Red​-​Winged Blackbird Man

by Mike Mangione & The Union

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about

Mike Mangione & The Union is a touring group that combines a folk-rock sound with an orchestrated string section, soulful vocals and literate sensibility. The band’s debut album, Tenebrae, received favorable press from all corners of the country, including the honor of being an All Music Guide Album Pick, while Blurt refers to their “tearstained folk, Memphis-styled gospel and bluesy-flavored pop” as “luminous.” In 2011 they released Offering on their own imprint, RODZINKA Records, with sync and digital licensing by DUALTONE Records. The album and band were nominated for “best of the year” by RadioMilwaukee (88.9 FM), along with receiving other kind and warm accolades. On September 3rd, 2013, they will release yet another album, Red-Winged Blackbird Man, produced by Grammy-nominated producer, Bo Ramsey (Lucinda Williams, Greg Brown, Iris DeMent).

credits

released 03 September 2013
Produced by Bo Ramsey
Engineered by John Svec, Iowa City, IA
Mixed with Tom Tucker, Minneapolis, MN
Mastered at Yesmaster, Nashville, TN
Cover Art by Ruthie Hoctor

tags

tags: folk soul americana folk folk rock singer-songwriter Milwaukee

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about

Mike Mangione & The Union is a touring group that combines a folk-rock sound with an orchestrated string section, soulful vocals and literate sensibility. In the fall of 2013 they will release their third studio album, Red-Winged Blackbird Man, produced by Grammy-nominated producer, Bo Ramsey (Lucinda Williams, Greg Brown, Iris DeMent). ... more

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Track Name: Fields Of Evermore
Lonely is the shadow lit by the moon
Heavy is the burden that comes too soon
The fields are hot and heavy and filled with stone
I’m going to work the land of my father ‘till the seed has been sown

I’m going to make it rain somehow
I’m gonna make it rain somehow
On the fields of evermore

My hands have learned from watching, my heart from pain
When the bundle falls we’ll burn ‘em all to refine the yield again
My cracked hands hold the rhythm
I walk the furrow with an offering
I cant wash my hands too often boys on account of the burn and sting

I’m going to make it rain somehow
I’m gonna make it rain somehow
On the fields of evermore

Mercy come and hold me now and get behind the plow
Mercy come and hold me now get behind the plow
Mercy, mercy hold on get behind
the fields of evermore
Track Name: Can You Love Me Falling
Lover, will you pardon me
Will you let me sing to you
Can you hear me singing
In the moment of decision
I tremble dear
I pace the steps that fell from where I’ve come

Nothing here can save me now
Just say the words I’m yours
But can you love me falling

I remember when, I could rest with ease
I could love and please my brother
Did I please you
And the strength of emotions
Can make a man divine
To sacrifice himself for love, but they also make me crazy

Nothing here can save me now
Say the words I’m yours
But can you love me falling

Can you love me falling
Because I need I need I need I need
Through the veil your heart bleeds to mine
Track Name: Cold Cold Ground
Cold cold ground, don’t you ever come around
Cold cold ground, don’t you ever come around

I heard a songbird hanging from the willow tree
I was tongue tied and stumbling on a whisper in my teeth
I threw back my head boys to catch the bird to see
As the branches we’re swinging there was no one there but me

Cold cold ground, don’t you ever come around
Cold cold ground, don’t you ever come around

I dreamt of you girl, singing out my song
Nothing between us, my words upon your tongue
We were flesh to flesh babe, I traced you with my trembling hand
When I awoke I was nothing of a man

Cold cold ground, don’t you ever come around
Cold cold ground, don’t you ever come around

Everyone suffers, everyone steals
No one can tell me not to feel this way I feel
So I’m leaving Kansas, I’m leaving my memory
I’m running west girl, where the ground meets the sea
Track Name: Weather & Stone
Weather and stone, we reach for protection
Weather and stone, an echo of rejection
Weather and stone, let your water heal
You gonna make me lose my mind, going to make me feel

Weather and stone, Every prophet needs protection
Weather and stone, the rock hollowed by the water’s direction
Weather and stone, they claw and they scream
You gonna make me lose my mind, going to make me tear the seam

’cause I wanna be someone, I want to leave this town
Dust on an open road, I’ll float above the ground
Where the flowing waters bound
And the singer’s song is sound
Where my hang ups are falling down
With the cares I throw around

Fire and stone, burn me and the troubles I’ve known
Fire and stone, wind my flesh around the truth of the bone
Fire and stone, purify the death I’ve grown
You gonna make me loose my mind, gonna make me run back home

Cause I wanna love someone, I want to hear my name
Beyond the city limit line, only words remain
But someone else feels the same
And their touch will cure with pain
Lips that set my chest aflame
To burn this heart of shame
And I have no one but myself to blame
For the weeds that choked the grain
And we’ll surrender before the weathers aim
And with the rock it will reclaim
Track Name: Burn In My Belly
Roll along the river in a police car
Though the water flows you won’t get very far
She rocked my soul and taught me to swim
But a rock sinks fast and I’m wearing thin

Fields of brown and sky of grey
butterflies have all been chased away
Nothing left here to say
But am I in love with you or what I think is true

She knocked me right between the eyes
Yeah I got a burn in my belly that I realize
She left me hanging not once but twice
Now I got a burn in my belly and it’s feeling nice
Amber waves and fields of grain
There must be joy around the corner cause I’m feeling pain
I fight myself to keep me sane
So am I in love with you or what I think is true

Lights are flashing red and blue
Well moments pass, and this one too
Every day we breath we have to choose
I got a burn in my belly and so do you
Yeah I got a burn in my belly and so do you
Track Name: Red-Winged Blackbird Man
I was born from my mother with a second wind
so that’s when my thoughts turn on
I can balance charm on a barbed wire
with a mouth like a golden gun
That horizon there been smokin’ for an hour now
It’s best I get moving on

Something about you I can’t run from
It keeps me from going wild
They sell low grade goods for a high price
They don’t want the man they want the child
That horizon there been smokin’ for an hour now
If I die I might regret it for awhile

You stood on a flame in a white dress
I got blood dripping off my hands
I aint no phoenix rising
I’m the red winged blackbird man
That horizon there been smokin’ for an hour now
we should run while we can

All is quiet on the western front
My feet are shuffling on my grave
I’ll take a bullet for beauty baby mama
They might even call me brave
That horizon there been smokin’ for an hour now
If we move we might be saved

I think I’ll go back to the Midwest
In those fields where I can see
I don’t think its that I ain’t forgotten you
It’s you ain’t forgotten me
That horizon there been smokin’ for an hour now
I think its time I go see my family
Track Name: American Martyr
I can’t even hear no more and nothings coming back
I took the low one cause the high road was painted back
Seventeen when I left my home, running from nothing
Cigarettes and alcohol swaying to my mood
The ground will rise to slap you while your dancing with its moon
Whats to lose when there’s no time to think
And I have been drinking

Oh American Martyr

She was running from something big and I had found a car
We’d spit out drunken dreams, how she would be a star
She gave me fever, I kept her warm at night
I called her my baby
There was nothing like the next town always something to see
But he liked her dancing then she forgotten me
Around a pole she makes enough to eat
Hell I didn’t know she was hungry

Oh American Martyr

It must have been Warrensburg or the town before that
He held a job for me tapping tanks and fixing flats
I brushed my teeth in a meth bed bucket
And dreamed of my baby
The cracked riddled windowpane could blow back your hair
A unisex bathroom with names scratched everywhere
Its hard to build a dream on a rotting frame….he said
at least I’ve been trying
Track Name: Somewhere Somebody
Well things grew tired and we left there quick
We couldn’t find a place to stick
Circling ‘round from town to town where the money was coming in
And the times were right for a sabotage
Hearts were heavy as the wounds were large
We ached to move but we were really starved for something to keep us still

We’d say someday somebody, somewhere somehow
Somewhere somehow
Someday, somebody
Someday

We could eat so much that we would get sick
Jimmy had the money but his money was quick
And the music grew heavy it was all around we started to go deaf
The back stage betties held the curtains wide
Truth was a flake and he often lied I found truth was nothing but a passerby who believed what I wanted

Id say someday, somebody, somewhere somehow
Somewhere somehow someday somebody
Someday

She could move around her room off her instinct
Played her music where the boys would drink
And her lace hid nothing but the truth that she had everything to lose
She was from the west where the sun laid down
Her feet burned for familiar ground
I held her hand and her body was found as I whispered her her name

I said someday, somebody yeah somewhere somehow, somewhere somehow, someday somebody
Track Name: Hands Are Stained
There was water in the air when the verdict came
Three men are hanging out on county cane
They said don’t give a damn about the men we hanged
Because they were looking for trouble and their trouble came

His mother stayed standing by her baby’s side
And I can handle anything but that look in her eyes
As the storm came coming her baby died
I took my boys hand and pushed him off inside.

I can’t explain everything I saw
When the water fell I felt it fall
I held the feet of a Nazarene
My hands are stained I want them clean

It had to be three when I heard them call
That storms coming lets remove them all
His mother’s knees fell to the ground
And the sky was the color of a wedding gown

The soldier walked up to the condemned mans side
To test his wounds to assure he died
When his spear came up the sky it cried
The earth moaned and split open wide

I can’t explain everything I saw
When the water fell I felt it fall
I held the feet of a Nazarene
My hands are stained I want them clean

I remember what the third man said in his dying prayer
You took him in and you affirmed him there
In those last words I echo his plea
When this storm is through will you remember me
Track Name: Dream Of Home Once Again
It was many years ago when the signs did show
And the people all reacted the same
With each year that past, the longer it last
One by one we lost our titles and names

You could see in our eyes the memories had died
The stories never started the same
We searched for some reason and the changing of season
As we’d dream for home once again

Father take hold of your son’s hand
Mother to your daughter remain
Brother hold dear your sister in fear
For those days we’re returning again

Contradiction will reign when your led by insane
And the base of the well will run dry
They torture the weak and turn their cheek
An eye for and eye as were all going blind

We fight to protect live to die with respect
They say we’re free to choose all but the same
But the echo it grows as we yearn for the rose
And we dream of home once again

Mother take hold of your sons hand
Father to your daughter remain
Sister hold dear your brother in fear