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

Badlands #2 is a bankrobber’s song. The singer, going through hard times like the rest of us, is just doing what he has to do. Now ain’t that the goddamn truth?

Badlands #2 (A.S. Coomer)

I got a pickup; I got a gun
I’m wearing a black mask ‘cos I’m on the run
Well, I’m heading out to the badlands ‘cos they ain’t no place else to go
So I’ll hang around but I’ll hang low

Ask me no more questions & I’ll tell you no more lies
Don’t you stand in my way, buddy, ‘cos I gots to hide
Well, I shot that sheriff just outside the bank
He’s kind to my momma but I shot him just the same

Now it’s getting hard out here
I think my safety net’s done come unglued
Now I took that money but I didn’t want to shoot
Yeah, well, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do
Now ain’t that the truth?

Now, Sweet Lucinda, don’t you rag on me
I just did what I had to do so you & them babies could eat
Now, ain’t nobody seen my face so you don’t have to fret
You can’t stand the sight of blood? Well, don’t look at it

We recorded this one, and most of the others, in the basement of my house in south Toledo. We took smoke break out on my little front porch and listened to the sirens wail. My neighbor learned what we were working on and gifted me an antique squeezebox.

You can purchase/stream/download the track (as well as the entire Badlands record) on all the usual places: Bandcamp, Youtube, Spotify, Google Play, Apple Music, Amazon, etc.

The Badlands record was mixed by Cory Gottron at Sub Par Studios & mastered by Tony Taylor at Rock Haus Studios.

The Coomers recorded this song live in a barn in Evansville, Indiana.

Nod yer heads.

A.S. Coomer

Categories: Anthology, Excerpt, Fiction, Literature, Music, Short Story, Songwriting, story