“Our Love”

As hurricane Irene stirs up the air I thought I would share a song with you. The first words are “when the rain decides to pour”… appropriate! (FULL LYRICS BELOW)

A year ago my friend Julie cleverly shared the exciting news of her engagement with me via text-message, by telling me I better be available to perform at her wedding in June of 2011. After dropping the phone, I picked it back up and called her… “You thought you could just text me this and get away with it?!?!?”

She wanted me to sing one of my original songs but having never been engaged or married, I didn’t have anything appropriate for a wedding. So I offered to write her one.

Writing about my own experiences has always been rewarding for me, but it always took a lot of effort. Though the inspiration sometimes came to me quickly, the fine-tuning took time and patience. But what about writing for others? In the year that preceded Julie’s wedding I realized how challenging it is to really place myself in another person’s shoes and write for them. Now writing about my own experiences doesn’t seem so impossible.

I started by making a long list of the worst possible, cheesy song-titles I could come up with… titles like “Till Forever, I Do” or “My One And Only” or “Be Mine”… I’m sure they exist out there somewhere. Nothing was sounding right so I figured I’d get all the wrong ideas out of my system first.

Finally I thought about who Julie is. She’s a big-hearted, sweet, Texan southern belle, with a wonderful personality, cute blond hair and blue eyes. The simple joys in life are what she always cares about. I knew this song couldn’t be too dramatic or complicated. I knew it should be cute, understated, heart-warming and sincere.

Then one afternoon, the extravagantly-bad-titles-list having been completed, I ended up writing the song in one sitting. It just poured out. And after all the effort to avoid cliches and cheesy words, I settled on the simplest title of them all: “Our Love”. Maybe I was inspired by the South when I wrote it, too, because its the closest thing to country music I have ever created.

Turned out, I had a very special, very memorable time performing it for Julie and I was an emotional basket case watching her walk down the aisle. I could barely keep my composure to sing it, but it worked out just fine!

This might be a super-rough demo, but I hope to record this song professionally and put it on my first full-length album- please share your feedback!

“Our Love” - LYRICS:

When the rain decides to pour

And all the world has shut its doors

Well, there’s no need to run for cover

For if those troublesome clouds discover us

Our love will never rust

Autumn hears the Winter’s call

She bravely lets her treasures fall

Still, there’s no reason for us to worry

For though the seasons tend to hurry past

Our love was meant to last

Oh our love, oh our love

Nothing else will do

Oh our love, oh our love

Ties me tight to you

Yes it ties me tight to you

Now I see my future clear

Growing old with you, my dear

With an inner peace that always lingers

Wrapped around our fingers in a ring

Our love is everything,

Oh our love is everything,

Oh our love, oh our love

Nothing else will do

Oh our love, oh our love

Ties me tight to you

Yes it ties me tight to you

©2011 Erica Leigh