WAIM Radio #083: Make Love, Not War

This week we're taking to the streets to march for peace. What tune tops your anti-war soundtrack?

In September of 2020, just weeks after the shocking, sudden death of my Father, and in the midst of the worst pandemic in a century, I escaped to our family cabin nestled next to a private lake in central Michigan. The sessions had been scheduled for months, but in the midst of my grief I nearly pulled the plug on the entire endeavor.

Buoyed by my mother, my wife, and my closest friends, I packed the car and headed north to be with some of my dearest comrades in a time of genuine need. For six days, I threw myself into the process of recording. Each morning, four core members of the band - bass, drums, a guitar player, and myself playing guitar and singing - would run through the songs to shape their arrangements before committing a series of takes to tape.

For five straight days, we rehearsed, arranged, honed, and recorded the basic parts for 15 original songs; virtually all of the material that I had prepared for the trip. There was only one song that remained untouched, a quiet folksy number that told the tale of a young soldier returned home from World War Two, and the shattered state of his psyche. I had written the song just days before my Dad died, and wasn't sure if, or how, to include it in the sessions.

I asked if the band would like to give it a try, and someone suggested that I record the track alone as a trial run to see if a sparser arrangement might work well for the song. Ian, our bass player and primary engineer on the sessions set up a stereo pair of mics on the lawn just outside the cabin. The sun was just beginning to go down over the west side of the lake. While Ian adjusted mic positioning, I sat quietly in the evening sun and watched the light dapple on the surface of the water. For the first time in weeks, I could feel the weight of my grief and sadness lifting, ever so slightly.

Back inside the cabin at the controls, Ian motioned for me to play a bit so that he could set recording levels. A minimal breeze reminded me that I was recording in the bright sunshine and fresh air of a late summer evening. Once levels were properly adjusted, we decided to go for a first take.

As I played and sang the tune, a new composition I had maybe played all the way through a half a dozen times or less, I could feel the power of the song bubbling up. Still, I was unaware of just how special the take sounded from the control room inside the cabin. Jeff, my bandmate in the Stick Arounds walked into the room to ask Ian when the take he was listening to had been recorded. Ian turned to tell Jeff that what he was hearing was my performance happening live. He simply uttered, “That is cool as shit.”

Matty C recording the keeper take on “Never Made It Home” on the first try in the fading Michigan sunshine.

We tried a series of additional takes and deliveries after that first pass, but after several attempts, it was obvious that the magic was going to be found on the first effort. Several months after the initial session, as we worked to finish the final overdubs on the record, I made several passes at a new vocal, but could never manage to capture the depth and emotion found in that original performance. David Baldwin, a multi-instrumentalist in Harborcoat, who has been a friend and longtime collaborator, added a bit of piano and some backing vocals to round out the track.

The tune itself tells the tale of a young man who heads off to World War Two and is traumatized by his experiences in Europe. After he returns home physically unharmed but emotionally ravaged, he is unable to work, unable to sleep and is a wholly different man than the one who left for war just a few years earlier.

‘Never Made It Home’ tells the story not just of a soldier who returns home a compromised man, but it also details the saga of a young wife that must somehow pick up the pieces to make ends meet and keep her family afloat. It is a story of survival and resilience in the face of a nation that quickly forgets the heroes that paid the most significant price for our freedom.

This song is the closing tune on the Joy Is Elusive LP and it also closes our radio show this week, which features a jam packed sixty minutes of anti-war songs. We’ve got old-school folk, angry alternative, spirited jangle pop, yours truly and more this week on WAIM Radio.

What is your favorite anti-war song? Do you have a tune that tops your soundtrack for peace? Tell us all about it.

You can listen to the full show in the player above. Make sure to also check out the full tracklist below for full details on what made the show. You can tune in Friday at Noon Eastern on Suburbs Radio to hear each show live as it airs. New episodes are also archived here at WAIM each Tuesday. Feel free to go back and listen to any of our episodes at any time in the WAIM Radio archive.

Cheers,
Matty C