Bill Mallonee – Here it Opens with a Prayer, But it Closes with a Song

Description

Here it Opens with a Prayer, But it Closes with a Song is an album by the American singer and songwriter Bill Mallonee of Vigilantes of Love fame, self-released in May 2022.

Bill Mallonee may not be a household name, but he’s been making music for over 30 years, a decade leading the Athens, GA band Vigilantes of Love, and 20 years producing indie rock, folk/rock, and Americana as a solo artist. Currently living and recording in New Mexico, Mallonee is a prolific songwriter and together with his VoL output, he’s released 80 titles, many of his recent releases are do-it-yourself, home studio recordings where he plays most all of the instruments, various guitars, drums, harmonica and vocals, plus harmonies along with his wife, Muriah Rose. In his Athens days, one of Mallonee’s early classic albums, Killing Floor was co-produced by R.E.M.’s Peter Buck and the late (great) Mark Heard. Near the end of the band’s career, likely their strongest band collection, Audible Sigh was produced by Buddy Miller. These days, Mallonee is a one man, self-contained music enterprise, like many other artists, writing, performing, recording, manufacturing physical product, developing art, etc. and handling his own promotions.

In 2020, Mallonee released two companion albums, Lead On, Kindly Light and This World & One More, which together incapsulated in 23 elegantly recorded tracks, how Mallonee’s sound and approach has adapted in recent years. Always showing signs of Neil Young’s influence, these days Mallonee’s work runs much closer to old-school country sounds, with lots of lap steel and plenty of twang in those guitars. In the 14 new tracks here, Mallonee’s songs reflect the pain and struggles of this current time, where the machinery of the world rolls right over the lives of everyday people; many of us feeling that the powers that be have been «Taking Us All For a Ride». But as he sings in «Hearts Up On the Gallows», we may feel as if we’re little more than grist in the mill, we’ve “still got a song or two to sing.” It’s the fight for dignity and meaning, while working women and men struggle to make each day count, that fuels the folk in the stories Mallonee’s songs tell.

The average song here is in the 5-minute range, so there’s plenty of room here for Mallonee’s guitars to stretch out a bit, and the result is genuinely engaging. These tracks may have been meticulously planned out, so that Mallonee could map out the rhythms and individual guitar parts and solos, but the result feels like you caught a bar band in some road-side honky-tonk, and the band tends to extend their songs because they enjoy playing, the sound they’re making together. One thing that Mallonee’s careful not to overdue is his melodic use of harmonica, it shows up here and there, and always feels like a potent addition, whether showing up briefly in a track like «’Til Your Heart Got In the Way», blended integrally alongside the lap steel in «Rough Patch», or the it’s woven into the closing, mostly acoustic track, «Whatever Is Left of Me Now».

There’s plenty going on here, that longing the fuels the desire to “steal your heart” in «Perfect Crime (Baby, I’m Feeling Lucky This Time)» to the bar stool confession of «Musta Been the First Thing Come Into My Head», which provides the album’s title: Here It Opens With a Prayer, But It Closes With a Song. As with any artist, there’s a certain sameness that settles in with Mallonee’s music once you’ve gotten use to the flow of his approach, it’s the intricacy in this musicianship, and the poetic insights in his lyrics that hold your attention, and after a while it’s like listening to an old friend telling stories. [Brian Q. Newcomb, The Fire Note, July 5, 2022]

CD tracklist:

01. Musta Been The First Thing Come Into My Head – 2:55
02. Cave In (Faith Seeking Understanding Or The Other Way Around) – 5:44
03. Mother-Lode – 3:54
04. One Moment Stands Out – 5:47
05. Tumble Weed Dreams – 5:08
06. Perfect Crime/Baby, I’m Feeling Lucky This Time – 5:52
07. If My Heart Is Broken (Then My Spirit’s Not Far Behind) – 5:35
08. Beneath Those Carolina Pines – 4:08
09. Rough Patch – 4:51
10. Taking Us All For A Ride – 5:11
11. Hearts Up On The Gallows – 5:28
12. ‘Til Your Heart Got In The Way – 4:21
13. Nothing Lasts Forever – 6:24
14. Whatever’s Left Of Me Now – 4:23

Note: Available at Bandcamp: https://billmalloneemusic.bandcamp.com/album/here-it-opens-with-a-prayer-but-it-closes-with-a-song-2022

Album liner notes

First! A deep, heart-felt “Thank You” to the folks whose prayers, kindness & goodwill made all this possible via the Kickstarter campaign that gave this record it’s birth! For many a record now you folks “behind the scenes” have supplanted a record company, glitzy management, and superficial PR to make what I do as an independent Americana artist come to life. I am a blessed man, one who is deeply grateful to you all!

2nd: There’s lots of material here! The Rockies of northern New Mexico still inspire, harbor & nurture Muriah’s and my spirits. It’s a small, rural community of about 1,500 folks, many of them organic farmers. It’s been a good place to “wait out” the pandemic, pray for peace in the world..and a wondrous place to make new songs; A small adobe studio about 170 years old (with 2ft thick walls!) creates an environment that invigorates me every time I enter it. I whittled about 30 new songs down to 14; At 70 minutes, “Here It Opens With A Prayer, But It Closes With A Song” is probably the longest single record I’ve released.

I make songs & records that endeavor to “take the listener somewhere.” Always have. I try to “create worlds” when making a new set of songs for an album. My thoughts on albums lengths? We suspect we have all been “cursed” (due to the scatter-gun-rapid-fire-advertising-stimuli) with attention-deficit disorder. Our attention spans hit thresholds earlier.

My response? Make an allowance. This is art. I think good art is indispensable. It can be life-giving. Good art sneaks up on us, steals our heart for a spell, makes them clean & then gives them back to us in a new & fresh way. Good art makes us more human, more in touch with that image-of-God-ness resident within each of us. So, I have a simple request: If 70minues seems long, please, please, hang with it. Read the lyrics. Ponder the vocal & instrument maneuvers. Absorb the full-band chemistry here. I hope the great joy I had in making this record shines through and the “places it takes you to” resonate with your spirit. Good songs should help us blossom. You are welcomed to write me and ask me any questions about the songs themselves & what they seem to say. I’ll answer.

3rd: “How DID They Do It?” While most of the instrumentation was delivered my myself, I had some great friends aiding & abetting these sessions. Bill Pratt (whose work graced previous records of mine “Permafrost” & “Beatitude”) gave of his heart via his superb pedal steel work here. Vigilante of Love, Chris Bland, of “To The Roof of The Sky” & “Slow Dark Train” era, brought his excellent bass guitar work to a good number of tracks where noted in the song lyric & personnel notes. Mark Konzal, one of Atlanta’s finest, played some excellent “call & response” sections in addition to offering excellent production suggestions. (Mark & I played in high-school bands together, so the re-connection here was incredibly joyful.)

Finally, the keeper of my heart’s keys, Ms. Muriah Rose, stepped away from her own busy routines as wife, home-maker, dress-maker, song-writer, and gardener to lend “that voice of hers” to a few songs.

There are three other folks who gave of their time, talents & artistry in the making of this record.

Sonic guru & all-around superb engineer, Chris Bethea, mastered & sequenced the record. I’ve lost count on how many albums he’s given selflessly to make my work shine in it’s audio values. Thank You, Chris! (website here)

Jason Horst, of HorstArts Design Group, designed & tended to every detail of this record’s packaging & visual appeal. (One of Jason’s first project was the magnificent www.Parting-Shot.com VoL site. That site, replete with hundreds of my songs, what albums they appeared on & packed full of anecdotal details qualifies Mr. Horst as the band’s official historian of the early years of Vigilantes of Love & well into my early solo career.) Thank You, my friend!

Bill Mallonee

released May 13, 2022