Get all 10 Adam Klein releases available on Bandcamp and save 15%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Holidays in United States, Little Tiger: Outtakes from "Low Flyin' Planes", Low Flyin' Planes, Archer's Arrow, Sky Blue DeVille, Cowboy Angel Music Sampler 2012, Dugu Wolo, Wounded Electric Youth, and 2 more.
1. |
Blood on My Hands
05:34
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I got blood on my hands
I got blood on my hands
I didn’t think I was blind / I loved all mankind
I got blood on my hands
I was a thousand miles away / I was a thousand miles away
I didn’t care, I didn’t know / somebody else should’ve stopped the blow
I was a thousand miles away
I’m learning how to love for the very first time
now I can see your destiny’s wrapped in mine
the fog is liftin' I can see the shore
I finally found something worth fighting for
Now you say I am a criminal / yeah you say I am a criminal
in cahoots with the master’s plan
me and the devil walk hand in hand
now I am a criminal
I was just a passerby / yeah I was just a passerby
shake down somebody else to help
it’s just the way that the cards were dealt
shouldn’t come as no surprise / c'mon man I got an alibi
my hands are tied / only thing is my hands are tied
I’m learning how to love for the very first time
now I can see your destiny’s wrapped in mine
the fog is liftin' I can see the shore
I finally found something worth fighting for
I’m learning how to love for the very first time
now I can see your destiny’s wrapped in mine
the fog is liftin' I can see the shore
I finally found something worth fighting for
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2. |
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They’ll catch you undressing / Like a thief in the night
Stealing your thoughts straight out / straight out of your mind
No place for safety / no alleys nor hills
Wind and sun may not find you / but them good ole white boys will
*We got bigger fish to fry / don’t it make you sore
Wait til they come knockin’ / wait til they come knockin’ at your door
Oh the crime was a color / and the motive was clean
walking in daylight, a broken taillight, tryin' to get some sleep
When gunshots are fired / on the wrong side of town
don’t flinch don’t bat an eye don’t blink / even a child knows that sound
*We got bigger fish to fry / don’t it make you sore
Wait til they come knockin’ / wait til they come knockin’ at your door
The DA’s in the pocket / of the cops on the beat
Justice is just a word that lives in a smoky back room
where you don’t wanna take the heat
They’re selling postcards of the hanging / at every county fair
fibers of whip and rope upon the floor
where the beauty pageant girls twirl every perfect strand of hair
*We got pockets to line / kids to send to war
wait til they come knocking / wait til they come knocking at your door
Couldn’t make it if we tried / fighting this black man’s war
Wait til they come knocking/ wait til they come knocking at your
Wait til they come knockin’ / oh they’re gonna come knockin’ /
Wait til they come knockin’ / til they come knockin at your door
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3. |
I-20
07:22
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He’s drivin on I-20 headin west into Atlanta
ain’t no telling what today may bring
but the time has come for rising / for to howling from the silence
liberate yr voice & let your soul go free
In the backseat sits his daughter / all pure & innocence and wonder
but today she’ll know the burden that she wears
For in every generation the curtain it is lowered
and the faults in our foundation are laid bare
*Tin soldiers and Trump is coming/ it’s all he ever wanted to be
oh my darlin I can’t protect you… but march along, stay real close to me
She said “Why is it that they hate us? Don’t they lust after our women?
They sing our songs and cheer us from the stands”
He said ‘We fought in all the battles / picked their cotton in the country
we are the fuel, the used machines that built this land
Still we hoped for recognition/ for a seat at their long table
overflowing with the bounty of our vines
Suffered the yoke of subjugation / now we’ll bring progress to the nation
or we’ll be comin for blood and vengeance next time
*Tin soldiers and Trump is coming/ it’s all he ever wanted to be
oh my darlin I can’t protect you… but march along, stay right next to me
Then she looked up at the mountain
3 ghostly white men ridin horses / hats upon their breast they lead the cavalry
with their flags and their gardens / monuments and institutions
it’s time to break the chains that keep us less than free
In my chest my heart is pounding / on my brow the sweat is pooling
Oh the soldiers with their guns and humvees
But I’ll put one foot after another / shout out the names of the fallen
March toward a just tomorrow righteously / march toward a just tomorrow righteously
Call out the names Breonna Taylor, Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, Sandra Bland, Ahmaud Arbery
call out their names Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Laquan McDonald, Botham Jean, Oscar Grant, Michael Brown
call out the names Atatiana, Korryn Gaines, Janisha Fonville, Pearlie Golden, Kayla Moore, Mya Hall
call out the names Eric Harris, Terrence Crutcher, Eric Reason, Junior Prosper, Marco Loud, Philando Castille
call out the names Dante Parker, Alton Sterling, Amadou Diallo, India Kager, Anthony Hill, Tony Green
call out the names Jonathan Ferrell, Stephon Clark, Torrey Robinson, Rayshard Brooks, Edward Wright, Elijah McClain
Call out the names Elmer Clay Newman, Jordan Davis, Gary Hopkins, Walter Wallace, Prince Jones, Sean Bell
Call out the names Aura Rosser, Daunte Wright, Darnesha Harris, Akai Gurley, Daniel Prude, Andrew Hill
Call out the names John Crawford, Walter Scott, Patrick Lyoya, Ezell Ford, Jersey Green, Eula May Love
Call out the names Jimmie Lee Jackson, Lamar Smith, Louis Allen, Medgar Evers, Virgil Ware, Emmett Til
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4. |
Old Gold
04:16
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The night was cold and dreary / I was tempest-tossed at your door
Bring me your tired and your weary / let them rest upon your golden shore
Keep your light on / lighthouses guide me as a star
Keep your light on / this worn compass gonna take us far
I’m in tattered clothes / searchin’ for old gold
We used to ride together / down the quiet backroads of a peaceful land
Flashes of chrome and leather / pedal steel weeping like a willow on the AM band
Keep your light on / lighthouses guide me as a star
Keep your light on / from the vantage point of a beat up car
lookin’ out small windows / for old gold
It’s been a long time, my friend / I still see you as I knew you when
The world was ours to break and bend / I don’t think I’ve changed too much since then
Keep your light on / lighthouses guide me as a star
Keep your light on / like the foggy glow of a sailor’s bar
Did we live? Who knows / we’re just old gold
We got scratches and scars
a little scuffed up played a little too hard
creased bills in my pocket folds
we could lose some luster but we won’t corrode
Rust of ages I have taken some blows
here we find ourselves again in the throes
I believe, oh I believe / I believe in old gold
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5. |
People Are Callin'
04:58
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Oh people are calling / people are crying
ain’t no denying what’s going on
People are hurting / one thing’s for certain
this iron curtain / won’t stand for long
There’s no recognizing the storm clouds on the horizon
no more disguising / what’s goin on
People are grieving / the government’s deceiving
and decency’s leaving out the back door
Get so tired of fighting each day / of living this way on my own
There’s a virus without and within
oh the color of skin turns to bone / we’re all skin & bones
American souls for hire / city streets are on fire
used to be admired but now a punchline
Don’t wanna carry this anger, don’t wanna feel this danger
no longer a stranger / to your fears and trials
Get so tired of fighting each day / of living this way on my own
There’s a virus without and within
oh the color of skin fades to bone / you are not alone
Young people are rising / and they’re marching in the streets
The heart of liberty beats with the sound of their feet
black white and brown standin’ proud
We will be allowed to live
allowed to breathe
allowed to work and to cry out
we will be allowed to love
allowed to dream
allowed to stand up for our rights
we will be allowed
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6. |
Ohio Revisited
05:48
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In the other grassy knoll / seems a long time ago
but what’s changed? It’s hard to know
same film, different credits roll / four dead in Ohio
She wore flowers on her jeans/ felt concrete against her knees
the whole world heard her screams / then licked a soft ice cream chocolate sprinkles on the cone / four dead in Ohio
Are we back in Money, Mississippi? Did we ever go?
Now we kill ’em with the boot and the knee
How did we get so low?
The air was warm and still / til the crack of open-fire filled
midwestern meadows and hills / the cries were choked and shrill
the bodies didn’t fit the bill / of the ones they usually kill
it’s a hard pill to own / heavy white sleeping stones
four dead in Ohio
Now it’s the same old war, same old need
to cling to power / fill the coffers of greed
so let the poor black ones bleed
then watch them join the stampede
teargas and bullets rain while we the people plead
a time must come for reckoning
no one owns the patriot’s creed
for none of us or all of us are free
four dead in Ohio
Are we back in Money, Mississippi? Did we ever go?
Now we kill ’em with the boot and the knee
How did we get so low?
A mirror shows a likeness etched in skin and lines
gaze upon a face of god / find the soul of the child in its eyes
find the soul of the child in its eyes
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7. |
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Well I’m in my home / it's warm & bright
I got no place to be tonight
Needle on a Neil record / gonna cook a meal
try to forget the way I feel / oh the way I feel
Yes I follow the news / listen to reports
in the safety of my screened-in porch
if these legs would move maybe I could pray
sing a song of justice in the common way / in the common way
When will we go marching?
When will we go marching?
When will we go marching?
Stand and rise
Black belt country / cradle of a dream
A man stands before you but he’s never seen
your boots on his back/ his neck against your knee
it’s not some long gone old past history
it could be you / it could be me
When will we go marching?
When will we go marching?
When will we go marching?
Stand and rise
On a bridge across the water
It’s calm and peaceful to me
they stood firm and never faltered
shared their fight for all the world to see
Now let’s lock arms and stand / yes, you are a man
and our destiny is tied / let’s get in line
When will we go marching?
when will we go marching?
when will we go marching?
Stand and rise
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8. |
Bright Rails Shine
06:07
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Bright rails shine through the Carolina lowlands
through the South Dakota badlands / past the Gulf of Mexico
Bright rails shine through the Mississippi cotton
glistening and forgotten / old ribbons fiery and aglow
Bright rails shine on trodden tracks to Chicago
Waxahatchie and Colorado / on the Zephyr to the bay
Bright rails shine through the cities alabaster
and the country even faster / orange blossom fruited plains
Oh I’ve known the power and her lonesome whistle’s glory
our story yet to unfold
delicate flower bending and broken and bowed
in need of tending, in need of sunlight
of water from a cool mountain stream
of a new American dream
Bright rails shine past Evansville and Cairo
the Allegheny and Ohio/ curved and winding serpentine
Bright rails shine by Louisiana Bayous
on the passes and the cut throughs / burnin’ wood and turpentine
Bright rails shine by the mounds of the first nations
winding round the reservations / price of freedom in our gaze
Bright rails shine on the Cannonballs and Katy
feathers beads and furs and ladies / from Cherokee to Santa Fe
Oh I’ve known the power and her lonesome whistle’s glory
our story’s yet to unfold
delicate flower bending & broken and bowed
in need of tending, in need of sunlight
of water from a cool mountain stream
of a new American dream
Bright rails shine with the wet dew of favor
on the sweat of the men who did labor
white and black and Chinese laid bright rails shine
Bright rails shine from the Sawtooth to the Smokies
in the memories of the Okies / all along the dust bowl trail
Bright rails shine from Alpine to El Paso
where a cowboy throws a lasso / desert winds howl and wail
Bright rails shine oh how I long to love you
may your sweet song rise above you like a peaceful blanket laid
Bright rails shine on your hope and your promise
may your goodness be upon us / until the end of days
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Adam Klein Athens, Georgia
Adam Klein is a singer/songwriter playing folk, folk rock, Americana, and West African Mande-inspired music out of Atlanta via Athens, GA. "Holidays in United States" out 4/7/23 on Cowboy Angel Music!
www.adam-klein.com
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