No Depression in Heaven

by Midwife

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saturn 🪐 As usual midwife brings the crushing atmosphere and complete dissociative bliss. This confirms for me that I'll be following everything Madeline makes forever Favorite track: Autoluminescent.

bill goodwin RSH is my favorite songwriter so I couldn't resist the Autoluminescent cover. He would approve . Favorite track: Autoluminescent.

DJJJS imagine a world where this is Taylor Swift selling out stadiums all over the world but without the media or drama. That is a world I want to live in, is it possible?

Mako's Abs After a 5 day work week in a mental hellscape all there is to do is drift off in a hammock with this and cry cry cry cry cry cry ha ha ha ha ha. Favorite track: No Depression In Heaven.

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1.	Rock N Roll Never Forgets 07:07	lyrics	buy track
If Rock N Roll’s a dream Please don’t wake me Rock N Roll will live forever Rock N Roll lace and leather Rock N Roll’s a fantasy Rock N Roll remember me Rock N Roll will never die Rock N Roll run for your life Rock N Roll sees everything Rock N Roll watch over me Rock N Roll never forgets Rock N Roll never forgets Rock N Roll never forgets
2.	Autoluminescent 04:41	lyrics	buy track
I am blinding Autoluminescent I am white heat I am heaven sent I was a nightmare But I'm not gonna go there Again Into the black hole The house of no contest Make mine a meteor Rise me above the rest I'm soaring through outer space There is no better place To be I'm bigger than Jesus Christ I'm greater than God in light I am dangerous I cut like the sharpest knife I'm going nova And I hope I can hold her In Into the darkness I gave away myself Slipped on the spiral stairs Tumbling down the well I fell on a soft spot I'm white heat, I'm white hot Again
3.	Droving 05:59	lyrics	buy track
I have always been asleep Every night it’s the same thing I say goodbye to the drums Goodbye guitars I say goodbye to the music that’s in your heart I have known you for so long Life like this could be our last song It’s like sleepwalking (sleepwalk again) It’s like sleepwalking (sleepwalk again) It’s like sleepwalking (sleepwalk again) I was never here Here to stay The pain is easy when it’s all you know (you know) See you at the next show I’m happy, and then I’m so sad (then I’m so sad) I have loved you for so long Life like this could be our last song Every dog has its day (run like hell) Every dog has its day (run like hell) Every dog has its day (run like hell)
4.	Vanessa 06:37	lyrics	buy track
When I think of you I think about Florida I remember our day in the sun I knew that I would always love you And I always knew that you’d run Vanessa Vanessa Vanessa I know how it ends You don’t look at me the way that you used to You can’t look me in the eye Can you hold on just a little bit longer Before I lay you to rest in my mind Vanessa Vanessa Vanessa I know that you tried When I think of you I think about nothing The words are just out of reach Every time you drive away, you’re leaving When you drive away, you’re leaving me Vanessa Vanessa Vanessa Tell me everything
5.	Killdozer 03:57	lyrics	buy track
This has always been my town Now it’s a living hell Everyone wants a piece of me How am I not myself? All my songs are love songs All my songs are blue All my songs are about death I live my life without you There used to be a city here Now it’s a dying breed Ghosts don’t even try to haunt me I remember everything Oh, I remember everything I want open water I want something new I want something real I live my life without you
6.	Better Off Alone 02:53	lyrics	buy track
Do you think you’re better off alone? Do you think you’re better off alone? Do you think you’re better off alone? Do you think you’re better off alone? Talk to me, ooooh talk to me, talk to me, ooooh talk to me Talk to me, ooooh talk to me, talk to me, ooooh talk to me Talk to me, ooooh talk to me, talk to me Do you think you’re better off alone? Do you think you’re better off alone? Do you think you’re better off alone? Do you think you’re better off alone?
7.	No Depression In Heaven 05:36	lyrics	buy track
Crying Crying Crying Crying Crying Crying Crying Crying Crying Crying Crying Crying Crying Crying Crying Crying Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

about

“If rock n roll’s a dream, please don’t wake me.”

Midwife’s No Depression In Heaven, her fourth studio album, was written primarily in the back of vans while on tour, endlessly, over the course of the past few years. The record engages with the contemplative spirit of rock n roll from within a body in motion.

No Depression In Heaven explores themes of sentimentality, the interplay between dreams, memory, and fantasy, and a familiar subject seen throughout all of Midwife’s work: grief. Madeline Johnston takes a look at the tender and transcendent underneath a hard exterior of leather and studs, exposing a different side of the heavy music scene, where Johnston’s project has been living and evolving.

Recording at home in New Mexico between 2021 and 2023, Johnston aimed to create something that was rough around the edges, returning to a free recording process that was less focused on perfection and more attuned to expressing the spirit that lives inside of the songs. The album features collaborations with Chris Adolf and Michael Stein of American Culture, Ben Schurr and Tim Jordan of Nyxy Nyx, Angel Diaz of Vyva Melinkolya, and Allison Lorenzen.

Inspired by ephemeral moments that make up life on tour, the totemization of vehicles, outlaws, and the psyche of America’s underbelly, No Depression In Heaven affirms Johnston’s existential status as a woman of the highway.

“Vanessa” is a love song for Johnston’s dying van, while “Killdozer” is an ode to a city lost in the aftermath of gentrification. The latter centers on the story of Marvin Heemeyer, a muffler repair shop owner who went on a demolition spree in a modified bulldozer before killing himself in a small Colorado town in 2004. “Droving” is a memorial to departed souls, particularly those who in their lives were pillars of the music community which Johnston herself has helped to hold up for more than a decade. “It’s about the transient nature of what we do,” Johnston says. “Our bodies are vessels –– our bodies are, together, a vessel, a vehicle, and that togetherness allows us to become something larger than ourselves in the slipstream of the unconscious, droving.”

The fleeting moments are beads which might otherwise sit separate or scatter, but something like collective participation in an underground scene, or a series of 25 performances in 25 cities over the course of a month, has the power to string together these otherwise disparate or spectral elements.

The album’s title was inspired by The Carter Family song, “No Depression In Heaven,” which speaks about the Great Depression and the mental state of depression interchangeably, drawing a direct line between the human condition on earth and emotional depression. Johnston may or may not believe that it’s literally possible to leave depression behind in the act of passing on, but she certainly believes that to thread the string, to weave and link the memories of lost friends, scenes, songs, and experiences: one has to trace the highway.

credits

released September 6, 2024

Engineered, mixed, and recorded by Madeline Johnston

Mastered by JJ Golden

Autoluminescent by Rowland S. Howard

Better Off Alone by Alice Deejay

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about

Midwife Colorado

HEAVEN METAL
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Recommendations

shows

Nov 15

Come and Take It Live

Austin, TX
Nov 16

Echo Lounge & Music Hall

Dallas, TX
Nov 18

The Masquerade - Hell

Atlanta, GA
Nov 21

The Orange Peel

Asheville, NC
Nov 22

Canal Club

Richmond, VA
Nov 23

Baltimore Soundstage

Baltimore, MD
Nov 25

Underground Arts

Philadelphia, PA
Nov 26

Elsewhere - The Hall

New York (NYC), NY
Nov 27

Brighton Music Hall

Boston, MA
Nov 29

Théâtre Fairmount Theatre

Montreal, QC
Dec 3

Metro

Chicago, IL
Dec 4

Fine Line

Minneapolis, MN
Jan 10

Hi-Dive

Denver, CO

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