As an amateur musician who started playing the guitar in my teens in the early 1970s, I was influenced by the singer/songwriter wave that swept popular music during that time, especially with folks like John Denver and James Taylor. I wanted to write my own songs, to create music that expressed my thoughts and emotions. I am not a prolific songwriter by any means. I have friends who are much younger than I am who have written dozens, if not hundreds of songs. I am lucky if I push out a couple in five years. I have to catch some type of inspiration to make tunes and lyrics come together. I have written many more melodies than lyrics, so when the two merge into a song, I always feel a sense of accomplishment. I’m grateful when it happens.

The following is a list of my original songs that I think are worth keeping and occasionally performing at my solo shows. They span a period of roughly 45 years. Most of them were composed on the guitar, but a few of them came to me on the keyboard. I will try to place them in chronological order, but I may miss the order on one or two. I have written posts in this blog on several of them individually where I included the lyrics and links to performances. Some of them have been copyrighted with the Library of Congress.

Samples of my songs and studio recordings of several originals are posted on the music playlist of my YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL74BhqvI0f_6J2yedZde9Ldhp76h53JFH

“Skipper” – Perhaps my most cerebral song was one of my first attempts just after high school, sometime around 1979. It has some interesting chord and key changes that produce a rather ethereal atmosphere. I always thought this was just a ballad about a young sailor learning from his skipper how to handle a ship in a storm; however, the older I get the more I realize it is an analogy for any mentor-apprentice relationship, or perhaps a father-son dynamic. Some would argue it could have a religious undercurrent. I think it is one of the best songs I have ever written, and I still perform it from time to time.

“Missing You” – I wrote this not-so-original song around 1981 while I was at college away from home and close friends, modeling it after several popular tunes from the period written from the perspective of a touring musician who is missing the woman he loves. It has a pop country sound, and it goes over well with audiences. The theme is so common in pop and country music, such as the 1983 power ballad by Journey, “Faithfully,” written by Jonathan Cain. Another example is the 1997 hit recorded by Tim McGraw, “Everywhere,” written by Mike Reid and Craig Wiseman.

“I Return To You” – This is a sentimental love song I wrote during my last year of college as an undergrad student. The lyrics are nothing to brag about, but it has a catchy tune, so I still perform it every now and then. And I get compliments on it – go figure.

“Remember Me” – I was raised as a Southern Baptist, where music (and performing it) is appreciated as a central part of worship, right up there with preaching. Naturally, I wrote songs that I performed in church. Some were okay; others were endurable; most were awful. I would like to think “Remember Me” is the exception. I’m still proud of the lyrics, which take the form of the imaginary final words of the repentant thief spoken to Jesus as they are both hanging on their respective crosses. It is his confession and his plea for Jesus to remember him after he has died. The lyrics and music evoke raw emotion, desperation, sorrow, regret, and a culminating sense of peace. Because I no longer perform in churches, I never sing this one in public. I do still sing it at home for myself. It is the first song I can remember composing on the keyboard.

“We Liked Grandma So Much Better Without Teeth” – My grandmother had an incredible sense of humor, a trait I would like to think I inherited. She received a great deal of pleasure from making my sister and cousins laugh to the point of losing our breath. She would stop at nothing to entertain us, including removing her teeth, putting a nylon stocking over her head, and then pulling it up while dragging the skin of her face up with it to distort her features to almost frightening proportions. Some years after her death, my memory of these times became almost nostalgic, and I decided to write a funny song about her. It must be fairly entertaining, as I have been asked to perform it many times for groups of people who never knew my grandmother or any other members of my extended family. The song is a tribute to someone whose impact on my life was far greater than I realized when she was still with me.

“You Have My Heart” – It isn’t my best work, but it has an interesting chord progression that incorporates different keys for the verses and the chorus, with a minor-based bridge that all comes together nicely. The lyrics are based on the familiar theme of lost love or having to give up a love relationship.

“Walk Into My Arms” – Some songs are born out of pain, and I would imagine every songwriter has at least one. Some writers even specialize in songs about heartache. This is mine. The strength of this song is how the melancholy melody matches the sadness of the lyrics. “Don’t make me wait much longer; I ain’t gettin’ any stronger; Walk into my arms or just walk away.” This was composed completely on the keyboard, although I quite often play it on the guitar.

“The One You Call” – Rather than calling it a sappy love song, I’d like to think this is a sweet song about unrequited and unconditional love. It is definitely meant to be romantic. Oddly enough, I came up with the idea after telling a young woman who was going through a rough patch that she could call me anytime she needed me – to pick her up from somewhere, to drive her home, to listen to her, or whatever she needed. We were not at all involved (she was more like a daughter to me), but our conversation sent me in the mental direction of a romantic situation for the purpose of this song, mainly because I thought it would be more popular and relatable. This is another one of those I composed completely on the keyboard.

“I Just Don’t Fit” – During the early stages of the COVID pandemic in 2020, I wrote a pop song as a tribute to Flannery O’Connor’s brilliant short story, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” She is my favorite author, and I think she was a comic genius – far ahead of her time. If Flannery O’Connor and Cormac McCarthy had a love child delivered by Neil Young, I can imagine this is what it would sound like when the baby cried. I decided on a western-style tune to give it some distance from O’Connor’s South, but the darkness is still there. It’s probably enough to turn Bruce Springsteen’s stomach, but it’s the best I can do with what I have.

“Gone” – Here’s a sassy tune about a familiar subject: moving on after being mistreated by someone close. The speaker never actually identifies what kind of relationship has come to an end, but there are hurt feelings and a strong dose of good riddance. The musical composition is as complicated as anything I’ve written, with slight variations on all the verses and the inclusion of a bridge. It really is upbeat, which adds to the coming-out-on-top attitude. It’s fun!

“Music City Heartache” – I have only collaborated on writing songs twice. A fellow musician friend from my youth contacted me a few years back to say he had written some lyrics and would like me to compose some music for them. He is a big fan of Nashville music and visits the Grand Ole Opry several times a year. He wrote lyrics that draw an analogy between the heartache of never making it in Nashville and never making it in love. I think the music evokes the feelings of sad reality that are present in the words.

“Moon City Rock-n-Roll” – The first place I performed on stage after moving to Springfield, Missouri was a small bar on Commercial Street, or C-Street as it is often called locally. A young talented musician named Justin Larkin was hosting an open mic night at Moon City Pub. I had heard about the weekly session and decided to put myself out there with a familiar song for a Georgia guy: “Melissa” by The Allman Brothers Band. I started singing at open mic there almost every week. I also began checking out local performers and bands that played shows there on the weekends. A few years later I decided to pay tribute to the bar, Justin, the bar owners, and the people who frequented the place by writing a banger about gathering with friends to enjoy music at the bar. I have even had the pleasure of performing that song at a solo show at Moon City Pub.

“Miles of Time” – This is my only other collaboration so far besides “Music City Heartache.” I teamed up with Justin Larkin, mentioned above, to write the lyrics and parts of the melody to this ballad about the emotional toll of being far away from the familiar and the anguish caused by mistakes, wrong turns, isolation, and deep loneliness. I’m particularly happy with this line that Justin perfected: “Every faded fortune that I followed left me feeling all alone, all alone.” It may be a sad song, but I think it has some grit.

“Eternity” – Easily my saddest song to date, this is written from the perspective of a guy (at least in my mind) who is grieving the death of the woman he loves, probably his wife. It was born out of my imagined profound sadness if I were to lose my own spouse, the keeper of my heart. The song contains images, ideas, and fragments of conversations we have had over the years we have been together. The opening verse makes an allusion to the place where we want to be buried, the Grand Tetons. Perhaps writing this song is somehow my way of confronting the inevitable and trying to find comfort in a circumstance where it cannot exist. I think it’s one of the best songs I’ve ever written.

“I’m Gonna Ask That Girl to Dance” – I’m the first to argue that the most authentic music is often forged in the fire of pain and sorrow. But some of the best songs are fun! This is my attempt at a rockabilly tune inspired by one of the most common themes in popular music, especially rock and country: the shy dude who has trouble meeting women, especially in a bar. The lyrics are simple and not exactly original, but even the memorable hit songs about the same subject over the last 75 years haven’t been models of profundity. What I really like about this song is the scratchy, syncopated rhythm and how the lyrical phrases alternate between being tightly packed and more evenly spaced.

“On This Trail” – Finished only a few days before publishing this post, this is not the type of song I typically write, which is based on actual historical events. It is my tribute to the Cherokee Indians who endured and survived the infamous Trail of Tears, the removal of indigenous people from the hills of North Georgia and Tennessee to the newly established Indian Territory (later to become the State of Oklahoma) between 1838 and 1839. Historians estimate that approximately 4,000 Cherokee people died “on this trail,” which represented about one-fourth of the total number who traveled west during the forced migration by the United States government. I wanted this song to honor the Cherokee Nation, so I specifically incorporated phrases from first-hand accounts of survivors and from the poem, “The Trail of Tears,” by Cherokee poet Ruth Margaret Muskrat Bronson (1897-1982).