This is a strange one, as Minneapolis singer songwriter Taylor James Donskey wrote this song a a tribute to something that happened getting on for half a decade ago. What were you doing in 2020? He explains the topic and the origin like this: “This one’s inspired by the night before the world shut down. I was playing a show late into the night, and all anyone could talk about was if we’d still be able to see each other tomorrow. We didn’t think stuff like that would get to us, but still that sinking feeling was persistent. As the night wore on, folks just kept asking me to play more songs. If the music didn’t stop the night wouldn’t end, so eventually I just started making things up just so I could stay onstage and keep the magic alive. This is a song in tribute to that night.” It’s safe to say that he captures a lot of the unreality and uncertainty of those days – days that it’s sometimes hard to credit we lived through. But we did, somehow.
Raised in La Crosse, Wisconsin he picked up the bass at 14 and began his life as a sideman. He has played in pop punk bands and school jazz combos. He sang in choirs and played trumpet, trombone, percussion and most importantly, the bass. This led him to playing paid gigs in high school, sitting in with his uncle’s cover band. Recognizing his talent, his uncle gave him a Sigma acoustic guitar, and Donskey says that “he bought it in the seventies, and I’ve continued to play it. A relentless old companion, it’s followed me wherever I go, and it is the instrument from which many of my songs have grown.”
