January 21 - Chinese Rifle Song

There's an interesting strolling pace to this song that put me in mind of some banjo folk I've heard, which might be why this song felt like it was in a country-and-blues-adjacent space.

The repeated refrain of laying out on the patio gave this a musical shape that felt a lot more traditional than a lot of early Mountain Goats songs. Not quite a twelve bar blues, but something closer to that than some of the weirder poetic shapes.

The contrast here is simple and effective. The lazy dozy idyll of the hot patio, interrupted by the impending arrival of violence. That's all we get of who the point of view character is, but more isn't needed. We live in the tension, until the rifles sound again.