Welcome to another weekly installment of “Free Tune Friday.” To hear last week’s tune and other past entries, click HERE.

This tune was written in the aftermath of the “Great Ice Storm of ’98.” That January, the Northeast was hammered by an ice storm that ravaged New England, upstate New York, and the eastern provinces of Canada. For whatever reason, the storm spared the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, my homeland. I had just moved that fall back to Vermont from Boston and was living in The Willey House on the Lyndon Institute campus where I teach. For a solid week it rained and rained and rained, but for us…no ice. I don’t know if it was our location–sheltered between the Green Mountains of Vermont and the White Mountains of New Hampshire–that did it, but it was an incredible bit of good fortune considering the devastation inflicted on other areas around us.

The tune is a little different from my normal fare, featuring a drum track that has an almost Latin swing to it, with brushes replacing sticks, matched with a guitar solo that’s almost Santana-like, though when I listen to the song again now, I hear a little bit of mid-80’s U2. I use dual vocal lines a lot in recording–a little trick I stole from one of my musical idols, Elliott Smith–but until this song, I’d never tried applying it to a guitar solo before.

The lyrics speak to the kind of malaise that a week of stormy weather can bring, though it ends on an upbeat note. In the house I grew up in was an framed needlepoint, stitched with an old adage, “After the Rain Comes the Sunshine.” It was a relief to make it through that January week unscathed.

LYRICS

A Week of Rain

The water keeps on dripping off the eaves.
I wonder how long it will
Keep on falling against the sill.
It makes me lazy for another day.

I wander, seeking out from room to room,
Fearing what illness should attend.
Is it upstairs by the bed
Or in the basement, lurking by the stairs?

It moves me through new patterns of disdain
And will for some time still.
With this ending comes the past;
Roads are clearing for tomorrow’s drive.

Through windows I see brightness all around.
I think it’s time. Welcome home.

To listen to this tune, click HERE. To download, right-click on the link and select “Save Link As.” For best results, apply headphones. Thanks for listening! Be sure to come back for next Friday’s installment…

(Written, performed, and recorded by David Stahler Jr. All rights reserved.)