Caught in
the Rise

The river looked like it was glowing from within.

Mayflies lifted off the water, their wings catching the light. Trout rose to meet them, and rings spread across the surface. It felt like the whole river had come alive.

I saw that magic on the East Fork of the Greenbrier River near Thornwood in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. I’d come up from Charleston, South Carolina, with members of my Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing chapter for an event sponsored by the Southern West Virginia Chapter of Trout Unlimited.

I feel that same magic in the cast. The rod loads in your hand, the line unrolls in a ribbon of gold, and if you’re lucky, your fly lands right where you wanted it. You follow that drift, waiting for the slightest ripple. For a moment, that’s your whole world.

I wanted to share that feeling through my music. “Caught in the Rise” carries it in a rolling outlaw-country shuffle, with a little blues in the guitar and a hook that takes me right back to that river.

One small fly,
One perfect drift.
One little rise,
And the whole world shifts.