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During Bill Mallonee’s seminar at the 2005 Calvin College Festival of Faith and Music he was asked about the word “prophetic” used to describe him in the program to which he replied, “Are you sure it didn’t say prolific?”  Prolific is an understatement.  Since parting ways with Paste Records at the end of 2003 Mallonee has released the DVD Fade to Black and two CD’s (Dear Life and Friendly Fire) through Fundamental Records, as well as an EP called Dear Outtakes and now the internet only release titled Hit & Run–a total of 37 new tracks in under two years.  In addition to the hard copy releases there are the monthly offerings on the subscription service billtunes.com. 

Released just a mere two weeks after Friendly Fire, Hit & Run was recorded in one afternoon on April 24, 2005.  This wonderfully raw release was a surprise to pretty much everyone.  Available only through Mallonee’s web site and the Billtunes.com subscription service it is a bare bones guitar, vocal, harmonica trip through some stark human landscapes.   Described by  Mallonee in the liner notes as  “like Springsteen’s Nebraska…raw, visceral, and ‘living’… songs about broken hearts, grueling poverty, summer love, Lucifer, accidental deaths, cocaine, lying bastards, road kills, and majestic views from the inside.”  Musically Hit & Run is Mallonee as troubadour belting out his new songs with little support (Ben Holst who does the recording chores is also heard playing guitar on two tracks). This folksy approach, complete with being captured on tape talking to the engineer,  has the feeling of hearing an old friend share a new song they wrote and allows the unembellished truth and harsh beauty of the lyrics to shine through.

The opening song "Flowers" (formerly known as "Desert Bloom") is a gut level prayer-like plea for a new beginning that in theme is much like Is that too much to ask? found on Friendly Fire.  "Flowers" has a catchy harmonica line and a poignant chorus that ranks among the best lines Mallonee has ever penned – “We all need new beginnings, first steps make you better - Maybe your just a prayer away, from getting your shit together.”

Love is a theme on tracks two and three.  "Cinnamon" sits squarely in Bill Mallonee tradition of memoir love songs even touching on the image of the moon/moonlight common in his love writing ("Watching the Moonlight," "Solar System," "Crescent Moon," "Locket Full of Moonlight").  A much less glowing look at love, or rather love gone terribly wrong, is "Jump Start."  Centering on a characters who’s man has left her and not come back in three weeks Mallonee croons “and with such a wound is there some antiseptic? For fears and confusion….and being rejected? And buried under sand…is there a playground girl?  How does a woman carry the weight of the world?”

"Lucifer" is a creepily honest look at addiction and the struggle to keep the drug at bay best summarized by the line “God knows if you wake it up, you’ll have to calm it down again.”

"November Wind" calls to mind the wonderful "Resplendent," from Vigilantes of Love’s alt.county tour de force Audible Sigh, in its look at the failed dreams of people whose lives were tied to the land, the weather, and the wind and the toll that takes on ones self-image and relationships.

"Rescue" is a classic example of Mallonee’s deft ability to mix earthly love and romance with the deliverance of a higher love. 

In "Tim" Mallonee reflects on the life and death of his son Josh’s friend.  Painstakingly beautiful and tender Mallonee recalls “Your eyes were a lake, where the wind was never still – and your heart was a sky, waiting to be filled” and sums it up as he sings “Every tear we cry for our lost loves, is really for ourselves.”

In a record shot thru with characters caught in all the loss life can offer and the desire to break free from the pain often afforded us as a result, the core of this record might be found in the final song "Losing Battle."  It’s easy to see how Mallonee, after years of plying his trade and having little to claim from it, could feel more deeply than most that he’s fighting a "Losing Battle."  It is however in the words of the fifth track, "Willie Nelson’s Guitar" that the soul of Hit & Run is found.  Mallonee sings “You can sell your soul to Love’s Higher power, and there’s nothing that’ll ever stop ya, or you can sell your soul to the devil, he’ll take you right up on the offer.”  In the end the struggle between those two polls is at the core of this record  - that space between Willie Nelson’s beat-up guitar and Ansel Adam’s “Half-Moon Dome” where “Maybe you’re just a prayer away, from getting your shit together.”

In the last verse of "Willie Nelson’s Guitar" Mallonee sings “Today’s DJ’s on the radio say, you got to buy this one: ‘It’s a Must!’ – But the tunes that are old and beat up and wise…well, there the one’s I learned to trust – The ones all full of liars and lovers and robbers and murders and thieves – the one’s all full of sinners and saints…a lot like you and me.”  On Hit & Run Mallonee offers up a collection of songs you can trust, that sound beat up and worn, and are full of many folks that are a lot like you and me.

Joel Kiekintveld, 6/4/2005

The EP feels mostly like cutouts from the last two projects, Dear Life and Friendly Fire, although stripped down.  Mallonee is slowly but surely returning back to the Americana sound that seemed to garner his greatest acclaim as of late.  "Flowers" is the one exception to this, falling more into the Audible Sigh era of sound (which is a very good thing).

"Willie Nelson's Guitar" depicts the highs and lows of the life of a musician, and "Losing Battle" is a song that could depress the unwary,
telling us we "can't outrun the black clouds".  "November Wind" is another in the same vein.

If Hit and Run is designed to be a preview for Permafrost, the next Mallonee project that has been announced, we've all got something to look forward to.  With the recent addition of two new players, and yet another name change (back to Vigilantes of Love), one might hope that the next label/genre/manager/band member choice simply isn't another "hit and run."

Brian A. Smith
11 August 2005