Light up the lodges

“Light Up the Lodges” started as a Robinson Caruso Organization song called “The Record I Bought Today,” which was about throwing a party in the hopes that a particular someone would show up. When managing an 11-person soul revival band became too much to juggle, I wrapped up that project but kept a few songs that I really liked. I didn’t want them to just disappear, so I repurposed them.

In 2016, I was writing songs about a family of beavers who have to keep moving further down the river to escape an unknown threat. One of those songs, "Yearling," made it onto my 2020 album *Quiet As Fists*. I decided to rewrite the lyrics of “The Record I Bought Today” to fit that same theme. The result is "Light Up the Lodges," which was styled after Sam Cooke’s “Having a Party.” Both songs are about parties, and in my mind, they represent a party as a kind of refuge from tough times.

When arranging "Light Up the Lodges," I had in mind a mix of mid-century Jamaican music and mid-century US dance music. If you’re curious, I also made a little video game for this song—I'll post the link below so you can check it out.