Detroit’s financial crisis led to the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history in July of 2013. It’s a hard-edged town with thousands of stories of moral decay and systemic despair. This song is meant to be a kind of prayer, a cry for help for a city on its knees.
lyrics
This one’s for the broken hearted few
Like Melinda who forgot how to refuse
The offer of a twin bed in a hotel room
Where the curtains float like ghosts in front of you
This one’s for the butcher on the row
Who always wipes his chop board twice as slow
When the angel with the pipe and the high cheekbones
Presses her face against the glass of his shop window
This one’s for the felon who was free
Until he dropped the bag when he was 17
Before a Detroit city police near the Packard building
And tried to hop the fence that sent him to his knees
In all the storefront churches hear them liftin’ up your name
Drive the Greyhound to St. Ignace and get the hell out of my veins
Oh, will your lover come home?
Will your lover ever need you?
Oh, will your lover come home?
Will your lover ever need you again?
This one’s written on the walls of fragile souls
Where years are soaked to the bottom of the pillows
Lying on the locker floor drippin’ cold
Melinda’s singing softly to her plastic comb
This one’s for the lion in the round
Cornered in this circus of a town
People hold up signs to try to shut you down
But the bones are buried six feet underground
Oh, will your lover come home?
Will your lover ever need you?
Oh, will your lover come home?
Will your lover ever need you again?
There are many out here among us
In the city of October
Where the auto plants sit heavy in the rain
There are many out here among us
Railroad ties and engines
Aged like rusted out reminders of the Corktown trains
In all the storefront churches hear them liftin’ up your name
Drive the Greyhound to St. Ignace and kick the hell out of my veins
Oh, will your lover come home?
Will your lover ever need you?
Oh, will your lover come home?
Will your lover ever need you again?
A dreamy improv-folk collage from Toronto multi-instrumentalist Clara Engel, who plays cigar box guitar, talharpa, melodica, and many more. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 20, 2022
Irish singer-songwriter Oisin Leech's acoustic folk music is characterized by its muted beauty and intimate, solitary quality. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 16, 2024
The haunting new record from Canadian folk artist Avi C. Engel bridges old and new traditions with a minimalist approach. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 24, 2024
From Cork, Ireland, Lewis Barfoot writes mystic, majestic songs derived from regional folk, with an ambient music aura. Bandcamp New & Notable Dec 11, 2023