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The King of Iowa

from Forgottonia by Chris Vallillo

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about

The Grand Theater, Keokuk, IA. Benny, Hope, the Marx Brothers; they all played this place and you still change in the same dressing rooms. I just love that stuff. I played a show with Bo Ramsey there a few years ago. I knew Bo from my road days with Ken Carlysle and the Cadillac Cowboys and I’d always admired his sense of tone and style of slide playing. Truth be told, I’ve stolen more than one lick from him over the years. After my set, I stood in the wings to watch Bo up close and one of the producers, Bill Harroun, kept saying “That Bo Ramsey, he’s the King of Iowa!”. As I drove home that night with lightning dancing across the sky, I pulled over on the side of the road and wrote down the words “The King of Iowa plays tonight”

lyrics

'Neath an old straw hat With a battered brim
He stands like an oak tree Warped by the wind
He sways with the music, Then stands like a stone
As he throws off a lick
That cuts right to the bone,
As the thunder breaks Somewhere just out of sight The King of Iowa plays tonight

All the years on the road Have left their trace
Like a corn field’s furrows Cut across his face
But when he bends to the music It all fades away
Like the break of dawn
On a brand new day
In between the splinters of darkness and light The King of Iowa plays tonight

You know that sound
You’ve heard it all before
It’s the Hawkeye wind
And the John Deere roar
It’s a storm on the Prairie
The locomotive moan
It’s the Iowa blues,
With a tremolo drone
You can find him standin there Just stage right
The King of Iowa plays tonight
Silhouette in the glow of the hot stage light The King of Iowa plays tonight
Standing there playing with all of his might The King of Iowa plays tonight

credits

from Forgottonia, track released August 31, 2022
Words and music by Chris Vallillo ©℗ Gin Ridge Music, BMI
Chris Vallillo, guitars, slide guitars, vocals, drums
Ross Sermons, Bass

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Chris Vallillo Macomb, Illinois

Chris Vallillo is a singer/songwriter and folk musician who makes the people and places of “unmetropolitan” America come to life in song.

Performing on six-string and bottleneck slide guitars and harmonica, Vallillo weaves original, contemporary, and traditional songs and narratives into a compelling and entertaining portrait of the history and lifestyles of the Midwest. ... more

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