In my travels over the years, I kept seeing the sign "Cemetery Road" everywhere. Since it is so ubiquitous, I felt there must be a universal message in there somewhere. One Cemetery Road sign in particular on Hwy 287 from Amarillo to Dallas, there was a plowed field running alongside a little dirt road to a big grove of trees where the cemetery is located. I visualized a farmer out there on his tractor watching the funeral processions come and go and his reflections on life and death. I got stuck with the song for a while, then when playing a gig for the Army's 121st Aviation Company (Soc Trang Tigers) reunion one year, I wrote the middle verse in honor of the lives disrupted by the war.

I made an album of original songs called "Unvarnished Truth." It is, in a sense, a concept album. It is not praise and worship music. I helped form and was in a praise band at church for several years. I have played for years at retreats called "Walk to Emmaus." sharing just those kinds of songs. But, in my own walk with the Lord, I find that my experience has been less than the idyllic one presented in so many Christian songs. I have had my share of trials and times of honest doubt and so have a lot of my Christian brothers and sisters. I don't feel like I've arrived as a perfect Christian. So, could I glorify God by trying to portray the ups and downs of an authentic Christian journey in song in hopes the music would touch those who are still trying to find the Lord? This song epitomizes that theme. The jury is still out.

Well, I always felt if I have to explain it, I am not getting it across in the lyric. Again, this is the kind of song I'm learning doesn't typically get cut these days. Still, there is something to be said for trying to put something unique in a song lyric. I had a friend whose mother had Alzheimer's. She was in a nursing home in a town a couple of hours away and her husband was trying to live his life, going to church and trying to just get along. She was still his wife and knew she was married but couldn't remember his name. I was touched not only by her plight but by his. I stirred in a little personal emotional experience and there you have it.

Probably not the kind of song anyone is cutting right now; but I got the idea after working late one night and coming home tired. There was a big moon shining down through the locust tree and I thought a beer sounded good, hence a "having a beer with the moon." As I recall, I had supper instead and went back to my music room to write the idea down. The concept of the song was to use an AABA form, to make it conversational, and to use as few words as possible. to get my idea across. That form is seldom used today but has its charm and a ton of old pop songs were written that way. Also, in this song, the moon-tune rhyme was so obvious, I wondered if offsetting it with an inner rhyme of equally cheesy tear-beer would work.

A friend made a chance comment, wondering aloud if anyone missed her at church when she was traveling with her husband on frequent business trips. The song was made up from whole cloth but sort of written as an answer to her question.

During a Bible study of Genesis, I was just thinking about how it must have been for Adam and Even, having known God at close range and a perfect relationship with each other, after the fall.