JUST CHECKING IN

The next song was a bit more somber. Stacy had a lot of more humerous, flirty, girl songs. Now was time to give her a bit more substance to her catalogue. Something was on her mind, and I knew by probing a bit I could bring it out. She has several kids now, and spending more time in Nashville is not as close as she would like to be. They are all more or less grown so it is not the "Mama missing the nest" syndrome as much as just feeling far away. Also she wanted to get closer to her own Father,. who again, is far away when she is in Nashville.

HAving a similar problem, my two kids live in town, but one is about to graduate college, the other about to start college and have their own lives. Never get to see them enough. My Mother, who still lives in Alabama, is oiut of touch because she is nearly deaf and hard to communicate with. All my aunts and uncles are getting older so all of that came out in this song. At first we took some lines from Stacy's intitial idea *(actually Tina, listening in the other room would contribute to this one) and put it into the point of view of something that is very prevelant in today's world. The single Mom.

JUST CHECKING IN
MAB/Stacy Young
10-18-12

She was an only child, but not a lonely child, growing up just her and Mom
Always seemed to be scraping by, but they didn’t miss a lot
When she turned thirteen, her best friend asked if she could spend the night away
As she walked out the door, Mama pulled her close and said call me tonight and say

Chorus
I’M JUST CHECKING IN, WITH YOU NOW
EVERYTHINGS FINE AND SOMEHOW
I SEND YOU MY LOVE, MISS YOU SO MUCH
AND TILL I SEE YOU AGAIN
I’M JUST CHECKING IN


In this senario we wanted to paint the early part of a girl's life. Girl's sometimes bond very tightly with their Mom, even if they have a Dad in the family. Again, my daughter is very much like this. So it came together easily from real life. Then we got to where I have been not long ago:

19 years go by, like a flash of light, barely time to breathe
They were at the door of the admission hall of that University
As tears rolled down at the thought of being far away from home
Mama said you know what to do with this and handed her a new cell phone

Trying to keep the chorus consistant as the meaning changes is a good Nashville trick. Sometimes hard to pull off but I think works here. Now to the bridge:


Now she’s thinking of those days, as she’s standing at the grave
As she turns to go, says Mama if you hear my thoughts you know

Just checking in. Means something totally new. Yeah. Every once in a while, you gotta kill somebody off.

MAB

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