Z.P. Kunkle and I made a record of narratives together. We share a love for the macabre and folk music.
Badlands #5 was written in the first fickle rays of a grey day after one of those long, dark nights of the soul. It’s the story of a family crossing the plains of the American frontier searching for a new life. They find it & it’s a hard one.
Winter comes early. The livestock has to be taken early. A mother-in-law dies. Things get so desperate that they’re reduced to putting clay in their gruel to fill their swollen, empty bellies.
You can purchase/stream/download the track (as well as the entire Badlands record) on all the usual places: Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple Music/iTunes, Youtube, etc.
-A.S. Coomer
Badlands #5
Oh how that rain had fallen
The stream swelled to swollen to burst
First went the young steer
Then snapped the wheel
The wagon washed down the Cheyenne
The plains wouldn’t settle
Oh how them arrows found home
Winter struck early: catching us off-guard
The stock had to go
Oh how that baby did cry
The ice spread over the Cheyenne
We lost your mother then Little Sally Mae
We peppered our barley gruel with little dobs of clay
We lost your mother then Little Sally Mae
The mountains they loomed
Oh how the wolves they called
We lived with great horned owls
All sorts of claws
The living was risky
Even them kids grew hard
We named the youngest after the Cheyenne
from Badlands, released June 28, 2019
Badlands #1-5 Written & Performed by A.S. Coomer.
James Kelly, Flood of ’81, Estella’s Lament, Eloise, & 3 Angels Written & Performed by Z.P. Kunkle.
Pickers, Singers, & Sinners: A.S. Coomer, Z.P. Kunkle, Michael Peters, Vester Frey, Vivian Kunkle, & Rachel Coomer.
Categories: Literature, Music, Songwriting, story
