“On New Year’s Eve I held a light and I held it high…exposing awkward dances…”

A few weeks ago, I lent an old blazer of mine to my son who is a senior in high school. When he put it on, I saw the breast pocket was pronounced. I have a habit of putting papers into it and forgetting them. I pulled out quite the stack of funeral mass cards, wedding programs, drawings my kids made and handed to me during long church services, to-do lists, store receipts, and, at the bottom of the wad, I came across this:

Our 12 hours among the glitz of the holiday city, as ‘12 became ‘13, made me thoughtful the next morning, and I began to work on a song about the passage of time, a “Gospel song,” as Monroe described it when I played it for him at a practice. It incorporates childhood memories and phrases from the Book of Psalms. Many friends have told me they love this song:

The song underwent one change at the help of Jeremy Michaelis, Dennis’ brother. Jeremy helped me select songs for “They Still Make Sunsets” and gave me notes on my demos. The first version had the chorus going in an upward direction, taking my voice to a higher register and louder guitar. I envisioned a U2 sound. Jeremy asked me to rewrite the chorus, it didn’t work as well as the verse which he liked. At the time I was getting reacquainted with the discography of Sam Phillips, the female, alternative songwriter, especially her albums “Fan Dance” and “Don’t Do Anything.” Her songs were masterpieces of compressed energy. Should could be powerful at just above a whisper. So I turned my chorus melody upside down, on purpose. If I went up before, I went down. I turned major chords into their relative minor. What resulted was something that complimented the verse instead of contrasting with it.

Ten Years after the Chicago film shoot, I was doing my “O Indiana: Digital Postcards” and I happened to be in Valparaiso on a visit to in-laws. I was living in Valpo when I wrote the song. Taking advantage of the location and occasion; not to mention decorations, this video was made for YouTube: