Airport Girl: Commentary (by Paul Sehnen)

The writing of "Airport Girl" was actually completed before my recording sessions with Curtis in the fall of 2003, however this song was not recorded at that time because at that time I was unable to perform the song to my satisfaction. In fact, at this date (06-05-04) I am still unable to perform this song to my satisfaction, as I have not taken the time required to nail it down.

The difficulty with "Airport Girl" is the guitar part, which involves a relentless alternation between bass notes and chord strums, difficult for me to play well when I am not also singing, let alone when I am doing both at the same time. This difficulty arose by my own design, in a conscious effort to stretch and improve my ability, as well as a conscious effort to produce a flat-picked song which had more going on under the vocal passages than mere strumming.

I do not feel any need to comment on the lyrics of "Airport Girl," since they really tell the story behind the song quite well on their own. As to the music of the song, in addition to the above, I can add two other points. First, the song was intentionally created as a country song, because the woman who inspired the song was a fan of country music, and I wanted to see if I could write a song about her in her style of choice. Second, I am quite happy with the guitar interlude which occurs 3/4 of the way through the piece, as it is arguably brighter and sweeter than anything else I have produced so far, and I do not wish to be dark 24/7. I could be mistaken, but I think that some of this interlude actually existed in my mind, independently, before it found its way into this song.

Perhaps when this web site is more established, and after I have completed more transcriptions, I will make the time to learn to play this song as it was written.