from
Fifty Songs,
track released January 27, 2016
Co-written with my wife, Melissa Morrow.
How we wrote it.
One day I was reading Psalm 63 and free-writing some potential lyrics. The Thomas’ had been on my mind a lot, and I thought, “Maybe I could write a worship song for the Thomas’?” The first verse and the melody for the chorus came really quickly, but other than the “traveller in the desert” line I was stuck.
A few minutes later my wife came home, so I shared my idea with her and asked for her help. Pretty quickly she came up with “like a pilgrim” line, and together we finished out the rest of the song. She also suggested using the “mirrors reflecting God’s glory” metaphor from 2 Corinthians, which became one of my favorite lines to sing.
Musical influences.
Jackson Browne, Tallest Man on Earth, Nick Drake, Bob Dylan.
The night before I wrote this song, I’d been listening to Jackson Browne, and shortly after I recorded a voice memo of the opening verse melody. The next morning the rest of the song rolled out pretty quickly. Sometimes extensive listening of one artist can inspire new songs for me.
Further reading.
2 Corinthians 3:18, Psalm 63, Mark 9:14-29.
Interesting fact.
The day before I wrote this song with my wife, I’d starting writing a completely different song based on Psalm 63. I wound up scrapping the entire first song, and the “traveler in the desert...thirsty for you” idea was the only thing that survived.