Track 4 - Home (or Right Lane for the Right Turn)
I think the words to this song are pretty much self-explanatory. No secrets here. Nor did I add any weak personal jokes in this one. This is strange, because that is pretty much the only way I write anything. I did put a joke in the subtitle of the song. 'Right' can mean the direction or it can mean 'correct'. I saw a road marking once that said this, and I liked the idea that I was being told to be in the correct lane for the correct turn.
If I remember accurately, this song was created in the car. For a few years I drove a certain stretch of highway repeatedly. That sort of repetition gives a person a sense of familiarity. I would say that, at least in my case, this is a false sense of familiarity. I didn't know anything about this landscape that wasn't superficial, but I felt close to it anyway. I wrote this song about this and extended this idea to the idea of “home.” I made up some stuff about things with which I had no experience (typical writing trick), and *boom*, I had a song.
Let me tell you a funny story about this song:
This song has gone through many versions. The version on this recording is how I have played it for a long time. My second recording “Right Lane for the Right Turn” has the original version. There was a brief time when I was playing a bit with a couple fellows named Aytan Luck and Chris Lubinski. Aytan played trumpet and Chris played banjo. We three played another version yet. It was fun and up tempo.
You may have heard me mention that I 'earn' a fraction of a penny on Spotify when people play a song of mine. One day I thought, “I haven't listened to my recordings in years. I'll give them all a spin on Spotify and earn about 10 cents in the process. Cha-ching!” So, I listened through all my 'catalog'. It was good. I felt like Kanye West or something, just hanging out and listening to my own tunes. I got to the last track, which happened to be “Home (or Right Lane for the Right Turn)” from the album “Right Lane for the Right Turn”.
But, instead of the drum machine, electric guitar version on my album, what did I hear? I heard crowd sounds. I heard Aytan on trumpet. I heard Chris on banjo. I heard a very sloppy and unpolished, but fun and up tempo version of “Home”. I know that this was recorded at Imagine Cafe (RIP) in West Bend, WI. I know we played with Heligoats (Chris Otepka), who played with a violinist that night in a performance that was extremely memorable to me. I even know the person who recorded it. What I do not know is how it got on the Internet.
Oh well. As with everything, the Internet has called “No Take-Backs”.
I am happy to have this new, live version of this song, because it was a staple of my set for many years.