Down the Road

Photographs and stories by Jim Grey

Since 2007

Tag: songs

  • Paul McCartney kind of saved my life once; he has no idea of course

    A story of pushing through when I wasn’t sure I wanted to continue this life.

  • The sounds of Christmas

    Bing Crosby and Johnny Mathis form the core of my family’s Christmas music. It’s been that way for three generations now!

  • Driving and Singing: Paul McCartney, “Too Much Rain”

    Friday mornings of late I’ve been sharing songs I love to sing and telling stories about their place in my life. I love to sing! But as every song ends, so does this series, today.  2005 might well have been the hardest year of my life. My wife was divorcing me, I got to see my…

  • Driving and singing: Heart, “My Crazy Head”

    Every Friday for a while I’ll be sharing songs I love to sing and telling stories about their place in my life. Singing is cathartic for me. I can’t imagine not singing. I do most of my singing while driving, listening to my favorite songs on my car stereo. Kristen was my first girlfriend. We’d been friends…

  • Driving and singing: Paul Simon, “Peace Like a River”

    Every Friday for a while I’ll be sharing songs I love to sing and telling stories about their place in my life. Singing is cathartic for me. I can’t imagine not singing. I do most of my singing while driving, listening to my favorite songs on my car stereo. When I was a boy, even a teen,…

  • Driving and Singing: Megadeth, “Addicted to Chaos”

    Every Friday for a while I’ll be sharing songs I love to sing and telling stories about their place in my life. Singing is cathartic for me. I can’t imagine not singing. I do most of my singing while driving, listening to my favorite songs on my car stereo. I was a metalhead in the 80s. Even…

  • Driving and singing: Glen Campbell, “Wichita Lineman”

    Every Friday for a while I’ll be sharing songs I love to sing and telling stories about their place in my life. Singing is cathartic for me. I can’t imagine not singing. I do most of my singing while driving, listening to my favorite songs on my car stereo. Grandma and Grandpa retired to a small lake,…

  • Driving and singing: Rod Stewart, “Tomorrow Is A Long Time”

    Every Friday for a while I’ll be sharing songs I love to sing and telling stories about their place in my life. Singing is cathartic for me. I can’t imagine not singing. I do most of my singing while driving, listening to my favorite songs on my car stereo. I dated Alison the summer I turned 19.…

  • Driving and singing: Carpenters, “A Song For You”

    Every Friday for a while I’ll be sharing songs I love to sing and telling stories about their place in my life. Here I tell a story about the first celebrity death that hit me hard. I wrote this before the recent deaths of David Bowie and Alan Rickman, deaths that did not hit me particularly…

  • Singing to soothe my sons

    I have three sons — a stepson pushing 30 and two teens. I’ve been thinking back on their lives as one of my sons turns 18 today and is making transitions toward his adult life. I was there when the younger two boys entered the world. I did my best to be a good dad to…

  • Paul McCartney kind of saved my life once; he has no idea of course

    I was away at my first year of engineering school working harder than ever before or since. My full class load was delivering six to ten hours of homework every night. I tried to keep up but it involved too many late nighters. My life consisted of meals, class, homework, and too little sleep. As…

  • New Paul McCartney music is always a big event in my life

    For as long as I can remember, new Paul McCartney music has been a big event for me. It started with the Beatles music my mother played around the house when I was very small. But McCartney’s post-Beatles work really formed the soundtrack of my life. Aged four, I sat at the breakfast table waiting…