Lost and Found: The Song

Lost and Found: The Song

I wrote this song when I was a sophomore at Kenyon.  I was taking an extra class, I was in two bands, I was putting on plays with a small theatre group. I was busy.  Still a song's gotta get written. It seems like some of the most creative times are when I don't have the time to be creative. I remember thinking first semester that I was writing songs that impressed me. I couldn't tell you how I wrote songs. I still can't.  When they're ready, they get written and I transcribe them. I don't think I remember thinking there was anything special about this song. Two verses and no bridge.  Still, this is one of the few songs that I wrote that doesn't really have a double-meaning. It's pretty naked that way. 

I remember recording it for the first time in my dorm room on a four-track.  Scott Wilcox had snuck in while I was recording the song. I tracked two guitars and a vocal. I probably spent an hour on it. Then I looked up and he was there. He said he'd been there the whole time. It says a lot about both of us. 

This song always haunted me, but I never played it out. On some level, it seemed too slight. At any rate, I don't know how it made it to the top of the record list. Perhaps it slipped below the radar. While the song was seven years old during the Lost and Found recording process, it seemed to radiate something about the whole time period.  I've always tried to write in a timeless manner. A good song today should be a good song twenty years from now. Still, this song seemed to take that concept to a whole new level.  It seemed truer when I recorded it, than when I wrote it. 

With Colin Brown on drums and Dave Humphries on bass it could have become more rockin', but they kept it true to its roots.  Dan Africk sang backup, and Meredith Noel laid down one of my favorite viola tracks.  I think we spent less time on this song per recorded second than any on the album.  It didn't just write itself, it practically recorded itself.