Queen of the Pearly Gate Lounge

from A Body is a Delicate House by Jeni Hankins

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $1 USD  or more

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    With touring an impossibility during lockdown, Jeni brimmed with songs. "A Body is A Delicate House" is her studio album from the lockdown period – first released as a hand-pressed CD in fall of 2021. After a successful limited pressing, she had the album remastered by Martin Stansbury of Cacophony Cottage Studios and factory pressed in 2022.

    In this release and in her other lockdown release "I Fell Into the Fire," she returns to Jewell Ridge for stories as well as finding inspiration in the life of her late music mentor, Norman Cross.

    The physical CD comes with a 46-page booklet complete with essays, liner notes, lyrics, and collages made by Jeni by hand.

    From the conclusion to Jeni's liner notes:

    "Every little thing I’ve done in my terrestrial life has pointed me toward this calling – to watch and note, to report back, to listen for broadcasts from the spirit and from those who have crossed to the other side. My delicate house has an antenna which is always switched on for particular messages. This has always been my way. It’s just how I was made in the same way that I always woosh into a chair without calculating the risk, in the same way that I have one squinty eye like Dad, like Grandaddy, the newspaper men, the reporters.

    These songs are my reading and translation of what I’ve heard in the recent worldwide news from the firmament and the spirit. Bless those who whisper these messages and the celestial currents that carry them.

    There’ll be loaves, there’ll be fishes
    – the answer in your hands.
    And you’ll tell it all to me
    when you reach the promise land.
    Amen, Dad. Amen."

    Includes unlimited streaming of A Body is a Delicate House via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ... more
    ships out within 3 days

      $20 USD or more 

     

  • Full Digital Discography

    Get all 26 Jeni Hankins releases available on Bandcamp and save 20%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of String Unraveller Demo May 2021, The American Dream (Harlis and Freda), Voice Memo Demo, I'm Letting Go of You – Kitchen Single, The Wondarium: Songs For Kids, A Body is a Delicate House, I Fell Into the Fire, The Loneliest Snowman, I Fell Into The Fire – Limited Edition Handprinted, and 18 more. , and , .

    Purchasable with gift card

      $181.68 USD or more (20% OFF)

     

about

Aunt Edith’s Daughter, Corliss or Corky as we called her, died in October 2020. She had cancer. She’d always been glamorous – maybe the most glamorous of all of our family. She was a weather girl on TV in Florida, an interior designer, and had the most abundant shiny red hair of anyone I’ve ever met. She laughed a lot. She never said goodbye to anyone at the end of a party if she could help it. She got in her Mercedes and drove away.

lyrics

The Queen of the Pearly Gate Lounge

for Cousin Corky Mullins

The smoking section has opened in Heaven
and there’s a new girl at the bar –
a drink in her hand
in the arms of her man,
the Channel 34 weather girl star.

She’s brought high glamour to Heaven
and she’ll stay ’til the barman calls time.
Then she’ll hail a warm cloud,
slip softly out –
she was never that good at goodbyes.

Know your emergency exits.
Turbulence is expected.
Oh, drinks all around,
the redhead’s in town –
the Queen of the Pearly Gate Lounge.

Streets of gold could use some re-paving.
The curtains in Heaven have faded.
She’ll stay for a while –
lend us her style
while the pearly gates get some updating.

She’s got her Mercedes Benz at the ready
now she’s crossed to the other side.
Her party is waiting.
No more hesitating.
She gets in her car and she drives.

Keep the aisles all clear in Heaven.
Get ready for thunder and smoke.
Take crash positions
for Eternity missions.
The redhead is headed for Home.

Yes, our hearts have been hijacked to Heaven.
Negotiations have all broken down.
Lord, please hear our prayer,
send the girl with red hair –
send the Queen of the Pearly Gate Lounge.

credits

from A Body is a Delicate House, released December 13, 2022
Written by Jeni Hankins, Lulu Wall Music, BMI.

Jeni Hankins – Vocals and rhythm guitar
Alfred John Hickling – Harmony Vocals and all other instruments

license

all rights reserved

tags

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.”
... more

contact / help

Contact Jeni Hankins

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this track or account

Jeni Hankins recommends:

If you like Jeni Hankins, you may also like: