Here are the back stories behind the 5 songs on EP3 …
The Road: Written in 2009 at a friends cabin in Wisconsin on a snowy day, just like the song said. I had Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken collection of poems with me at the time, hoping to gain some inspiration from it over the weekend. And, it struck, simply from the title. At first, I had thought to follow the poem more closely. But, as the song developed, it became more personal, as I think it should.
I Don’t Want to Go to Pittsburgh: This was the result of “lived experience.” I’ve repeated this story many times on my shows in SL. So, I’ll repeat it here. In late 1977, after being in Minnesota for about a year, I decided to drive back to New York for a visit. So, I loaded some cloths, snacks, myself and my Jim Croce tape into my car and headed East. But, that trip was not without incident. Several times I had to “reroute” because of missing an exit sign. The second time, I missed the exit to stay on route 80 and ended up heading for Pittsburgh. It took a bit extra to fix that mistake. So, when I got to my parents house, this song was already brewing in my mind.
BTW: on the way back to Minnesota, my tape drive “ate” Jim Croce. It was OK because I had memorized every song on it on the way out. So, I sang them myself on the way back. Also, back in 1977, when this song was first written, it was “Exit 15 caught my eye, but I didn’t read the sign.” Well, they’ve since changed the exits to mile markers and “Exit 219” just doesn’t work in the song.
October Wind: This was written on a windy day in October of 2020. It’s better documented than a lot of mine because after 2019 when I got my new iMac, I started a folder for lyrics, and a boilerplate that included an info section up front. I started out describing things about an Autumn day. However, I began to realize that what I’ve known was probably different than the memories my grandchildren would have later on in their life. So, that’s the dreamy vision behind the song.
One More Day: Written in 2012, it’s just another fun “trucker song.” Not much more to say about it. However, the reason it starts out as “6 days on the road,” is because other trucker songs mention a week on the road. Well, this would be a week in “one more day.” LOL
Whisper of the Wind: The chorus of this song started in May of 2015. I was waiting in the library of a building where my wife was taking a class. And this idea came to me. I jotted it down in my iPad. It sort of languished until 2020, when I finally put all my thoughts together regarding a specific period in my life (during my tour in Vietnam), yet so familiar to so many other periods I’ve gone through. So many places and faces. And a shout-out to one of my favorite singer/songwriters: Jim Croce.