The Story Behind Peace on the Other Side
Peace on the Other Side came out of a Sierra Nevada trip on a very warm day with unusually high water running through the Silver Fork of the American River. The day began with business pressure, questions about direction, and a general sense that several things needed to be confronted rather than postponed.
Time beside the river changed the character of the day. The surroundings were still marked heavily by the Caldor Fire, but there was also new growth, surviving vegetation, birds using dead trees, butterflies gathering wherever water reached the road or moss, and pockets of healthy forest near the river. The water itself shifted from fast but nearly silent stretches into rapids loud enough to dominate everything around them.
One of the most memorable sights was an unusual pine that had divided into several trunks and looked almost like a giant tuning fork. It had been there the entire time, but only became noticeable after sitting quietly and observing the area for a while. By the time the trip ended, the anxiety and frustration that had been present on the drive up had largely given way to ideas, solutions, and a much clearer sense of direction.
Peace on the Other Side came from that transition. It is rooted in a real afternoon, a real river, and a real landscape, but it leaves enough room for the listener to bring their own difficult stretches, decisions, losses, and possibilities into it.
Creative Notes
Two substantially different songwriting approaches were explored. One pushed toward a more direct and dramatic song tentatively called Silver Fork Rising. The other borrowed the broader creative approach of Chasing the Sunset, using a sequence of specific observations and places to carry the emotional and philosophical material without turning the song into a conventional linear story.
The Chasing the Sunset approach was chosen because the day’s notes contained unusually rich visual material and benefited from being allowed to move between observations rather than reducing everything to one metaphor. Once that version was selected, the lyrics were intentionally left alone rather than repeatedly polished. Preserving the immediacy of the original experience was considered more important than continuing to refine individual lines.
The visual development followed the same principle. A photograph taken during the trip of the distinctive tuning-fork-shaped tree became the basis for the cover rather than replacing the real location with a generic mountain scene.
Lyrics
Listen & Follow
Play the song while you follow the lyrics.
Silver Fork rising where the snow runs thin Granite worn smooth by the storms within Pulled off the road where the whitewater calls Sun on my shoulders burn scar and all
Butterfly drinking with flattened wings Holding the wind like it owes her things Cold river breathing a mist in the air Quiet moves fast when you’re almost there
I’m standing by the rapids hearing what I hide All that I’ve been building in the undertow inside Every fear I carry starts to roar and collide But there’s always peace waiting on the other side
Sticks in the current start slow as regret Pop from the foam like the things we forget Some find the distance some circle in place Some wedge between rocks where the river can’t chase
Black trees listening where the fire ran wide Green leaves whisper just across the divide Red shrubs glowing in a charcoal sea Life keeps a promise it never gave me
A tuning fork pine on the edge of the bend Split into futures it didn’t defend One path ended two kept growing tall Not every loss is a loss at all
I’m leaning into whitewater letting go of pride Chaos gets louder when you stop the tide The noise takes everything you tried to confide Then hands you peace waiting on the other side
Hidden road dropping where the brave ones turn Dust on the tires and something to learn Gatekept beach where the engines grow still Coffee and sunlight and time to be real
Thought I was leaving I stayed for a while River kept talking in her reckless style Every mile down the mountain I glide Less of the storm and more of the tide
I walked through the rapids with nothing to prove Let the wild water show me how to move All that I feared now flows with the ride There’s always peace waiting on the other side
Birdsong in dead trees still fills the sky Some things survive that never ask why Silver Fork shining where the currents divide Peace on the other side
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