Badlands #5

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

[image error]Cover by A.S. Coomer

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

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Badlands #5
(A.S. Coomer)

The crossing was hard

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.