The reason I haven’t updated is because I no longer have a computer at my house and it takes some aligning of the planets to get up to my husband’s studio to update. Actually, I think now is probably a good time to end this thing. There are, of course, lots more songs I could post, but the truth is, it’s gotten a little hard for me to keep up with. Even with it being just once a week. This past Monday morning, around 2:00 am, I woke up and realized I hadn’t updated the site and I wasn’t going to be able to for several days.

I think I got a pretty good idea how my husband’s songs would be received if they ever got out there. And, in fact, there will be a time when he will make a professional cd of his songs and have them available for sale. I just don’t know when that will be and I can’t really keep posting songs until that happens. I’ll keep the site up for a while so you can still listen to the songs I’ve already posted and because the experiment is officially over, I guess the songwriter’s identity doesn’t need to be a secret anymore. So for this last song, I’m going to put up the song that made my husband, Elliott, a number-one songwriter!

This song was written by my husband around the time our daughter was born. He jotted down a few simple lines and recorded a simple melody and filed it away. Then, four years later, he had a co-write with a veteran songwriter named Walt Aldridge. Because Elliott was the lesser songwriter, he brought out all his ideas and they couldn’t seem to get any of them to go anywhere. Then, just before things got awkward, Elliott pulled out that piece of paper with a few lines jotted down on it. You can hear the rest of the story in an interview that Elliott did for a radio program called "Story Behind the Song." And, of course after that, you can listen to the song. I don’t have a recording of Elliott singing it, so you’ll be hearing Walt Aldridge’s voice, but it’s a really nice version.

Story Behind the Song

I Loved Her First

I just wanted to add that I have really enjoyed sharing my husband’s music with you. You’ve been very kind and generous with your comments and your time. I am confident Elliott’s music will find it’s place. God is doing amazing things in his life and I can’t begin to guess what He’s going to do next! Thanks for listening!

Our last game was Saturday night and when we got in the car to drive the 25 minutes to get to the ball park, the songwriter said he had a little bit of pain in his side. I asked him if he wanted me to drive, but he said it wasn’t really that bad. Maybe just something he ate. Well, by the time we got to the fields, he was doubled over in pain and wanted me to take him straight to the emergency room. We dropped off our son, told him the rest of the family would be there later to see him play and headed to the ER.

We got in pretty quick and they started running tests and giving pain medication and it wasn’t too long before they knew it was a kidney stone. Ouch! It was really hard for me to see him in that much pain. We ended up getting back home at 2 a.m. and sleeping until noon on Sunday. He’s doing much better now, though.

This morning, when I got up and started checking my e-mail, I didn’t even realize that it was Monday. I started scrambling for a song to put up and then I remembered one from several years back that I think is perfect for right now. I actually came up with the idea for it. It was a really stressful time for the songwriter and me and one afternoon I was thinking about how much I wanted to get away from it all and I said to him, "I want to go somewhere far away with you." He said, "Yeah, that would be great. You know, that would make a great song title!" And that’s all it took. Anyway, I know he’s feeling that way right about now!

He did a home version with just the instruments he’s got on his electric piano and then a Nashville version with studio musicians and a female demo singer to pitch to other artists. I think it works with a male or female singer, but of course, I like the version where he’s singing. I thought it would be interesting for you to hear the difference.

Here’s the songwriter’s original version:

And here’s the souped-up Nashville version:

I had a hard time choosing one for this week, so I started at the bottom of my list in iTunes and went up. I had kind of forgotten about this one. It’s a co-write that my husband did a couple of years ago with someone that you might have possibly heard of.

George Canyon is a Canadian singer/songwriter who got his big break when he got 2nd runner up in the second season of the reality show Nashville Star. You can read more about him here . My husband co-wrote this song with him on one of his trips to Nashville. Most of my husband’s songs are piano driven, but this song just needed guitar. There’s something about really good guitar picking that takes a song to the next level. On this particular recording one of my husband’s friends in Nashville is playing the guitar part.

Oh, and thank you so much for all the positive comments. They really are boosting the songwriter’s confidence. Keep listening!

This is going to sound weird to some, but the best part about getting away was that the place where we were going was 4 hours away, so we spent a total of about 10 hours in the car and drove somewhere around 500 miles. If there’s one thing we love, it’s a good road trip. We tend to take the road less traveled whenever we can and we usually see something interesting that we’ve never seen before. Anyway, we enjoyed our time spent together and after all of the winding roads I’ve seen these past few days, I just knew that this week’s song needed to be, "I’m Just the Road."

It’s one of those songs that doesn’t tug at your heartstrings or send a tear down your cheek, it’s just truth. So give it a listen and keep those comments coming!

I had a whole other post ready to go up for tomorrow when I remembered it was Father’s Day. I know it looks like I just outed myself, but let me explain. I remembered Father’s Day as it pertains to my husband, I just didn’t remember it for this site. My husband has written so many songs about so many different things that I sometimes need to look at the calendar and then look at my list of songs to see if there’s one for that particular day. There usually is! The other day one our friends said, "It seems like you’ve written a song for just about every occasion in my life. You should work for Hallmark!"

This song is one of the first songs my husband wrote. He sent it off to some people in L.A. who critique songs and they liked it so much, it encouraged him to give this whole songwriting thing a shot. (Sorry, I don’t mean to influence you in any way. Just forget I even said that last sentence!)

This part is for the Songwriter. Thank you for being such a great father to our children. When I watch them, I’m more confident than ever that the things you’ve poured into them are taking root and will produce excellent fruit! They love you because you accept them just the way God created them. You let them know when you are proud of them and you are gentle when you correct their mistakes. Most importantly, they know without a doubt that you love them because you don’t just say it, you live it. That’s worth more than anything. Happy Father’s Day. I love you.

Cotton Dyed Gray

Well heroes wear armor that shines like the sun
Through battle they ride unafraid
And heroes wear medals that shimmer and gleam
In ticker tape Main street parades

But I knew a soldier that fought quietly
In a factory on Fairmont and 8th
He kissed us each morning and saved us each day
My hero wore cotton dyed gray

And his war he fought every day
Was to raise up a family on shop labor pay
And his medals of honor that gleamed
Were the wallet-sized pictures he often displayed

Reserved in his manner but bold in his faith
A man unashamed of his means
With hands that could pick out a chord now and then
But better with broken machines

A house and an acre a wife and three kids
And God knows the unfinished dreams
But he kissed us each morning and saved us each day
My hero wore cotton dyed gray

And his war he fought every day
Was to raise up a family on shop labor pay
And his medals of honor that gleamed
Were the wallet-sized pictures he often displayed

Well gone is the factory and gone is the house
There’s a four-lane where it used to be
And I’ll always miss that old tree house he built
It seemed like a castle to me

But I’ll keep the memory of his quiet smile
And that image will always remain
How he kissed us each morning and saved us each day
My hero wore cotton dyed gray

Anyway, I realized a couple of weeks ago that I hadn’t put my e-mail address anywhere on the site. I had meant to put it up, but I kept forgetting about it. So now’s as good a time as any. Until I get it up permanently somewhere on the sidebar, I’ll just give it to you here. If you have a comment that you just have to get off your chest or a burning question that you didn’t want the whole world to see, just send an e-mail my way and I can get back to feeling good about what I’m doing here. I’ve really been in the dark here these last couple of days!

pam@songwriterexperiment.com

One day, several years ago, my husband was looking for something in the back of the closet when he came across a pair of shoes that he always wore in the river. When he picked up one of the shoes, he noticed there was sand inside of it. That got him thinking about the river and the last time he was there and how something like that can take you back to a place. I’d better stop before I give away the whole song!

Anyway, it’s that time of year that people plan their vacations, some at the beach, some in the mountains, some on the open road. Wherever we go, it seems we always take a little something away from it. A ticket in a pocket. A ziploc bag full of seashells. Sand in a shoe…

Sorry there’s been a problem with the comments. It’s being looked at.

From that forwarded e-mail, my husband got the idea to write a song about someone who is away from home for some time for whatever reason and makes a list of the things he wants to see when he gets home. And that’s the story behind the Coming Home Song.

**Update** I can’t believe this, but the songwriter and I were cleaning out our bedroom this morning and he found the original e-mail that contained the letter from the soldier to his wife. It’s from 2003 when he was in Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Here it is, with names changed because I don’t know who they are so I can’t ask permission to post it!

Hello Gorgeous,

It’s been a weird week. I don’t really remember the last time I talked to you, but last Monday, around 0300 in the morning, our building caught fire. I crammed my clothes into a trash bag, left my ruck, my cot, and my box of extra supplies, and grabbed my flight bag, which holds all of my important stuff (records, pictures and letters) and got out. Sitting in the parking lot watching the smoke billow out of the doors I realized, to my horror, that I had left my two filled cameras and more importantly Joshua’s first letter to me, Rachel’s letter to me, Mama’s card to me, which I was using as a bookmark in Moby Dick, and the latest bunch of pictures you sent. The greatest of these was my son’s first letter to me. Honey, it so depressed me. We had to relocate shop and find a new place to live. We found a place to live at an abandoned house at the end of the airfield where most of the company has been living while here. We spent Tues. and part of Wed. scrubbing the soot and smoke out of our clothes.

That night I started to feel sick. I don’t know if I caught dysentery, a twenty-four hour bug, or some strange bacteria grown in the Middle East, but it put me down. I became dehydrated and slept 14 hours! Many have become sick here. I mean what do you expect when you cram 10,000 soldiers on an airport. The latrines are pitiful and you could throw a rock from the door of the latrine and hit the cooks in the field kitchen. I’m finally able to keep food down and have put about two gallons of water in me today. Got a box from Mom and Dad as well, so the day ended pretty well. Earlier we were able to go back into the building and see if anything was salvageable. It was all ash, except for my field jacket. I wish Jacob’s letter had survived by some miracle, but all I found was ash.

I miss you, darling. I’m tired of this campout and want to come home. I dream about you all the time. I was lying awake this afternoon, because you can’t really sleep in the midday here, and had a vision of hugging the boys and Ginny. I kissed Joshua’s head and could smell the sweaty boy smell as he hugged me. Everyday, I put up the pictures Ginny in her Easter dress, Joshua in his Spiderman jammies and Jaden in his Superman, and my favorite picture of you and the boys as I start my shift and carefully take them down when it’s time to go home. I’m counting down the days now till I’m back in your arms. I love you and miss you and can’t wait to kiss your wonderful lips. You are the precious jewel of my heart.

With all my love,

Sam

P.S. The comments about the rain and Diana Krall, in Thursday’s email, were just plain cruel. Oh, and could you pass along the interesting part of this to Mom and Dad, etc. Thanks, beautiful.

While I was getting my hair cut the other day, this couple came into the salon and everyone dropped what they were doing and ran over to see them. Apparently, it was the daughter and son-in-law of one of the stylists and they had come by to see her. She was telling everyone that her son-in-law had just returned home from Iraq the day before. Everyone was so happy to see them. The man was holding his son who looked to be about 9 or 10 months old and I heard him say he had been gone about 5 months so I imagine he was excited to see his growing boy. And, of course, the whole scene reminded me of one of my husband’s songs. It’s called Not A Dream, but I’ve always referred to it as the Coming Home Song and it has a really neat story behind it…which I will tell later this week after you’ve had a chance to listen to it a couple of times.

Not A Dream

I’ve got just the song to close out the month of May. It’s for all you graduates out there. Enjoy!