Homestead

I can remember exactly were I was the moment this melody popped in my head. I was walking across the battlefield in Manassas, VA. My grandmother had recent passed away. I couldn't help but think of all the stories and the people in them that left the world with her. I found myself on top of a hill under an ancient oak. On the ground were the clear scars of an old home that was long gone. I felt the loss of all that had passed away, then I realized that, while the stories may be gone, the lessons in them helped shape my Grandmother's character. She had passed that to my father, who had in turn passed it to me. In me, those people and places lingered on.

This song started off as 7:10 of sheer terror for me in the studio! It was not in a comfortable key, the vocals were VERY out front, and to top it all it became the most personally important track to me on the project. It took several rewrites, much coaching, and finally it all clicked together. If you listen carefully, you can hear my voice quivering a bit with emotion as we laid the vocal tracks. We did have a lot of fun with the very theatrical movements in the middle of this piece. It all builds up to a bigger than life, hang your toes over the front of an arena stage ending.