Driveway

Listen

"Driveway" introduces myself musically.  While almost all of my songs emanate from my own experience, none have the same autobiographical scope as this.

Some of the most significant conversations and interactions in my life have occurred in driveways.  I enjoy thinking about simple spaces and their seemingly sacred associations. 

My musical education began with the tape deck in my Mom's car as I tagged along in the back seat for my brothers' games, my own, and for various errands.  That tape deck fed me a steady diet of the Clancy Brothers, the Kingston Trio, and John Denver.  My Mom's musical choices had an immeasurable impact on me.

Some of my favorite memories of childhood involve the half-awake, half-asleep state I'd inhabit in the passenger seat of my Dad's car while listening to the radio post-game show of a Capitals or Orioles game that my Dad and I had just attended.  

I'll let the rest of the song speak for itself.  

   

"Driveway"

Instrumentation: guitar, cello

The concrete below my feet carries more than the family car

This driveway is where I first put fireflies in a jar

From this place my Mom took me to school singing "Grandma's Featherbed"

And I came home asleep, Dad in the driver's seat, Jon Miller painting pictures in my head  

Cracked pavement, wrinkled hands

Coming and going in these shifting sands

But what remains is where we stand

In...this driveway

It was freshly paved back in those days all smooth and midnight black

But after all the pounding from my brothers and me, it slowly started to crack

I remember the night when arriving home and she gave a ring back to me

I never knew I'd lose a love in the driveway, in the passenger seat

Cracked pavement...

Time moved on, cracks got paved, words began to rhyme

And I came home with you and we sat in the driveway and talked with no sense of the time

Now here we are, keys in the car, pulling out at 5 am

Our two boys in the back, a half tank of gas, heading home to a driveway for them

Cracked pavement...