I keep all my original songs in a spreadsheet and let a random shuffle decide the pick. Today it landed on “Rome,” a track released both as a single and later on my album Many Faces.

I keep all my songs in a spreadsheet and let a random shuffle decide the pick of the day. Today it landed on “Rome,” a track released both as a single and later on my album Many Faces.

I remember we were deep in the miasma of the COVID-19 epidemic. Ironically, during that stretch I was unusually prolific from a songwriting standpoint. The lyrics for this one floated up from the subconscious, fueled, I suspect, by the constant presence of COVID in the news cycle. At the time I was writing it, the story had shifted to Rome as the next looming center of outbreak—another flare-up in a world already bracing for impact. Denial was still strong in America, but by the time the song finally came out (possibly a year later), we were already in the thick of it.

Anyway, that’s my little tidbit on this song for today. Enjoy.

Thinking back on that period now, it feels distant and almost surreal—a strange chapter that somehow already belongs to another era.

Dave