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Together Strong
As a touring singer/songwriter, I look for inspiration for songs everywhere. Sometimes it’s eavesdropping on someone’s conversation and filling in the blanks to make a vivid picture. Sometimes it’s as I’m about to miss my exit off the highway, and I realize that I have dilly-dallied for 200 miles, and at crunch time I panic and have to cross three lanes to make the exit.
Many times I find the muse hanging out in my yard, when I walk through a spider web and think, “Ewwww, gross!” as I wipe the webs out of my face. Then I realize that perspective is everything, and while I’m momentarily inconvenienced by this run-in, I have just ruined the spider’s whole day’s work.
My song, “Together Strong,” is inspired by two trees that are growing along my driveway: an oak and a cedar. Oaks are slow-growing trees that will live for hundreds of years. Cedars, on the other hand, are considered weeds, sucking up the water. Their limbs were crossing and weaving and it was clear that if you had cut either one of the trees down fifty years ago, the other would have done fine, but at this point, if you cut one down, you would lose both trees. It reminded me of couples that you see and think, “I wonder how they got together?” It reminded me of folks like my grandparents who were married for over 50 years and then died within three months of each other. That’s commitment. The inspiration for the song was immediate when I saw the trees.
Crafting the song took a trip to Nashville to write with Randy Scruggs and then down to Houston for fine tuning by Jack Saunders. Inspiration is just the first step, and I’m sure glad the muse likes to travel.
Together Strong
Susan Gibson, Randy Scruggs and Jack Saunders
Two folks, living together
He’s an oak and she’s a cedar
Over time, they’ve intertwined
She tried to choke him out
And now he needs her
They need sun
They need rain
And each other’s help to gain
The strength enough to bend or else they’ll break
They need room enough to grow
And the courage to get too close
Alone they won’t last long
But together strong
Deep roots below the surface
It’s the only way they can survive
Without the roots the branches are worthless
She should have killed him, now she keeps him alive
They need sun
They need rain
And each other’s help to gain
The strength enough to bend or else they’ll break
They need room enough to grow
And the courage to get too close
Alone they won’t last long
But together strong
Just like those two trees out in my front yard
How did they get this far
Thriving in spite of each other
Instead of growing apart
They had sun
They had rain
And each other’s help to gain
The strength enough to bend or else they’d break
They had room enough to grow
And the courage to get too close
Alone they won’t last long
But together strong
by Susan Gibson
Susan, an established singer/songwriter musician, wrote the hit song "Wide Open Spaces." She released her latest album, "New Dog, Old Tricks" in 2008. Check out Susan's summer tour schedule at susangibson.comFlickr Photo Gallery
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