Z.P. Kunkle and I made a record of narratives together. We share a love for the macabre and folk music.

Badlands #4 is the story of a heist gone wrong. Johnny, Marcus, and the singer of the song think they’ve got an easy payday. Turns out they’ve been setup. There’s a firefight. It’s not pretty.

Badlands #4 (A.S. Coomer)

Johnny got the keys to the store
I didn’t ask him how
I didn’t need to know more
I thought: here’s a payday
I just said: let’s go

I set it up for the next night
Johnny, Marcus, & me didn’t even bring masks
We thought we’d come off clean

They were waiting at the door
6 cops or more
I didn’t need to see more
I started dropping them
One after the next
I saw Marcus fall too
I put another badge on the deck

Back in the car, Johnny bleeding out under them badland stars
I seen men gut-shot before
I knew there was no hope for him
I said: take this Vicodin

He started in on his rosary
I told him we had one last stop to go
The Little Missouri: up & running from the rain
The Little Missouri: carry him away from the pain

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.

Mixed by Cory Gottron at Sub Par Studios.

Mastered by Tony Taylor at Rock Haus Studios.

Nod yer heads.

-A.S. Coomer

Categories: Fiction, Literature, Music, Poetry, Short Story, Songwriting, storyTags: Fiction, folk, Indie, Literary, Live, Music, Poem, Poetry, Radio, record, sale, Short Story, single, songs, story