Safe Enough to Wander (2013)
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“What if all the constellations were railway stations?” (First line of the song.)
The obvious answer is that the stars would liquefy the railway cars due to their temperature being around 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s also true that it would be difficult to fit all the steel rails into rockets for NASA to ship up into space. Plus, who’s going to lay down all those tracks? Neil Armstrong?
Thankfully, songwriters don’t always have to adhere to facts. Instead, they often pretend anything is possible, and that can be half the fun of writing a song.
It was 2012, and Katie Laurel, my singer-songwriter friend, was visiting Nashville and brought that line. It was originally in another song idea of hers that I was going to help her finish. But I liked the line so much I asked if we could lift it and base an entire new song around it.
The recording below is the demo after our cowrite. Honestly, I prefer it to the studio version. The demo has a charm that’s difficult to recapture. I hope you enjoy it as much (or more) as well.
Love,
Aaron