PrairyErth

by monzie leo

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about

This tune's been in my back pocket for 2 years.I wrote this song riding in the car on tour 2018. I was leaving Ashland, Oregon and was so upset with where i was in the world at the time. i jotted this bad boy down in 10 minutes. certain songs are that way, ya know. Trauma comes up for people in different ways and i was suffering greatly. I was so angry with how the tour got booked. All this in the mix of trying to become a better me. It's hard to be angry and work on yourself at the same time. I kept thinking of that old tune by Claude "Curly" Putman Jr.: The Green Green Grass of home. Well i thought, grass ain't always green in Kansas, but they sky is pretty dang good.

The tune is named for William Least Heat Moon's book Prairyerth in which he journeys through the planes of Oklahoma and Chase County, Kansas. He's a great writer of our time especially if you've lived around the i-70 corridor through Kansas and Missouri. He helped shape my identity is a person of the planes as much as listening to country records with my granpa did. A common phrase from me is, "I wish to serve the local folk lore." This tune, like so many others I've written; honors the bards that have come before me.

thank you for listening

monzie

lyrics

When I’m away from home I

Close my eyes and picture
the ancient prairie

An inland sea made of Short funny hills
beneath a sunset sky

The spring ground a flame my moon and my sunshine and
All the reasons why

Purple puce clouds and my family my loved ones my home the ancient prairie

I think of how much time wasted

And How much was lost

Becoming the person I am


Chorus

Oh if I could breath that air again
Oh if I could see them one more time

I’d do it all better, I’d do it just right
Oh for that Kansas Sky

The prison I’m in’s one of my own making
I’ll be here for the rest of my life

(2nd chorus alternate:
The prison I’ve built I’ll be honest ever more
i'll be here til the day that I die)

I’ll never see the sweet crest of my home town again
It’s silhouette hitting the grasses just right

———

Who’d of thought I coulda missed those muggy tired nights
The ticks and the bugs and all those may flies

Who here’d reckon I’d see it ever more or while I’m still alive

Chorus

credits

released May 3, 2020

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monzie leo Olympia, Washington

i've been writing songs with friends and performing/touring since my debut release on Value Shock in 2011. This BandCamp is the gateway to 11 of my creative releases/collaborations.

check out the latest releases as well as my link tree to get a copy of my book or to learn where you can see The Tonganoxie Split or The Big Sky! ... more

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