I wrote this song at the Banff Centre International Singer/Songwriter Residency in 2019. As songs go, this one was unusual in that it arrived “all in one go.” I was walking around town on a really cold day and remembering my first winter away from home spent wandering around those same streets.
Back in 1971 there was just one flashing traffic light on the main street in Banff. Coming home from closing down the bar one night all those years ago, I stopped to make a snow angel in the middle of the road there.
Walking the same path so many years later, a song title popped into my head. By the time I’d hiked back up Sleeping Buffalo (a.k.a. Tunnel Mountain) to my warm and cosy residence room, I had a verse and chorus.
I sat down and finished it by suppertime, we recorded it the very next day in the Telus Studio (because that’s how they roll at the Banff Centre…), and I’m really happy that it’s now been mastered and it’s ready to be released. (Click on the photo to hear it.)
ANGEL AT THE CROSSROAD
Recorded March 13, 2019 * Banff Centre for the Arts + Creativity
Singer/Songwriter Residency
Producer : Howard Bilerman
Assistant engineer (Banff) : Joaquin Gomez
Assistant engineer (Montreal) : Shae Brossard
Mastering engineer : Harris Newman – Grey Market Mastering
Alison Hogan : acoustic guitar + vocals
Fats Kaplin : pedal steel
Mike O’Brien : electric guitar
Matthew Manifould : bass
Carla Easton : keyboards
Kev Corbett : drums
Vocal tracks recorded at hotel2tango Montreal / October 2019
Words + music copyright Alison Hogan / Whole Lotta Music SOCAN
All rights reserved
V1 Angel’s at the crossroad
Lying there looking at the stars
Blizzard rolling in and everybody’s closing down the bars
She’s stuck in the middle of a dream gone wrong tonight
And there’s all kinds of trouble just waiting by the roadhouse lights
She don’t need a reason to be here
Lying in the snow piled up so high
Angel at the crossroad
Angel at the crossroad
V2 Angel’s at the crossroad
Looking ‘round for someone else to blame
The devil’s in the details and he’s coming on the midnight train
She’s stuck in the middle ain’t no way out but through
Life is just a riddle and it all falls down to you
She don’t need a reason to be here
Sleeping in the snow piled up so high
Angel at the crossroad
Angel at the crossroad
V3 Angel’s at the crossroad
Caught between the needle and the gun
Cold wet and hungry and she’s getting tired of living on the run
She’s stuck in the middle of a dream gone wrong tonight
And there’s all kinds of trouble just waiting by the roadhouse lights
She don’t need a reason to be here
She might even freeze right up and die
Angel at the crossroad
Angel at the crossroad
Angel at the crossroad
alisonhogan.com 