This was written at 4am on my way home from a show in Iowa City. I wrote the song on a pad of paper on top of the steering wheel, occasionally checking my handwriting with the interior lights. I was around Beloit, WI when the ideas really started flowing. Everyone else was sleeping in the van while I “safely” cruised 80 mile an hour down I43. The song is about always looking ahead and missing what’s right in front of you. Grasping so far down the line that what you truly need can be overlooked. The chorus is very specific to a traveling singer/songwriter, ”big wheels will lay you down in the chords of another town”. Sometimes I feel the song was written about me and sometimes about someone else, it’s weird. Its a pretty old tune for me, but I still really enjoy playing it. Recently I have been playing around with adding other song’s lyrics at the end.. Often times settling on Van Morrison’s Into the Mystic. That tune is special to me. The song Into the mystic always reminds me of my Uncle Steve who passed away a couple years back.. and something about the restlessness of You Don’t Wanna Leave resonates well with the restlessness of his passing. I feel at peace when the two are combined in a performance, at times transcendent. Its fun when old songs can play a new role your life.
Download You Don’t Wanna Leave Here
Songs To Inspire
Van Morrison- Into The Mystic
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