John Dandrea

Neal had written the lyrics during a particularly rough period in his life, and I immediately heard the music to the song as soon as I read the words.   I heard a strong vocal harmony in the song and I knew it would be great to record.

I was sure that it was one of those strong, emotional songs that would make the perfect title track for the overall album that I already had in mind, featuring the topic of  Time.   It's become  one of my favorites.

The Shutterstock photo used for the album cover, was unusual and made a great theme visual, and this one for the song cover, is also one of my favorites.

This was a song that was written years earlier than others on the CD, but had also never been documented or recorded – only carried around as a simple guitar tune.  It occupies a special place in my heart, and it seemed the “time” was right – it was the right piece of music to add to the album.

As is the case with other songs on this album, there's a common theme of "longing" and of missing someone or, missing happier times, than what's perhaps in the present.  I think that this is just a life-theme, we all feel this now and then.  There's often a drive to re-create such times, but not many I know of ever get a chance to actually pull it off.  That's life. . . .

This song was written about the way I was feeling after spending many years in the army, moving around every couple years to a new assignment. It is a very difficult thing to do - to give up friends you’ve gotten close to after 3 or 4 years at a time and then move to a new location, sometimes across the world, and start all over again.

I wrote the song on a 12-string acoustic guitar, with a lively finger-picking rhythm to it.  It was one of those songs I enjoyed playing, as I would take a solo in a bridge part and play the melody on the guitar as a lead part.  The current recording uses piano and a rhythm that keeps it more upbeat and I'm quite pleased with the mix.

This song was written on piano as opposed to the guitar. It is a light and bouncy number, with a chorus part that I soon began to hear the line “More Than You’ll Ever Know” with, and it was easy for me to give it that title, even when I didn’t really think of writing verses to the song.

I suddenly had the words come to me   “I miss you more and more each day” and  “I’ve got to find a way to be with you every night, be with you every day” were just so easy, simple, and expressive that it was hard to imagine the song in any other way.   This is another one of those songs that Abigail just really made so special with her lovely vocals.

Once in a lifetime, you just experience that mysterious and intense relationship that pushes everything else in your life aside.  It seems so ironic that usually the most intense relationships in your life are among those that never seem to work out.  So it goes.

A flame that burns too hot, too brightly.. I'll never know.  "but if our destinies collide, and you're back here by my side...".  That feeling of a special someone who may be across the world but who is always "watching over me"  is very special.  This song was written on piano, in a fairly slow tempo and was meant to be a romantic ballad style song.

Sometimes a single image is all it takes to describe a lifetime of memories. In this case, a single red rose.  Such is the forever love of two of the dearest souls I have ever known. If memories are truly treasures in time, then this song takes its special place on this album with the theme of   Time – and a love eternal, unending, and immortal.

Within 2 weeks of each other, they would walk hand in hand through eternity - for they simply could not bear to be without each other. Their love was just too strong to ever allow them to be parted – and the gift of their example of eternal love can be summed up in a single picture – such as this one. 

This song was one of those folk-style tunes that came tumbling out on guitar one evening while just thinking about how we so often may actually find that “right” partner in our lives, but life just keeps us apart no matter what we want. Circumstances just conspire to keep us from being together – jobs, geography, finances….. for whatever reason, we just can’t make it work out.

This is one of those bittersweet irony songs – in the end you just wind up saying that maybe someday, somewhere, in  "another place and time",  maybe. . . .  but that this one  "just wasn't meant to be".   Chalk it up to life, love, and . . . experience.