Somewhere In America

The Alternate Routes Somewhere in America

We want to share with you a new song called Somewhere In America. We have been working on this song in various forms for many years, but I made a commitment to myself to finally finish it in recent months. It is a very personal story, but unfortunately it feels as relevant as ever.

To clarify any confusion, Somewhere in America is written from my point of view, and the story is mine. It is not written for sympathy or remembrance. It is about empathy. It is inspired by the feelings of anger, sadness, hopelessness, and guilt I feel every time I hear of another life lost and family shattered by gun violence. My story is over a decade old, but new stories are occurring every single day.

If you are reading this, then you most likely have helped support AR over the years and we can’t thank you enough. Regardless of where you stand.

I hope you listen to Somewhere In America with an open mind. I hope you it leaves you inspired. I hope it is outdated in the very near future. It is possible. If we want it to be.

-Eric

 

“Somewhere In America” LYRICS:

The last thing that my father saw
When he was still alive.
Was the gun in the hands of a sick young man
with bright blue eyes.
A man who looked just like me,
As far as anyone else could see
A stranger, not an enemy
And my mother watched it all.
That was the last thing that she saw.

Somewhere in America
A phone’s about to ring.
Nothing can prepare you for
the news it’s going to bring.
Nothing ever changes
Just the names and faces.
Somewhere in America
A phone’s about to ring.

An unlucky break
wrong time, wrong place
I’ve heard them all so many times.
If your dad had had a gun of his own,
maybe they’d still be alive.
But I still can’t believe the resistance.
The denial, the insistence
When somethings broken
that clearly needs fixing
You can fight to change
Or you can fight to stay the same.

Somewhere in America
the news is about to break
Nothing can prepare you for
The toll it’s gonna take
Nothing ever changes
Just the dates and the locations.
Somewhere in America
The news is about to break.

How long is too long
Before the words you can’t say
Just speak for you.

The years have been kind ma
I’ve got a son now of my own.
When I think of what I’ll tell him happened to you
I still don’t know.
That the worlds a much safer place
That kind of danger,
you won’t ever have to face.
I pray he lives to see that day
No idea what I’m going to say.

Somewhere in America
A phone’s about to ring
Nothing can prepare you for
the news its going to bring.
All this while we’ve been waiting
taking time and debating
Somewhere in America
A phone’s about to ring
Somewhere in America

If you’re interested, check out the article on Upworthy or buy a SIA tee!