Song Origins
True To My Nature
True To My Nature: Daniel Hutchens Talks About Songwriting with Widespread Panic http://swampland.com/articles/view/title:true_to_my_nature_daniel_hutchens_talks_about_songwriting_with_widespread_panic By James Calemine
James Calemine: So, after these last New Year’s shows they met back in John Keane’s studio to cut Dirty Side Down. Talk about how a song you co-wrote—“True To My Nature”--ended up on Dirty Side Down.
Danny Hutchens: How it started was basically with The Romper Stompers project, which is Todd Nance, Williams Tonks, Jon Mills and I. So, we started this project to make a children’s album, which we’re writing songs together and coming up with stuff. Then during that Panic was preparing to go back in the studio for this new record. Todd just kind of ran it by me—‘Let’s write something together and I’ll take it to the guys and they can add their parts to it’. That’s what happened. The funny story about that whole thing, like the one liner—one day Todd called me and he’s like ‘Danny I got this song I want you to help me finish. The thing is, it doesn’t have any lyrics or music (laughs).
He had the title, which was “True to My Nature” and an idea. It came from this conversation he and I were having a couple of weeks before that about how both of our wives love skiing and going to Colorado. When Todd and I go out there it’s very pretty, everybody’s happy and having a good time skiing—eventually he and I get bored. We want to play some rock and roll or something. He had the approach to the song and I came up with some stuff, put it on disc and he gave it to the band and they added some stuff to it. We co-wrote the song. It’s listed as Daniel Hutchens/Widespread Panic. That’s how it came about—it originated with The Romper Stompers. I love it. I think this record sounds great.
James Calemine: It retains that John Keane, old Athens sound… DH: It does. I think it’s cool how they’ve come full circle with John Keane. The new record definitely has a vibe to it…
# of times played: 26
First time played: 07/07/10
Frequency: 5.46 shows
Longest drought: 15 shows (10/24/10 > 04/06/11)
Most common lead in: C. Brown, Hatfield, Travelin' Light (27 times)
Most common lead out: Space Wrangler (2 times)
Most common set position: Set 1, song 4 (6 times) Author: co-written by Daniel Hutchens and Widespread Panic
Lyrics: http://burnthday.blogspot.com/p/widespread-panic-dirty-side-down-lyrics.html True To My Nature JBism: 'That was a song from when you really don't know what you're feeling' (10/16/11)