DESCRIPTION:
Mickey Newbury's youngest daughter, Laura, was in Ann Arbor, Michigan, not long after her father had passed. I'd met Laura in Austin, Texas the year before at a memorial gathering, and we'd done some singing together. While Laura was in Michigan, not only homesick but still moving through the grieving process, we used to hook up for late-night chats on the internet. During one of those talks I said I'd like to write a song for her to sing. "What would it be about?," I asked her. "My father's legacy," she said, without pause. So I began, and came up with "I Will Carry You," later renamed "Laura's Song". When I'd finished it, I got together with the Mazappas, a band of misfit musicians I'd come to be part of. Around a kitchen table with one microphone hanging from the overhead lamp, I ran through the chord changes once and then Billy hit the record button. We had our rough demo, and I sent it off to Laura. The next summer, she sang it in a concert set with Jonmark Stone, Marie Rhines and myself. Jonmark and Marie both played with Mickey. Love you, Shiner. DL