Why Georgia

I wrote this next song at a Borders Books in Marietta, Georgia. I had forgotten my guitar, if you can believe it or not. And I had left work, and I was headed down 85. And then I realized I had forgotten my guitar. But traffic going the other way was just absolutely bumper-to-bumper. That was a horrible feeling. I had no guitar and I was going to a big gig at Borders Books. And they either gave me, like, thirty bucks cash, or, like, fifty bucks store credit or something like that. So I took the fifty bucks and got a book on how to make more money, and here I am. That's how you do it.

And this is no lie. I was so flustered. I borrowed a guitar from the great Shawn Mullins, actually. I stopped by Shawn Mullins' house, cause he was on the way. [Flustered] "I need a guitar, so sorry, you hardly know me, I know you think I'm a punk, can I please just borrow a guitar?" And I borrowed his guitar. And there were the four people waiting for me, and God bless the four people waiting there. And it was me again. Me versus the coffee machine. [Imitates loud coffee machine.] I didn't have that kind of firepower at the time, I only had a little PA. They had, I think it was a Bunn[-o-Matic coffee maker]. I think it might have been a Bunn, can't be sure. You know a Bunn? Ever see a Bunn? B-U-N-N?

Anyway. I was so frustrated that I just started making this song up. And the song was about how I had had this terrible afternoon. And that's where the song picks up.

Of all the genesis stories of songs of mine, I think this one is the most interesting. The song is Why Georgia. And the melody for the verse was invented on the spot at a Borders Books. The reason it was, is because I had forgotten to bring my guitar from work to Borders Books where I was playing a show, if you could call it that.

So on my way to Borders Books without a guitar, I realized that I had not yet passed my friend Shawn Mullins' house. So I borrowed a guitar, but I was late by an hour, and I sat down and I began to improvise a song as to why I was late. It sounded exactly like the intro you hear to Why Georgia. And just loved, "I am driving up 85, da-da-da-da-da-da." I went home and I finished it.