Two Shadows...
I've always wanted to write a creepy, Southern gothic style song. Appalachian murder ballads have a haunting quality that lingers in memory years after first hearing them. There's a dark, lonesome thing moving below the surface of most folk music and songs of this type intensify that emotion and hone it to a fine edge.
Two Shadows was the rare one-day song for me. I woke up early. It was still dark outside when I stepped out of the house to walk the dog. The first chill of autumn made me turn up my collar and walk a little faster than I normally would at six AM. The neighborhood was still asleep as I passed beneath the one working street light. Looking down I saw two inky silhouettes on the pavement in front of me and it gave me a start - as if another man was coming up behind me. Then I realized the second shadow was the work of a luminous silver moon hanging low in the sky.
On the commute into work I began humming the first snatches of the melody. In the evening, after dinner and tucking the kids in, I settled into work the rest of the song out that had been scratching at the door all day. It came out fully formed - this notion of a man forced to take an action that forever splits him in two. Initially I worked it out as an a capella thing with Djemba drum, but later could not resist putting a droning guitar part in open D minor tuning.
