Halfway From Nashville

I put this as the album’s first song because I wanted listeners to know right away, this is a country album by a southern songwriter. The pedal steel guitar just murders me – that’s Jerry Roller of Ft. Smith, Ark.
One of my father’s writing/teaching colleagues, the late poet Miller Williams (Lucinda’s dad), published a poetry collection titled Halfway From Hoxie, which I read when I was young. Miller was born in Hoxie, Arkansas, and he was middle aged when that book came out. I always liked that clever idea and thought about it in context of my own life history. I was born in Nashville, the country music capital. So while this song isn’t about me, per se, it is about a forlorn middle-aged fellow born in Nashville. None of my songs are truly autobiographical, regardless of the second verse in this tune – the story is being told by the character, not the singer.
Simple, straight ahead, traditional country style song, with key changes reminiscent of some Johnny Cash songs and others from the 60s and 70s. And of course the song’s chorus references Cash, who as you know was also from Arkansas. Fellow songwriters and musicians might notice the uneven count of measures in the verses. That comes from me believing that with a story song it’s best not to let the music waist the narrative’s time – get on with the story – but I also liked that out-of-balance feeling with an odd count.