Won’t You Come Back Home

John Hartford has always been a huge influence on me. I remember watching an interview with him where he talked about putting a strong emphasis on the sound of words and how they fit together. Knowing we’d need new material for our next album, this concept stuck with me. While on tour we played in a town called “Athabasca” in Northern Alberta. Everyone had fun saying the town name out loud, and all of us thought it would make a good reference in a song. No one acknowledged it, but I knew the race was on for who would be the first to have a workable song having to do with Athabasca. I beat them all to the punch. It’s funny how songs evolve when you’re writing them. I imagined Athabasca being a prominent word in the chorus. Ultimately, it ended up making a small cameo in the line: “You’re halfway to Athabasca/I haven’t noticed in a week”.