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This song chronicles Jeni's childhood in the Appalachian mountains of Virginia where she watched Days of Our Lives with her grandmother, ate frozen dinners, and tried to understand the evangelical Christian spirit of her community.

lyrics

Picnic in the Sky
by Jeni Hankins & Billy Kemp © 2013
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
I pulled up the milkweed, hid neath the willow tree
from the church bell and the mystery
‘cause I did not understand
Christ Jesus’ victory and how that he loved –
the tears and the tongues, the power in the blood.

Frozen dinners were a special treat
listening to radio obituaries
Great grandma hoed the yellow squash
We listened while the women talked
and the voice said, “These are the Days of Our Lives.”
I wondered did they go to the picnic in the sky
while I braided sister’s hair, watched the biscuits rise
Oh, do this in remembrance of me

The men washed their faces, removed the traces
of the local mining industry
years of working underground
to get at the low seam, to pick out the old dream
of a house and some land, a heavenly reward.

Frozen dinners were a special treat
listening to radio obituaries
Great grandma hoed the yellow squash
We listened while the women talked
and the voice said, “These are the Days of Our Lives.”
I wondered did they go to the picnic in the sky
while I braided sister’s hair, watched the biscuits rise
Oh, do this in remembrance of me

The miner now a memory, in the same place as little me
fussing with my dolly and singing
the old rugged cross
listening to the women speak of patchwork and recipes
the power in the blood, the power in the blood.

Frozen dinners were a special treat
listening to radio obituaries
Great grandma hoed the yellow squash
We listened while the women talked
and the voice said, “These are the Days of Our Lives.”
I wondered did they go to the picnic in the sky
while I braided sister’s hair, watched the biscuits rise
Oh, do this in remembrance of me.

by Jeni Hankins & Billy Kemp © 2013

credits

from Live in LA with the Big Picnic Band, track released May 1, 2015
by Jeni Hankins & Billy Kemp © 2013

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about

Jeni Hankins London, UK

Jeni Hankins grew up in the coalfields of Appalachian in Southwest Virginia among a family of miners, moonshiners, and journalists. Her writing pulls the grit, gumption, and keen sense of observation out of that heritage like drawing water from her grandmother’s well.

In every song, Jeni’s “true sense of place shines through – old as the hills, but brand new at the same time.”
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