Joey and I have always tried to record songs that matter to us – songs that we can relate to in a personal way.

Some are songs we’ve written and some we’ve found. More times than not, they’re songs about us – about our lives. But from time to time, a song we record comes to life in a way we never imagined.

Years ago, our friend Sandy Lawrence wrote a song for her mother who she was caring for as she was passing away. It was something she said she wrote to help her through her feelings – to help her heal.

In 2012, Joey and I were in the studio recording a new album. This record was going to be called His and Hers and different than the ones we’d made before where Joey sang every song and I just sang harmony… on this record she wanted me to sing half of the songs. And so I did.

As we were looking for and choosing the 12 songs that would go on the new record, we both knew that we wanted one of them to be a Sandy Lawrence song. Sandy was a undiscovered songwriter who had moved to Nashville twenty-something years ago and knocked on a thousand un-opened doors on Music Row. In her late 50’s now, working at a library and helping her husband Cowboy Jack take care of the horses at their small ranch south of Franklin- we had come to know and love the songs that Sandy wrote. Different than most songwriters in Nashville where co-writing runs rampant, Sandy writes hers alone. And they’re brilliant.

And maybe by chance, by recording one of her songs… we could change Sandy’s life and the world could discover what a gift she has. That’s our favorite part of recording other people’s songs.

Sitting in the studio with my laptop, I went through a few of the songs that we liked and then came across a new one that Sandy had sent me. It was her work-tape of “When I’m Gone”. I played it for Joey.

She listened as her tears fell.