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THE POWER & THE GLORY​/​Bill Mallonee & Vigilantes of Love (2011)

by Bill Mallonee

supported by
Keith Hewitt
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Keith Hewitt Bill has stated elsewhere that he considers this a Vigilantes album - but regardless of whether you see it that way or as a solo release, it feels like a triumphant return to form. (I think) it's his first full length album since "Permafrost" 6 years prior. And it's a doozy! The album could have been billed as "Bill Mallonee and Crazy Horse" and I wouldn't have questioned it for a moment! Terrific arrangements, excellent tones, catchy tunes, and always-thoughtful lyrics. Favorite track: CAROLINA, CAROLINA (a free download today!).
Richard Kinnaird
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Richard Kinnaird Bill, my son introduced me to your music by inviting you to New Castle, Indiana. I appreciate your sincere heart. You are a fellow traveler. Favorite track: THE GHOSTS THAT I RUN WITH.
Mark Helmick
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Mark Helmick Bill gets well-deserved credit for his song writing, but what about his guitar playing! The guitar work is fantastic throughout especially on Carolina, Carolina and Keep the Home Fires Burning, Memorable lyric. "Winter takes you by the hand to make you a little older, but that's not such a bad thing". One of my favorites! Favorite track: CAROLINA, CAROLINA (a free download today!).
Daniel Wanless
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Daniel Wanless Bill's music has touched a deep spot in my heart and soul since I discovered his work back in 1996. For years it was a scavenger hunt to find his music in independent record stores. I eventually resorted to sending him an email in 1999 to ask for help and if I recall correctly, he completed my collection free of charge. Thanks to Bandcamp, finding Bill's music is no longer an issue. Now if I could only see him live again in the very near future... Favorite track: THE GHOSTS THAT I RUN WITH.
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Carolina, Carolina Words & Music: bill mallonee Time, ah, she’s such an elusive girl she makes such bad eye contact seems to move you by waves and circles just to bring you back to that line of demarcation where you straight paths got a little bent right back to that place of new beginnings just like where all the old ones went Chorus: Carolina, what am I to do? Did I fail to render all that was your due? Could heaven ever be more blue? No, I didn’t think so... No, no, no, I didn’t think so... And your eyes were never sharper than when you got born again in spring and winter takes you by the hand just to make you a little older but that’s not such a bad thing Repeat Chorus If you’re caught out there on life’s wasteland borders with all your immigrant deficits in tow you swim the river to a deeper truth and the searchlight shines through your ghost
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The Shakers & Movers words/music: bill mallonee Well, the phone? it ain't rung that much today and those darker things? They’ve had too much to drink and say There's a phrase the shakers and movers like to throw around Yer either on the way up... or on the way down There are knives you must twist; There are morals to kiss...goodbye There are stories you must spin; All this snake skin to hide. There's a phrase the shakers and movers... like to throw around Yer either on the way up... or on the way down All these whispers behind closed doors; All this ink dryin’ on the page All these principles to compromise; All these promises to break There's a phrase the shakers and movers... like to throw around Yer either on the way up... or on the way down Bridge: Once my conscience was my sweetheart... Hell, it was all over town I told I’d marry her in a heartbeat... if she'd put the weapon down But there are hard ladders to climb; there are soft hearts to resist There are souls to be traded; and so many asses to kiss There's a phrase the shakers and movers... like to throw around Yer either on the way up... or on the way down
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JUST TO FEEL THE HEAT words/music: bill mallonee Mighta known I’d find you here just you and all those regulars and all that sadness you gotta protect and that nameless thing breathin’ down your neck the trains you missed or were long over due the orbits we fall so easily into and you’re wandering the city tonight and you’re trying to say the words to an old prayer just right CHORUS: You never told me your house was haunted and it’s cold in the places you sleep And I dunno if I'm just what you wanted I burned it down...just to feel the heat... Mighta known I’d find you gone no goodbye note, no “farewell” or “so long.” It’s hard choosing the spaces you wanted when all of them are equally haunted mighta known I’d find you there last place to look in 1000 years funny how when the die is cast what you thought was 1st is pulling up last So basically, when push comes to shove nobody knows what they’re made of and there ain’t no foolin’ yourself this time you’re the cruel joke and the bad punch line
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FROM THE BEATS DOWN TO THE BUDDHA words/music: bill mallonee there's always time to do in Denver... and note books to fill up and tea to get you spaced... when the mountains aren't enough these asphalt vibrations... that call so loud and long that lead to a lover's bed... or another town alone chorus: It's one step at a time... when yer heart's crossing the center line with your knapsack dreams and ragged elements in tow and the mystery that pursued ya'... from the beats down to the Buddha and the things you never could let go of... and the things you could quite let go of... running ink horn lines in red wine; big sur sea sounds losing yer mind. the bitter toll and burden of the miles But something pretty close to love... musta filled those bigger skies above and keep your words all fractured and colliding Lowell’s lonely factories... post-war America gettin’ free leaving all the brightest and best you n’er felt that understood, bangin’ on the Underwood puttin' all their alloy to the test
5.
GO TO SLEEP WITH THE ANGELS music/lyrics: bill mallonee It’s good to see you old friend I couldn’t track you down for days I heard you disappeared for spell just outside Santa Fe Did you go there for a new scene? Did your train tracks get all crossed? Did you go there for mystics? Did you go there to get lost? Chorus: and burn out like a sunset o’er high deserts out west burn out with every colour leaping from your breast and go to sleep with the angels sleep with the secrets they tell (sell) burn out like an old star ...and collapse on yourself 25 North and the snow cascades... and for a moment I forget just how good I had become at dealing from the bottom of the deck there’s a well I almost drowned in... and were it not for love you can fall pretty far and pretty hard... but there’s always blue sky up above. Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.... I was employed there every day sifting through those sad remains... for a lil’ something I might save So, I stole what there was left to steal... from an altar made of bones took back all those gifts I gave... they were never your’s to own
6.
THE GHOSTS THAT I RUN WITH music/lyrics: bill mallonee I’ve been hiding in these hills for a long, long time among the sun and the rocks and the wind a lot time to do me some thinkin’ about how all this got started about where ya’ going...and where ya’ been CHORUS: you might think I’d let ‘em put the shackles on my hands but the ghosts that I run with Honey, they got other plans my get-away was fantastic and my heart was all a-raptured shook off all their dogs I eluded every capture when my parachute it opened wide I still see blue sky in my dreams now it’s mysteries left unsolved on your TV No, it ain’t how mama raised me And it ain’t what daddy did It ain’t what the preacher taught me at all; So, it coulda been the drugs it coulda been religion Coulda been the voices that made me feel small Now, here’s what happens to you when you commit the perfect crime when I say what’s yours is mine and it all gets tragic here’s what happens to you when you come face to face ya’ disappear without a trace... without a trace
7.
STOP BREAKIN’ DOWN Music/lyrics: bill mallonee This is gonna be short This is gonna be sweet this gonna be tidy this is gonna be neat like a deal gone bad like the hand you’ll fold when the cards hit the table and the truth gets told chorus: Stop breakin’ down Stop breakin’ down Stop breakin’ down Stop breakin’ down Stop breakin’ down ...on me I remember when when we first met nobody now plays that hard to get I forgot just where where my solo was when I looked in your eyes and the monitors buzzed Is it gonna be just? Is it gonna be fair? I wonder where you got got that idea? It’s a glass that’s broken and these shards of trust baby, all that’s golden gonna turn to dust
8.
BRING YOU AROUND Words/music: bill mallonee Show me your cards.... yeah, show me your hand Give me the sales pitch and all the fine print of your master plan I ain’t bringin’ you much... Call me the “hold out kid” I found the waste places and the empty space... And lost every friend CHORUS: It’s always clear...it’s always clean I don’t care what you say...come whatever what may If you’ll just say what you mean and the Love that waltzed in here... without a sound It’ll whisper you name... It’ll take all th blame It’ll bring you around Yeah, behind the lies... you tell yourself to get between the tears you can’t cry and the wings that won’t fly and the audible sigh You gotta throw off the veil... throw open the door away with the fears, announce a new year where mercy is born Somewhere the sky’s always bright... Somewhere the sky’s always blue and that Love that you found, you know the one where you drown? It’s now living in you If all hell should break lose... if it should thunder and storm You know these vagabond hearts, they were lost from the start they will find their way home
9.
SPRING IN YOUR SPIRIT words/music: bill mallonee I could see the sunlight... playing on your walls it looks like she might get here after all chorus: And this dark night of the soul trade your grieving for some rock n’ roll There’s Spring in your spirit and everyone can hear it Maybe God’s face has smiled upon us look at that morning... filling up with promise (chorus) Oh, the ledger sheet of the years It all dissolves...in a single tear Baby, you be the diamond... make all those people talk I’ll be that blade of grass growing... from a crack in the sidewalk
10.
KEEP THE HOME FIRES BURNING music/lyrics: bill mallonee S’a long way through a rock wall and to pick through all these seams and the drill bits of progress are always and ever turning I’ve gotten pretty good, as you’d expect in this sarcophagus of Russian roulette just to keep the home fires burning chorus: Burning bright.......burning through whatever darkness befalls, (besets, bedevils) you burning ever a new burning ever so true It’s a world with no air and it’s a world with no sun It’s a tomb for the living to plunder it’s two bellows of thinnest skin breathing the dust of quick end in a world that’s long lost it’s wonder wait for me where it’s always spring honey, wait for me where the air is clean while I become one with our mother dearest wife, and faithful friend I carried your smile as that cage descended just to keep the home fires burning
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WIDE AWAKE WITH YOUR ORPHAN EYES muisc/lyrics: bill mallonee Poor kid’s wound...opening up... under a big sky town air to breathe..... space to fall down yeah, the wind has a voice... you came to adore and about that wound? Well, I’m to blame for... (Subchorus) and it costs so much... It costs so much to keep it all hid (chorus) wide awake with your orphan eyes blinking wondrous in the Autumn light that passes right through you standing by a barbed wire fence at the scene of the accident and your skies are cobalt blue And your skies are cobalt blue faith, she’s a woman... and to her I am bound Honey, I’ll treat you well.... considerin’ what I drag around It was nearing Christmas... when you bade it all goodbye I know those loneliness songs are gonna need a bigger sky It’s a far cry from the backyard... of laughter and cartoons to winter that glazes everything... under a mirror ball moon
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about

One of the biggest rock records I've ever written and recorded;
Noisy, jangle-y, lush, passionate, Rickenbakers, hooks, '60's, '70's...cobalt blue skies; with help from power-pop drummer and Vigilante of Love, Kevin Heuer.

all songs by Bill Mallonee
administered by BMI

credits

released October 2, 2011

Bill Mallonee: vocals, guitars (electric, acoustic, hi-string) harmonicas
Muriah Rose: vocals, piano, organ, mellotron
Bert Shoaff: bass
Kevin Heuer: drums, percussion

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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.
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