Song of the Month - August 2024 - "In Between Jobs"
As I’ve written before, my most recent albums are more interesting to me because they chronicle specific periods of my life. I’d been writing lyrics about what was going on with me in the moment, and the resulting songs became a kind of diary for that period. For example, every time I hear “Alpha Centauri” from Branches Breaking From the Weight, I remember a trip to the barbershop on a hot summer day during COVID and how good my haircut felt afterward. That song is a time capsule that takes me back to a very specific moment, and that wasn’t always the case. Most of Songs from Memory was written years if not decades before the songs made it to the album. These newer lyrics were written on Tuesday and recorded on Friday.
The period during which we wrote and The Brightness of an Ordinary Star will always be the period during which I dealt with unemployment. I got laid off from my job just as we started writing the album, and I got laid off from my next job just before the album came out. It was a period of my life spent searching out news jobs, filing for unemployment, doing neglected yard work, retraining, dealing with financial stuff. On this side of 50, unemployment is not fun. I would’ve loved it in my 30s. Not so much now.
Sometime early in the first unemployment period, I was mowing the lawn. This is always a ripe time for me to come up with lyrics. The task is boring, but my blood is pumping, and my brain seems to search for something it might find pleasing. Somewhere in my back yard, I sang in my head,
Oh, to be at the top of the mountain, any mountain.
And oh, to be at the bottom of the sea, where no world can contain me.
I liked that, and I knew it was the prefect starter nugget for one of Bret and Kevin’s hunks.
You could argue that the couplet has little to do with being unemployed, which is the main thrust of the verses. Fair enough, but it’s clearly someone looking for an escape from his issues, which were mounting at the time, and more than just my employment situation. Life was getting very real very quickly—anyone of a certain age goes through these times—and I would’ve settled for any kind of escape. That’s what those words mean to me.
It’s been two years since I wrote this song, and I’m glad things have gotten better. I’ve got a good job now with folks who want me around. With that as a foundation, the rest falls into place.
This Friday, 8/16, it’s Budapalooza time! This is the easiest musical event you’ll ever attend. You show up to this bandcamp page at 5 PM PST, and I play you several songs solo acoustic to kick off your weekend. I’m sure to play a few tracks from my new album The Brightness of an Ordinary Star, along with some of your old favs. It’s free. You don’t even have to leave your home. Give it a try! You can chat with the artist, or just sit there and enjoy the music. Whatever works for you works for me.
Happy August, all.