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Lyrics and Music by: S.L. Reay, ©1996, 2006

Inspiration

 I was driving home from the Walnut Valley Bluegrass Festival
in late September, 1996.  My Acura broke down outside Ellsworth, KS. The car
was towed back to Salinas and I spent 4 days in a Howard Johnson Motel while
it was being fixed.  I could see a winter snow storm moving in slowly from
the West and wanted to get home before I got caught in a blizzard.  The
refrain in the song is "I wish that I was already gone."  I thought about
sounds and sights that make me restless.

Process

The song came out in A A B A form.  Essentially the
first verse, bridge, and third verse are the way they were when I first
wrote them.  A  year after I wrote it, I sent the original version of the
song into the Walnut Valley Songwriter's Contest and they did not award it a
prize.  They said they liked the music and the idea, but didn't like the
lyrics.  I rewrote the second verse, changed the city in the bridge, and put
the song away.  Last summer, I remembered the song and dug it out.  I put
the first two verses into past tense, so there would be movement through
time in the song: from "last night" to "this morning" to right now.  I also
made a few words more specific, alliterative and/or sensory.  i.e "pack my
things" became "stuff my clothes" in the third verse.  I made the images
consistent: in the first verse, they're auditory; in the second verse,
they're visual.

This demo:  I was asked to do a demo for a specific performer in L.A. who
sings ala Norah Jones.  I asked Brandy Herbert, a marvelous jazz musician,
to take this essentially bluegrass / country tune and turn it into a jazz
tune.  I put the original bridge back in after the instrumental break,
because it referred to L.A.  Christy Wessler coached me through the vocals.

Song reception:  At this time, it's being performed by two bands.  One is a
Patsy Cline style version.  Another is more bluegrass with some swing
chords.  Three more performers have shown interest in performing and / or
recording it.  One intends to take his folk-style demo of it to a national
touring band.  The demo on the web site has not yet reached its intended
audience.  I'll be adding more versions of the song by the various
performers as I get them.

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