‘Annalee’ is a song about living in the now. Recognizing you’re not young forever. I wrote this about my first girlfriend who had a habit of skinny dipping when we were kids. She had a way of capturing a moment. I liked skipping stones and she liked skinny dipping. She was a distraction. It’s a sweet song, we were highschool sweethearts. I still cherish the innocence of being in highschool- there was this sense of freedom and also a sense of the great unknown of what the future will bring. As an adult it’s about creating stability and reliability paving a road you can look down that’s trustworthy. It’s boring being us. As an eighteen year old, it’s about taking advantage of the now and the practice of daily adventuring. The song is about the summer before college, and saying goodbye to one life and one group of friends, and hello to the great unknown. ‘Annalee, Annalee/ You’re shaking the timbers/ you’re rattling the leaves/ There a full moon rising in front of me/ Come and stake your claim in my memory’
‘Rose Tattoo’ is about a man returning to his family after being laid off from his job. He looks in the window and sees his pregnant wife multi tasking, taking care of a toddler and cooking up dinner. She finds him on the porch and convinces him to come in. Most of the song is written about her strength and her belief that they can survive by moving through the troubles as a team. ‘If I ever lost you/ I would be lost too/ Just drifitng in a sea of blue/ You’re in my skin like a rose tattoo/ like a rose tattoo… ‘
‘River Road’ is a song about driving. Finding that one person you love in the world and driving without a destination with them. It’s based on the River Road in Edgecomb, Maine, a Road that runs along a river that runs to the ocean. It’s beautiful. The song is about sharing the moment without a compass to guide you. Windows down and backroad scenery. ‘Would you like to know how it feels/ to trade your wings in on some wheels/ I’ve got the keys let’s take a ride/ stick your hands out the passenger side down the River Road/ It’s where I wanna go, down on the River Road/ clear water flows, down on the River Road’
‘The Day After Everything Change’ is about the moment you realize you’re moving on from a relationship. It was written through the prism of Wabi Sabi, which is a Japanese philosophy that embraces beauty and fragility. A relationship wears and cracks and ages, and this person sees it’s time to go, and recognizes the beauty of the past and the fading, changing nature of love. ‘Leaves they fall, a clock is turning on the wall, colors change/ iron rusts, you can trust, that you’ll never be the same/ Cause it’s the day after everything changed’
