I was at a ‘Listening Room’ concert recently, where the performer Jesse Terry provided a wonderfully entertaining evening. The ‘Listening Room’ series offers professional musicians performing in private homes. It’s a wonderful opportunity to both enjoy the music and meet the performers in a casual, informal venue.

“Touring the world has given me a very different perspective. We’re all part of a global family,” says Jesse who is an award winning singer/songwriter. This particular evening his wife and baby daughter are on hand – the baby happily dancing to her father’s songs.

The song here ‘Empty seat on a plane’ was written after his New Zealander girlfriend decided at the very last minute to forfeit her flight back to Auckland, and remain in the US with him (she is now his wife). Later that day she looked up at a passing plane and said ‘there’s an empty seat on a plane’ – inspiring this song.

Lyrics

Empty Seat On A Plane.

They were once, grounded for miles
Now they are constellations burning
Like us, sipping our wine
Tangled like vines, thoughts, churning

Look up, look up above your head
At the lights, ‘cause you could be there instead
In the sky, oh somewhere in the sky
There’s an empty seat, an empty seat on a plane.

At the gate, your name rang out
It echoed loud but never found you
On this hill, our runway perch
This patch of dirt, where I was rescued

Look up, look up above your head
At the lights, ‘cause you could be there instead
In the sky, oh somewhere in the sky
There’s an empty seat, an empty seat on a plane

767 bound for Auckland in the fall
You know we’re coming up on winter
You can’t stand the cold at all
But you chose to stay anyway

Look up, look up above your head
At the lights, ‘cause you could be there instead
In the sky, oh somewhere in the sky
There’s an empty seat, an empty seat on a plane