For You

A long time ago, there was this 23 year old who was trying to figure out life. He was a Christian, but he was also a musician–and he couldn’t figure out how the two went together. He was studying music composition, but led a double life writing rock music. One weekend he ended up at a big outdoor Christian festival in New England and he got to play play at a coffee house. All the other people at the coffee house did inspiring songs of faith, accompanied by guitar, but this 23 year old sang songs like “Sometimes I Feel Like I Don’t Know” and “Psycho Killer” accompanied by his electric bass. He caught the ear of Dan Russell, a Boston-are producer who had worked with Robin Lane, Andy Pratt and Mark Heard. He was invited to send the big city producer a demo, and the rest is history.

No really, it’s history. The 23 year old was me, and I totally misjudged what a big city producer would want to hear. I worked up some demos  that I thought would fit with some of the people Dan Russell worked with. At the time I was particularly enamored with Maria Mckee of Lone Justice, so I sent him a cassette (remember those?) with a few songs including this one, “For You.” At the time I thought it would fit her perfectly, but Dan’s reaction was something like, “Huh?” It turns out that he was more interested in me as a songwriter/performer than as a songwriter for any singers he worked with. Oh well…

“For You” is sung by Shoshana Feinstein, who appears to be going strong after all these years. Keys and production are by my good friend Jim DeFrancesco. Hey, it was 80s and I was trying to write the perfect pop hit. Cut me a little slack!