Songfacts®:

• Patty Griffin wrote this emotional song, which has become a big hit among her fans. It is very sad and ignites a great amount of emotion in the listener. The song is written from the view of someone who has just left a funeral, and throughout the song, discusses the long ride home that they have to take after having to bury their spouse of 40 years.
• Throughout the song, it is never made clear if it is the man or woman singing the words. It sort of hints that it is from the man's perspective, but the ambiguousness of the song is also what makes it up for the listener's interpretation. The line "One day I took your tiny hand" also seems to make sense only from a man.
• This appeared on Griffin's third album 1000 Kisses, which was released on Dave Matthews' record label. It was her first album to chart, reaching #101 in the US and earning Griffin accolades for her vocal range and songwriting skills.
• "I bought a guitar in Nashville in 1995, was sitting in my former manager's kitchen and it came right out of my guitar," Griffin told Nu Country TV when referring to this song.
• This song was the musical focus of the 2005 film Elizabethtown, which was directed by Cameron Crowe. In the film, the song is used to describe the return of the main character from Los Angeles to Kentucky. Crowe found the song from Dave Marsh, his friend who was a music writer for Rolling Stone and a big fan of Griffin's.
• The Irish folk singer Maura O'Connell recorded this song on her 2006 album Walls and Windows.
• 1000 Kisses features a variety of themes, but it does seem to concentrate on the stories of particular people and comes from a specific point of view. It features a song called "Chief," which she wrote about a Native American chief, and a popular cover of Bruce Springsteen's song "Stolen Car," originally featured on his album The River.