A Thousand little things
In 2016, I came across an old notebook with a few lines that I had scribbled down 37 years ago on the night I fell in love with my wife. Like DNA extracted from amber, those lines brought a long-dormant song back to life.
I fleshed those lines out, and they became A Thousand Little Things, a digital single I released in 2017. The discovery of my old notebook set things in motion, but the song is ultimately built on my vivid memories of that night.
In 1988, the Gear Daddies played a summer concert series called Music & Movies in the Park at Loring Park in Minneapolis. The series paired a local band with a film with some thematic tie-in to their name or vibe. I have no idea why, but they paired us with The Wizard of Oz. I guess we were the naive transplants from a small town, and Minneapolis was Oz? We didn't bother to ask.
My wife is from my hometown but is five years younger than me, so I didn't know her back in my Austin days. I met her for the first time when she approached me at a bar in the Twin Cities to ask if the friend I was with was seeing anyone. The friend she was with was curious but too shy to ask. We talked for a bit, and I developed an immediate crush. We must have exchanged numbers because a back-and-forth went on for a while. Still, I was afraid to ask her out. I was sure she would say no, and the rejection would have destroyed me.
Fast forward a bit to the aforementioned Loring Park show. We had wrapped up our set, and as I was loading gear off the stage, I looked over. There she was, standing alone, wearing a cool, thrown-together outfit and a fantastic hat. She smiled at me, and that was that.
I've put together a video for A Thousand Little Things with the lyrics and a backdrop of some of my favorite photos of my wife. She's not happy about it, but I told her, "Tough bounce, Tootsie."
Please give it a watch. And while you're watching, feel free to click the subscribe button on my YouTube channel. Every new subscriber I get means my number of subscribers has increased. I've been told that’s a good thing.
You can also find A Thousand Little Things on most streaming services.
