Chasing the Sunset grew out of a day spent moving through the eastern Sierra and back toward home, with observations being captured as they happened rather than reconstructed afterward.

The morning began before much of the world was awake. After several hours on the road, I pulled off near the road to Bodie and stopped among sagebrush for coffee and breakfast. The truck had been brushing through sage growing along the road, making the smell especially strong when I stopped. I closed my eyes for a while just to listen and breathe it in. That small act of narrowing the senses became part of the day: paying closer attention instead of simply passing through.

As the drive continued, other details accumulated. Gardnerville sat beneath enormous Sierra views. Stacks of firewood suggested the rhythms of winter preparation. Familiar mountains and geological features were becoming recognizable from previous trips, giving me the feeling that I was gradually learning how to read the landscape instead of merely driving through it.

Later, on Morgan Immigrant Trail, the forest brought up a different kind of reflection. I have spent a lot of time in areas damaged by fire, and over time the standing dead trees have become more complicated than symbols of destruction. They can be sad and beautiful at the same time. Some of the higher-elevation trees were beginning to fall, lying across the landscape like something I used to know. An older thought returned: even a burned forest can cast shade.

I stopped again for what I called sunset number one, knowing that descending farther west might let me catch the sun again. Birds were unusually animated in the trees, and I found myself imagining that they knew their day was ending and were getting in their last conversations before dark.

The final part of the drive passed through the Caldor Fire landscape and onto Highway 50. Burned trunks stood in silhouette against the sunset while healthy trees remained elegant beside them. The light moved through distinct phases — brilliant gold, then pink, yellow-gray, blue and finally almost complete gray. I kept driving west with the changing light, and the phrase Chasing the Sunset emerged naturally from what I was doing.

During that same stretch of road, another thought from earlier in the day came back to me. My team at Managed Solutions had been growing more capable and independent, allowing me to spend less time directing and more time encouraging and empowering. That reflection became one of the song’s central turns: learning to lead like the setting sun — letting go while still lifting someone.

Creative Notes

The songwriting process followed the experience itself. Voice notes captured observations while they were fresh: the smell of sagebrush, breakfast on the tailgate, mountain recognition, firewood stacks, birds before dark, fallen trees, burn scars, changing sunset colors, and the leadership reflection that surfaced during the drive. Photographs provided another layer of visual memory, including the sunset imagery that ultimately informed the release artwork.

ChatGPT was used throughout the day as a notebook and later as a songwriting collaborator. The raw observations were gathered, categorized, and shaped into an initial lyric draft. The song was then reviewed section by section, with individual lines changed until the language better matched the actual experience and the way I wanted RoyRoy Genkins to tell it.

Several details became anchors during revision. “Coffee and breakfast tailgate feast” replaced a more generic opening image. “Bodie dust and alder glade” retained a specific sense of place. The observation about the evening birds became “Birds talk fast right before dark.” The leadership bridge evolved into “Learning to lead, like the setting sun / Letting go, still lifting someone.” The final line, “Where day and dream meet,” shifted the ending away from geography and toward the reflective space the entire drive had created.

The song is rooted in a real day and real observations, but it is still a song rather than a literal travel transcript. Images were compressed, reordered, and poeticized where necessary. That balance between lived detail and storytelling is particularly well suited to RoyRoy Genkins, whose songs often begin with an ordinary place or experience and gradually reveal what the journey meant.

Lyrics

Pulled off the road where the sage still sleeps Coffee and breakfast tailgate feast Closed my eyes let the silence breathe Sage in the air just the earth and me

I’m chasing the sunset westward and slow Through the burn and the beauty the ashes and glow Every mile a memory every shadow a friend Chasing the sunset that never quite ends

Bodie dust and alder glade Firewood stacked where the seasons trade Gardnerville’s mountains silver and tall Homes that lean on the Sierra wall

Even a burned forest can cast shade And fallen trees still mark the way Birds talk fast right before dark The day sings back what the night will take

I’m chasing the sunset its turning to flame The Caldor ghosts whisper my name Gold to pink to yellow gray skies The day exhales while the highway sighs

Smoke curls low where the fires burn lean Fuel piles fade in a lavender sheen A deja vu chorus and the wheel hums along The road remembers its own song

All that I’ve built all that I’ve done Leans on the shoulders of people who’ve come Learning to lead like the setting sun Letting go still lifting someone

I’m chasing the sunset its fading to gray But peace rides the tail of the day The sky turns quiet the colors blend Chasing the sunset again and again

Sage on the wind Birds in the trees Even the burned hills shine for me Chasing the sunset Where day and dream meet