» When I Remember When

This song began as an R&B ballad called "Carolina".  Then L.B. and I developed the basic lyric and storyline, starting 'way back in 1992.  Over the next 11 years, I started and taught songwriting to the Songwriters Workshop, developing my own knowledge of craft.  We even had the song on contract with Gatlin Brothers Music for several years, although Mike Smith later reverted the copyright to L.B. and me.  The demo that won us the contract was a gorgeous recording by Steve Ward, a local musician and an original member of the NSAI Dayton/Cincinnati chapter that later became part of the Songwriters Workshop.  My attempt to learn to play the guitar on this song exactly as Steve had played it on the demo led me to my current guitar style:  I had to learn all those jazz chords and picking methods to do it.

I still remember finishing the song while on the road to a Christian music festival with my daughter.  She was my critic as I threw out new lines for the first verse.  I had earlier rewritten the bridge with completely new lyrics and melody because Nick Cardilino, now one of my co-coordinators for the workshop, would not let me keep the old one. He kept saying every time I brought the song in for critique, "You can write a better bridge."  He was right; I think you'll agree.

So "When I Remember When" is literally a product of my advances in the craft of songwriting from the beginning of my journey in the early nineties to the point when I could finally say, "I know how to do this!" 11 years later.  One of my personal goals was to write a song that would sound like a song written by Hugh Prestwood; I feel that, with this song, I achieved that goal.

The image used, by the way, came from http://d2yhexj5rb8c94.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/Hyd%20rain%20scene%20July%2022_1.jpg and is attributed to Andhra Pradesh.