Decisions,...decisions...decisions.  A life well lived is full of decisions that require wisdom.  Wisdom only comes after you've been up and down the railroad tracks a few times.  This song is about an ugly old toad who  lives his life before wisdom kicks in and it's too late to change course.  Is it ever too late to change course?  You decide!

Hoad's First Time Around

I started writing songs after I returned from Vietnam.  I had played the piano earlier in my life and developed a clear ear for harmonics.  This was further refined when I studied music at Bowdoin College where I was a member of the glee club, chancel choir and a close harmony singing group called the Bachelors.  While in this group, I picked up the guitar, wrote some new arrangements of existing songs and did a little solo work.
After Vietnam with this same guitar, I began writing songs as a form of PTSD therapy. Got so active in the anti-war movement  while in theolgy school, that my wife and I fled  to Canada where we pastored among the farmers and native people of Alberta and British Columbia.  I continued writing songs about  my experiences in those worlds  while raising my family.   After protecting those songs under copyright at the Library of Congress, I made up some demos and caught a bus to NYC where I tried to peddle my music with some high-powered citified record agents.  I didn't get any bites and got discouraged  when they told me to go to Nashville.  I didn't have the time or the money back then to follow up on that advice, so I sat on those songs for years.   Now in retirement, I've finally gone to Nashville in the hopes of getting my music out into the ears, minds and hearts of a whole different generation of young people.  Remembering the advice of a close friend - "With God's help, all things are possible". I decided.....Why not?

Hoad's First Time Around

Bill Thwing