Change & Becoming
From Crossing Willow Creek
Written by Bill Abernathy
Growing through disruption and discovering that change can reveal the person we are becoming.
Where the Songs Began
Turns Out, I Had a Lot to Say
Original Songs
It’s funny what happens when you step back and look at a lifetime of songs.
I used to sort them into little groups during the shows—love songs, flashbacks, vices, social statements—mostly because it gave me something to talk about between songs. But when I laid the whole catalog out and started doing it again, I learned a few things about myself.
Apparently, I’ve spent a lot of time writing about love, bad decisions, people who think they know everything, and the long road between who we were and who we’re trying to become.
Fun stuff.
These are the songs I wrote, organized by the stories they tell.
Choose a way in
Every song has a place in the story.
Browse by the feeling, memory or question that first gave the song a voice. Some songs appear in more than one story.
26 original songs
Flashbacks & Roots
From Crossing Willow Creek
Written by Bill Abernathy
A return to childhood, family and the creek bank where an old guitar first made the music feel possible.
Social Statements
From Crossing Willow Creek
Written by Bill Abernathy
A warning about political theater, media manipulation, profiteering and the difficulty of separating lies from facts.
Love & Possibility
From Crossing Willow Creek
Written by Bill Abernathy
A first love revisited after time, mistakes and a long-delayed apology.
Heartbreak & Second Chances
Roads & Restless Souls
From Crossing Willow Creek
Written by Bill Abernathy, Randy Seedorff and Chad Abernathy
The romance and cost of a drifting life shaped by cheap hotels, jail cells and whiskey.
Vices & Consequences
Change & Becoming
From Crossing Willow Creek
Written by Bill Abernathy
A fable in which the undefeated champion discovers that his most dangerous opponent is himself.
Vices & Consequences
From Crossing Willow Creek
Written by Bill Abernathy
Infidelity offers temporary shelter, then leaves its players confronting treason, lies and shattered hearts.
Heartbreak & Second Chances
Vices & Consequences
From Crossing Willow Creek
Written by Bill Abernathy
A darkly comic rise and fall through status, cocaine and the illusion of control.
Humor & SatireSocial Statements
Heartbreak & Second Chances
From Find a Way
Written by Bill Abernathy
Love left unspoken becomes a reminder that our days and chances are numbered.
Love & Possibility
From Find a Way
Written by Bill Abernathy
Fear and imagination keep two hearts apart until love is finally allowed to begin.
Heartbreak & Second Chances
From Find a Way
Written by Bill Abernathy
A return to the love fear once interrupted, with a promise not to walk away again.
Love & Possibility
Change & Becoming
From Find a Way
Lyrics by Jo Applebaum Ludwig and Bill Abernathy
Fear gives way to courage as the narrator opens the door and chooses to believe in possibility.
Vices & Consequences
From Find a Way
Written by Bill Abernathy
A character study of infidelity—beginning with excitement and deception, then ending in exposure and disgrace.
Roads & Restless Souls
From Find a Way
Written by Bill Abernathy and Randy Seedorff
The road calls again, leaving behind home, family and someone whose tears remain in the mirror.
Heartbreak & Second Chances
Heartbreak & Second Chances
From Find a Way
Written by Bill Abernathy
A heart-weary narrator refuses to keep playing a game of love that has already taken its toll.
Change & Becoming
From Find a Way
Written by Bill Abernathy
Leaving a life that looks right from the outside in order to reclaim an honest heart.
Heartbreak & Second Chances
Roads & Restless Souls
From Find a Way
Written by Bill Abernathy
A search for freedom, belonging and the courage to leave safety behind in pursuit of a dream.
Change & Becoming
Social Statements
From MORE
Written by Bill Abernathy
A protest against censorship, manipulated narratives and the surrender of independent thought.
Flashbacks & Roots
From MORE
Written by Bill Abernathy
A self-deprecating flashback to youthful excess, missing memories and scars that somehow survived the decade.
Vices & ConsequencesHumor & Satire
Change & Becoming
From MORE
Written by Bill Abernathy
A call to confront pride, denial and old wounds so the heart can step back into the light.
Love & Possibility
Love & Possibility
From MORE
Written by Bill Abernathy
A vulnerable search for a connection deeper than friendship, desire or the illusion of love.
Social Statements
From MORE
Written by Bill Abernathy
A plea to look beyond labels and meet people experiencing hunger and homelessness as human beings with names and stories.
Social Statements
From MORE
Written by Bill Abernathy
Political hypocrisy, self-dealing and government dysfunction delivered with an exasperated comic hook.
Humor & Satire
Social Statements
From Who Are You Who Am I
Written by Bill Abernathy
A challenge to political messaging, biased reporting and the false realities built around public fear.
Humor & Satire
From Who Are You Who Am I
Written by Bill Abernathy
The old break-room know-it-all goes viral, monetizing homemade facts and gathering followers online.
Social Statements
Love & Possibility
From Who Are You Who Am I
Written by Bill Abernathy
Love, identity and trust remain mysterious as two people search for what was lost within themselves.
Change & Becoming
One life. Many ways in.
“The songs were telling my story long before I knew I was writing one.”
The songs I wrote tell one kind of story. The songs that found me along the way tell another.