I have written songs since the 1970s. While I have thought some were good enough to offer to the public, this is my first attempt to do so. Southern Waters is probably the best thing I have ever written. I have never struggled so with a song before. Usually I can knock out a song mostly in a couple of hours, going back over the next few days to tweak it. But this song took me 8 months to get to the point that I was ready to move forward with it. I tried to get three different writers to help me come up with a tune as nothing I was able to come up with satisfied me. After being turned down by all three I was left to hammer it out on my own. I tried many different styles, even calypso, but the tune never had an inspiration until I tried working off of a phrase in a melody by Rob Simonsen, the score writer for The Life of Pi. Don't worry. I didn't steal the tune. I was just trying to mimic him... didn't come close. But little by little I did manage to hammer out a melody that fit the mood and carried the words well enough. Then I hired Clay Hess to record it for me. Clay played guitar in Ricky Skagg's band and if you know anything about that artist, you know Clay Hess is one of the finest guitarists you could hope to find. The first time I sat down with Clay and his Bass player Irl Hees at Clay's house, and he and Irl started playing my song, it nearly took my breath away. I had never heard any of my music played by a true professional before, for that matter by anyone other than myself. I realized I had something good. Clay later told me that he thinks this song is the best one he has heard in a while. Later on when Time Crouch added his fiddle and mandolin tracks it took flight. A little final mixing with Clay and it was nearly ready for release. It just needed a graphic image. While putting together the video for You Tube I came across a stunning photograph of four pelicans gliding across a glassy water surface at dawn that just knocked me out. I contacted the photographer, Janet Fikar and she graciously allowed me to use her photograph. So make sure you check out her work on line. She does some really magnificent nature photography. Anyway, Southern Waters tells a story that unfolds gradually. It is of a man who has moved to some southern bay to fish commercially, because he is unable to provide for his family where he lives. He loves the southern waters where he works, but he misses his wife, and is seeking "grace" or more appropriately redemption. The song was written about fishing for mullet on the Choctawhatchee Bay on the Florida panhandle, the very place where Janet Fikar took her wonderful photograph. Why the Choctawhatchee Bay specifically? Because that is where I am preparing to move so that I can cast my net for mullet. The song is about me, and written to my wife Peggy. It is a bit romanticized, but the essence is real. These have been the emotions I have been experiencing as I was preparing to make the transition from adjunct college professor to commercial fisherman. I will be leaving her behind for months at a time. I worry for the extra burden she will have to carry. And so I have dedicated this song to all the people whose jobs take them away from their families: be that fishermen, oil field workers, ships crews... and of course military personnel. I grew up in a military neighborhood and have long had a soft spot in my heart for those families, especially those mothers. So to all of them I hope this song offers a bit of comfort. To all of you, I hope the lyrics move you and that the melody carries you to a far away place.