Badlands #3

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 #3 is another attempt at writing a novel in song. The story, told simply with a few finger-picked chords, follows the singer as he goes from a mineworker to a murderer on the run, smoking Big Rock Candy Mountains and losing his faith in love and God in between.

Badlands #3 (A.S. Coomer)

I got a job in the badlands working in the mines for a spell

I up & married this redhead, well, she knows how to give me hell

I got this truck & this bad buzz real cheap & it’ll take them both just to carry me on down

Down the road, away from the river where you first laid hands on me

Held me down, pushed me under, nary a light did I see

The sky was blue, the faces were smiling, your mother was singing to me

You cried & so did I, I tried, but I couldn’t believe in you

You & me just dancing under them cigarette trees

Smoking Big Rock Candy Mountains

Wishing we had something to eat

And now we don’t even roll ’em up

We just sit around & have entire conversations without making a sound

I gotta leave these badlands, I gotta get out now

When they find your body, I’ll be well on my way south

I think I took the wrong stuff, now I cannot see

Is this your ghost choking the life out of me?

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

Badlands #3 was originally written for the Badlands record, and it’s on there, but it’s also the B-side on The Coomer’s single entitled Run. This is a whole different approach to the song. I’m on the electric guitar. Ethan Coomer is on the drums and is singing backups. Ross Clark-Coomer is on the electric bass.

Nod yer heads.

-A.S. Coomer