The Story Behind The Song. Track 5 - Say Goodnight

This one's more elusive. Kansas City can be cold and stark in the winter. The trees are bare, which happens everywhere that has a real winter, but somehow the barrenness seems like a bigger deal out here than it did when I lived in the northeast. I think it's the lack of hills. There's just nothing to look at! It's like if you ran fast enough and slipped, you could fly right off the earth. And sometimes the ice sticks on the ground for weeks at a time, if we get a hard freeze. It turns black. There are a lot of crows, too. Especially in midtown. Sometimes the skies are just flooded with them. And it's spooky, to be driving home at sunset, watching these flocks of crows.

Sometimes stuff's broken. Maybe it's at home, or maybe it's at work. Maybe the hesitation (the kicking of fallen leaves and hands in sleeves) is because you worked all day and you looked forward to getting home and something suddenly hits you: a realization that there's nothing waiting for you there. You don't know what you were so excited about. Maybe you don't know why you're doing what you're doing, generally. Maybe you're reaching out in various directions, and it's not panning out like you'd want it to, or the things and people you find don't fill the needs you were hoping they would. Maybe they can't. Maybe they won't.

But in the end, it's a season. Everything passes, winter or otherwise. Sometimes the best thing you can do is sit tight and ride it out. Sometimes there's nothing you can do about it, whatever it is. So just sit tight for a while. Just sit tight and say goodnight.

I like Chad's backing vocals here a lot. And the rickety-sounding acoustic (me playing my Martin.) I like the whoosh when the drums kick in. That's a rain stick at the beginning, by the way.

Next up: Failing To Play Nice

- Jesse Kates / Download our music for FREE