the ugliest word in the english language is anthropocene

"The studio version of this didn't make the album—we weren't really equipped as a band to play country music yet, and I was writing above my skill set, and Scott Solter was kind enough to say so plainly, directly. I'm grateful for that; learning one's limitations is the beginning of growth. Otherwise, to explain this song is just to restate the story it tells. When children get to any new place—an apartment, a motel, a duplex—they are excited; they usually can't immediately tell how their new home differs from the old one. We lived in the apartment for, I think, the remainder of first grade. It's a little blurry, and sometimes less blurry than you'd want."

"This is the first song on The Sunset Tree, our best-known album and the first one that will be mentioned in my obituary. Here in the month of June we'll be devoting ourselves almost exclusively to it, and to some songs ancillary to it—written during the same period, or connected otherwise to it. This song is written from the point of view of a guy who, just three years before, lived in the house where most of the rest of the album takes place. That guy is me, for better and worse."

And another wip I’ve been sitting on; a pitch that didn’t make it into a project I’m taking part in