's fallin' out of focus again and that faded background yer standing in and the morning resolutions you swore would see you through they're all a dusty shambles & crumbled by high noon fillin' up the spaces with empty lies tryin' not to over romanticize you and me babe; we can get through this little prayer whispered through a whisky kiss When guard rail emotions, they won't ever bear the load guitars sleep in cases after the show 'Tween Heaven and hell and sittin' on the fence I've been haunted by 'em both ever since
3.
PILLOW OF STARS (FATE & SAD REVERSALS) music/lyrics: bill mallonee pass me that paper n’ pen and shot to boot let a dreamer preach a sermon and a fool speak half-a heart full chorus: and baby, when you love... ya’ find out who you are wherever you lay your head... may there be a pillow of stars and though fate and sad reversals may slow your journey home you’ll get there cause that deal was done... a long, long time ago... And what cha said with your eyes was more n’ you wanted to speak my, my, how we use these stammerin’ tongues to steady stumblin’ feet I dunno why I rock this way or why I roll with such an art dunno why speak these words to break my own heart
4.
Bottoming Out words/music: bill mallonee Guitar player, country band too long waiting for the ship to come in record scout said he liked our sound pulled some dust from his bag and he bought us another round chorus: religion's neither here nor there when you're stuck in the middle of the thin air it's too much hunger and not enough cash it's always the cheap stuff that takes you down fast always the cheap stuff that takes you down fast and nothing's turning you about kid, you're bottoming out i remember the bag and the dust five sets a night and you'd do what you must look at the ruins you hide among yeah your lips they're moving you don't understand the tongue Make them believe it was love at first sight you make them believe they had the time of their lives And Grace? Could there ever be enough for the hollow places you can't fill up you can't fill up or touch
5.
LAY OF THE LAND (TOOK ME AS I AM) words/music: bill mallonee It ain't nothing like Carolina not a bit like Tennessee now, i'm a million miles away from folks who care for me chorus: they knew for the fool i was and still didn't give a damn they loved me...ah, well, just because they took me as i am I always listened to what momma said about the wolf being at the door and daddy? He drenched the land with sweat sometimes i think he didn't know what for And my path took me to travelin' with a guitar from coast to coast It's too easy to forget the ones who loved you the most Now the folks in Carolina and those good ones o'er in Tennessee you might say they got all the goods ...and the lowdown on me chorus: they knew for the fool i was and still didn't give a damn they loved me...ah, well, just because they took me as i am I remember Sunday school and Jesus on the wall a picture of His sacred heart...full of love for all.
6.
TRYIN' TO WALK IT OFF    music & lyrics: bill mallonee baby, we all wind up here by many paths no doubt and me? well, i just sorta stumbled in to see what all the fuss was about Some God-forsaken watering hole they called the Poison Well (It was) one more round after one more round of anything that they'd sell.... Now there'll be hats you'll have to try on ah, maybe a conscience to dismiss smiles you'll have to fake and so many asses to kiss and there'll demons you gotta stare down as you pass through glitterin' doors So many faces that you'll have to wear till you won't know which one is yours CHORUS: cause, you know when you are thirsty you'll drink every drop Then you can spend a lifetime just trying to walk it off now the judge? well, he turned up missing and the jury: It's hung in doubt and since the hangman's on vacation i took the gold and got out cause we all wind up in here by many paths no doubt i just sorta stumbled in to see what all the fuss was about...
7.
MAN OF WORDS (RUNS OUTTA THINGS TO SAY) words/music: bill mallonee Blinded by the bright lights dazzled by the babes and fames has got a price tag and the piper must be paid Power, is a funny girl we spent some nights along the way and pride's a master of disguise she answer's to many names chorus: And songs were just a way for me to keep one foot from the grave so it's frightenin' when a man of words runs outta things to say what's done is done and come & gone and the ghosts of the past bellied up round to see your future at the bottom of a glass and the engine, she is seizing pistons firing wrong if mercy is a spotlight for God's sake, turn it on now the clock is still ticking and i haven't slept at all just this reoccurring dream about walkin' down an empty hall and every door i try is locked but then i realize i've gone and locked 'em all myself and that...from the inside.
8.
NEW YEAR'S EVE music/lyrics: bill mallonee glass empties out......last grains run through out with the old......ring in the new time to ante-up......time to pay dues but every time i find...ain't no nearer to you Chorus: There's a pulse, that's true.... but the breathing comes in fits If you're callin' my name... If you're still callin my name... I can barely...hear...it... So you try to believe...you pray and pray my feet struck out...on the narrow way Try as i would...try as i might i couldn't find my name...in the book of life Came out of a storm...came out of a dream It all looks so easy...at 17 ah, but the skin yer in...could surely use some help yer bound to wind up...hatin' yourself last call sounds...drain the cup you know i don't know why...it ain't ever enough another new year...more hallowed ground i hope your arms are there...when i leave this town
9.
KID HEART 06:16
KID HEART By: Bill Mallonee There's the sound of weariness making her rounds heard there was but one road out of this town Between the diamond and the defect dusty archives that cha kept the locust years were all you ever found So i traded in my "kid heart" for this guitar and a small spark the cards were all well marked...in advance the taintedness of everything it all came soaked in gasoline and the asphalt she was beckoning towards a different kinda reckoning your kiss...awaken me...from this trance and you'd like to think you chose this that path you say you took but you know that's rewriting....rewriting the book once you heard that tremolo and 6 string drag go down once you heard that lonesome record...going round sun broke over heartland sun broke overheard and that Rosary on the rear~view...went unsaid
10.
Life I Never Lived music/lyricsby bill mallonee Look at al the goodwill i retracted Look at that deck of cards and how i stacked it Look at all that fear and how i masked it look at the life i never lived look at the life i never lived Look at all once mistook for wealth Look at all those gifts i put back on the shelf Look at all the slack i cut myself look at that life i never lived look at that life i never lived Playback all the harsh words i spoke Take note on how i squashed some hope look at all those tender hearts i broke look at the life i never lived look at the life i never lived Look at all the houses i tore down Look at all the smiles i turned to frowns Look at all the roads that just went round & round look at the life i never lived look at the life i never lived Look at all the good i failed to see Look at all i failed to do for Thee look at what i might one day have been look at the life i never lived look at the life i never lived look at the life, look at the life look at the life i never lived

about

~ SONGS FOR THE JOURNEY & BEYOND ~
"THE LAY OF THE LAND"

"Road songs" have become "Life songs" for me. Travel from "A" to "B" seems to have a way of unlocking deeper parts of my spirit.

Having lived the better part of the last 20 years on the road as a "band in a van" or as a troubadour, I became immersed first-hand in what historians & writers have called, the "American Experience."

Those variables of limited resources & hard luck, when fused with faith, courage & (often) sheer "pluck," were vital to transforming this great country. The idea that we could all dream and find ourselves a "lil' part of Heaven," initially "looked good on paper." We had, so to speak, a lot to work with here. The grandeur and resources of such a land as ours is, to my mind, unrivaled in the world.

We all play out a certain drama:
We learn the ropes of life.
In doing so we learn of our own gifts and our weaknesses.
We are thrown back (like it or nay) on something larger than ourselves.
We try to bet on hope in the face of grief.
We champion courage while attempting to keep despair at bay;
...and we take a stoic stock in a sober faith that "it's all going somewhere."
Those ancient stories and myths you try to make your own.
Call it naive. Call it infantile; Call it uninformed, it is, nonetheless the "Faith" we have cobbled together from our American Experience.

It is this "faith" that attracts me to a guitar, and the possibility of a song being born. Of something coming to life.

If we "dare to look it in the eye," this raw energy of our individual lives, dreams, and struggles, we will have more than enough "grit" to make for great songs. Whether it's themes of heroes, thieves, lovers, villains, misers or the "down-&-out," it has been such experiences that have informed my world without...but mostly my world within;

Early on in my life, i was deeply aware of a universe that was full of great beauty, joy & hallowed-ness. Still, such beauty (earthly or heavenly) comes to us in fits and starts. It introduces itself in such fragility and vulnerability that it appears tentative, even disposable.

We are victims of all that seen (as opposed to the unseen, even in ourselves.) Fear drives us to soul-less solutions. People get hurt. In our mad rush towards materialism as "individuals" we are easily seduced at the altars of wealth, success and violence. People and things are deemed, "expendable." Even our relationships become defined in terms of "Gain vs. Loss."

Having lost touch with things of Spirit, we tend to devalue that hallowed-ness in the world. We miss such hallowed-nes in our neighbor and sadly, even in ourselves. We miss Spirit, ignore it and (often,) ruin it, by our own devices. Though outwardly we appear to "have it made," we are often become living beings, lacking a pulse...running on empty.

I count myself in such a category, punctuated with the occasional "mini-epiphany." Perhaps we all live at such address.
That "almost but not quite" aspect of our lives.

And, if by chance, we should wake up to that "larger, brighter world," embrace it, cultivate it and above all: Chalk it up humbly to grace.
And that "not of thyself."

And for those of us who still walk wounded, lingering in the twilight? Well, "be ye kind, tender-hearted & forgiving" to the rest of us.
Such displays of virtue may be the only "sighting" of that larger, brighter world we "unbelievers" will ever see.

Maybe that's what these songs for the journey & beyond are all about.
Joy & courage on yours, dear friends,
bill mallonee

New Years, 2012

credits

released January 15, 2016

Bill Mallonee: vocals, guitars, elec & acoustic, harmonica, bass, piano, drums.
Muriah Rose: piano, vocals.

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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.
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