May 21, 2012

Album: Hard Settle, Ain't Troubled (2016)
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Songfacts®:

  • The opening lyrics of "May 21, 2012" present the Canadian singer-songwriter in a predicament regarding a relationship:

    I could love you,
    Or better yet, I could leave you alone


    In our interview with Donovan Woods, we asked him why he chose that date as the title of the tune. "It was the name of the voice memo the day that I recorded the song," he said. "I was away touring around England. It was a bit of pieces of things that had happened to me and pieces of things from a story that I'd read. It was just a date that happened to be on the voice memo so it stayed as the title of the song. I just felt like I couldn't think of anything better. It seemed to make sense to me."

    A line from the tune almost echoes Woods' choice as the title:

    Now you know how literal my songs are

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