Oasis

I don’t have a large collection of CDs or for that matter a vast array or artists I like…just a few. And for some reason Bill Mallonee keeps finding his way to the top of my list. Honestly, some of his music I just don’t get, but then there are songs that just nail it for me…..Kind of the same with Bruce Cockburn.

I seem to relate to these guys particularly on the pain side of things. I guess they put into words what I can’t and whether or not it makes sense to anyone else….I can relate.

My recent life is fairly calculated with the move to Colorado and all the planning, preparing and work that goes into making this transition. These last 6 months have felt like a Perpetual “To Do List”, and I find myself 6 weeks from moving with the same damn “To Do List”.

So, when I got an email from “Bill Mallonee News” stating he was in town Monday night for the last show of this tour in St. Louis at my favorite club, “Off Broadway”……my heart jumped…only to be laughed at by my “To Do List”.

…But as fate….The Lord’s Mercy….would have it, a recent dinner date with our friends, Eric and Liz Hehman, was canceled a week ago, only to be rescheduled for Monday night….on the Hill in St. Louis….mere miles away from Off Broadway. To sweeten the pot, Eric Hehman was a V.O.L. fan from the early 90’s. Eight Dollar tickets were too hard to pass up, so we abandoned our pregnant wives later in the evening for some bonding with Bill……yeah, it is wrong on many levels……welcome to Struggleville!

I linked to Bill’s MySpace page only to come across these lyrics that my “bloodied lil’ heart” could relate with. It has been a desert of sorts lately….

“flowers growing out of the desert
flowers out of parched ground
flowers coming right up through the cracks
of the pavement in this old town

flowering’s not a science,
no, it’s more like a fine art
flowers coming right up through cracks
of our beat up, broken-down, bloodied lil’ hearts”

- Bill Mallonee ~Album: PermaFrost