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Hunky Diamond

by Kip Bradley

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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Blood Red 'Hunky Diamond' LP's. FIRST RELEASE FROM KB! Killer see threw red 12" with insert, digital download code & in sleeve!

    Includes unlimited streaming of Hunky Diamond via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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1.
Split Wide 03:42
Split Wide come from nowhere and nowhere to go found myself on a dark country wood with a man holding his own eye in his hand boy if you ain’t scared you should be now I was tired and I was hungry and I was weak brother one haggard son of a gun caught my chance slipped from his poison grip been running ever since then the sky split wide as the angels cried darling we’ll love you for all time but I went crazy love drove me madly I felt so completely out of control woke up in a graveyard in mississipp’ head pounding cold and wet friend told me ain’t nothing come from nothing man sure as fire there’s god and there’s sin walk through my dreams as I sleep searching for my lost soul when judegment falls on that which I know if there ain’t a hell where will I go oh father death where do you keep it hid and oh mother earth when i’m gone take care of my brothers for i’ve put it on the line bet my house soul and time i’ve gambled with my love just to stay high had to bury them deep so the soul would keep all the memories i’ve left underground now everynight the sky splits wide and I can hear the angels cry darling we’ll love you for ever and ever yes until the very end of time and into the stars I will climb as life splits me open wide and I cry just to hold them in my arms one holly time just one time one holly time oh lord just one time
2.
Hunky Diamond time out I can feel it in the wind a calling to me threw the trees and then again it could of been my sins or the recklessness i’ve buried deep so call me a dreamer got a mind all my own believe in only truths and never going home there’s no certainty in time with her heart tells stories of pure insight of lies lovers cheaters users brother sisters fathers mother and daughters and she was from Indiana he was playing for Ohio state yea they meet in December on his birthday and the grocery bar was pouring out light and he knew she would flee the sight tried not to let it bother him cause he’s wrapped up doing wrong yea she became a dancer and he a traveling salesmen on account of the scares that they both held yes i’ll always be your fool come on girl take advantage yes i’ll always be a fool for you yes i’ll always be your fool come on girl take advantage yes i’ll always be a fool for you leaving the strip bar cause i’m running out of cash my hands started to shake and I began to turn back pulled her off the stage and told her “I got you baby now you can relax I know you’re a hard earning stripper but without you i’m just a lost wanderer i’ll provide for you be your man we can make a home together and they can call us dreamers call us anything as long as you’re my pole swinging strutting melody and they’ll call us believers cause only truth matters and finding your own home” yes i’ll always be your fool come on girl take advantage yes i’ll always be a fool for you yes i’ll always be your fool come on girl take advantage yes i’ll always be a fool for you
3.
Moon Threw the Trees well I was born with a golden ego it took a small girl to knock me down she was only eighteen I was going on twenty five oh my god but what’s a heart gonna do once it’s inside of you i’ve still got my lies and oh how you do me this way oh how you showed me your place oh how you kissed my face now my rest lies with you I was lost in the woods starring at the Moon Threw the Trees your voice floated to me now you’re an angel in the sky I wish you hadn’t of died i’m a lonesome human being and nothing ever matters to me I was dying in the wood and the trees baby hold on to my longing hand I could of been your tan cause you and me were such a good dream and you and me had such a good dream oh laurenia I can’t tell ya how much you meant to me you were my flower the air I breathe everything to me
4.
Minimum Wage 04:37
Minimum Wage I work just like any other man I plow my fields I use my hands I make a minimum wage sometimes it’s hard to say it I fell in love with a mountain girl some people don’t wanna do ‘em I ain’t been out of the state since two thousand and four but it’s hardly a sin just to know that you are content and hard as the wind i’ll be working I make a minimum wage yes I go to work in the AM I get off around four I might have a few beers then then I get back to work i’m a man with his hands then I come in after dark she’s lying biscuits in the pan all I wanna do is stay on the this farm with you she’s in the kitchen i’m building a fire I just wanna keep this love warm tonight look up and find the constellations oh big dipper won’t you hold us tight cause soon my crops will be selling but things ain’t so easy when you’re struggling my trucks breaking down and empty bank account knocked my girl up things are falling apart my boss is pissed I keep showing up late bills are piling up running out of fighting cause it’s the dying blood pumping my heart it’s all I can do to not run outta gas it’s my worn out bones and my lack of rest all I wanna do is stay on the this farm with you she’s in the kitchen i’m building a fire cause I just wanna keep this love warm tonight look up and find the constellations oh big dipper won’t you hold us tight cause soon my crops will be selling and as the night falls around the one you love feels so good to be free feels so good to be loved and everything turns simple all again with easy ways fall to grace trust the stars above to keep you in place and everything turns simple all again where my rest lies is on your breast and my hearts lies on this countryside
5.
Runaway Train found myself in a dark wood searching for the moon threw the trees and I could hear that old familiar ghost of my past calling to me so I followed the fading voice down into a canyon I was lost there I screamed out to my past but all that echoed were terrifying laughs then a storm began to roll in I was weak and afraid thought i’d be left out here all alone to suffer for the sins I had made then an angel came to me she asked what’s your one wish to be I said can I see your face so I know i’m not alone in this place I have love and I have hatred what’s my place in this life where’s my own comfort live i’ve seen god and i’ve seen the devil like a run away train life will be coming at you fast Lights Out back when I was young used to dream of so much more but we all know just where that goes keep thinking bout breaking out write my own stories of just how I grew to be so much more then they pegged me for and the job keeps weighing me down I stand around and wonder how I got to this place and where’d I go a’stray will I ever be good enough and how will I provide from this sound and will my heart ever get to where it’s truly bound and how will I fight without my soul beside my heart and where is it that i’ll be found after all of these lights have been turned out maybe I was born too late maybe this ain’t my life to lead work my hands to the bone to come back to an empty home what’s this life mean to me if ’n I can’t sing of the girl that I kissed this very last spring all I want to do is kick out break my chains and find out if all that I got are these empty songs is it already past my time for me to take what’s mine and will I ever strike a tear in a lover’s eye and how will I fight without my soul beside my heart and where is it that i’ll be found after all of these lights have been turned out
6.
Good Man 04:46
Good Man so there I was getting high for a greyhound ride that’s where I should’ve died late December on my way home for christmas bus driver said we’ll stop get something to eat be back in fifteen for that’s when i’ll leave outside Roanoke, Virginia and yes I can still feel my heart pound as I walked out looking all around that bus nowhere to found and so I took off down the highway oh lord I wanna be saved ain’t gonna spend the rest of my days here on this asphalt I got one good chance to turn around and be a good man I got my mother’s old bible and my father’s letter jacket from the seventies oh I got one good chance to turn around and be a good man a heart ready to break and a hundred more miles back to Tennessee and yes I been pleadin’ truck driver stopped and asked boy would you like a ride no sir that wouldn’t be right my feet gotta learn to walk this world on their own a drizzling rain and a starless night began to roll in I was shivering not because I was cold but because i’d been poisoned and yes I can still feel those tears falling down as I looked about no headlight or saving grace to be found that’s when I picked myself up off the highway yelled lord I wanna be saved ain’t gonna spend the rest of my days here on this asphalt oh I got one good chance to turn around and be a good man I got my mother’s old bible and my father’s letter jacket from the seventies oh I got one good chance to turn around and be a good man a heart ready to break and a hundred more miles back to Tennessee and I got one good chance to turn around and be a good man I got my mother’s old bible and my father’s letter jacket from the seventies oh I got one good chance to turn around and be a good man a heart ready to break and a hundred more miles back to Tennessee and yes I been pleadin’
7.
Limped Back Home sick and skinny as a rail yes I limped home tense in my best friend’s bed I needed just one more rail woke my brother in the night with a gun said put it to my head he tied me up threw me in the bed of his truck and drove me home instead now I lay in poison from an evil man’s lips here I twist and turn feeling like death cause i’ve been dancing with black angel thinking i’ve had it made but all I am is a weed in the dust heard the cry of the coyote deep in the holler felt a snake crawl up my leg while hiding from a copper wrecked my past with me future been a cold hearted lover and lied to all of my friends said hey man don’t worry well somewhere along the way I found a restlessness and I can’t lie it’s hard to fight it I bury my demons deep inside way down where no one can find them now I lay in poison from an evil man’s lips here I twist and turn feeling like death cause i’ve been dancing with black angel thinking i’ve had it made but all I am is a weed in the dust
8.
Lights Out 03:43
Lights Out back when I was young used to dream of so much more but we all know just where that goes keep thinking bout breaking out write my own stories of just how I grew to be so much more then they pegged me for and the job keeps weighing me down I stand around and wonder how I got to this place and where’d I go a’stray will I ever be good enough and how will I provide from this sound and will my heart ever get to where it’s truly bound and how will I fight without my soul beside my heart and where is it that i’ll be found after all of these lights have been turned out maybe I was born too late maybe this ain’t my life to lead work my hands to the bone to come back to an empty home what’s this life mean to me if ’n I can’t sing of the girl that I kissed this very last spring all I want to do is kick out break my chains and find out if all that I got are these empty songs is it already past my time for me to take what’s mine and will I ever strike a tear in a lover’s eye and how will I fight without my soul beside my heart and where is it that i’ll be found after all of these lights have been turned out
9.
Clementine 02:38
Clementine well she got a call late that night from a cop car said they were looking for him down in the canyon he had gotten drunk driven off this cliff they guessed well Clem was never seen again and out the window she would cry oh Clementine you never named our first born and by the moon and the stars i’ll never let you go well did they know he was just living down there in the canyon making corn liquor stocking up on trout living like a black bear while she sat at home burning letters closing memories in a fire he started a long time ago and out the window she would cry oh Clementine won’t you come home our baby has yet to be born and out the window she would cry oh Clementine you never named our first born and by the moon and the stars i’ll never let you go
10.
Gone South 04:46
Gone South dream a little more cause your heart’s been broken salty tears stain the kitchen floor cause he’s no longer there to help with the groceries or to carry y’alls laundry home and there’s still signs of him living down on first street in the shoe box studio that they once held snows piling up but it’s colder in that apartment she smokes on the fire escape to keep her conscience warm her heart’s moving on now tired of eating super all alone the manager slips her his number but she can’t bring herself to call her boys gone south walks the streets of New York lonely sees a matinee to help ease the pain mails his clothes back with a letter saying have a good life and take care doesn’t ride the subways anymore cause they learned them together sees his face in ever glass door she goes out drinking with friends that he never knew so they don’t ask about him or how he’s doin’ he’s cooking a selfish dinner searching for peace in a bottle took a poor girl out for pleasure but nothing seems to work like she did the love he left up north

about

"I make American music that deals with where beauty and terror meet and how that tension shapes our lives."

*Biography

Kip Bradley has a voice that will make your blood run cold. At times he sings with a mercurial warble, at others with the shriek of a bird of prey, but always with electricity. It's rare to run across such a powerful voice that retains melodiousness at its most intense. The Tennessee- based singer/songwriter uses his instrument to stunning effect via an unique brand of Americana that doesn't eschew the influence of the classic-rock radio that every southern kid grew up with. And there is a childlike wonder that runs through the ten songs of Hunky Diamond, Bradley's debut album. From woodsy, acoustic fingerpicking to primal rock, with starry atmospherics and gorgeous slide guitar in tow, the album evokes images of late-night highway drives under the Milky Way and making it into town just as dawn breaks. Just the kind of place where childhood dreams clash with adult realities.

These songs were written and recorded mostly at nighttime, after Bradley worked long days at his construction job. The lyrics reflect this "I use my hands," Bradley recorded all the instruments (except drums, which were played by Tim Newton) on an outdated computer with ragtag equipment in any place he could find. The results are breathtaking. Bradley's arrangements brim over with creative flourish--they are constantly surprising and often stunningly beautiful. Bradley has learned the craft of recording well, and developed an exquisite taste for dynamics. His resume includes a stint at Sweet Tea Studios in Oxford, MS, where Modest Mouse recorded Good News for People Who Love Bad News, as well as time in the offices of Fat Possum and Domino Records.

Born in the middle of five brothers in a church-going North Georgia family, Kip grew up singing Tom Petty songs in the car with his father, and it was on a borrowed guitar that he learned to play his first chords. As a later teen he wandered out to Oregon, Mississippi, North Carolina, New York City and in-between before landing back at the foothills of the Appalachian mountains, nursing a broken heart. There, on the shores of the Tennessee River, he rose from his ashes making an extremely compelling statement with these "songs about tearing yourself down and seeking redemption." He plans to tour all around the United States in 2015, playing both acoustically and with a full electric ensemble.

- by Clark Williams

credits

released July 14, 2015

Recorded & Mixed by Kip Bradley
Drums by Tim Newton
Drums Recorded by Jason Foster
Mastered by Charles Allison & Adam Swafford
Artwork Design by Houston Settles (Deer Run Media) & Kelly Bennett Smith (Dirtty Toe Productions)

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Kip Bradley Tennessee

Kip Bradley writes and sings songs that evoke images of late-night highway drives under the Milky Way and making it into town just as dawn breaks. Just the kind of place where childhood dreams clash with adult realities.

-Clark Williams
... more

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