Letters Home – The Songwriters’ Story

Letters Home – The songwriter’s story

The first part of letters home was written in treyT’s front lawn on a warm Saturday morning last spring (May 30th to be exact).  The girls were playing and treyT had just read a story about soldiers being killed before they are able to come home and see their children that were born while they are deployed.  treyT (me) was raised in a house of women (mom and sister) and I am emotional… so sue me.I couldn’t help thinking about how hard it must be for the moms and dads in that situation.  It’s hard enough for me to spend a night away from my family, much less 9 months in a foreign land, fighting so cream puffs like me can sit here and write about writing.  Then the idea of the correspondence between the mom and the dad and particularly from the dad to his new son or daughter came to mind and struck me as a powerful image.  I started with “Little darlin’ it’s your daddy writing, from so far away it’s hard to explain”.  Of course I was picturing a daughter since I have two of them.

I know letters are a thing of the past, but it seemed to flow better than “emails home”.  I strung together some bits and pieces that morning and put them to paper (on the back of my turned over guitar in my lap in my front yard).

I sent parts of what would become the first and last verse to treyE who first did the “sounds like” test.  This is the test that all songwriters have to do.  If we didn’t there would be 100 songs that sound like “Margarittaville”. Luckily we passed.

Side note: In the past 2 years, treyE and I have become much more collaborative in our song writing which shows in the quality of the music (in my humble opinion).

The songs lyrics are below and I’ve added a little color commentary in the tabs below.  Comments are in (parenthesis and in red italics).  You can also see anything that changed during the collaboration process.  Anything changed is in bold italics.

Letters Home
words and music by: shadowood

Verse I:

C                                F
My darling, it’s your daddy writing.
C                                     F
From so far it’s hard to explain.
C                                F
Been away working night and day
C                                                        F
But the thought of you numbs the pain

C                                   F
Mommy sent me a picture of you  (I imagined a daddy sitting there at night with a picture of his kid.  Yes, mommy would have sent more than one picture, but I thought the idea of a single picture was more poetic)
C                                               F
And I’ve heard you cry on the phone.  (Not sure why, but this was powerful to me)
C                        F
Little darling don’t you worry
C                                     F
I’ll be home before you know.

Chorus:
G                          F
And at night I’m dreaming
G                               F
Of all the time we’ll spend.
G                     F
Birthdays and sun rays (This was sunny days, but we didn’t want to ryhme days with days.  It’s TreyE’s songwriting pet peeve)
G                                                    F
But for now I’m sending my love in
C         F
These letters home.

Verse II:
Little darling I heard you’re crawling  (shows the kid getting bigger and proving how long he’s away)
And still can’t sleep at night
Wish I was there, not over here (TreyE wisely changed this line.  It’s the first real hint of a soldier deployed)
So I could tuck you in real tight. (one of my favorite things to do is put the girls to bed. I can’t imagine not having that)

They’re telling me that I get to leave
In about a month or two.
It’s a gift straight from heaven
But His greatest gift was you.

Chorus:
And at night I’m dreaming
Of all the time we’ll spend.
Games we’ll play and your wedding day (These lines were supposed to represent the “little things”, though wedding days are not little.  Games we’ll play, birthdays and sun rays are simple pleasures we take for granted)
The memories will soon begin

I’m coming home

Bridge

(TreyE wrote the bridge -and everything else in bold.  What I love about it is the simplicity and the picture it paints.  Everyone can imagine going in the yard and playing.  The idea that such a simple thing is this man’s dream shows how lucky we are.)

Am                                       Em

We’re gonna go outside and finally play in the yard
D (w/o bottom string)                                      G

And for the very first time…  I’ll hold you in my arms

Verse III:

Hey, little darlin’, my name’s Private Morgan
Over here I was your daddy’s best friend.

he constantly prayed and was countin’ the days
till he could come back home again

Every word that came of his mouth
was about you, I thought you should know (proud daddy)
But Last night your daddy lost the fight
And now he’s coming home. (this pause in the song is my favorite pause EVER)

Chorus:

And now he’s with you
He’s the warmth that you feel on your skin (I know it’s dorky, but I picture a ghost whisperer-type moment when the soldier is hovering over his kids and they feel his presence.  I’m a sucker, ask anybody.)
Be proud, your daddy kept his vow
To stand until the very end (We tried to point out how heroic the story really is.  These people are fighting for our lives every day.  While we are standing in Starbucks or cussing at people in traffic they are putting their lives on the line for us.  Sometimes I don’t feel worth it)
And now he’s home.

———————————————————

We hope you’ve enjoyed the first installment of our songwriters story.  Know that we dedicate this song to all soldiers.  Men, Women, across the world and here in the USA.  It is because of their sacrifice that we live such good lives.  (and they are good lives)

If you know a vet, give him or her a big hug from shadowood.  They deserves it.

Peace, love and shadowood.

treyT