A Day Since Tennessee (2008)

            This might be one of my most personal set of songs, even for being only a 5-song EP, and it’s about as close as I come to writing what could be called country music.  Actual country music, mind you, not the shiny candy pop version.
            It’s also pretty expansive in terms of when the songs were written and why they came about.  My friend and former college professor Brett Mullinix recorded these songs for me, as well as covering drum, bass, and additional guitar duties on these tunes—truly a man of many talents.  We did these in the Summer of 2008, over the course of two weeks during which I was back and forth between Georgia and Kentucky. When I hear them back, I can hear the tired in my voice.  That was an interesting time for me, for a lot of reasons, and I think there is an element of some weariness I was feeling that runs through these songs.
            “A Day Since Tennessee,” is a detailed account of one crazy weekend spent on the road between Atlanta, Georgia and Bowling Green, Kentucky.  Only my friend Adrian, who I took the trip with, knows what every line of that song means.  I’m right proud of it.  “Shotgun Wedding,” was written on a dare from my friend Amy Staples, and initially demo’d with two separate versions in a friend’s living room nearly a year before I recorded the version as it appears on this EP.  “Deep, Dark Georgia Nights,” is in my opinion, a terrible title, but is a nice little daydream vignette about no one in particular.  “Entertaining Angels,” was the first song I wrote when I moved to Kentucky, and “Darling,” was written in two days, separated by 5 months.  There’s more to those last 2 songs than anyone will ever know.
            This one’s short, sweet, and to the point.  It’s rootsy, woody, and it feels to me like a thousand miles on hot evenings in the South, eyes burning from the wind, putting the past behind me and watching the road unfold up ahead.