When we write we like to make sure the characters in the story are as honest and life-like as possible. In the case of this song, I (Al) had just turned 30 and during a moment of thinking back to my time in school I remembered that a girl in my class had become pregnant at the age of 15.

It suddenly dawned on me that her child, he or she, would now also be 15 years old and I wondered how that would make her feel. I wondered about what advice she would give her child...whether she had regrets etc etc..

We decided to elaborate for the purpose of this song (as all good storytellers should) and make it that she gave her child up for adoption at birth and that he was now going to go look for her.

With the added benefit of having two vocalists we also thought it might be an interesting idea if I (Al) sang the words from the son's perspective and Alva sang from the mother's perspective.

Musically we took inspiration from a country classic and another "story" song.. ' A Boy Named Sue' by Johnny Cash - we wanted to replicate the train feel in the rhythm section and the urgency in Cash's lyrical delivery.

We were also listening to a lot of The Band and incorporated some of that influence into the instrumentation with our use of a horn section and time signature changes for the chorus.