Colorado’s Orchard Creek Band has a new single on offer this month, one written by their mandolinist Kevin Slick and Virginia songwriter Mike Mitchell.
Listening For Your Call manages to take a tragic and melancholy situation, and turn it into an uplifting bluegrass number, one that is quite personal for Kevin.
He explained how the song came to be.
“The song originated with a phone call. I was talking to my father in the winter of 2020 as he had entered hospice care. At the end of our call I said that I would call back later in the week, and he replied, ‘I’ll be listening for your call.’
I thought that was a beautiful line so I wrote it down (as all good songwriters should do), and it turned out that was the last thing he said to me as he died soon after. I wanted to use that line in a song but was overwhelmed with all the feelings and memories, so it sat in my notebook for a while.
In a conversation with friend and fellow songwriter Mike Mitchell, I told him about that experience, and he helped me craft all those images and memories into a song. As one might guess, the song is sometimes hard to sing, but other times I just focus on the words Mike helped put together, and enjoy the memories.”
Orchard Creek Band is completed by Dave Richardson on banjo, Keith Murdock on reso-guitar, Jan Springer on guitar, and Todd Ball on bass.
Have a listen to Listening For Your Call…
Listening For Your Call from the Orchard Creek Band is available now from popular download and streaming services online, and to radio programmers at AirPlay Direct.
