Sewanee

Ben Niven

This was inspired by a trip to the college my wife attended for a homecoming/class reunion gathering. Comparing my mental picture beforehand, based on anecdotes of her college experience she’d told me, to the actual people and places, was kind of interesting and jarring, and I was trying to write about being underwhelmed by part of it and being able to relate to her sentimentality about other parts of it.

I was singing shakily, playing acoustic guitar and electric lap steel. Steve Poniewaz, singer from a former band I’d been in, played harmonica, and Dave Stallman, bass player for the band I was in at the time, played upright bass.