THEA: My older brother Terry, to whom I was very close, passed away in 2023. This is just a personal story (written mostly by Chad) about him. He had met a young woman at a wedding when he was working on his doctorate at the University of Iowa; she was the love of his life, and as she was packing in preparation to move to Iowa City from her home in New York state to be with him, she suffered a seizure that claimed her life.

He was of course devastated. I was living in Seattle at the time, and I can still remember his call, the exact words he said to me.

I delivered the eulogy at his funeral and I mentioned that he was finally with her.

We have hidden little references to my brother in a few songs: In Another Song or Two, on the last hook, we changed “that old guitar” to “this old guitar”—because he sang the John Denver song of that name so beautifully; in Open Line Friday Night, the trucker asks the DJ to play “Country Roads” so he can sing along - because all the attendees at Terry’s funeral joined me outside afterwards to sing it as we surrounded the vehicle that carried him.

It’s a bit out of our usual zone but…that’s the story behind it.

Chad?

CHAD: I loved your brother. It was an honor to tell the story.