This track is straight from the heart. I had a little riff I had been working on and came up with a melody line. I got together with Scooby (our b3/piano player), and he helped work out the rest of the song with the verse and bridge music. That really sewed up the music bed for the song and now it was lyric time.

Within the month that I was working on this song, I had three of my best friends' fathers pass away within a couple weeks of one another. Well, I'm an emotional wreck anyway; a Hallmark commercial can draw tears from me! LOL! Anyway, I wanted to grieve with my friends, and at the same time I wanted to help them to see all the good things they should celebrate from their fathers' lives. Once I got on a roll with the theme of the song the lyrics came rather quickly.

Every line in the verses is advice that came from their fathers, as well as from my dad at one time or another. I had asked each of my friends to tell me some things they remembered their father telling them; I used some from each, and, of course, they are things that every father would advise you. In verse one telling you that, "you don't have to be no hero, don't go changing who you are," which represents his unconditional love, and uplifting advice like, "Don't be forgetful, and always do your best to try," to financial advice, "don't throw away your pennies, add them up over time," and in verse two a stern warning, "life is what you make it, and that bed that you make is where you'll lie".

The bridge of the song is the meat of all advice from your father with the lines, "you got to want to want to get better, don't be the quitting kind," and then, "You got to walk the talk you put out there, it's what you leave behind," which means be true to yourself and your word, the old "do what you say" quotation.

The chorus offers up the healing side of the song's message, "Daddy's leaving for the last time, here come the angels, they're gonna carry him away," a safe passage of comfort and the line, "He's walkin on water, the shadow in my life," represents he'll always be there in spirit.

When I finished the song, I decided to go to Nashville and tweak it out with the highly respected songwriter, Kirsti Manna. Kirsti is one of the writers on "She's Country," the Jason Aldean hit just to mention one of many. What a wonderful person she is, we went over the song and reworded a couple things and then voila!

I also have to give credit to the boys in the band. They make a bed of music like no other that completes a piece of musical brilliance on anything I write!!

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself and learn more about the album - right here!

Preview and Purchase SwampDaWamp CDs