I almost didn’t record “See You On the Other Side”. I’m writing this as we’re just on the “other side” of a particularly (ahem) memorable year, happily on our way into 2021 (new year, new songs, new president, and a new thing called “the return of optimism”.) Let’s go back six months or so. Here’s how this new tune and the accompanying video came to be.

Do you remember 2020? Apparently a lot stuff happened. While sheltered in place, I wrote a lot of new songs – all of them as a collaboration via Zoom with my pal John Cirillo back in Nashville. I kept hearing the phrase “See You On the Other Side” as a way of being post-2020, even though the phrase is normally about passing on.

 

It worked. And I workshopped the song while playing my Friday night gig (outdoors, masked) at El Vaquero Winery in Watsonville throughout the summer and fall.

The song itself was also my attempt at an understated tribute to songwriting hero John Prine, who left us after COVID19 complications in the spring. Here’s a chat I had with Wallace Baine for both Lookout Santa Cruz and his show on KSQD Radio about the song and the influences of Prine:

This particular song was pretty specific about the isolation of being at home. I wasn’t planning on recording it since it WAS so specific. But then, on top of the stress of COVID19 and the ongoing news from the tumultuous election year, fires suddenly kicked in all over the state.

We put up a few friends locally who had to evacuate the San Lorenzo Valley. One of them was Henry Chadwick, a good pal, amazing musician, and the incredibly talented guy who’s been producing my most recent work. Once the fires subsided and Henry was ready to go back home, we chatted about my new material. We decided to record this song as sort of a time capsule for the year.

Like my song “Day Drinking Days,” released mid-2020, this was another “recorded in place” tune: I laid down guitar and vocals, and all the players added their parts, all from home: Greg Abelar (bass), Joe Bac (guitar), Laura Hall (accordion). Henry added percussion, and then we were able to bring Eliza James (harmony vocals) up to Henry’s studio to add her parts and mix.

I handed the final track off to Richard Newman, and we decided to do a very stark, black and white representation of the song…with a slight “Wizard of Oz”-ish return to color at the end. Like the other videos I’ve produced with Richard (“Little Angels Everywhere” and “Moving to Boise (Zombie Free),” I sketched out my idea for the video in a storyboard, then just handed it to Richard and turned him loose.

The song has since received some radio love and streaming play, and I’ve received lots of nice kudos on the video. As with any music project, this was absolutely a team effort. And John Cirillo and I have just finished a followup song, “Welcome Back to the Land of the Living,” that kicks us onto the “other side” of 2020. Stay tuned…