Track #9: "The Other Side"
When I returned to California more than 20 years ago I wasn't sure it would be permanent. I hopscotched around the Bay for more than a decade between bouts of travel, trying to decide, moving first to Marin, then back to Santa Cruz, then San Francisco, again to Marin and back to SF. After a stretch of time in the city, I moved to Berkeley, and a year after that Alameda, the little island next to Oakland, flying to India a couple more times in between just to be sure. After landing in Alameda and marrying a sailor, I started going out on the water more often, and began to get to know the Bay itself after circumnavigating it for all those years.
A couple years ago, I learned that a dear friend, someone I'd been close to when I first returned to the state, had passed. I was stunned, sent back to that lonely year when I didn't feel decisive or clear about most anything, and a distant loved one had been a lifeline. I both felt the loss deeply, and marveled anew about how connections to both people and place expand and contract and fold back over themselves over time.
“Maple trees turning from green to red before our eyes/to get from then to now/I don’t know how/we did we do it?”
Audio preview later this week!
Between now and it’s official release day, I’ll be sharing a bit of the inspiration and backstory for each song on The Department of the West (December 6, 2019), and a preview of the recording. Pre-order the record -http://www.deborahcrooks.com/the_department_of_the_west/ and/or buy a ticket to the record release show at Amado’s SF on December 5 - http://www.amadossf.com/shows/2019/12/5/deborah-crooks-w-gayle-lynn-and-the-hired-hands - and I’ll send you the featured song of the week of your order!
??