“You Again” and “Burn Me” by Jonah Kagen – Song Features

 

     Jonah Kagen is a master of intensity build. “You Again” and “Burn Me” provide strong evidence of his ability to begin a song at one energy and elevate the intensity as the song progresses. Both songs are on his recently released 16-track album “Sunflowers and Leather.” The album title was inspired by a line in his song “Matches” where he says “When I die, I want my life to look like sunflowers and leather” - meaning the good, the bad, and everything in between. Sunflowers for the light and beautiful parts and leather for the dark and trying parts. 
 
     [Thank you Taylor Vaughn at Big Feat PR for the content that follows.]
 
      “You Again” is a frustrated battle cry cursing the nagging ghosts of past love: the ones you can’t stop thinking of and the ones you are constantly trying to run away from. On the song Jonah said “It’s the most honest song I’ve ever written. After a relationship I had ended, I spent a whole year by myself - just me and my dog. Every time I tried to open up to someone new, I felt that same sinking feeling. This song is about not being able to shake someone, even after they’re gone.”
 
     “Burn Me” was written and recorded with Sam Barber. The lyrics tackle the internal struggles of growing up around different faiths with contradicting tenets, in a cultural environment that has plenty of opinions doing so. For Jonah, that meant going to a school that insisted his father would burn eternally for not being of a Christian faith. As the song grows from a single acoustic guitar to a whirlwind of strum, Kagen and Barber come together to belt out the chorus: “I don’t know if I was made from God’s hands, but I know my father is a good man / I’m realizing now how the earth bleeds, so if you’re gonna burn him you can burn me.”
 
     Jonah Kagen is from Savannah, Georgia. He is currently on tour. The tour schedule and ticket information are available at https://www.jonahkagen.com/#tour. One stop is at The Recency Ballroom in San Francisco on October 1.
 
     “You Again” by Jonah Kagen (the lyrics are included near the bottom of this post)

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jonahkagen/
Website: https://www.jonahkagen.com/

     “Burn Me” by Jonah Kagen and Sam Barber (the lyrics are included near the bottom of this post)

 

     “Sunflowers and Leather.”    

Lyrics of “You Again” by Jonah Kagen
I woke up and saw the sunrise
And a pretty woman's smile
Well, I haven't seen them two things together in a long, long while
 
This should be heaven
Tracing lines down her back
But I still hear the words that she said, and I never can go back
 
Now the water's coming in
Time is running out
You weren't good to me
And now I feel like running
 
Now the walls are coming down
Every inch of my skin
Babe, I'm crying out
I feel you again
I feel you again
 
Wish I could open up the windows
And you could see inside my mind
I would love to love you, but this heart is ain’t mine
 
'Cause I gave it away
To somebody who never gave it back
Now it gets in the way of anything worth loving that I have, oh
 
Now the water's coming in
Time is running out
You weren't good to me
And now I feel like running
 
Now the walls are coming down
Every inch of my skin
Babe, I'm crying out
I feel you again
I feel you again
I feel you again
 
Lyrics of “Burn Me” by Jonah Kagen and Sam Barber
When I was young, my mother told me
“Don't play with guns, that shit ain't holy
There ain't outlaws in heaven”
 
I got old and my father told me
“Go get a gun, protect the family
Ain't nothing but outlaws in the real world”
 
So I got a gun, thought the Lord would hold me
And I don't feel bad, hell I don't feel holy
Guess I'll have to find out on my own
 
I don't know if I was made from God's hands
But I know my father is a good man
I'm realizing now how the world bleeds
So if you're gonna burn him you can burn me
 
I'm sick and tired of staring at the sunrise
Just waiting for a truth I know just won't arrive
So don't you go and tell me how it should be
Hell, if you're gonna burn him you can burn me
 
When I was young my mother told me
“You don't go to God, you'll end up lonely
We are nothing without faith” (without faith, without faith)
 
I said, “How 'bout dad, he must feel lonely?”
She got mad and firmly told me
“Don't you go asking questions”
 
And I don't know if I was made from God's hands
But I know my father is a good man
I'm realizing now how the earth bleeds
So if you're gonna burn him you can burn me
 
I'm sick and tired of staring at the sunrise
Waiting for a truth I know just won't arrive
So don't you go and tell me how it should be
Hell, if you're gonna burn him you can burn me
 
Burn me
Hell, if you're gonna burn him you can burn me
 
When I was young, my mother told me
“Don't play with guns, no that ain't holy
There ain't outlaws in heaven”