» Just a Song I Wrote

Dave Blowers, when writing on his own, was pretty consistent in starting with his guitar and developing his ideas from there. So I challenged him to write a cold lyric for me.  He took the challenge seriously and sent me a gorgeous lyric.

I wrote the chorus while waiting for my son Michael to finish lessons at Synergy Music.  I found a particular chord on the guitar that evening - the second chord played in the recording - which reminded me of the progressions the Alan Parsons Project used to use.  I asked for help from some of the guitar instructors to identify the chord, but they were all a little perplexed.  There's irony that my only song cowritten so far with Dave Blowers was inspired by the discovery of a new chord - just the way Dave usually writes his own.

However, the first verse gave me a lot of trouble.  Finally one day, I sang the chorus and then moved directly to the second verse, and it flowed beautifully.  But when I went back to apply the melody to the first verse, I found it didn't balance at all no matter how I phrased it.  I finally gave in and modified the first verse to make its cadences match the second verse more closely.

When I told Dave that his first verse didn't balance with his second, he laughed and said, "Oh, you figured that out, did you?"  He told me that he wanted to give me a challenge as well.  Hmph!

I love ending a live show with this song.  I've been looking forward, too, to hearing Dave sing it, but he has steadfastly refused, saying it's not his style.  I was surprised that my own recording turned out so well; this is one of the rare songs in which I'll use my own voice.  What you're hearing is my initial attempt to record it; I barely knew the melody at the time and you can hear me struggling a little with the phrasing in the second verse.  I have since practiced it a lot in my vocal lessons, and someday I'll get around to recording a better version.