Sunset Here We Are

From the shores of Blackhawk Lake

In 2008 Debbie and I were camping at Blackhawk Lake near Lakeview, Iowa. One evening as the sun was going down I was fooling around with my guitar by the campfire and got started on this song. It slowly appeared from the ether, and Debbie helped with some of the lyrics when I was stuck. I think it might be our best collaboration so far….and really captures that moment.

Shadric & Debbie Smith

Photo by Roger Feldhans. Songwriter Night at Byron’s in Pomeroy, Iowa.

In 2009 I recorded a guitar-vocal version of the song at Big Blue Sound in Fort Dodge. I sent the track to Dartanyan Brown ( see Reach Out Your Hand Substack ) and he added a cool acoustic bass part.

We met back in the seventies while out on the Touring Arts Team sponsored by the Iowa Arts Council. Our paths have crossed every now and then, including a couple duo performances at the Blanden Art Museum in Fort Dodge. He convinced me I should try out Substack….and has some great posts on his own Substack called My Integrated Life.

After Dartanyan sent me the bass part I convinced another musician friend Dan Cassady to add some trombone. Dan is a great teacher, jazz man, and longtime member/assistant director of the Karl King Band ( See The Old Iowa Waltz Substack ). He is still working with many Iowa groups like the Humboldt Big Band, Lone Tree Revival, Bad To The Bone, and the 515 Big Band. We played together briefly during my short stint as guitarist with the East Side Jazz Team.

Here’s how the song sounded with Dartanyan and Dan doing their thing:

In 2013 I started another recording project with a couple musical pals I dubbed The Virtual Buffalo Band. ( See The Gift Of Song Substack ). Denny Osburn ( see Half My Life Substack ) did most of the heavy lifting in his Kansas City studio, adding piano, drums, bass, & other instruments to my guitar/vocal tracks. Then he would send the tunes on to Kenny Putnam, fiddler fantastic in Rapid City, South Dakota so he could add his sweet violin. Both these gentlemen have played many gigs with many talented musicians, and I am grateful to have been able to combine their talents on this project. I even convinced Debbie to sing on our track of Sunset Here We Are. She did great! This version is available on all the streaming services now.

In 2015 I was fooling around with some video editing software and decided to try and sing along with a new version of Sunset Here We Are. Not sure this is as good as either of the other audio tracks, but see what you think.

In 2021 I came across some some other software called A Capella which enables a person to play along with themselves and record it all…..tried a version with guitar, bass, and lap steel which turned out pretty good. Hope you like it.

So that’s the story of Sunset Here We Are….so far. Hope you enjoyed the song and will share it far and wide. Please check out my other Substack stories when you have time, or look for more of my music online. Thanks for listening!