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"THIS IS THE PART WHERE WE KISS GOOD​~​BYE" Bill Mallonee​/​WPA 17 2013

by Bill Mallonee

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America, America. words/music: bill mallonee america america my dad sure believed in you he said "a man's gotta do what he's gotta do" got his degree at your diploma barn he was the first kid off the farm gonna change the world with chemistry but i know he'll do what you ask him to for america buy a new house with a tailored front yard run up all the credit cards there's more where that came from it's a cinch i knew by the age of six i'd never make a scientist when i saw the price you paid in their trenches they cut the moorings of your sacred ship pushed her out and they let her drift then the wind changed unannounced brought a new friend home to watch tv to help you deal with the anxiety she measured out her love in ounces yeah i've seen you do what she asked you to for america i remember standing 'round the vacant corner of some playground hoping we would get you back dying to make contact america now i struggle to pretend and fill the gaping holes in and remember all you did looking back to take inventory put the best construction on the story i'm now writing for my kids 'cause i know you'd do what they ask you to for america america america God shed your grace in his lonely heart this evening and if he falls asleep gather him and hold him tight and help me with this grieving 'cause i know he'd do what you ask him to i salute you
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JUDAS SKIN 05:16
Judas Skin Words/Music: Bill Mallonee what is it you need to hear? it's on your lips and in your ears if too much static or unclear still still He holds you dearly hound of heaven on your trail keen sense of direction and smell knows your need before you do and when you bleed He does too on my own again on my slow dark train how is it i am found in my judas skin spinning down what is it you need to know you don't already understand when You offer me a drink i just keep You at arms length what is it that i fear why is it i don't trust hiding out becomes career what am i covering up what is it you need to find love Your Spirit working overtime when i come out of my spin and i see You're still my friend
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ANDERSONVILLE words/music: bill mallonee pray for me my darling that peace might come to pass the devil finally laid to rest the carnage done at last we may have left at seventeen before boys are men but the ladies they will all turn out when we come home again we were locked in hell in andersonville in shebangs hot and stinking the stream we use as our latrine gives water for our drinking and a hundred of us daily die to fill those fresh-dug graves ah but the ladies they will all turn out when we come home again rumors spawn and rumors die on the rocks of the georgia sun and hope is just a luxury you learn not to count on oh hannah may you never see the sights that i have seen nor the ladies who will all turn out if we come home again so i watch the strong and fearless reduced and disgraced each day the heart of twisted man stares me in the face so i pray for death to take me just like it did my friends the ladies they will all turn out when the coffins are brought in at night i say my prayers and then i hold you to my breast and i'm reading through the testament you gave me for last Christmas i swear i heard the children laugh or was it angels on the plains or the ladies had they all turned out 'cause we came home again
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Run Through My Veins words/music: Bill Mallonee Put down for a little while yeah this time i'm really in you're on no first name basis with the stranger in your skin betrayal she's a girl yeah i slept with once or twice treason her next of kin she was more than nice and all your best intentions sleep under a sky with no stars and you run through my veins to my heart and you run through my veins when i'm sure of nothing and certain of everything else the longer that we do this we feel less and less ourselves hey why is it when you climb up here you can't find a place to hide hey why is it when you climb up here it feels like suicide put down for a little while time to bandage up these wounds time to find some spare parts time to ration fuel plant your victory garden place a flower there for me come into your kingdom Lord said the thief from the tree
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PARTING SHOT 05:55
Parting Shot Words/Music: Bill Mallonee words of wisdom quotable quotes reader's digest sayings for those losing hope why do i feel so mocked by the hands of the clock well anchor me down to the solid rock i want to leave you with something but i almost forgot was it a closing statement or a parting shot well you lie on the flowers here in the wind i've twisted it all with original sin there's a knowledge i traded a long time ago well i bartered it off for these rags i call clothes i learned how to fake it and remake it on cue but i swear i never stopped needing you there's a question forming out here in the dark in the heavy air all around my heart now laden with consequence chain link fence and shot through with all manner of lies i've been trapped in and caught and the world like a tempest in your ears doth roar and the flesh wants to dress up and play your whore and the devil wants to cast all manner of doubt on the real lover with the key dying to let you out from the bars that you fashioned with your stolen clout well i may be confused but i'll play my hunch did it feel like a kiss or a counter-punch evening is closing and the kid drones on and on and on well get out your car keys i hope this is his last song wait it's bigger than life it is gracious and grand something a child readily understands hey you know i sure could use a new suit of clothes see i'm gone all threadbare and my shoes are worn now the flowers are growing right out of these bones and i hear the trumpet sounding like Louis Armstrong when the great divorce happens hide me in your song though i don't deserve it and i don't belong i want to leave you with something will you take it to heart are you a closing statement or a parting shot Did You Know? Bill says of this song, which was originally called "Parting Shots," that he uses a "Richard Thompson tuning." The first two lines originally went like this: "words of wisdom quotable quotes, pithy little sayings for those losing hope." In explaining the lyrics, Bill says: "I guess I always thought of a 'closing statement' as being heroic, courageous and eternal... and a 'parting shot' as being something small, petty, cold and ultimately ineffective."
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about

Dear fans, friends, & the just plain curious,
I hope you will enjoy, "where these songs went," as i played them one last time on this guitar that has become a dear friend of mine..

This guitar was responsible for how part of myself was born, nurtured and formed. From that stand point, it's really not anything epic. But the fact that, like a prospector's pick, it tapped a part of me that's "birthed" over 1000 songs is well, pretty unique.

Here's how the guitar & I met:
The legendary Mike Guthrie (Athens, Ga.'s only vintage instrument dealer) called me one day in the summer of 1991. "i know you're playing more acoustic these days," he said, so i think you should get down here and see what just came in."
As it turned out a Univ. of Ga. music school student had just come into the store and sold his Takimine acoustic guitar. "It's perfect for you," mike said. "It has a great pick-up, great tone...and it best of all? It looks good one you."
At a "slightly used instrument" price, i walked with it that day.

I had just started an off-shoot band called Vigilantes of Love. (Athens scene musicians were always playing in side projects in those days. VoL was myself, accordion player Mark Hall with an occasional guest appearance by harmonica player John Evans. It was initially & throughly an acoustic project, a detour away from my more electric/pop band "The Cone Ponies. I'd been writting at a rate of about 50-60 songs a year for the previous 4 years. (most of those early songs were written on an old 6-string National dreadnought. (It was then quickly adapted to a paisley Fender telecaster and played electric.)

The new Takimine was my first "serious" acoustic guitar. With the acquisition of the "Tak" my writing seemed to move into a different sort of world. The guitar was very playable. It enabled me to explore technique and alternate tunings. It allowed a world of ease when writing, rehearsing and playing "live." All of those variables combined with everything I was listening to in those early days. i relished the tone and immediacy of Dylan's early acoustic records; was enthralled by the warmth and technique of a player like Neil young on his epic album, "Harvest;" I was smitten by the simplicity and tender beauty of Tom Waits rendering "Time, Time, Time."

These "influences" combined with two other dynamics. The first was that of the energy of the early Athens Music scene (still fledging in 1990.)
VoL's club was not the "Fabulous 40 Watt" nor the "Uptown Lounge." Our watering hole was the small but vibrant "Downstairs Cafe," located on Clayton street. It was here that Mark & I previewed countless songs that would eventually surface on the albums "Jugular," "Driving The Nails," "Killing Floor." There were at least another 50 or songs we played. I was writing up till the time of a show frequently. No recordings exist of those works.
We were, quite often, selling out two shows a night on weekends....but then again, the cafe could only hold 40 folks at a time.
Still, for someone who never felt embraced by the hipper "powers that be" in the Athens scene, it was affirming enough.
And so: Nothing breeds success like success.
It is significant that this is where i first, marked out my ritual of "write it, play it "live" asap, record it...and take it on tour."
I've done that now for 50 plus albums over 22 years.
Armed with my sweat-drenched Takimine, and some "fake-swagger-as-a-coping-mechanism-for-my- shyness," it truly felt like new worlds were opening up to me both as a writer & as a performer. That guitar, it's feel, it's tone, and it's growing-song-by-song-relationship, enabled me to write about all that was sad & fractured in my world; and all that was possibly hallowed and beautiful. Maybe something buried within, needed a nomenclature to be brought to the light & rendered less destructive to me. The guitar was that tool for such an excavation.
When I tell people that the guitar was "something like a salvation" I am not joking.

Guitars are funny. Although they are "things," this guitar became a friend.
"She" was on almost every album. I could pull it out of the case & instinctively "know" that something GOOD was going to happen.
Whether that "Good" came in the form of a new song, some new little technical flourish or a gateway to a new set lyrics, it became (to me) a loyal & trusted friend. It "turned the inside out."
I now believe that's what a good instrument is for.

~ "HERE'S THE PART WHERE WE KISS GOOD~BYE" ~
Recently, the guitar (which as most of you know) had to be sold. It was sold to stare down impending financial crises. Such crises have been a constant issue for me for near a decade now.
Maybe that's just the life of a troubadour. Was i pushed or did i jump?
I suspect i was "chosen" by the vocation as much as i think i did the choosing."

All I have to "offer" are the songs. And I have amazing, incredible fans.
They still listen to songs & music as if it matters.
On those 2 strengths, I have attempted to run something of a "cottage industry" outside the supposedly "real" industry.
And while I have had great "ink" spilled on my work for many years, it's never made for anything like financial stability.
I dunno. Maybe, I don't have the "killer" instinct and maybe that's what it takes to "make it" in the music world.
I've also heard about getting such things as getting a "big break."
There's only so much of "reality," if any one can control.

Me?
It was always about the love of the song and it's recording. And never about the "game" of "making it" in the music biz.
Or at least I got over the "biz" part of it early on. It seemed to be peopled by a lot of "soul-less" shakers & movers & poseurs. I/we distanced ourselves from that as far as possible early on...right into oblivion.

I love what I've done and i still love what I do.
But, it has been extremely hard and often bitter.
I find myself after 50 plus albums over 22 years, struggling (like many, many people in these changing times) to pay bills.
This is NOT whining, I assure you. Just an observation.
Still, such a sad "outcome" stares me (as it does many folks) in the face daily.
I suppose it's my deepest "spiritual struggle."
How to make sense of it all?
To tell the truth?
I've probably given up trying.

Details: I recorded, over the course of the last 3 days I had the guitar, 5 old "Vol standards."
"Judas Skin," "America, America," "Andersonville," "parting-shot" & "Run Through my veins," seemed likely choices. Those tunes were written on the Takimine, as well.
(Sure, there could have been another dozen or so, but i only had a few days to record, over-dub other parts, mix & upload the songs before heading out on tour.)

The arrangements are all new, each with a new intro. (you may not recognize the songs initially.) They have been embellished (when appropriate) with strings, mellotrons, cellos & orchestral harps. These sounds are some of my new loves.
I have always tried to let songs breathe and grow as they will.
As I said: I hope you will enjoy, "where these songs went," as i played them on this guitar one last time.

I am glad the guitar will have a new home.
you were so very, very good to me.
Thank you for so many years loving service.
Long may you run.

And so the end of the matter?
The songs keep coming, and fans (like "you") keep buying albums online & at shows...and so I can't complain.
Above all?
Life may still seems sad and fractured, but it is nuanced with glimpses of hallowed-ness, beautiful beyond description.

Bill Mallonee
Easter/2013


*As a side note:
when listening, please add a bit of low end &/or shave some of the "treble" response on your playback systems as you see fit.
I found the new compressor i was using to be slightly "toppy."

credits

released March 27, 2013

Bill Mallonee: Takimine acoustic guitar, vocals, harmonica;
cello, orchestral strings & harp arrangements

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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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