Here’s another story about a tune from my CD, ‘White Lightnin’

I got divorced in late 2005. It wasn’t final until January 2006, but that was just legal stuff. It was a very hard time – for both of us. We had been together for 28 years, but things happen in the best relationships. I’m happy to say we can now share meals on special occasions with our son, Thanksgiving, birthdays. Cam likes her. My stepchildren think she’s great. It’s nice.

In the summer of 2006, still feeling the pain of the divorce, I went to a songwriting camp outside of Nashville. It was a great experience for many reasons, most of all because I made a great friend, Hank Brewer. Hank is an unbelievable musician and songwriter. He can literally start strumming some chords and sing lyrics stream of conscience, making them up as he goes. And it’s good!

We spent time at the song camp learning about writing songs, listening to hit writers sing their songs, sessions on songwriting, pitching to Nashville publishers, etc. It was great fun. On the second or third day Hank and I were talking and my divorce came up. “You need to write a song about it.” He suggested. So that’s what we did.

Hank asked questions about how I felt now and then, what it was like before things started falling apart, what it was like in the middle of it, at the end and after. Hank was able to coax all the emotion around the divorce out of me. Through the process I was able to experience the kind of gut digging a songwriter does to get a song with truth and passion.

We spent several hours kicking around ideas, verse lines, chord patterns and titles. We had the better part of the song completed before dinner. Finishing it took longer. We continued tweaking it. We were still tweaking it when we took it into the studio for a demo in Nashville in 2012. We were still tweaking it in 2014 when I cut the vocals for the version you hear on ‘White Lightnin ‘. I don’t know that it will ever be finished. Something about that period of my life is a little different every day. I don’t expect that to change.

You can hear a sample of “When The Walls Fall” at https://russstill.com/white-lightnin/ and check out Track 4. You can buy the whole CD there or buy the song on iTunes under Russ Still and The Moonshiners.

WHEN THE WALLS FALL
VERSE 1
We built this house to endure
Its walls were painted white like love so pure
The roof was like armor to shield us from the rain
Its foundation like granite that time wouldn’t change
CHORUS
When the Walls Fall, love tumbles down
When the Walls Fall, crash to the ground
Hearts shatter like glass, silence rolls like thunder
When the Walls Fall
VERSE 2
Saw the time was comin’ it wouldn’t be that long
When the walls fell we faced lonesome’s bitter storm
We gave it everything we both know we tried
When love collapsed there was no place left to hide
CHORUS
We built this house to endure