DavesWeb - Music - This Old House

Words and music by Dave. Recorded live in the spare bedroom at Dave's house in Decatur, Georgia.
This is one of the first songs I wrote when I got "serious" about songwriting in, oh, 2005 or so. It's a love song for my house. My house is an old house, built in 1892. So it's a love-hate kind of relationship. She's big and roomy and creaky and drafty and needs a lot of work. But we sure do love her.
Technical note: This was recorded in a single take using the middle-side microphone technique, with the condenser mic in figure-8 mode and the track panned to left, a copy of the same track panned right and its polarity reversed, the second (dynamic) mic in the middle, and mixed down to a stereo track. The middle-side technique gives a nice, full, wide sound. The room was almost empty during the recording, which gives a hint of a reverb-like effect. No effects were applied to the recording.

©2005 by David Langford Smith

Got a yard where the grass just won't grow
Got a roof that leaks each Spring
Got a front porch ceiling with a little mildew a showing
Got floors that bounce like trampolines

But this old house
Feels like a family home
Got hidden ceilings 12 feet high
It's been here 117 years
It ain't going anywhere
Neither am I

Got a faucet upstairs where the hot water runs a little yellow
Got a rose bush that keeps grabbing me I guess I'm gonna have to whack
Got something oosing from the walls that looks a lot like jello
got a bathroom tile with s San Andreas-sized crack

But this old house
Feels like a family home
Got oak trees 110 feet high
They've been there (some of them) 150 years
They've dug their roots
So have I

Got a back yard with chickens and honeybees
Got a treehouse and lots of room
Got a hammock in the woods where I can hear the breeze
singing Summer's gentle tunes

But this old house
Feels like a family home
Got hidden ceilings 12 feet high
It's been here 117 years
It ain't going anywhere
Neither am I