A quiet rumination while you stare up at the stars
New Classic Rock!
Barry is an independent artist in Los Angeles, California with roots in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and a history of travel around the world and lives lived in San Diego, San Francisco and LA. These places and times inform his music with depth and authenticity.
A singer-songwriter with skills in guitar and bass, Barry records in his private studio with help from a few artists from his storied past.
Story behind the song
This song took two years to create. I actually wrote it backwards, starting not with words, or music, but with a photograph.
I originally saw the photograph, taken by Alan Hansen, which he called "Milky Way." He set up his camera and tripod, started a time exposure, then stood in the middle of a beach and looked up into a starlit sky with a light on his head, shining into the heavens. I thought it was stunning. I asked him for permission to use it as the album cover for my next album, and he consented. I then decided that the album needed to be called "The Sky."
I proceeded to record and write songs, adding them to the album one by one. Each song had the album cover. I knew that eventually I would have to come up with a song called "The Sky." But it eluded me for a long time. I wanted it to be big, and important; I struggled to come up with words that would do justice to the image.
Eventually, I came up with some lyrics. I reflected on the times I visited Big Bear Lake in winter, when was struck by how clear the night sky was. The cold, the silence, and the stars -- all of it moved me. the lyrics came from that. but then, they languished for about a year and a half. for one reason or another, I was not able to come up with music, and I was distracted by their projects. First the Sunstone songs came along, then my own music that I was recording.
I finally did come up with the music, and began the recording. I enlisted my friend Jack Hill to play both bass and fretless bass, and also reached out to Gerald Kippola, a well known Marquette musician who was a master of many instruments, to add pedal steel to the song.
Recording commenced, And we got all the pieces together. but I needed to do extensive revisions. I was not happy with my voice or my singing. I was not happy with the acoustic guitar part. I recorded and eventually replaced it with an electric guitar part. Jerry's pedal steel guitar part was, of course, flawless, but he had a lot of input into the process of mixing the song, which was proving to be far more challenging than any other song I'd written before. There is a LOT in there.
Finally, it come out about a week ago, and I finished it. I continued to tweak the mix, while I produced the music video. The result is what you see before you.
So finally I have the capstone, the final song, the title song, from my new album, "The Sky." It has been the most challenging reporting project I've ever embarked upon. and it speaks to something deep in me. I hope it will speak to something deep in you as well.
Thank you for listening.
Lyrics
He remembers when he used to hitchhike downstate (no one does that any more)
Or the mid summer day when his girlfriend was late (havent seen her in 20 or more)
Cried bitter tears on a beach of gray green (when his wife told him she had to leave)
Or his days on a ship in the merchant marine (on the deep and the dark of the sea)
Over it all, the sun and the clouds, or maybe the stars and the moon
Morning or midnight, whatever goes wrong, you know itll be over soon
The sun sets and rises, the Milky Way too, the turn of the earth makes them fly
A different phase will arrive come what may, and all of it under the sky
One night, alone, on the top of a mountain (deep in the cold and the snow)
Just a short drive from a small alpine town (it wasnt a long way to go)
He looked up and counted a few million stars (a planet or two, but no moon)
Then he got lost in his private memoirs, (though he had to be going back soon)
Over it all the wind and the rain, maybe the sand or the snow
(The) earth in its orbit, (the) passing of years, where do old memories go?
His star sets and rises every year, and now theres a tear in his eye
A different phase of the moon will appear, and all of it under the sky
The Sky the Sky the rules of this earth dont apply
Its so ... unfair that only the angels can fly
The Sky the Sky theres no point in wondering why
Open your eyes and your heart and your mind, reach out and touch the Sky
Memories stretch back for miles and years (farther away than the moon)
He remembers the facts, but the heart disappears (the feelings unreadable runes)
The sights and the sounds and emotions have passed (It was, after all, long ago)
He searches his heart for the need to go on (it feels like theres nowhere to go)
The air was transparent, frigid and clear, he breathed deeply into his lungs
He found himself scanning the heavenly spheres, he heard himself speaking in tongues
(Then) a meteor burned through the high atmosphere, a bright flaming light up on high
Serenity let him give over his fear to a lambent white line in the sky
The Sky the Sky an ocean of light in your eyes
The miles, the years, they all flicker past like a sigh
The Sky .. The Sky the universe personified
Open your eyes and your heart and your mind, reach out and touch the Sky
