Music and Lyrics by Jeff Oxenford (© 2004)

Performed by: Jeff Oxenford (Guitar) and Julie O’Brian (Vocals and Violin)

Style: Acoustic, up-tempo, rock/folk

Inspiration

The song was inspired by Rev. Patty Lukenbach from Mile High Church.. In a discussion about the spirituality of the Lakota Sioux, she described her experience with a vision quest. Perched on a hilltop over-looking the plains in South Dakota, she watched a thunderstorm come across the plains, directly at her. Lightening stuck all around her and she eventually blacked out. When she awoke she had her vision.

The process for writing the song

Having been in many thunderstorms, I could immediately relate with her story. I started writing as she was sharing her story. I’m afraid she lost me at some point, as I wrote furiously until the end of the class. When the class ended, I had the lyrics.

When I arrived home, I started fooling around on my guitar. I had just learned about harmonizing in the major scale and I randomly chose the key of Em. I ended up following the scale down from the four chord (IV) to the one (1). The chords were Am, G, F, Em. For the chorus, I used the III to the 2 chord (G, F). The musical form of the song was

Verses IV, III, II, I

Chorus III, II

When I performed this at a songwriting class, Ben Senerfit, the instructor, suggested that the song needed a bridge. I went home a tried all sorts of chords, and eventually realized that by just changing the pace of the middle two verses, I had a bridge.

The song was transformed into the current version when Julie O’Brian added a violin part and started singing it. The melody changed substantially and we added breaks for the violin. It’s a little long, but I can’t get enough of the violin.

The basic structure of the song is

V, V, C (instrumental)

V, V, C

V, B, V, C

V, C

(V = verse, C = chorus, B = bridge)

Lyrics           Listen