Laurie, my song writing partner, came up with the core lyrics for this song a few years ago based on an episode in a book ‘Border Music’ by Robert James Waller, the author of ‘The Bridges of Madison County’.  It was only recently that we looked at the lyrics again and I came up with the music which we feel nicely matches the sentiments of the song.

The song tells the story of a travelling musician, hoping for his big break as he aimlessly fills his time performing in bar bands.  He meets and falls in love with a ‘dime a dance’ girl who he only knows by her first name.  (In the book her second name was ‘Lobo’).  But the call of the road is too strong and he soon leaves again, full of familiar regrets.

Technical notes:

The music switches between 4/4 in the verses and bridges to 3/4 in the choruses.  I can’t remember how I came up with that, it just felt right, providing contrast between the regrets of the singer and the remembered delicate dancing of his lost lady.

Drums sounds were from XLN’s Addictive Drums with tambourine sounds from EZDrummer and other percussion from my BOSS DR-880.  Band In A Box provided the basic drum, bass, piano and string patterns in MIDI which I then extensively modified.  Bass, piano and string sounds were from my Roland Fantom X6 with more string sounds from Steinberg’s Halion Sonic software synth.

The project was recorded and mixed in Sonar Producer X1. The final mix was mastered using TRacks3 Deluxe software with limiting (loudness if you will...) provided by Fabfilter’s ProL limiter.