Doors Of Heaven

Album: The Ghosts of Highway 20 (2016)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Lucinda Williams wrote this bluesy tune just after the death of her father in 2015. "I broke down and cried when we tried to record it," she recalled to American Songwriter magazine. "It just came to me in that traditional form, like an old hymn.

    It's not saying there is a heaven; it's wondering if there is a heaven. Even people who go, 'I'm an atheist,' must question if there's something else out there.' Struggling with my dad being gone, I wondered about that myself. The sense of him being gone is still so raw. It's something that a lot of people have dealt with, losing a loved one, that eternal question."
  • This took longer than usual to record. Tom Overby, Williams' husband and producer, recalled: "We've only had a couple of times where a song took more than a day to get it down and this was one of them.

    Lucinda's home demo was done more in a pure delta blues style and she had kind of dismissed it because she didn't want it to be Get Right With God Part 2. That was what proved to be a big part of the challenge - she was determined to make it something different and after a lot of effort...I think we nailed it."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Gary Lewis

Gary LewisSongwriter Interviews

Gary Lewis and the Playboys had seven Top 10 hits despite competition from The Beatles. Gary talks about the hits, his famous father, and getting drafted.

Joe Ely

Joe ElySongwriter Interviews

The renown Texas songwriter has been at it for 40 years, with tales to tell about The Flatlanders and The Clash - that's Joe's Tex-Mex on "Should I Stay or Should I Go?"

16 Songs With a Heartbeat

16 Songs With a HeartbeatSong Writing

We've heard of artists putting their hearts into their music, but some take it literally.

Creedence Clearwater Revival

Creedence Clearwater RevivalFact or Fiction

Is "Have You Ever Seen the Rain" about Vietnam? Was John Fogerty really born on a Bayou? It's the CCR edition of Fact or Fiction.

Country Song Titles

Country Song TitlesFact or Fiction

Country songs with titles so bizarre they can't possibly be real... or can they?

Cy Curnin of The Fixx

Cy Curnin of The FixxSongwriter Interviews

The man who brought us "Red Skies" and "Saved By Zero" is now an organic farmer in France.