Armed with a bottleneck slide, blues harmonica, and her signature gut-wrenching vocals, Moanin’ Michelle Malone ( a nickname given to her by Albert King after hearing her sing), is having so much fun these days that she can’t help but shake her Sugarfoot!
Malone was born in the dirty south and grew up listening to her mother sing in the church choir every Sunday. When it came time to craft her own sound, she took those religious roots, blended in enough rock and soul to keep the devil satisfied, and came up with her 9th studio CD, Sugarfoot. It's a high-spirited stripped down blend of rootsy acoustic slide, gritty electric blues and explosive vocals – blues with just enough rough edges to get the medicine down. Sugarfoot sounds like the lost recordings of Bonnie Raitt and the Rolling Stones meeting up in Susan Tedeschi's garage for a late night jam session. And as is usually the case with Malone, the disc is an experience best enjoyed at high volume.
Songs such as "Tighten up the Springs" ,"Rooster 44" and "Traveling and Unraveling" highlight Malone's devil may care attitude and her slide guitar, which is becoming more and more of a signature for her. "I'm having a good time with it," she says. "Since I picked up the slide, I feel more free - I'm having more fun." She’s also working hard - Malone plays all the guitar, blues harp, and mandolin on the new disc.
Sugarfoot comes as close to capturing her raw spontaneity and grand, dirty, low-down power as anything to date. As well as being voted best blues guitarist on IAC.com, Sugarfoot have earned Malone critical acclaim on many "Best Of" lists including The Blues Critic Top 10 albums of the year, and multiple nominations for traditional blues rock album, best female blues vocals.
In keeping with her rough and tumble attitude, Malone averages 200 days a year on the road, and has shared stages and tours with such blues legends as Charlie Musselwhite, Johnny Winter, ZZ Top, Marsha Ball and the late Chris Whitley, as well as folk icons Indigo Girls, Shawn Colvin, Jackson Browne and John Mayer. Malone’s live show is not to be missed - she can make the biggest venues seem as cozy as a camp fire, and an intimate venue feel like the center of the universe.
Open Window
Michelle Malone Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Your pillows piled to cushion your fall
I shudder to think these curtains of ink
Could ever stain these halls
With justice for all
Looking in your open window
Your excess baggage by the door with a long steel chain
Like your paper-thin promises
That you sell door to door
Looking in your open window
(outside looking in)
The ghost of truth is ready to fly
(outside looking in)
Flying out your open window
(outside looking in)
Turning back the hands of time
Let's reconstruct the scattered lies
Pieces from the scene of the crime
Falling down the rabbit hole
And flying out your open window
Looking in your open window
Searching through your diary
To sort through the laws getting laundered and lost
And to unfold your precious mysteries
The lyrics of Michelle Malone's "Open Window" is a poignant representation of peeking into someone's life through their window. In the opening stanza, Malone describes how she is gazing into the subject's open window, observing the pillows piled to cushion their fall. The curtains of ink may seem like a metaphor for something sinister or impending doom, but just as easily half-tell the story of the person's hardship. The subject, she believes, has a just cause, and thus, she is there to witness this cause. The following stanza talks about the person's excess baggage and long steel chain, representing their history that is weighing them down. The promises that they can't keep and sell half-heartedly door to door also depict a person struggling with life.
The final verse serves as closure to the previous ones. Malone says that the ghost of truth is ready to fly, which can be interpreted as the person wants to come out into the open and speak their minds. They want to break the chains that weigh them down and be free from their struggles. But by doing this, they have to turn back the hands of time and reconstruct the events of their lives, from the scattered lies to the pieces from the scene of the crime. And then, they fly out the window, and Malone observes from outside. The song ends with the line "searching through your diary to sort through the laws getting laundered and lost and to unfold your precious mysteries", telling us that the person is holding secrets and mysteries that they have kept hidden from others, and Malone's character is trying to uncover them.
Line by Line Meaning
Looking in your open window
Observing into your personal space
Your pillows piled to cushion your fall
You prepare for the worst and have safety measures in place
I shudder to think these curtains of ink
The possibility of your world being tainted or ruined is frightening
Could ever stain these halls
Your reputation or character could be impacted negatively
With justice for all
Hoping that everyone is held accountable for their actions
Your excess baggage by the door with a long steel chain
You carry around emotional baggage and keep it under lock and key
That you rattle in vain
Your attempts to move on from the past are ineffective
Like your paper-thin promises
Your commitments are weak and unreliable
That you sell door to door
You try to convince others of your sincerity and trustworthiness
The ghost of truth is ready to fly
The reality of the situation is about to be revealed
Flying out your open window
The truth will be exposed for all to see
Turning back the hands of time
Attempting to undo or fix past mistakes
Let's reconstruct the scattered lies
Let's piece together the falsehoods that have been told
Pieces from the scene of the crime
Evidence from the wrongdoing will be examined
Falling down the rabbit hole
Diving into the unknown consequences of actions
Searching through your diary
Examining your innermost thoughts and motives
To sort through the laws getting laundered and lost
To uncover underlying injustices that have been hidden or forgotten
And to unfold your precious mysteries
To uncover secrets and motives that have been hidden from others
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: MALONE
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
trish land
awesome! what a fun and rockin' good time....great work MM!
jan mendel
Way to rock it, Michelle! Fantastic!
flowflix
Awesome video and song, Michelle! Great job!
Catherine Hood
LOVE IT!!!!!
Beth Norwood
I love this!!! You are all super awesome!!! :)
Jennifer
Love it! I need to learn the slide. :)
Gwen Singleton
Love it!!!!!
Linda Kennedy
Been listening to you for years since "Devil Moon". Good stuff!
Michelle Malone Music
Thanks for watching and for the kind words, linda! If you enjoy live streamed music, i stream most weekends on facebook, so maybe i'll see you again! In the meantime, there's more at michellemalone.com
Tom Shaner
We had fun makin' this one. All logistics, weather, etc, worked out! Michelle's time was tight in NYC, we had little margin... She did great. And the cast too!