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Heidi O and I played music together at Heidi VS’s wedding in the late summer of 1998, and it was so magical that we tried to play together several more times before life logistics intervened. Heidi and I met through our mutual friend Heidi Van Schooten. I will mention Heidi Olson and her beautiful violin playing on that first record, which we called the white album because it originally had no art or title, just a white cardboard sleeve. A good origin story I’ll tell another time. There’s a good origin story for how Chris Larson and I met, and how I got Peter Rasmussen involved, and how one thing led to another until we found ourselves setting up mics in the church baptistry on a cold Saturday in the winter of 1998/99. I don’t think I’m overstating things to claim that the band would not have made any records at all, and maybe never started a record label, if I hadn’t wandered into the church one evening in the fall of 1996, then again in the summer of 1997. We were the host band at the House of Mercy church in Saint Paul. The House of Mercy Band recorded several albums from 1999 to 2010. Instead I wrote a lot of songs, and then moved back to Saint Paul and re-joined the House of Mercy Band, and we made some records. I never ended up taking any classes at Emory. She’s in Sydney, Australia, and thanks to the magic of the internet her voice was in my ears as I mixed this one. I am especially grateful to my friend Andrea who contributed background vocals to this track. So it was fun to make that connection 23 years later. I realized, recording this last winter, that I had never told my sister about “Abilene” or played it for her. I set it to music a week later, after I finished my trip to Atlanta (because yes, we had to drive back across Texas just a few days later). I wrote down the lyrics to this song at our next stop, when we traded seats. Hours and hours of straight lines and, if I’m lucky, stars. The buzz of the overhead lights at the empty gas station, and the moths trying to stay warm. There’s something about the hours between midnight and dawn, the small hours, that gets me pensive. Puts the pedal down and locks in and goes. I don’t know if you’ve ever driven east to west across Texas, but that is one really wide state of the union.
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I think we drove overnight so we could arrive on New Year’s Eve. My younger cousin was the first of our generation to get married, and we were going to celebrate her, and my grandfather’s birthday. I stopped in Arkansas on the way, left my car parked outside my sister’s double-wide trailer, got in her car and we drove together to Tucson, Arizona for a family reunion. I was going to enroll at Emory’s Candler School of Theology and work on a master’s degree. You've sacrificed everything we had For a happenin' price.Just after Christmas in 1997, I loaded up all my worldly possessions into my 1989 Honda Civic (which got 40+ miles to the gallon even back then!) and drove south from Saint Paul toward Atlanta. I changed my mind bout this here relationship That you've become so complacent with. You can't tell me LB can't fly! Kiss my wings, you can't hypnotize me! Hear the M-singer singin this bye-bye. The things you say try to underrate me They were just a reflection of your self-respect.īut now I let it whiz on by. It really pains me to say things change But your limitations would've held me back. People say "L-B it's goin awry!" And I'd flip up say "that's not right." Now I see my shit's not tight. And would I deserve and once you mature girl You'll always be second best.īut I just let it whiz on by. What you did in turn Made me never have to settle for less. I never listen to my better judgement So my blind side got the best of me.īut we live and learn. Well lookin back now I was a young man, girl. I'd even say I can't completely blame But I even take 'cause was situations in Retrospect with the things you say Would shift direction when put into action.īut I just let it whiz on by. And despite what I knew to be true I'd hoped that things would change. Well it started getting cozy, girl I let you control the reins. I changed my mind I changed my mind And I changed my mind I know I told you that we were Supposed to have something Made for this weekend But I changed my mind. I made a joke I played the fool I took time, made all the plans. Year in year out We had our ups and downs But I always took it serious. Well I came at you a young boy, girl With no experience.