Get all 92 Bill Mallonee releases available on Bandcamp and save 20%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of WELCOME TO STRUGGLEVILLE (Remaster by Pete Lyman) 2024, Comes To Life (New single & free download), NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, & WEST, ABOVE, BELOW & WITHIN (single from Orphan Songs), HERE IT OPENS WITH A PRAYER, BUT IT CLOSES WITH A SONG (2022), A CLAMORING OF GHOSTS (2021), THE LOT OF EVERYMAN (a free download today), STUNNED (an anniversary song), "LEAD ON, KINDLY LIGHT" & "THIS WORLD & ONE MORE" (2020), and 84 more.
Excludes supporter-only releases.
1. |
Bank
05:11
|
|||
it's been known
for a train to jump its track
it's ok so you'll know
most the time they come back
and it's ok to lose your life
when you finally see your birth
it's ok to say i love you
figure sometimes it's gonna hurt
don't forget to bring kindness
don't forget to say thanks
don't forget to spend your love
no it will not break the bank
don't forget to bring some empathy
for the saints and the sinners
don't forget to bring encouragement
yeah we're all just beginners
up here under par cans
or down under the load
how i got from a to b
well God only knows
me i talk a real good game
practiced till i got it right
but most of the crying you'll do
it's inside most your life
yeah i done you wrong
and i hardly know why
i hope that you will remember
the more or less better side
i hope the Cross is big enough
when your sins reach to the sky
hope the arms are wide enough
to embrace one such as i
|
||||
2. |
Otherwise
04:38
|
|||
i guess i was expecting
better from myself
always this nagging feeling
i should be somewhere else
home well now there's the rub
mine could stand a shine
now there's a thousand miles between
some motel room and a back porch swing
of what used to be otherwise
i was living under the colored lights
they're now breaking monochrome
i fractured blessed images
i once made and then owned
and home i made a good one once
there was no disguise
now there's a thousand miles between
a heartbeat and a back porch swing
of what used to be otherwise
so i'll play you a certain card
every time my mind gets loud
but it'll never sweep the hand
when my heart's gone so far south
and i'll roll you a couple of dice
every time i'm dying to live
you can read it in the gambler's eyes
but it's speaking in his fingertips
i have this dream quite frequently
where i am blind and lame
stumbling through forgotten cities
looking for my name
and home well i became one once
under those clearer skies
|
||||
3. |
||||
4. |
Rationale
04:02
|
|||
well there's an empty space it's the place at the table
where we would start each day
if i could quit shaking long enough
i could almost hear you say
oh my love oh my love
yeah i wanted to get for you just a small gift
but all my pocket change was taken
then i wanted to become for you your favorite gift
then my heart got close to breaking
tear it all down tear it all down
what's there left to say
tear it all down tear it all down
turn around and walk away
walk away
it's a flimsy reason at best but a reason's a reason none the less
and i need one to hold on to this wheel
and if i hold my breath long enough
honey a kiss is what i want to steal
through the lies of facts that we marshall to attack
each other's wounded little hearts
and then comes the hard sell you try to make to yourself
but kid you know it's your own fault
yeah and for all that you learn you're still a sad piece of work
and there's just no getting around
the world's just victims and we're playing fast and loose
but now you know the real truth
|
||||
5. |
||||
one to get my tongue loose and
two for a broken heart
three for all of that wreckage
that we left in the dark so
one more yeah the neon's getting fuzzy
two hey pal can you help me find my keys
three if you could point me in the right direction
well i might get home again
and i'll tell you frankly what i think about it
from this bully pulpit barstool
everybody's nodding but nobody's listening
to to this fool
fumbling for some loose pocket change
to spend at a pay phone in the rain
to say i'm sorry a thousand times again
yeah and your heart kid seem to be open
but 'round here tonight it's closing time
and that lame ass way you have of coping
you can read between the lines
there is a very old saying
known by every boxer in the ring
you tell yourself when you're cut and bleeding
you don't feel a thing
|
||||
6. |
Resplendent
04:52
|
|||
yeah i remember the dark clouds
raining dust for days on end
blew all the earth out to california
and just left us here with the wind
in desperate times you know everybody's part
but it's your own lines you're like to forget
'til what you were meets what you've now become
grins and says "hey, haven't we met"
lost my firstborn that winter
and my wife on the first day of spring
and so i poured my sweat into the earth
yeah to see what that harvest would bring
and i remember howling fury
just like a plague of locusts
egypt's punishment for sins of pride
is that now what has come over us
how much of this was meant to be
how much the work of the devil
how far can one man's eyes really see
in these days of toil and trouble
honey we're all resplendent
yeah honey we are all thrift store
i'm like a wino with a twenty dollar bill
yeah forever and eternally yours
i can make you promises
if you don't expect too much
yes and i will run the distance
if you'll please please excuse my crutch
how much of this is failing flesh
how much the course of retribution
my my how loudly we plead our innocence
long after we've made our contribution
|
||||
7. |
High And Lonesome
03:56
|
|||
i'm so long overdue for me to tell you
i love you girl and baby thanks
people sure buy a lot of what doesn't make 'em happy
but our love is money in the bank
too close for most
one brick shy of grandiose
i'm high yeah i'm high again
i'm in love but i'm so lonesome
yeah i'm high i'm high again
i'm in love but i'm so lonesome
you really oughta tidy up those loose ends of your life
the ones you keep hangin' on the fence
people seem to want substantial periods
at the end of my every sentence
so be it was all she wrote
with a flair for the dramatic and the grandiose
there's always someone coming 'round to tell ya' when you're dragging
someone wants to fix your wagon
but my wheels they've got a trick that they were taught
when you get one fixed another falls off
thank you for this place to fall
honey would you be my all in all
|
||||
8. |
Here Comes Heartache
05:25
|
|||
one more lonely trail
one more busted guardrail
one more safety net shot to hell
you'd have thought after the last time
i'd have learned to read the road signs
maps they are of no use to the blind
your cab speeds away in the rain
but there's a guest that will soon be showing up again
i recognize her all-too-familiar face
here comes heartache
who knows how we got this far
a black leather jacket and a fast car
wasn't it always written in the stars
you'd have thought after such a common thing
the books and pills and the distractions
i'd have found a way back to the start
you delivered your goodbye with many a tear
academy awards await you dear
one for the best supporting fake
it was your movie from the very start
you needed a lead so i tried out for the part
forgot all my lines so i gave you my heart
i got a review that you wrote
i keep it in the pocket of an old coat
what am i supposed to do with any of this
and the whole thing hits like a tidal wave
the pain the shame the fear and the rage
when that wall hits the beach and we break
|
||||
9. |
November Ghost
04:21
|
|||
i should have kept kept that shot
of you turning up that bottle of scotch
and all of these rafts and pontoons
shimmer beneath normandy moon
here is where the voice leaves off
lungs collapsing sputtering cough
and as our crafts hit the shore
and we scramble to remember what for
always one more never the last
fresh off the farm into a bullet's path
another sad letter another grim post
another november ghost
you can touch the face of fate
when your blood saturates
the beaches were never fully cleared
dropped it into fifth when the clutch gave up
i was too high to die but down on my luck
never saw your pain when i was twenty five
it's the curse of youth to be so blind
always one more never the last
fresh off the farm into the looking glass
|
||||
10. |
Solar System
04:11
|
|||
come in here and have a taste
yeah what's one more hopeless case
when your short wave dies and there's no one to listen
and the stars going cold in your solar system
well her lips were red and her hair was brown
yeah feeling like the luckiest kids in town
she said "i'll follow you boy to the ends of the earth"
said "i'm not going that far for what it's worth"
and i really love to see you like this
the moonlight dripping off your fingertips
off your fingertips
well put all your love where it hurts the most
expect a little visit from the Holy Ghost
but when your short wave dies and there's no one to listen
the stars going cold in your solar system
|
||||
11. |
Till They Cry Out
04:26
|
|||
well look over there just past the stones in the riverbed
those sunset rivulets well they beckon me to come
the guardrail's all twisted it's rusting ribbons and memories and then
followed by the plunge
secrets are the things that you keep inside
till they cry out
back down the way down the dirt road a little bit
was the blind curve that she missed
radio was loud and i remember thinking
in her condition it was all too fast for the girl
and ten miles over the limit it makes all the difference in the world
i must have died forty times or more
in an effort to free her from that jam-locked door
car bolt upright and descends rapidly diminishing oxygen
and i can still hear screaming
i could still catch myself cold sweat waking up with a shout
and wondering why the hell she wouldn't pull up the lock
me i got out
what you don't know can kill you killing's never very far
and the dead are always more alive than you think they are
|
||||
12. |
Grave Reservations
03:43
|
|||
hand on the wheel again
king of nothing son
all your loyal subjects
betrayed you every one
to these grave reservations
cut to the bone marrow sensations
you're like a compass with no true north
you're blown away or off course
underneath the engine hum
road noise delirium
since nothing showed her pretty face
it was nothing you embraced
hand to the plow again
man's glory is fleeting
hand to your heart
to see if it's still beating
the breakdown wasn't temporary
here's your cell solitary
and in these veins of dust
kid it's time that you do business
hand on the wheel again
sweet kingdom come
i'm all lost in the Christmas snow
and tired of going numb
|
||||
13. |
In Time With Yours
04:46
|
|||
yeah i'm heading out west
with no dreams to rule my heart
you take a shot of courage
for the one you'll take in the dark
sure it is a dirty job
kid why did you sign on
leave a better part of you
a thousand miles from home
speak so i can hear you
open up my eyes
make my heart beat in time with yours
so i'll know you haven't died
the clang and bang of twelve string
there was joy in the air
but sometimes the ride on the passenger side
feels like an electric chair
and the stories you are writing
they are never what you think
and the things you open up tonight
well they bleed invisible ink
oh to put the burdens down
and we take off our disguise
oh to speak aloud of things
we now just whisper through our eyes
athens cold and gray
i hear it's warmer way out west
sunlight should be peeking through
ah but she ain't got here yet
girl you know i love you
you're all i've ever loved
but these days i'm so dismayed
with my own flesh and blood
|
||||
14. |
Nothing Like A Train
05:36
|
|||
nothing like the rain to bring you down
nothing like a train to take you far away
leaving here without a sound
yeah should have been gone yesterday
it was the diamonds i remember
yeah right there behind your eyes
i'm captured once again and seen through
honey your camera never lies
nothing like the leaves 'round your front door
and the stages and the pages you've been in love before
and the things you feel inside these bones
and those that won't leave you
those that won't leave you
those that won't leave you alone
you can map the lay of the land
yeah you can describe the sad terrain
let us survey all the borders
yeah but it all still looks the same
when you find there's nothing special
yeah about that big hole in your heart
'cause everybody's got one
with precious little time to talk about it
here's another song for brenda
yeah another tune for josh and joe
another postcard from the highway
my God where do these days go
|
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
Streaming and Download help
If you like Stolen Kisses & Other Thefts (14 songs), you may also like:
Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp