From the recording The Other Side of These Walls
The emotional centerpiece of the album is The Empty Chair, a song about the people missing from our lives—through distance, loss, disagreement, or simply the passage of time.
Lyrics
[THE EMPTY CHAIR]
[Intro]
[Piano and acoustic guitar]
There's an empty chair at the table tonight
Nobody moved it
Nobody said why
It just sits there quietly
Like it's waiting for someone to arrive
And every time I see it
A memory comes around
Some faces never really leave
Even when they're not around
[Verse 1]
Some chairs become empty
Because time has run its course
A loved one takes their final journey
And leaves us holding memories close
Some chairs become empty
When somebody moves away
A new job, a new city
And life gets in the way
[Pre-Chorus]
The funny thing about love
Is it never really disappears
It lingers in the silence
And lives inside the years
[Chorus]
Every empty chair tells a story
Every empty chair knows a name
Some were lost to distance
Some to heartache, some to pain
And if we're being honest
We're all missing someone somewhere
That's why every one of us
Understands the empty chair
[Verse 2]
Sometimes it's an old friend
You swore would always be around
Until one disagreement
Put a wall between you somehow
Sometimes it's a brother
Or a daughter or a son
Nobody remembers exactly how it started
Only that the talking stopped
[Pre-Chorus]
We spend so much time being right
That we forget what matters most
And one day we're left staring
At the place where someone used to sit
[Chorus]
Every empty chair tells a story
Every empty chair knows a name
Some were lost to distance
Some to heartache, some to pain
And if we're being honest
We're all missing someone somewhere
That's why every one of us
Understands the empty chair
[Bridge]
If I could say one thing
To every person we've let slip away
I'd tell them life moves faster
Than we ever think it will
I'd tell them the door's still open
The coffee's still warm
And there's a place waiting at the table
If they ever want to come home
[Instrumental Break]
[Piano, strings, and emotional electric guitar]
[Final Chorus]
[Female harmonies enter]
Every empty chair tells a story
Every empty chair holds a prayer
For the ones we've lost
And the ones who still might get here
Maybe some chairs stay empty
Maybe some hearts never repair
But maybe somebody's waiting
For us to pull out a chair
[Outro]
[Piano only]
If there's someone you're thinking about
Someone you haven't called in years
Maybe don't wait.
Life is shorter than we think.
[Soft piano fade]