(the “metaphorical” featured image shows climbers on what many believe to be the world’s tallest sheer rock-face…it isn’t)
This very poignant song was written a quarter of a century ago.
Its co-authors, separately, have recorded it, but the most celebrated version is a “cover”, issued 20 years ago.
None of those recordings quite “nailed” it, I think.
As of February 21, 2021, there is a “definitive” version, performed “live”…
One September day in 1996 two uncommonly gifted American songsters, Danny O’Keefe and Tim O’Brien, were at Tim’s house, trying to finish a song.
Tim took a break, turned on the radio and discovered that Bill Monroe (bluegrass music’s founder/patriarch) had just died.
He informed Danny, and the two friends then managed to complete When You Come Back Down.
Tim included it on his 1997 album When No One’s Around.
The song is also on Danny O’Keefe’s 2008 album In Time.
Much more famously, Nickel Creek covered it on the trio’s eponymous debut album, issued in 2000; their version was “immaculate”, but also somewhat “wet”, in the “drippy” and “…behind the ears” senses.
Although Nickel Creek ceased to be a full time concern in 2007, Chris Thile, Sara Watkins and Sean Watkins have remained friends, and occasionally reconvene their trio.
They are no longer “wet”, in any sense; “less innocent, more experienced” is something this song really requires for singers to do justice to its lyric.
In February this year, gathered around a single microphone, Nickel Creek absolutely “nailed” When You Come Back Down:
Chris Thile is, I think, a singular singer, as well as an amazing player – probably the most gifted mandolinist in his primary instrument’s history.
I eagerly await the imminent release of what is billed as his first absolutely solo album.
Here is its titlepiece:
Footnote:
I took the featured photograph late on the afternoon of 10 October 2012, whilst standing on the floor of California’s Yosemite Valley, looking up at two climbers on the face of El Capitan.
The world’s most celebrated “vertical” rock-face is not in fact the world’s highest such, nor its most challenging “vertical” ascent.
El Capitan is jaw-dropping, nonetheless, and much more easy to reach than is the actual numero uno.
The actual “tallest sheer drop” is Mount Thor, or Thor Peak, on Canada’s Baffin Island.
Click here to see it.
(but disregard that article’s dodgy maths. Thor’s vertical drop is in fact 1,250 metres/4,101 feet. Thor’s peak is 1,675 metres/5495 feet above sea level)
And, if you zoom in on/enlarge the photo below, you can discover exactly where on El Capitan’s “face” the featured image’s two climbers were preparing to spend the night.
Nice one, Doug.