“Home” most always represents both a real, particular place and a metaphor with almost unparalleled richness in human life. Home, as the ancient maxim has it, is not only where our hearts are, but also where we lay our heads down on familiar pillows in beloved zones of comfort, where we are (or at least nurture a hope to be) most ourselves and most accepted and understood as the selves we are.
It’s where we go to regather ourselves in times of turmoil and crisis, whether of inner identity or outer world upheava.
To “go home” is to “call it a day,” to push back from the world for rest, reprieve, recharge.
Or in a more eternal sense, to “call it a life” and be able to face death with the equanimity it invites us to consider. (Given its inevitability, I’m never sure whether to admire as plucky or dismiss as absurd the poet Dylan Thomas’s admonition to “rage, rage against the dying of the light.”)
Type “songs of home” into the You Tube search bar and watch your device almost burst aflame with “Goin’ Home,” “Take Me Home,” “Come on Home,” “Sweet Home Alabama,” “Bring It on Home,” “Can’t Find My Way Home,” “A House Is Not a Home,” “Country Home,” “Welcome Home,” “Take Me Home Tonight,” “Ain’t Nobody Home,” “Come Back Home,” and countless versions of plain old “Home” with wholly different lyrics and melodies but the same, basic, universal idea of home as central, a core value and facet of human life and the creative imagination.
And though it doesn’t feature “Home” in the title, Dave McGraw’s “Western Sky” joins this pantheon, drenched as it is in images of home, starting with the title itself. Western skies are, after all, the home end of a day folding back into itself as the sun descends, the narrator using that potent symbol to weave in his own heart’s greatest desire.
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McGraw is the writing half of the duo known from its inception in 2010 as the folkie, singer-songwriters and guitarists “Dave McGraw and Mandy Fer.” In 2019, after a months-long sailing trip from their home base of the San Juan Islands off Washington state with a musician friend who joins them for various gigs and recordings, the pair adopted a new name—“Sway Wild.” The change reflected their desire to stretch their artistic muscles by re-integrating some of the rockier musical chops of their youth.
That meant McGraw returning sometimes to the drums of his early music practice and Fer cranking things up a bit on her electric guitar, though no, you will never mistake Sway Wild for Led Zeppelin or the Sex Pistols.
“Western Sky” is from their earlier duo days and the 2012 album, “Seed of a Pine.” It features just their guitars accompanying the exquisite vocal harmonies that have always been the duo’s stock in trade.
You can see the lyrics below but you shouldn’t have much trouble with reception of either the words or the delicate vocal intonations. All of it reflects both the longing for home and affirmations of love, conveyed with all the tenderness of putting a finally half-sleeping baby to bed after a too-long night visiting the rellies.
Let’s give it a listen now.
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WESTERN SKY
Sitting on top of this western sky
is it going to be the one to take me far and wide
with you
because I believe that all these words that we’re saying
they’re making a path that will show us a way in
and through
I know you’ve been afraid
lord knows I’ve been away
but I can feel it in my bones
this time I’m really coming home
I will be I
I will be I
I will be I
I will be home
so when April comes to your mountain town
and the snow of the winter is still on the ground
and you’re cold
somehow you should know that the snow of the season
has given me hope and has given me reason
to hold
you better believe that you can be loved and that I can be loved and that we can be loved
when we’re old
I know you’ve been afraid,
lord knows I’ve been away
but I can feel it in my bones
this time I’m really coming home
I will be I
I will be I
I will be I
I will be home
for you took this heart of mine and you placed it in your eyes
you gave me peace of mind and with it I’ll decide
that you will be the one when I lay my body down
and you will be the one when I make my final sound
I will be I
I will be I
I will be I
I will be home
I will be home
© Dave McGraw (ASCAP Badger Creek Productions)
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Our narrator has been wandering too long, feeling rootless, seemingly looking for himself out there on the road only to realize he’s farther away from himself than when he left—it just took his leaving for him to fully understand that.
It’s an ancient story, to be sure. In truth, I suspect there hasn’t been a spankin’ new human story in hundreds of years. Most all of them worth a read or listen are variations on a handful of themes—love and longing, anger and greed, grace and redemption, loyalty, regret and betrayal, jealousy and treachery.
It’s in the variations that great stories and songs still show through—and always will.
“Western Sky” shines for its slowly unfurling melodic lines and honest, wistful emotion. The elongated “I-I-I-I-I will be I…” giving way to the sudden urgency of brimming emotion, the words running together almost as one: “so-when-april-comes-to-your-mountain-town/and-the-snow-of-the-winter-is-still-on-the-ground…”
Then a hushed pause, the words fading into that snow: ...”and you’re cold.”
The pattern repeats for a couple more stanzas: “somehow-you-should-know-that-the-snow-of-the-season/has-given-me hope-and-has-given-me-reason… (Pause…) …to hold…”
Then almost a torrent, relative to the slow ambling pace of most of the song: “you-better-believe-that-you-can-be-loved-and-that-I -can-be-loved-and-that-we-can-be-loved…(Pause…) …when we’re old.”
This sets up the final affirmation, though first, at the 3:00 mark, Mandy lays into just about the sweetest 30-second electric guitar riff you will ever hear, melodic and reverbing to the heavens before Dave promises: “that you will be the one when I lay my body down/and you will be the one when I make my final sound.”
That’s the final homecoming, the narrator projecting ahead not only to when he will be arriving home at last to his beloved, but far beyond that, to the intense intimacy of his passing from the world they will have shared, stripped bare of all trifles, all that would weigh that body down, no more baggage to be checked or horizons to be scanned, heading with purpose toward the ultimate western sky.
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A slightly more electrified approach…
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For a list of all songs in this series, most recent first, see http://andrewhidas.com/?s=Brilliant+songs
Sway Wild’s website is a treasure trove of background and fine music videos, see: https://swaywild.com/music
For a nice interview on the duo’s history and creative process from their hometown San Juan Community Theater, see: https://sjctheatre.org/sway-wild-interview
Comments, questions, attaboys or arguments, suggestions for future posts, songs, poems? Scroll on down below, and/or on Facebook, where you can Follow my public posts and find regular 1-minute snippets of wisdom and other musings from the world’s great thinkers and artists, accompanied always by lovely photography. https://www.facebook.com/andrew.hidas/
Deep appreciation to the photographers! Unless otherwise stated, some rights reserved under Creative Commons licensing
Homepage rotating banner photos (except for library books) by Elizabeth Haslam https://www.flickr.com/photos/lizhaslam/
Library books by Larry Rose, Redlands, California, all rights reserved, contact: larry@rosefoto.com
Western sky sunset and snowy home by Andrew Hidas https://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewhidas/
McGraw and Fer portrait from the duo’s website
Thanks for Dave McGraw and Mandy Fer and Sway Wild, another one of brilliant song entries that will have me Googling “Are they playing near me?”
Home for me is a polygon. It’s Carlinville, the small Illinois town where I spent my childhood. It’s Armadale Street in Eagle Rock where so much of who I am today was sculpted. It’s the corner of Union and Divisadero Streets in San Francisco (my great aunts’ apartment building). It’s UCLA. It’s the San Fernando Valley where my children were born and went to school (now my grandchildren live there). It’s New England and the Central California coast where my parents’ lived for nearly 30 years. Now, it’s Texas with Claire, Kathryn, and our two dogs (they’d give me saddest look if not mentioned).
Just a few takeaway remarks on all your “Beautiful Songs” entries. They’re a bit of fresh air. They’re time machines sending me back to a particular moment long since forgotten. They’re reminders of just how much music I really don’t know. They’re uplifting lyrics which give me a brief respite from politics and a man who is bent on destroying beauty.
Thanks, Drew, another fine offering of talented musicians I (an ardent music fan) had never heard of! I loved the tender emotion in their voices and the simple yet mega-effective repetition of “I – I – I – I “in each chorus resolving into “will be home”. A minor correction, the lovely evocative lead Mandy plays is on an electric guitar, not a steel guitar – steel guitars come in a variety of forms but they always use some bar (hence the “steel”) sliding across the strings. As a drummer, I was also taken by Dave’s subtle dexterity on the kit, perfectly complimenting Mandy’s voice & guitar work. WOW!
Thanks, Kevin, glad you seemed to enjoy this song as much as I did. Kicking myself for not asking you (or Dave or Mandy for that matter), about the guitar; I actually looked it up to make “sure” it was a steel guitar because it sounded so much like ones I had heard before and the sweet sounds fine guitarists can coax out of them! From what I read, I thought, “Yep…” Next time I’ll ask a pro, and I will make that correction now. Thanks again.
Robert, the deeper I go in this series, the more I can relate to your line about a “reminder of just how much music I really don’t know.” The good news is it’s always there, waiting. The bad news is that clock/calendar keeps bringing us up short!
Beautiful song and moving write-up. Thanks, Andrew
My pleasure through & through, Miryam. (And now I will have to look up the origin of that phrase!) Thanks for checking in, much appreciated.
So here we go, Miryam (not that you asked!), from a mashup of OED.com and dictionary.com:
“‘Through and through’—In every part or aspect, throughout. For example, ‘I was wet through and through,’ or ‘He was a success through and through’… This idiom originally was used to indicate literally penetration, as by a sword. The figurative usage was first recorded in 1410.”
I cannot deny the thrill and ease of someone serving up discoveries of delectable music, this seems like a good artistic diner to frequent, thank you Mr. Hidas!
So glad to be of service, Ms. Quirk—we’d better keep the burners on and the sous chefs busy if we’re going to make it over the long haul!
Thank you for the introduction to McGraw and Fer, they have a lovely, soothing sound. The message in their song and in your post came at an interesting and touching time for me. We welcomed our first grandchild to this world we call home only two days ago. Our newborn granddaughter (Rory) has not yet left the hospital and we have met her only on a facetime call. But she will soon be introduced to her new home in Denver (where we will meet her in person) and begin making the Western Sky of The Rocky Mountains her home, which will likely be the place where she rests her head for many years as both parents (Devanie and Eric) and many family members reside in Colorado. After only two days she is no doubt disoriented, but bonding with her parents, with whom I will soon be sharing this song.
Hearty congrats, Jay—such huge gratifying loads of fun & joy headed your way! (And as for the difficult, challenging parts—it’s not your load, Bro!) Love the name “Rory”—reminds me of western skies, a strong and befitting name, reflecting the inner strength & fortitude of her parents (and grandparents, too, of course.) Onwards, my man!
Another lovely song, and artists that I have never heard of before. I truly do look forward to these “Brilliant Songs” posts.
There are so many songs with the theme of longing for “home” that kept coming to mind as I read this post, and as I listened to the song. But one that instantly jumped out for me is this song, “To the Western Wind” by York Maine resident, Harvey Reid from his 1988 album “Of Wind and Water”. This song has always been for me evocative of the pull of adventure and travel (to quote another little ditty: “There’s a feeling I get when I look to the west, and my spirit is crying for leaving”). And just as strongly, it evokes the feeling of returning home and all that home represents. I have traveled extensively around this country over the years and decades, but there is still no place like returning home to Maine.
There are two other songs on the same album that stand together with “To the Western Wind”, and they both deal with the same themes of wandering/traveling and returning to home. There is “Show Me the Road”, and, my personal favorite, “Silver Blue”. This last song instantly sets me down in perhaps my favorite spot in all of Maine: Popham Beach/Seawall Beach in Phippsburg, Maine. I am particularly drawn to this part of the lyrics:
“Sometimes in the night, in some dusty place amid the endless plains
I yearn for the sea, and the silver blue fills my eyes again
I can hear seabirds calling and the foghorn’s lonely warning drone
Blue water, calling me home
Blue water, calling me home
And I pray that I’ll return, to cross that last hill to see the blue again
Take me back to the water before the years are all gone
Don’t let me die where the dust clouds roll and the brown rivers run
Water, oh water of silver blue
Water, oh water of silver blue
I will return some day
Why do we need to stare at the sea? We flock like pilgrims to the shores
I stand before the blue; I wonder like so many must have wondered before
I feel huge, like the world is mine, and smaller than one grain of salty sand
Water, oh water of silver blue
Water, oh water of silver blue
We’ll all return some day”
Again, I can think of many other songs that express the same classic theme, but these three have been rattling around in my brain and heart for so many years.
Thanks, Peter, gave Mr. Reid a listen with “To the Western Wind” and liked what I heard, a definite soul brother to “Western Sky” and Dave McGraw, much appreciated!