Song Highlight: “Helped Me to Stand”

[Photo Credit: Tim Foster]

This month’s music highlight is David Willersdorf’s uplifting song, “Helped Me to Stand”, recorded on David Willersdorf’s Outside the Inside album in Nashville.

“I found myself writing ‘Helped Me to Stand’ about the rich friendships I’ve enjoyed throughout my life. I’ve had some great mates who have been there through the highs and lows and who have weathered a few seasons. We’ve laughed at the crazy moments and gathered together to endure the tough times,” says David.

“Musically, ‘Helped Me to Stand’ has a bit of a gospel chord progression. I wrote the song with a deliberate ‘ambling’ pace to signify a walking pace and to bring to mind the feeling of a journey, which also speaks of a long friendship. I hear a few influences from James Taylor (one of my favourite songwriters) and Andrae Crouch (a gospel artist I grew up listening to a lot).

“When it came to the recording, we started with bass player Steve Mackey and drummer Fred Eltringham recording their parts along with my original guide keyboard track. Fred and Steve’s ability to leave such great space - the notes they chose not to play - gave the song a lot of room and put the emphasis more on the melody and lyrics. I played my final keyboard track on a Wurlitzer electric piano. Then we had Jimmy Wallace on organ and Rob McNelley on guitar ‘put the icing on the cake’ with some incredibly tasteful parts.

“Producer Rick Price and I sang the backing together (we’ve almost got ‘male choir’ written all over us after these recording projects we’ve done together). We were able to put a few dynamic highs and lows through the song in keeping with the feel I’d originally written. I was so rapt in the song and how it came together.”

As always, if you like the song, feel free to share it, download it, sing along to it and share it’s message of friendship and being there for others over the long haul.

Helped Me to Stand

Verse 1:

When I needed a friend
That’s when you found me and lent me a hand
It’s been a long, lonesome road
And when I saw you, it gave me such hope

Chorus:

You’ve been a friend to me, in all of my ways
How we survived through all those dark days
We got a sweet history
When all there was, was just you and me
And Oh, you helped me to stand
And Oh, you helped me to stand

Verse 2:

We had no place to go
And so we wandered through deserts and snow
We went high, we went low
And so we journeyed to the end of the road

Bridge:

‘Cause what we had, it was a driving force, a mighty force
What we pursued, it was running horse, that crazy horse
When we fell down, we found our feet again, right near the end
We found a way through to love

Words and Music by David Willersdorf
© 2017 David Willersdorf / Whistletone

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