» Why We Fell in Love (This Is It)

Jodi and I were paired in a lesson exercise led by Nick Cardilino at the BRD House, the Dayton regional workshop of the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI). I do not remember what the lesson was about, but I had the chorus simply leap into my mind, both melody and lyric, and sang it a cappella for everyone at the lesson wrap-up.

I went home and, not too much later, recorded a verse and bridge melody as well and shipped it off to Jodi. Jodi wrote the original verse lyrics based in part on a painting I sent to her that I often saw on my laptop screen saver. It was a painting by Steve Hanks called "Standing on Their Own Two Feet", and it portrayed a woman in a white beach dress bent over, holding a baby upright so that his feet are in the water on the beach.

That became the central image for the opening lines, which are among my favorite from any of my songs. The rest of the lyrics came from exchanges between Jodi and me, with the bridge being the last and most challenging lines to write.

After Bryan Cummings demoed it (Tim Buppert is the singer), he sent it as a demo sample to a writer in California. He received this reply, which I deeply appreciated:

I've now listened to "Why We Fell in Love" three times. It may be presumptuous as hell for an unknown/no-name songwriter to comment on the song of others--and if so please excuse my boldness--but I've gotta say that I really like that song, both the lyric and the music. Right from the first few lines of the lyric, it captured me and put me in the song. Another phrase I loved was, "...wine and embers both are growing red... Beautiful imagery! I wish the songwriter(s) and performer(s) much success with it. By the way, despite having a different title, I'll bet it becomes known as the "This Is It Song". I'm going to be watching/listening for it. And as I said earlier, I enjoyed listening to the singer too. I found myself not only enjoying the song but hoping that I can create something so beautiful and powerful. (I say "I" instead of "we" because I've already heard beautiful and powerful work by Denis so that part of the team is a given.)

Kind regards,

Russ Towne