The Angel from Montgomery has an effect on me like no other song, I am crying as I write these words. My sister Shelley once stole the show at an open mike singing contest in a really hard bar in a little red-neck town called Peachland. Shelley can bring grown men to tears, with this incredible song.
Over my lifetime nothing has captivated my spirit like great women blues singers, all my life I would gravitate towards great female vocals where it meets rock and roll, right at the cross roads to the blues. Janis Joplin started my addiction and I never quit. Saw Annie Lennox live in Adelaide in my twenties and that fuelled the fire. Nobody can rock quite as soulfully as the great women singers of rock legend.
Shelley, my sister, was the purpose of this tribute and without a doubt she can slam-dunk this famous John Prine song which Bonnie Raitt made into a brand, then Susan Tedeschi ran with the ball, having the most brilliant blues-band in modern history. All of them rock our world with this song but I chose Bonnie Bishop to share here: With all the love in my heart, to women who rock this world.
The Angel from Mongomery by Bonnie Bishop
John Prine wrote “Angel from Montgomery” after a friend suggested writing “another song about old people,” referring to Prine’s song “Hello in There.” Although Prine had “said everything I wanted to [about seniors] in ‘Hello in There'” he was intrigued by the idea of “a song about a middle-aged woman who feels older than she is…[Eventually] I had this really vivid picture of this woman standing over the dishwater with soap in her hands…She wanted to get out of her house and her marriage and everything. She just wanted an angel to come to take her away from all this.”
Prine believes he likely was drawn to Montgomery as the song’s setting by virtue of being a fan of Hank Williams, who had ties to that city. “
Angel from Montgomery” is a concert staple of Hank Williams’ granddaughter Holly Williams.
“Angel From Montgomery”
(by John Prine)
I am an old woman
Named after my mother
My old man is another
Child that’s grown old
If dreams were thunder
And lightning was desire
This old house woulda burnt down
A long time ago
Make me an angel
That flies from Montgomery
Make me a poster
Of an old rodeo
Just give me one thing
That I can hold on to
To believe in this livin’
Is just a hard way to go
When I was a young girl
Well I had me a cowboy
He weren’t much to look at
Just a free ramblin’ man
But that was a long time
And no matter how I tried
Those years just flow by
Like a broken down dam
Make me an angel
That flies from Montgomery
Make me a poster
Of an old rodeo
Just give me one thing
That I can hold on to
To believe in this livin’
Is just a hard way to go
There’s flies in the kitchen
I can hear them there buzzin’
And I ain’t done nothin’ since I woke up today
But how the hell can a person
Go to work in the mornin’
And come home in the evenin’
And have nothin’ to say
Make me an angel
That flies from Montgomery
Make me a poster
Of an old rodeo
Just give me one thing
That I can hold on to
To believe in this livin’
Is just a hard way to go
Recorded versions of Angel From Montgomery
- John Prine, John Prine (album) (1971)
- Bonnie Koloc, Hold on to Me (1972)
- John Denver, Farewell Andromeda (1973)
- Bonnie Raitt, Streetlights (1974), No Nukes: The Muse Concerts for a Non-Nuclear Future (1979), Road Tested (1995)
- Tanya Tucker, TNT (1978)
- Leslie Spit Treeo, Don’t Cry Too Hard (1990)
- Bedlam Rovers, Frothing Green (1990)
- Mystery Girls, Mystery Girls (1991)
- Ben Harper, Pleasure and Pain (1992)
- Dave Matthews Band, Salem College (1993 – lead vocal by Boyd Tinsley)
- Susan Tedeschi, Just Won’t Burn (1998)
- Chris Jones, Moonstruck (2000)
- Ringsend, Vertigo (2001)
- Kate Schutt, Brokenwingtrick (2002)
- Allison Scull and Victor Martin, From the Back Burner (2002)
- E.G. Kight , Southern Comfort (2003)
- The Residues, Last Man Alive (2006)
- Theo Hakola, Drunk Women and Sexual Water (2007)
- Matt Andersen, Live at Liberty House (2007)
- Jill Johnson, Music Row (2007)[8]
- Paula Nelson Band, Lucky 13 (2008)
- Old Crow Medicine Show, Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine (2010)
- John Prine and Emmylou Harris, In Person & On Stage (2010)
- Alfie Boe, Storyteller (2012)
- Thief River, Southbound to Nowhere (2013)
- Erin Harpe & the Delta Swingers, Love Whip Blues (2014)
- Brandi Carlile Live on Wits podcast[9] (2015)
- Jay Boy Adams, featuring Zenobia, How Long How Long (2016)
- Maren Morris, Joy Week (2017)
- John Mayer began covering this song at select concerts on his 2014 spring tour.
- Low Society, Sanctified (2017)
- The Lone Bellow live in select concerts in 2017
- Maggie Rogers live in select concerts since 2018
- Shea & O Youtube Nov 2019
- Foxes and Fossils Youtube April, 2020
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