So … I’ve been recording.
I realized that there are twenty-five (25!) unrecorded new songs in my notebook, and sort of had to take a breath. There are, unfortunately, some I can’t even find demo recordings of and I can’t remember how they go, and that’s always incredibly frustrating. I especially hate it when I can’t find a demo and rewrite something as best I can and find the original later and it’s way better. Ugh. Bit of an ego blow, that.
Any road, I actually wrote this song back in the early aughts, probably around aught-five or so, and recorded it dutifully, because … reasons beyond my control at the time. And it was fine, and all was well, until I heard BeJae Fleming do a cover of it, and thought, shit, her version is so much cooler than mine, and totally changed the way I played it live to incorporate some of her ideas, and the song got better.
When I started this recording binge I’m currently on, I decided to record I Know This Road again, because I like it so much more now than I used to, and I think I play it better, and I know I sing it better. It’s slower, the guitar part is a little more syncopatedly dynamic and cool, and the vocal is relaxed and raw and from the heart-gut. I’m way way happier.
It’s a song about being stuck between two realities, or two options, or two needs, that compete and contradict each other. I had my reasons, you can choose to apply this angst to whatever your current dilemmas are. I don’t mind.
For the guitar geeks: It’s recorded on a Gallagher GA-70 Custom tuned down to CGCFGC (DADGAD minus 1 whole step), capo V, with an sE8 condenser mic pointed at the 12th fret. Blue Magic Music strings, .014-.058.
I Know This Road, Copyright 2005, GD Paul, Ivanhoe Road Music (ASCAP)
I Know This Road
I know this road like the back of my hand
Like the beat of my heart
Like your breath on my skin
On a warm summer night with a storm rollin' in
Gotta fly over ground
Got to see you again
The road called to me, it swallowed me whole
Unmistakable sound
Irresistible pull
Like the pull I feel when you whisper my name
In the dark of the night
Your breath on my skin
And it's a long, and a rough, and a winding way
Through this wild and restless world, yeah
It's a sharp, and a slow, and a bittersweet pain
To be caught between these two words again
Now the wind picks up and the rain starts to fall
Like the tears I shed
The last time we talked
And the only thing I know to be true
Gotta be who I am
Got to be with you
And it's a long, and a rough, and a winding way
Through this wild and restless world, yeah
It's a sharp, and a slow, and a bittersweet pain
To be caught between these two words again
Well the road goes on, I cannot explain
The powerful pull
To be out here again
On a warm summer night with a storm rollin' in
Like your voice in the dark
Like your breath on my skin
Like the beat of my heart
Like a bittersweet pain
Gotta be who I am
Got to see you again
A change is a’gonna come. Stay tuned for updates by clicking the link below.
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