Editor’s Note: Beth Rowley will take part in the Bluegrass Situation Takeover at The Long Road festival, to be held September 6-8 in Stanford Hall, Leicestershire, England.
“This is a song I wrote with Canadian singer/songwriter Ron Sexsmith. I was writing for my new album and decided to go on a trip for some inspiration. I emailed Ron and a few other friends I knew in Canada and booked to go on a writing trip. Our writing sessions were very relaxed and laid back. Ron is a genius writer. I’ve written with many people and there are very few writers like him. Even his rough ideas sound like the most beautiful finished songs. I had a few ideas up my sleeve but nothing finished. I’d been a longtime fan and knew we’d come up with something cool.
“I read one of the poems I’d written and he played a few chords on guitar. It didn’t take long for some to stick and after some lyric tweaks it was there. We chatted lots about life, music, relationships and what it meant to be in love. ‘Forest Fire’ is about passion and desire and the rush of attraction when you’re around someone new. The excitement and possibility and the pull towards someone. But it’s also about choice and responsibility. Before you let yourself go or be led, you have the choice to go along with it or not. Sometimes it can feel like we don’t have the choice, and that if we feel something it must be right. This song is about the rush and fire of passion but then on the flip side of that of taking responsibility and owning our choices and the effects they may have on others.” — Beth Rowley
Photo credit: Maria Mochnacz
