Jennifer Haase: Music

• MP3 short clip, hi-fi play (broadband)
• MP3 short clip, lo-fi play (modem)

I have had people ask me if this song is about my family growing up, which always makes me giggle because I'm the daughter of a man who managed a hardware store in North Platte Nebraska most of his adult life. (-: No, this song isn't from my own experiences. I simply wanted to write something that sounded like a spiritual. No instrumentation, just the lonely sound of voices telling the story of a woman trying to hold it together while her man was away somewhere scraping up enough dough to keep them alive. A little bit haunting, a little bit hopeful, a whole lotta soul.

I asked Steve Hanson's trio "The Lightening Bugs" to accompany me a cappella on the recording and I couldn't be more pleased that they did.

Heat Risin' From the #109
words and music by haase

Children grab your shoes can't you hear them grind
Screetching gears a'twistin' as the track unwinds
He promised he'd be home again
when we saw the sign
The heat risin' from the 109
yeah, the heat risin' from the 109

Your Pa's come home again
can't you hear the whistle blow
The big steel is a'wailin' with my man in tow
His pockets should be heavy
with the bounty of his time
See the heat risin' from the 109
yeah, the heat risin' from the 109

Wipe your hands and straighten your hats
Hurry children we'll meet him at the track
Shine those smiles for your daddy now
Don't say we're barely livin' and don't say how

The night is thick and a deep shade of black
It's cold to the bone with the wind on our backs
But see up ahead floatin' over the pines
A sign from above says we're gonna be fine
Here at last is the say we will find
The heat risin' from the 109
yeah, the heat risin' from the 109

The heat risin' from the 109