‘By the Side of the Road’ is one of our newer songs which will be recorded as part of our upcoming album and it is my personal favorite.  It might seem really bleak and depressing to some people but I didn’t write it from a negative place.  One of the reasons why I love this song is that it just came to me out of the blue and pretty much wrote itself…I feel like it came through me rather than from me.  Instead of being a song about death and the futility of life I feel like its a song about how precious and powerful a life can be when it is lived with a sense of urgency.  Instead of looming over us as a source of dread and anxiety, the impermanence and uncertainty of our time here should drive us to do something meaningful with our lives (and I think the only meaningful thing we can do is somehow make the world better for others.)

BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD                  (c)2008

They buried me by the side of the road,
My mind grew distant,
my body got old,
so they dressed me up
in my favorite clothes
and they buried me there
by the side of the road.

They bring me flowers and they lay them at my feet,
they cry their tears
and they say their prayers for me
But I don’t need saving
and anyone can see
that I’m better off now
than I’ve ever been.

I have no eyes
to see the struggle,
I am blind to the ways of the world.
I have no mind
to confuse and complicate me.
My heart lies still,
my body vacant,
an empty vessel
left to sleep beneath the dirt.

They buried me by the side of the road,
these hands you’ve held
are not my own.
I’m just a stranger
you used to know,
a passenger here,
without a home.