Blanco County Lights #4 - "Time I Walk Away"
The fourth track on Blanco County Lights is a song called "Time I Walk Away."
The song tells a story of a person in constant search of fulfillment and purpose, always believing it is to be found somewhere else. Maybe the next town, the next place holds the elusive contentment and satisfaction they crave. The reality is, such peace is generally irrespective of physical location and is usually something that must be settled from within. Of course, this is not to say one's physical space in the world isn't significant -- one's surroundings can be profoundly inspiring (or crippling) -- but rather, a move isn't likely an end unto itself.
There's a line that says "people are just people...," which was born from personal experiences with travel. It seems the more one travels, the more one realizes that while we have different cultural identities, customs, religious beliefs, and economic realities, at our core, we are all the very same people. We all crave the same things in life and generally suffer the same daily frustrations. We all want to be loved, we want to take care of our families, we want to feel safe, we want to live in peace, and we want a better life for those that follow.
I think that on a subconcious level, this is a song I wrote about myself, as told from the perspective of someone else. So I essentially sang it in first person as the other person. (How meta, right?)
Anyways, as for the mechanics of the recording, I've had a few instances in my songwriting life where a songs starts one way -- with a certain meter and tempo -- and then ends up another, just before being captured on a record. "Let Me Love You", from the Old Denton Roads record is one instance and "Time I Walk Away" is another. In both instances, I believe the changes were for the better.
Once we got into the studio, this song turned into a four-on-the-floor driving tune. We added some jangly electric rhythm guitars (Sam played a Gretsch Duo Jet through a vintage Princeton amp) and it started to have this 90's Tom Petty/Gin Blossoms sound to it. Lainey and Libby came back in and sang the harmonies in the chorus and it took on another feel. Then Willy T. Golden dropped some lap steel in the intro and instrumental fills and suddenly it made turn towards 90's country -- one of my favorite guilty pleasures.
So I don't know how you'd characterize this tune. But I know that you can tap your toes to it and maybe that's all the characterization it needs.
Tomorrow's tune: Track 5 - Blanco County Lights, the record's title track.