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"Angels on the Wing" audio, lyrics & notes

A bluegrass-adjacent guardian angel song

Here are the lyrics and audio for "Angels on the Wing," an original bluegrass-adjacent guardian-angel folk song by Lannie Dietle. This powerful, moving tune recounts the true story of how a young gas station attendant in Mercer, Pennsylvania was miraculously saved by a disembodied voice that warned him just in time to save him from being crushed to death. If the voice wasn't a guardian angel, then please do tell what it was! Enjoy the free lyrics, personal notes, and streaming audio below.

Angels on the Wing — a bluegrass-adjacent guardian angel song
© Lannie Dietle 2025

I worked as a pump jockey back when I was just a kid,
And fueling up them dump trucks was something that I did.
When they stopped at the pump, the drivers raised the beds up high
So I could pass the hose under, n' fill the tank on the other side.

One day I leaned under a bed to pull the hose back through.
I gave it not a thought, it was just a thing I'd been taught to do.
That was how things had been done there for oh so many years,
It was just our usual thing: It wasn't nothing that I feared.

I don't know if angels watchin' over trucks is a normal thing,
But when I see them rolling by, I think of angels on the wing.
Oh, when I see them rolling by, I see an angel on the wing.

I was stretched out under that big ole dump truck bed
When a strange voice spoke to me, right inside my head.
Look up Lannie, it said, or maybe Lannie look out.
I didn't wait around to see what that voice was all about!

I sprang back just like a spring, and it wasn't none soon
Because as soon as I pulled clear, I heard a big ba-boom!
The bed falling on the frame had made that awful sound,
If I hadn't jerked backwards, I wouldn't be around.

I don't know if angels watching over trucks is a normal thing,
But when I see them rolling by, I think of angels on the wing.
Oh, when I see them rolling by, I see an angel on the wing.

The diesel fuel nozzle was smashed flat by the falling bed,
And if not for the little voice, that'd be me instead.
I wondered who had saved my life, and I searched all around.
But I was completely by myself – no other soul to be found.

The truck driver was a stranger, and my name he did not know.
He was in the men's room when I dodged that deadly blow.
Now, you may not believe in angels, but I'm sure of one thing:
That voice inside my head didn't come from any human being.

If not for that voice, I'd a been crushed to death that day,
And how I jumped back in time, I just cain't explain away.

I don't know if angels watching over trucks is a normal thing,
But when I see them rolling by, I think of angels on the wing.
Oh, when I see them rolling by, I see an angel on the wing.

Thoughts on a very personal guardian angel folk song

The "Angels on the Wing" song tells the true story of how my life was saved by a startling voice inside my head when I was working as a gas station attendant at Agway Petroleum Corporation on the south side of Mercer, Pennsylvania. If not for that voice, I would have been crushed to death by the falling bed of a dump truck. My mother urged me to write about the experience, and now I have — both in this song and on pages 335 & 336 of my 2024 book "In the Land of Used to Be."

This event happened a lifetime ago, and I no longer remember whether the voice said "look up" or "look out," but it was one of those two, combined with my first name. As the song says, I immediately searched all around to discover who had saved my life, but there just wasn't anyone around. There was just me and the truck. A guardian angel is the only explanation I can think of.

Acceptable use

The song is available to stream and download for personal use and radio air play at no cost. For commercial use, such as performing or recording covers of the song, contact me to discuss licensing terms.

L. Dietle
camouflage

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