Winter Time
I follow John Mayer on Twitter. What does that have to do with the writing of Winter Time? Nothing. Just kidding. It has something to do with it. He recommended a book to the creative types called 'The War of Art' by Steven Pressfield. In his book, Pressfield says you have to make yourself sit down and write. You can't just wait around for inspiration all the time. I wondered if this was true. I decided to give it a try. I dedicated a day to do nothing but write. I would start completely new ideas and see what happened. It started horribly. One bad idea after another, and songs that sounded like every other song. Nothing special. It was discouraging to say the least.
It was 11:00 pm and I was about to give up and go to bed when I started singing the chorus to what would end up being Winter Time. I started with the words, "you're like an angel" because that's what naturally came out. Being silly, I followed with the phrase, "in the snow." After chuckling to myself, it hit me that this could be a cool idea. I started building a metaphor around a snow angel. It was like a girlfriend. A girlfriend who would leave and come back. So much that I could count on it happening again and again. The snow angel is cold, and in this analogy, so is the love of the girlfriend. As more similarities came, so did the lyrics.
I ended up writing and recording Winter Time in about an hour. The recording you hear on my album was my original demo. All we added was the beautiful voice of Sara Reeves. This song is one of my favorites on my album. I love the lyrics. I love the music and feel. But really I love that it demonstrates when you work hard at a gift God has given you, He will honor it.
Lyrics:
I'm laying here, waiting for you
Our season's comin round
The weather's cold, next thing I know
The ice is on the ground
Every year you meet me here but you never stay
You’re like an angel in the snow
I knew you'd come, but soon you'll go
You have to leave but believe
You'll be frozen in my mind
And back to life come winter time
Night time comes and soon will go and hide behind the light
I open my eyes and peak outside the ground is colored white
I hate it when you leave but I love when you arrive
I don't know why
You have to come and go
But when the weather gets warm
And the sun starts to shine I know its time
To say good-bye
Words & Music by:
Chris August
My dad died of a massive heart attack on February 19, 2010 at the age of 56. He was far too young and I was such a daddy's girl. I struggled for a long time with his death because I was unable to tell him good bye. God granted me a wonderful gift my first Father's Day without him. That weekend, I went online to spend some time reading the condolences on the funeral home website and discovered a newspaper article about his death that I did not know existed. It said that he was pronounced dead at noon that day. I am an elementary music teacher, and that particular year, my lunch ended around noon and I always ate in the mobile unit with the Special Education teachers. That day, at exactly noon, I was walking back into the school and giant snowflakes were falling. I felt the inner voice of God telling me to reach my arms out and look up at the sky. I now know that He was telling me to hug my daddy as he was being brought home. Every time it snows, I know I am getting hugs from daddy. This song so beautifully fits my feelings about snow. Thank you, Chris, for using your beautiful talent for God!! .
Hey Chris, I love this song and I was wondering if you could put out a chord chart or sheet music for it. I'd like to be able to play it and I can normally play songs by ear but I can't figure out your chord progression just from listening to it.