Aaron Gabriel wrote "Leave Too Soon" for me after hearing my stories of growing up in a small town. Friends since we shared a dressing room 20 years ago, Aaron is a small town Minnesota kid himself and we commiserated on the complexities of small-town life. The video is shot on our farm and in/around the towns of Martin and Harvey, ND where I went to school and worked my first paid job as radio announcer for KHND AM Radio at the age of 15. I worked at KHND 'til I left to study opera at U.Missouri-Kansas City. Thanks to my dear Dad, my 1957 Chevy BelAir is featured in the video... the '57 was my folks' GPS for me before such devices were invented... EVERYONE knew where Donnie Zuther's daughter was when they saw that car! The Old Wooden Bridge has always been a special place out in the country, a place that is literally found by landmarks, not marked roads, for parties, tomfoolery, and reflection. It is a magical place on summer nights, where fire flies light up the grassy banks and you get an endorphin-rush as trains chug underneath spaced planks.
Fun Fact: my folks call this the "Highway 52" song. Highway 52 is a 2-lane highway that runs NW-SE through the center of North Dakota; it leads to wherever you need to go and has many small towns along its route.