Anatomy of a Song: Steve Arnold, ‘Our Lady of the Snows’

Published 12:00 am Thursday, October 25, 2018

Artist: Steve Arnold

Featured song: “Our Lady of the Snows”

Upcoming show: Blackstrap Bluegrass at Spoken Moto, 310 SW Industrial Way, Bend; 7 p.m. Nov. 2; free

Steve Arnold is the founder, banjo player, vocalist and main songwriter for long-running Bend band Blackstrap Bluegrass. A Pennsylvania native, Arnold moved to Bend in 1994 and has been involved in the music scene ever since. Blackstrap Bluegrass, of which Arnold is the last original member, released “Closed Doors,” its first album in 13 years, this summer. The record includes the original recording of this song, “Our Lady of the Snows.”

Q: What’s the story behind this song — how was it written, recorded, etc.?

A: Sometimes it comes with having the name of a song. I keep a list of, oh, that’d be a good name; that’d be a good name. And then if I can find that list again, then I maybe can write something. Sometimes I’ll sit down and with that then predetermined, to say, I’m gonna name the song this. Sometimes it’s just a name I throw on another song. But this one was one that I knew the name of the song and then I built the song around the name.

Q: What’s the story inside this song — what’s it about?

A: It’s about the whole process of skiing. On our other album, I wrote a song called “Love and Lies,” which was about calling the ski report, and you never knew if it was gonna be love or if it was gonna be lies. And so I wanted to write another song about skiing, so it’s a song about starting your day, going up to the mountain and what you have to do on the mountain to get by and some of those things that go with it. And the name of it is actually — if you’ve ever driven (north) on Highway 97, in Gilchrist there’s a little church on the side, it’s called Our Lady of the Snows. There’s a few Lady of the Snows churches around the country.

—  Brian McElhiney, The Bulletin