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Written by: Jeff Oxenford (© 2006)

Performed by: Jeff Oxenford

Inspiration

At a meeting of our local songwriters group, we given a picture and asked to write a song about it. The picture was an older black man, sitting around a kitchen table in what looked to be a barely furnished apartment. Behind him in the window hung an old cross that looked to be made up of puzzle pieces. With Katrina and New Orleans still in the news, my thoughts immediately went there. From the look on his face, I could see him losing it all, yet still keeping his faith.

Process

I looked at this picture over a number of weeks and eventually started journaling. Once I had the theme of losing everything in New Orleans, I started thinking about the cross (i.e. faith) in the background of the picture. I got the chorus for this song first:

The levee may break,
but it won't break me
The walls may be gone,
but the foundation stands

For the lyrics, I tried to put myself in his place and tell his story. For me this was a challenge, most of my other songs focused on my own personal experience. Telling someone else’s story was a real stretch.

The guitar part is very straight forward, I stuck with basic chords.  I find that for story songs it’s best to keep the guitar out of the way. I did use my 12 string to add more character to the music.

When I played this for the group, I had one person say this was my best song yet. Another, honed in on the word Foundation and said that it didn’t fit the meter of the song. Julie, when she heard this, also said the same thing. However, to me, this word is the key to the song. I intended for it stands out. So at this point, I’m taking the artist’s prerogative and it will stay.