Light and Her Shadow

“Light and Her Shadow” was born on a flight to Nashville. I was flying down to do some writing with friends and co-writers. I was reading Seamus Heaney and saw an interesting phrase. I believe it was membrane between light and shadow.. and I loved the image that the phrase invoked. I wrote it down and started turning the phrase around in my head to see if there was something there.. I finally settled on Between the Light and Her Shadow... and wrote the phrase down.

Over the next few days in writing sessions I brought the phrase out and got this ‘deer in the headlights’ looks from my co-writers.. actually a lot of my ideas got the same look.. lol.

I had a great time on that trip and wrote a number of cool tunes.. but nothing using that idea.

We have this Blockbuster online account that floods us with movies whether we want to watch them or not. While that’s another journal entry, we had a Roberto Benigni movie the following week where he imagines his life without his love.. and suddenly the idea and the hook connected and “Light and Her Shadow” came together.

(Incidentally, there is a little more to the story. Originally the song was composed with 3 verses and a bridge...which is problematic as far as songwriting goes.. (named “In Between”) The current version was pared down from the original and currently has drawn some interest for use in television soundtracks.)

Enjoy. Thanks for listening (and reading)

Listen to Light And Her Shadow

Tim

Amazing or Crazy? Selfless or Self-Serving?

I think as humans we loose perspective very quickly. We take an amazing message and it becomes rote memory, sometimes losing its deep impact and becoming something we just memorize and mindlessly repeat.

For instance, we are certainly thankful for a Father who was willing to give up his only Child to save us, and yet, what would we feel towards someone we know who would do the same?

Would we doubt the purity of his motives.. would we pity him.. would we just say, ‘how tragic’. Would we question whether there was another way? Would we feel just how undeserving we are of such an action.

What if we were in the position to make such a choice for the sake of others? How would we choose? How would we live with the choice?

What an unlikely thing to do. Who could make up this story?

I think we often forget just how radical God's action was! How amazing it is.

I wrote a bluegrass lyric this spring while pondering this thought. I cowrote the music this summer, and Joel Lane helped me bring this one to life. Its actually going through a rewrite, but but I'd love to get your opinions. Hope you enjoy it.

Tryin’ To Get Them Clean