Quick Background
I wrote my version of this song and recorded it on a cassette tape 30 years ago in a study room at Western Illinois University. The cassette tape resided in a plastic bag and survived all my moves and life changes. Fortunately it survived and I was able to share the recording with a Nashville-based musician, Kelby Dover. He re-recorded the song and gave it a tighter and fresher sound.
The Story Behind “Field of Dreams” song
During spring break for my junior year in college, I came home to work for my dad’s small construction company. He was building a house that would eventually become my family’s new home. We spent a lot of time together that week as the house started to look more like a home as the walls went up. We had a lot of heart-to-heart conversations that week and we recognized the dynamics of our relationship was evolving as I transitioned from teenager to young adult.
During that period of time for my family, one of the highlights of the week for us was to watch a movie at home on the VCR and eat my dad’s homemade pizzas. The night before I was to head back to school, my dad rented the movie “Field of Dreams”. To best describe the movie, as Penn State University’s Kevin Hagopian puts it: “its a film about lost chances gotten back again, and about finally having those talks with Dad you wish you’d had.”
As tight as my dad and I were, we did not talk about the movie and its emotional connection with us.
The next day I returned back to Western Illinois University (WIU), a state college near the Mississippi River about 5 hours from the Chicago burbs. For the drive back, my friend drove his girlfriend and I back. It was a cold and grey March day. His car was a small 80’s Toyota with no heat. I was the lone person in the back seat, wedged between everyone’s luggage. Conversation was sparse – my friend and his girlfriend were on the verge of breaking up. To make conversation even more unlikely, my friend played his late 80’s heavy metal loudly for the entire trip.
With no opportunity to talk and needing a distraction from the cold and hair bands’ mix of wailing electric guitars, synthesizers, screaming singers and horrible lyrics, I reflected on the week working with my dad, the time spent with my family, our struggles and how we kept working through the adversity in our lives. I pulled out my notebook and began writing as we drove along the Illinois’ highways through the barren farmland to capture the reflection before it slipped away. “Field of Dreams” was written in that drive. When I got back to school, I pulled out the guitar and started putting the words to music.
That fall semester, I gave a speech at school for a parents weekend event. My speech paid homage to my parents, who were both there. I gave an overview of Field of Dreams as well as another song I wrote, “Drive By”. Below is the audio from the speech. The “Field of Dreams” story starts at 3:20.