This song was churned out back when the first hints of Spring were tickling us with the promise of shorts and fewer frowns around town. Joe, who throughout the winter months counts down the days until he is able to perform his songs in the Bridgeside Lodge garden was chatting enthusiastically about the idea of his Uncle John (a big supporter of his songs) coming to one of these Spitz musical events in the summer. We played around with the idea of writing a song for Uncle John in an uplifting genre that we’d not tried before…..country!
After our first session working on it, the shell of a song had emerged, a chord sequence and a few lyrics…it needed a bit more work…we’d finish it next week, no probs.
I turned up the following week to find that Joe had just arrived back from hospital having spent a few days there following an illness. He described how discombobulating the experience was, to find himself in a strange room with unfamiliar people making decisions for him. Despite this concerning episode, I found Joe energised, describing to me how he couldn’t get last week’s idea out of his head and how it provided him with some strength and calmness with all that was going on….this seemed like valuable ammunition for a chorus of sorts!
“As I fall asleep the sounds are joyful, and the vibes, they are singing, and the song’s so good that I can’t think straight, won’t somebody tell me what I can do”
The song is a journey from that darkness in the hospital to the light in the final verse which captures the joyful moment Joe sings for his uncle in the garden.
Nathaniel Keen
