Carrboro
A sappy, cutesy love song
Sometimes, songs just write themselves. In those rare and delicious cases, the task of the songwriter is primarily to pay attention and gently deliver the song-baby into the world like a musical obstetrician.
So it came to pass with this tune, “Carrboro,” a sappy, cutesy love song.
The song emerged towards the end of a stretch of days when my partner was far away, visiting family on the east coast. I was missing her terribly, and I guess my heart was all full up with feelin’s.
It was getting late one summer evening. I had been down in my studio noodling on something (who remembers what), and I needed to leave in 10-15 minutes to, I think, pick up my kids.
Responsibly, I stood up to leave with plenty of time to spare, but the Muse was not having it. She cleared her throat and called out to me. “Pick up that guitar right now and let this song get born,” she said. I replied, “Sorry, there’s no time!” The Muse rolled her proverbial eyes, sighed, and insisted.
Every songwriter eventually learns to obey the Muse when she graces you with her presence, so I reluctantly obliged.
I believe Proud Rosa was the instrument closest at hand (the Muse really likes her). I picked her up, ready to see what the Muse was so on about.
Feeling feelings
As always, the Muse was right. I hadn’t realized that there were several thoughts and feelings bouncing around in my head. But there they were:
I thought about a Wilco song I love (“Hate it here”), in which the character is anxiously buzzing around doing chores, waiting for his love to come back.
I felt a twinge of irrational fear that my partner might not be missing me as much as I was missing her.
I felt a twinge of irrational fear that my partner might find herself loving the east coast and would want to stay there forever.
I reminded myself that I like my own company quite a bit, thanks very much, and I do enjoy some relaxing evening time alone.
I felt a little sad about how once or twice, my partner was so tired after a long but lovely day of family-ing that she didn’t have the energy to talk on the phone, so we just swapped texts before she conked out for the night.
I felt a little sad about how we missed out on a couple of days and nights of quality time while my kids were at their mother’s house.
I thought about how I would love nothing more than to have a regular, unremarkable night: A hug and a kiss, and I’d make us dinner while she told me about her day.
My instinct is to be embarrassed by the above, but I think most of us have these silly thoughts and feelings, don’t we? (...err, right?) I do think it’s important to identify feelings in order to process them, and to identify ridiculous thoughts for the same reason. Probably most people don’t make them quite so concrete, though, and rarely do people enshrine them in song. Welp.
Anyway, I had the basic chord structure and lyrical ideas down almost immediately, within those 10-15 minutes. I still had to run out the door and retrieve children, which I did (still on time somehow!). Once back home, I had the rest of the song done in about 45 minutes.
All in all, it was more or less an hour total of writing time. From there, I spent a few days playing “Carrboro” over and over again and polishing and refining the little bits and pieces.
Look, I don’t make the Songwriting Rules of the Universe; I’m merely subject to them. Sometimes it’s that easy. Other times you’ll have to return to an unfinished song multiple times over the course of years before it’s complete. When it’s the former, you don’t question it. You thank the Muse for visiting and take the W.
The lyrics
I was thinking about that Wilco song where he mentions all of the chores he’s done.
Waiting in vain for someone to come home.
My to-do list is empty like this bed where I slept alone last night.
The kids are gone, and I can't deny this would have been a good chance for quality time.
But here I am, all alone. While you're far away in Carrboro.
I sincerely hope you don't fall in love with the east coast.
I just want to kiss your face, and tell you all about my day.
Make you dinner and hang on to every word you say. Let's go get a beer!
Don't get me wrong, the company’s fine when it's just me, TV, and a glass of wine.
But I prefer it any time I catch your eye, touch your thigh, give a sigh, and slide your hand in mine.
Can't help but wonder as I sit and muse if you're pining for me as much I am for you.
I'm out of things that I can do to distract me from wishing we were in the same room.
I suppose only heaven knows what's going on in Carrboro.
You're too tired to get on the phone. It’s been two long days since I heard your voice…
I just want to kiss your face, and tell you all about my day.
Make you dinner and hang on to every word you say.
Four, three, two, one, this time apart is awfully long…
Four, three, two, one, I'm counting down the days ‘til it's done.
I’m counting down the days ‘til it's done.
Music nerdery
The chord progression for the verses of “Carrboro” came easily. It’s very simple: A - Bm - E, basically.
But there’s a lot you do with solo guitar when you start on an A chord. I do a little country shuffle kinda feel, with a bassline. While I’m on the A chord, I can easily play A - E - A in the bass. And then it’s nice and comfy to do a bassline walk up (E - F# - G#) to signal that the lyrics are starting.
The A - Bm - E movement makes playing a little bass easy. You get A - E - A, then B - F# - B, then E - B - E in the bass as you progress through those changes. And then at the end of each phrase, you get that walk up: E - F# - G#. So there’s a lot happening, but it’s not hard to play. Best of both worlds!
So that gave me a nice l’il bed upon which to rest the lyrics of the verses.
The beginning of the chorus is obvious and conventional, but there’s nothing wrong with that! I simply moved to the IV, which of course in the key of A major is a D chord. And of course, I added a little bass line walk up to it (A - B - C#).
Really, in this case I had a melody in mind, so I just crafted the chord changes around that. I just want to kiss your face, and tell you all about my day. In the spirit of keeping it simple, the first phrase of chord changes ended up being: D - A - Bm - A.
In the second phrase of the chorus, I instinctively created a walk down to go along with the descending melody: And hang on to… It’s a little harmony that works nicely—and I created it unintentionally.
The notes of the melody are E - D - C#, and the bassline (insinuated by the chord changes) is A - G# - F#. I don’t know that I would have written that particular harmony, given a blank slate, but here we are. I like it.
A couple of chords later, the chorus is done.
To this point in the writing, I had two musical ideas: the verse and the chorus. But in recent years, I’ve committed to putting at least three distinct musical ideas into any song.
Why? Partially just as an academic challenge, to push myself and my sensibilities. But I’ve also found that a third musical idea provides great balance and increased interest. It can be a bridge, intro, outro, or whatever.
In the case of “Carrboro,” I wanted something transitioney, either between the verses or as an intro. I had a descending diatonic bassline in my head: A - G# - F# - E. I messed with it a bit and heard a continuation that I liked: D - C# - B - A. (“Diatonic” is just a fancy word for “of the key.” It just means that I used the notes of the A major scale. In this case, the bassline is just the A major scale going down.)
I started trying to find an elegant chord structure that would contain those notes, but I quickly felt like that was a fool’s errand. It didn’t fit the musical character of the song. Then I realized: Hey, maybe let’s just use the diatonic chords, too.
So, the chords follow the bassline (with the exception of G#dim over the G# bass note, because it sounded too severe): A - A/G# - F#m - E; D - C#m - Bm - A. Those chords move really fast, but I dig the effect.
I used that progression as an intro, and also after the chorus as a transition back to the verse. But as I was trying to figure out an ending, I realized it was perfect for that, too. And it gave me another melodic/lyrical idea, which was perfect for wrapping up the sentiment of the song:
4 - 3 - 2 - 1 this time apart is awfully long.
4 - 3 - 2 - 1 I’m counting down the days ‘til it’s done.
I’m counting down the days ‘til it’s done.
It’s adorable, and also clever IMHO—I’m counting down, sort of musically, but then you realize I’m also counting down the days until I get to see her again. And the descending nature of that progression gently evokes some of the sadness of it.
Intro/transition/outro:
A - A/G# - F#m - E
D - C#m - Bm - A
Verses:
A - Bm - E
Chorus:
D - A - Bm - A
D - A - A/G# - F#m
Bm - E
There’s some asymmetrical phrasing in this song, too. It might not be apparent, but it can drive drummers crazy. The song is definitely in 4/4, but there’s one spot where I have a recurring extra bar of 2/4, and there’s some 3/4 in that intro/turnaround/outro.
The 2/4 bar is at the end of the choruses. I hold onto the word “to” for two extra beats: …and hang on to [extra bar of 2/4] every word you say.
(What’s that you say? I’m hanging onto the word “to,” right where it says to hang on?! EXQUISITE CRAFTSMANSHIP THERE, SETH!! Yes yes, thank you. I wish I could say that was on purpose. Happy accident?)
The intro/turnaround/outro is: 3/4 - 4/4 - 3/4 - 4/4.
I’ve found myself doing this sort of thing in my songs recently. It’s not on purpose—I’m just feeling the phrases in a way that makes sense to me. I really only notice it when I go back and chart them out. I don’t know why I’m doing it, either. [shrugs] So. I guess for now, this is a useless fact. Enjoy!
Also regarding the tempo: I take it a little fast, which I think adds a necessary dollop of anxiety to the overall feel.
So there you have it. You can listen to “Carrboro” in full up at the top of this newsletter; on the Adventure Hat Playlist; and on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.
And definitely catch the podcast version of this story, complete with a full performance of the song and audio examples of the music nerdery.