Home For The Holidays

Thanks Jim. My idea was to write a song for Thanksgiving as there are a ton of Christmas songs but Thanksgiving songs are rare.  At that time there was daily news about the US  "war on terror" and I couldn't help but think what it must be like for the young men who would not be with their families during the holidays so the song morphed into something different than I originally intended.  I imagined I was one of the young soldiers writing about missing his folks back home and just added a little "background" story of why he enlisted.

It's a pretty simple chord structure, Key of D with some hammer-ons and pull-offs, mostly on the D chord.

Thanks Peatle. For years I've insisted in only performing my songs "live" around riverside campfires or doing an occasional gig, but after being isolated for 7 months due to the COVID pandemic and not being able to play music with my friends, I've downloaded 25 of my old songs on soundcloud. Ten were played solo and recorded in my bedroom (CD I called "Lookin' Back") and 15 were done in a friend's backyard "potting shed/studio" (CD called "New Toons") with the help of my friends Jeff Hartley (bass, lead, back-up vocals) and John Victor (harmonica).  It's a more polished version of my songs. I hope to post links to several of the songs over the next few months.

The one thing I've insisted is that my voice be recorded "naturally", without any electronic "help", as the main reason I make CDs is so my grandchildren and hopefully someday great-children will be able to hear their grandpa's voice. My grandparents were all dead before I was born and although I have pictures of them I have no idea how their voices sounded.

I hope that my songs will get some honest criticism and evaluation from Chordie members. For several years I hung out with a group of NSAI (Nashville Songwriters Association International) songwriters. At our meetings we would play/present our newest songs to be critiqued by the group. At first it was hard to hear what I thought was a good song had several flaws, Just saying "I like or don't like the song" was never allowed, the critique had to be specific and each person making  comments had to tell why they thought the song or a part of the song didn't work or what sections were strong. As song writers have varying views about song content and structure, there were sometimes a lot of different opinions.  Sometimes it required re-writing the song and bringing it back several times.  In any case I developed a thick skin when it comes to others commenting on my songs so I won't feel offended if someone is critical.  I only ask that the comments be about the song itself, not the performance.      

Thanks Jeff. I was thinking about you today, listening to your song "Found Out I lost A Friend Today" and thinking how many people have lost friends to COVID this year.