Behind The Songs - Shades of Grey

Many of the songs that make up Third World Sun’s first CD took a circuitous route to get to where they are today. Indeed most of them even continue to evolve since we recorded them as we continue to play them live. Because of this, I wanted to document how these songs came about before I forget and it all just becomes a blur. - Carhart 

Stream "Shades of Grey" from Soundcloud 

Shades of Grey (Johnson, Driml, Carhart, Carhart)

A shortage of material was never a problem in Launch Pad or in Third World Sun. Before we were writing much as a band, however, most of the songs in Launch Pad were either written by me or by Lori or by both of us together and all of them were credited to both of us. When Scott joined, he brought a song with him that he wanted to do. Lori and I realized that we needed to be willing to allow other band members to write songs if we wanted to keep our players happy. So Scott brought Shades of Grey in pretty much complete. Lori contributed the background harmonies in the chorus and a surf-style keyboard in the Launch Pad version (that we do without in the TWS version). My main contribution at the time was that I changed the title from “Shades of Gray” to “Shades of Grey,” thinking “grey” was maybe a little more sophisticated. As the song evolved under the band, and particularly in the TWS version, the rhythm section became a little more bouncy and funky under Mike and me. The harmonies I do live are based on Lori’s harmonies. With Scott’s blessing, we now credit the song to the entire band the same way we do with songs Lori and I wrote together.