Day 3: A Well Known Road (w| Barry Osborne)

Part of my song-a-day writing project for January 2020

Lyrics:

The Earth is locked with dormant fields
And snow peaked mountain tops
Driving north and the cars give way
To an angst of pick-up trucks
New foundations and manifestations
Of a hunger that never stopped
The nagging voice of my GPS
Doesn't pierce my thoughts

A well known road
Presents a path untold
Where I'm a stranger to myself
But I left that home
Now it belongs
To someone else

I wonder if she still recalls
Our backyard cinema
The way the moon set the stage
And put a spotlight on the lawn

Like stars of old, we played our roles
Found no meaning in the lines
When the credits played, I didn't see my name
Then was ushered out the side

Twilight's comin' And the New Year sun
Whispers "it's time to go"
It's just a detour, a drive-in theater
That I pass on my way home

Details: Barry Osborne is a singer-songwriter out of Denver who I met last summer at Song School in Lyons, CO. I've been eager to work on something with him because, of all the songwriters I know, we seem to have the most overlapping taste in music. It was nice to be able to talk about folks like Paul Westerberg and Alex Chilton, and to connect with someone who also loves Ray Davies and The Kinks.

Barry drove up from Denver to my place in Longmont, and it mentioned how it reminded him a bit of the drive to Fort Collins, where he used to live. We started setting the scene, and Barry was reminded of something Kurt Vonnegut once said at a lecture he went to; something about the Earth being locked in the winter time. We tossed around some more complex ideas about delving into parallel timelines; one where the protagonist moved away and one where the protagonist stayed in his old home. We also liked the idea that the character in the story had missed his exit, but didn't notice as he went on this detour. But those ideas didn't ultimately make it into this first go 'round. It ended up being a simpler story about nostalgia.

Anyway, I enjoyed working with Barry and hope to work with him again. It took a little more than 3 hours to write the song, and about 20 minutes to record.

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