shayferjames

Behind The Song: “Ghost Town”

Added 2024-02-09 22:50:40 +0000 UTC

I’ve talked a bit about how Ghost Town was the first song I wrote after damaging my voice, but I haven’t talked too much about the story behind it. So here you go!

Ghost Town is about my father and gramps (L.V.S on mother’s side.) My father was only 10 years younger than gramps, and both were military men of the “silent generation.” I had many opportunities to talk with both of them about their time in the armed services and it always felt so complicated to me. While they were proud of their service, both carried with them a quiet anguish about what they’d seen and participated in. Some things made them tear up (shockingly neither were big on crying) and other things they wouldn’t talk about at all. While both of them were born and raised in New York City, both lived smaller "dear little towns" toward the end of their lives. The lyrics are a tribute not only to their bravery, but to their brokenness. No matter how much time passed they were always in some way still at war with the moments of trauma they endured. The ending progression is meant to feel like the “AMEN” at the end of a hymn.

Someday we will fall like soldiers

One day we will cry like men

Wilted words on oaken shoulders

Whisper from a violin

Here we wander around, slowly

Killing moments, in minutes and hours

We dismantle the ground

Here in our, dear little town

Now we speak in tongues and tangles

Cultivate a careless calm

Finding form in antique angles

Un-adorn the doubtful dawn

Here we wander around, slowly