Mandolin Orange’s music radiates a mysterious warmth —their songs feel like whispered secrets, one hand cupped to your ear. The North Carolina duo have built a steady and growing fanbase with this kind of intimacy, and on Tides of A Teardrop, due out February 1, it is more potent than ever. By all accounts, it is the duo’s fullest, richest, and most personal effort. You can hear the air between them—the taut space of shared understanding, as palpable as a magnetic field, that makes their music sound like two halves of an endlessly completing thought. Singer-songwriter Andrew Marlin and multi-instrumentalist Emily Frantz have honed this lamp glow intimacy for years.
In the last three years, the group has toured throughout the U.S and Europe, including appearances at Austin City Limits, South by Southwest, Edmonton Folk Music Festival, Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Newport Folk Festival, Pickathon, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Rooster Walk, and MerleFest and the Omagh Bluegrass Festival. Mandolin Orange was the featured artist on CBS This Morning's Saturday Morning Sessions on December 7, 2019.
They signed to Yep Roc Records in 2013 and have produced four albums under their umbrella, This Side Of Jordan, Such Jubilee, Blindfaller and Tides of a Teardrop.
Black Widow
Mandolin Orange Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
and I'm as worn as a two-tied shoe.
As I wake and find the day half gone
at night she's the one for me,
a love I thought I knew.
My mistress, my queen, my lord,
she's stealing my brain; if it aint gone it must be leaving.
we shake, she don't care
there are many others still.
I know that I see her closing in on me.
Black widow killing off the ones
that love her the most.
I remember it well, the night we fell
She was looking back and I went running after.
What a time it was. Speaking of, where does time go?
It's tangled up in her ways.
But I see her closing in on me.
Black widow killing off the ones
that love her the most.
In Mandolin Orange's song "Black Widow," the singer paints a picture of a complicated and destructive relationship with a woman who has a hold on him like a venomous spider. He acknowledges that his own story is unremarkable, but his relationship with this woman is consuming him. Despite the fact that she is his mistress, queen, and lord, he knows that she is slowly killing him and those who love her the most.
The singer's love for this woman is turbulent and chaotic, but he cannot resist her pull. He describes how his brain is being stolen, and his silence is drowned out by her presence. The lights shake as they are together, but she doesn't care because there are many others like him. He remembers the night they fell in love, and how she was looking back at him, inviting him to come after her. However, as time has gone on, he realizes that this woman is like a black widow, slowly killing him and those around her.
Overall, the lyrics in "Black Widow" convey the idea of a destructive relationship and the hold that one person can have over another. The metaphor of the black widow spider is particularly poignant as it speaks to the idea of being consumed by someone who is ultimately toxic and harmful.
Line by Line Meaning
My name it aint nothing, my story is plain, and I'm as worn as a two-tied shoe.
I am a simple person with no significant background, and I feel exhausted and neglected like an old shoe.
As I wake and find the day half gone at night she's the one for me, a love I thought I knew.
I am lost and unproductive during the day, but at night I am drawn to the woman I thought I loved.
My mistress, my queen, my lord, she's stealing my brain; if it aint gone it must be leaving.
She is my lover, ruler, and master, and she has complete control over my thoughts; if I still have any sanity, it must be slipping away.
Silence is drowned, all the lights we shake, she don't care there are many others still.
We are lost in the chaos of our passion, and she doesn't care that there are many other victims like me.
I know that I see her closing in on me.
I am aware that her grip on me is getting stronger.
Black widow killing off the ones that love her the most.
She destroys the people who love her the most, just like a black widow spider.
I remember it well, the night we fell. She was looking back and I went running after.
I vividly recall the fateful night we met. She showed interest in me, and I pursued her eagerly.
What a time it was. Speaking of, where does time go? It's tangled up in her ways.
It was an exciting time, but time seems to disappear when I'm with her, and I feel trapped in her web.
But I see her closing in on me. Black widow killing off the ones that love her the most.
Despite knowing the danger, I can't break away from her, and she continues to harm me and others who love her.
Contributed by Kylie L. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@MonteCristo420
My name it aint nothing, my story is plain,
and I'm as worn as a two-tied shoe.
As I wake and find the day half gone
at night she's the one for me,
a love I thought I knew.
My mistress, my queen, my lord,
she's stealing my brain; if it aint gone it must be leaving.
Silence is drowned, all the lights
we shake, she don't care
there are many others still.
I know that I see her closing in on me.
Black widow killing off the ones
that love her the most.
{Instrument Break}
I remember it well, the night we fell
She was looking back and I went running after.
What a time it was. Speaking of, where does time go?
It's tangled up in her ways.
But I see her closing in on me.
Black widow killing off the ones
that love her the most.
@angelNdisgyz
Keep on keepin on! Love you guys! Speak to the soul sound.. Truly a gift ;)
@MonteCristo420
My name it aint nothing, my story is plain,
and I'm as worn as a two-tied shoe.
As I wake and find the day half gone
at night she's the one for me,
a love I thought I knew.
My mistress, my queen, my lord,
she's stealing my brain; if it aint gone it must be leaving.
Silence is drowned, all the lights
we shake, she don't care
there are many others still.
I know that I see her closing in on me.
Black widow killing off the ones
that love her the most.
{Instrument Break}
I remember it well, the night we fell
She was looking back and I went running after.
What a time it was. Speaking of, where does time go?
It's tangled up in her ways.
But I see her closing in on me.
Black widow killing off the ones
that love her the most.
@jauwuaj
Jason Musgrave h6
@joshuaknoblock3225
my new favorite band.
@berlealessandro
that is a unbelievable song!
@stevenweseman1473
黑寡婦 ... a nickname of someone I know. Our song writer seems to be a little down on romance. Special song for sure.
@markwilliams8532
I'm glad my phone recomendef mandoline orange.i had to order them on line.which i did .I like them enough to order another cd.so many likef songs (clovers tune) etc thanx You Tube.music intenet is amazing.
@junreyregidor2790
The sound look like buried by family of the year
@cornyTEEN
would someone be kind enough to submit the lyrics of this masterpiece? I am not even a competent English listener and disappointed after searching in vain for a while. Please, I badly want to hum along the song, guess for the sake of people like me.
@IMando
+Cuong Ngo I found several sites with lyrics to Black Widow. This one (https://www.musixmatch.com/lyrics/Mandolin-Orange/Black-Widow#) noted the instrumental break and was nicely formatted.