side by side (2018)
I wrote this while sitting on the Cornell arts quad during my daughter’s band rehearsal. The campus symbolized my past, and her future. She was almost as old as I was when my father died. All that led to some writing, and then this.
This track is quite a different approach from the first one; it’s all synths plus vocals, and a much more active texture.
coming and going
along these straight paths
and the crooked unwindings
that none of ‘em last
the baggage is heavy
the burden is high
i’m walking with you
side by side
i watched you learning
i saw you grow
but if i’d not been there,
i still would know
caught in the action
as it goes by
i am your witness
side by side
can’t be distracted
never unclear
won’t be unsettled
by pain or by fear
even in darkness
a step at a time
always here with you
side by side
and in the end
when the burdens are light
and bright day is passing
to dark sacred night
the entry is waiting
no telling why
i’ll walk here with you
side by side
TJW: synthesizers, vocals
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