While sheltering at home with his family Friday (3.20.20), Dr. Ted Horrell, Lakeland School System (LSS) superintendent, wrote, recorded and shared a song called “Safe at Home.”
He said he finished the four-minute song, recorded it immediately and shared it on his personal music webpage, Ted Horrell and the Monday Night Card. https://www.facebook.com/tedhorrellmusic/
The singer-songwriter/guitarist said he has been writing songs for more than 25 years. “Usually one of the challenges is figuring out what I want to write about, but the inspiration for this one came pretty easily for obvious reasons. I wrote “Safe at Home” after we had gotten our kids to bed for the night. I was thinking about our new reality and why our choices were important for our family, but also that our decisions and actions impacted others.”
Dr. Horrell said the lyrics and music came quickly, in less than an hour which is not his usual process. “It’s even more unusual that I would finish a song, record it, and post it right away. One of my goals as a songwriter is to express a shared experience and I thought, when has there been a more shared experience than this?”
He and his wife Sarah have two sons, Fletcher, 8, and Archer, 6. “We are staying at home unless we have to leave for essentials, and I am working from home as much as I possibly can. I’m only leaving the house to handle school business that can’t be done remotely. We’re doing a lot of collaborating and planning online, which I’m fortunate to be able to do.”
Dr. Horrell describes his group as a Memphis band with a harmony-soaked sound reminiscent of the Jayhawks as well as Laurel Canyon groups like the Byrds, The Mamas and the Papas, and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young with hints of Stax-era soul and new wave thrown into the mix.
He has been a voice in the Memphis music scene more than 15 years. His seven-year run with The Central Standards produced three studio albums (2003’s Refrain, 2005’s Can’t Remember the Last Time, and 2007’s The Central Standards’ Folly). His band has played for the Memphis in May Beale Street Music Fest as well regular airplay on local radio stations. After Central Standards disbanded, Dr. Horrell created a new album of original music, Sputnik, playing with the Monday Night Card.
Safe At Home – Lyrics
Not sure just how long we’re gonna stay
Not quite sure when things will be okay
We may run out of games to play
They keep changing what they say the experts say
But for once we’re doing what we’re told
Maybe older folks can keep on getting old
We’re not asked to be too brave or bold
Just to stay tucked gently in our fold
But for a change it’s not really up to me
So don’t bother looking out for my family
Cause for now I’ll tell you where we’re going to be
Safe at home
Maybe when it’s all been said and done
And this thing is finally on the run
We’ll all step back out into the sun
And run wherever it is we want to run
But for a change it’s not really up to me
So don’t bother looking out for my family
Cause for now I’ll tell you where we’re going to be
Safe at home
When we look back on what we all went through
And ask if we did more than we needed to
At least I’ll know I did what I could do
To do as little harm as I could to you
But for a change it’s not really up to me
So don’t bother looking out for my family
Cause for now I’ll tell you where we’re going to be
Safe at home
