I Think Of You

"I Think Of You" is the opening track on my CD, Tallulah Lake. This is the song that really started the whole album project. I began writing the song in 2004 during a time when my personal life was taking a major turn. I was discovering love all over again.

This is the song in which I hear over and over again that "it sounds like John Lennon!". It never sounded that way to me. What I heard was George Harrison. That was for two reasons. First, I play slide guitar. I love the sound George gets and have always tried to emulate his sound. So whenever I play a guitar solo I tend to gravitate torwards playing with a slide.

But the other reason the song felt so "George" influenced to me was the inclusion of the diminished chord in the verses. The second chord is a D-diminished which George used quite often (diminished chords in general - not just D-diminished!). What does that all mean? It just means that it sounds like a George Harrison-style song. The diminished chord is not used often in modern pop songs. But go back to the days of Gershwin and Porter and you'd hear them used more often.

To be honest, when I was first writing the song - just me playing acoustic guitar and singing - I wasn't too enthusiastic about it. It just didn't sound like anything I wanted anyone to hear. But as I began to lay down all the other instruments, the guitar solo, the background vocals, it suddenly began to sound like a song.

I put the song aside for a while. I went on to other songs. By the time I had a half dozen songs I decided to create a MySpace page and post a few songs to test the waters. The difference here is that I had decided that these songs were for me - no one else. I liked them. If anyone else liked them - then great! If not, that's okay, too.

But people started responding positively to my music and that really surprised me. I kept getting questions like "where can I get your CD" (I didn't have one), and "when will you be touring in Vermont?" (where's Vermont?). These were tough questions. So while I answered the first question (I released the CD in August on CDBaby), I haven't figured out exactly where Vermont is. But that doesn't mean that I won't be there in the near future!

Thanks to everyone who encouraged me to move forward with my songs. I get a lot of joy out of songwriting and I'm thrilled when I hear that my music affects someone in a positive way.

Peace & love,
Steve