Move Mountains (rev)

Nearly a year ago, I had a demo recorded for this song and I was super pleased with it. But the more I listened to it, the more the bridge lyric rubbed me the wrong way:

          They say, standing behind
          Every great man is a bride
  Telling him he’s strong...

This came straight from the song’s concept starter, “behind every great man is a great woman.”

But I happen to know some perfectly great fellas who don’t have women behind them. Some have male partners. Then there's the great women with men or women behind them. And many of the women I know who are in longstanding relationships were never brides. Besides, you’re only a bride for a day, and this song’s about love stretched over a whole lotta days.

I didn’t want my song to exclude any of these folks! I hated the idea of the song getting picked up with that line in it, and perhaps that the line might actually rub other producers or artist the wrong way too. Heck, I couldn’t even bring myself to sing the song anymore. And I really wanted to record it myself on the new album.

So I rewrote the lyric in September:

           There’s nothing he can’t rise above
           When he’s lifted by her love
           Telling him he’s strong...

It sounds more natural, it’s not so cheesy (to me anyway) and doesn’t exclude anyone. It’s still about a man and woman, but in the context of their story in the song. It doesn’t exit to some soapbox plane like the original seemed to do.

Yesterday, the folks at Beaird music got Matt Dame back in to sing the new lyric. I Skyped in and chatted with him before and between the takes. Took all of 7 minutes. The other really cool thing is that, although the music never changed a bit, my new melody really jacks up the energy at the beginning of the bridge where the old melody brought the intensity down. So it’s a positive change all around.

I got the remix today and it sounds great.


And my own acoustic version is happily residing at track #5 on my own new album currently being mixed. I'm blessed to have Nathan Smith playing fiddle, Don Kerr on drums and Jerry Stamp adding harmonies. Stay tuned!