The River Roaming Song

My dad died of cancer soon after Covid hit, and I spent that summer of 2020 trying to process it all. There’s a river that flows across the street from my house, and its banks became my home. Every day, I would take a folding chair down to the riverside, sit with my feet in the water and play and write music, all along trying to accept what had happened. Looking back at these lyrics, I was wrestling with the change that’s always constant: the flowing of the river, the seasons turning, people passing. But throught it all, my wife Alyssa’s even-keel presence and warmth anchor every verse: “But as long as you’re at home/And still forever I’m a-roaming/Well I’m coming back home to you.” Big thanks to John Hartford, one of my heroes, for showing me how to string words together, and that it’s OK to be sentimental sometimes.