KARYN:
We have exciting news to share! On Wednesday, January 19th, the official Free Will in China Blue video drops. Here, John reflects on the story behind Free Will and gives us the lyrics so we may better understand the song. Last October, the SKR team spent an awesome day in the studio with director, Dante Ludovici. We can’t wait for you to see the results of that day. Enjoy!
SUN KING RISING:
Free Will in China Blue has become my most widely played song on streaming services and and a favorite of critics and fans around the world. Later this month, we will launch a major, nationwide radio push in the USA, accompanied by our new, official music video of the single.
Due to the song’s popularity, PeacockSunrise Records has released a new version of the Delta Tales CD that includes Free Will In China Blue, originally released only as a digital bonus cut. The song--a southern soul stomper with a great horn section--tells a story from the Southern mythos I have been developing in my compositions (and have continued throughout my next album, Signs & Wonders). It details a love triangle between a southern planter, his wife, and a beautiful temptress--Salome.
The temptress is the daughter of a sharecropper. In their pastoral southern culture, the man is a sinner who honestly admits to his denial of faith to be with Salome. It becomes his ultimate fall from grace. His confession implies however, that Salome has actively entranced him, much as her Biblical namesake entranced Herod with her dancing. The term “China Blue” enters the story as the color of Salome’s dress…a vivid, metaphorical image which seizes the planter’s imagination.
Director Dante Ludovici has ably captured my cinematic vision of the story and its underlying tension, with the lovely Meghan Greenwood dancing and entrancing throughout the story, costumed in a flowing China blue dress. Produced and filmed in Pittsburgh, the day was a total blast, with most of the SKR Studio Band who played on the Free Will single and on the upcoming Signs & Wonders album performing the song in the video.
I think the song’s lyric will make this all clear. FREE WILL IN CHINA BLUE
I am a southern man, I lead a southern life
Growing southern cotton with my southern wife
And I’ve never known much comfort, but still somehow
I’m a Glory-bound God-fearing son of the south
Praise the Lord on Sunday, I rarely am late
Loving my neighbors, Putting silver on the plate
And I pray to Jesus that he'll reveal his Light
'Cause the Father of Lies is beckoning tonight
Halfway to heaven yet a two-step from Hell
Heartache and hunger draw me to her Well
While Hallelujahs still hang in the air
It's free will, she's free will in China blue
Dancing barefoot in a sharecropper's house
Beguiling words fall from Salome’s mouth
Moonshine and moonlight have made me doubt my eyes
But nothing matters much when I hear her sighs
While the rustle of her blue dress fills the air
In the humid night I forget my prayers
Her heart skips as I untangle her hair
Her lips are moist as morning dew
I am a sinner but I do not despair
She's free will in China blue
Halfway to heaven yet a two-step from Hell
Heartache and hunger draw me to her Well
While Hallelujahs still hang in the air
It's free will, she's free will in China blue ©John Blangero/Reborn Pelican Songs (BMI) Please subscribe to The Lowdown for more stories like this. Click the Login button below.
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