The original version of "Fear of Falling" didn't have mandolin at all. When the mandolin version started developing, we knew we had something special. The call and response harmonies were certainly influenced by The Band. The arrangement was inspired a bit by the John Hiatt song "Trudy and Dave".

The lyric was inspired by the old saying of "it's not the fall that kills you, it's the sudden stop". Basically it's a song about living on the edge while knowing damn well someday you are going to pay for it. The road to perdition as they say. It is also a song about growing up... or the resistance thereof. It means different things to me as time passes.

One winter day I was sitting at home watching the Winter Olympic Games and "Fear of Falling" came on under a women's figure skating event. Not what the band had in mind but hell, we took it.

We play this one every night we do a show. The mandolin we learned the song on we gave to a Hard Rock Cafe in San Antonio, TX. The one on the recording I still own.

   - Bret Alexander

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