a new (old) song

I wrote this song when I was 17, in 1985. 

Band name: Tru Colours. (Yes my friends.) Every player in the band was killer. Zero drama. We played gigs, we got paid, we had a great time, and we made some terrific music together. Linda sang lead on most songs. I always loved her voice and style — womanly, even as a kid, with the rock power of Pat Benatar and the earthiness of Toni Tennille. I especially liked how our voices sounded together when I did backup.

We saw each other at a party this summer. People insisted that we do a song together, which we often do when we happen on each other, every several years or so.

This time, though, I remembered the song I wrote for us as a duet. I always thought of it like something Peter Cetera and Ann Wilson would do, or Grace Slick and Mickey Thomas from Jefferson Starship. (There's more than a nod to producer/arranger David Foster, too.)

We graduated and then that kind of music wasn't a moneymaker for me, but the song was always in the back of my mind. It started haunting me again sometime in early summer 2020, as I was thinking about what do to for Catherine. I write my wife a song for her birthday every year. Our 18-year love affair gave me what I needed to finish the bridge and a few lyrics, and make the song complete. (I recorded my own special version for her actual birthday.)

For this version, a few months later, I tracked it, digging into the anthemic 80s-ness of it, and recorded Linda. Man, she just gets better and better. She's even more like she was then than she was then. I went over to Darren Kuper's house and he laid down some great guitar work. Most know him as the first-call drummer in San Antonio: plays with everyone. But, drums aside, he's one of the best guitarists in the region, and guess what: in the Eighties, as a teen, he was the guitarist for Tru Colours. That crackin' solo!! He knew exactly what to do.

As I'm writing this, I realize something. Obviously this is a love song. But it applies here too. Though Linda and I are contenders for the Grace and Mickey Award for Zero Lovin' (see above: no drama), the thing is that I never *have* found another like her — a musical partner that meshes just this way vocally. We sing unison, it goes bam; we split into thirds, it goes bam. 

It's been a joy to work on. The only thing I'd change now is to figure out how to get TC's rock-solid drummer and sometime singer Brandon Hollon onto this as well, but I just didn't have the capabilities to do it this time around. Maybe soon: the old team back together!