{"id":182205,"date":"2025-08-28T18:12:41","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T22:12:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2025\/08\/28\/old-dominions-making-good-time-finds-present-uplift-from-past-moments-well-lived-change-is-just-inevitable\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T18:12:41","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T22:12:41","slug":"old-dominions-making-good-time-finds-present-uplift-from-past-moments-well-lived-change-is-just-inevitable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2025\/08\/28\/old-dominions-making-good-time-finds-present-uplift-from-past-moments-well-lived-change-is-just-inevitable\/","title":{"rendered":"Old Dominion\u2019s \u2018Making Good Time\u2019 Finds Present Uplift From Past Moments Well-Lived: \u2018Change Is Just Inevitable\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tThere\u2019s a period in life \u2013 usually in the 30s or 40s \u2013 where people make big decisions about their identity. The world is changing around them, and they control their reaction: Do they resist those changes and hang on to the past? Or do they accept society\u2019s evolutions and try to adapt along with it?<\/p>\n

\n\tThe former world view leads in its most extreme version to the stereotypically angry old person. The path for the latter viewpoint skews toward the wise, resilient soul that most would likely aspire to be in their senior years.<\/p>\n

\n\tBoth kinds of people are shaped by their past experiences, like the protagonist in the new Old Dominion <\/a>single: \u201cMaking Good Time,\u201d released by Columbia Nashville to country radio via PlayMPE on July 14. The protagonist flashes back to a teenage relationship full of rebellion, joy and excitement, lived out with the newfound freedom that comes from a car and a first driver\u2019s license. The couple had been in the early years of their respective life journeys, and the supporting music takes a parallel trip, reflecting on the past with an upbeat attitude while changing with each section of the song. It\u2019s written as if the singer is at ease with his evolution, but appreciates the history that brought him here.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cChange is just inevitable,\u201d band member Trevor Rosen says. \u201cThat\u2019s growth, so I think looking back positively is a healthy thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRosen developed the first sound of \u201cMaking Good Time\u201d while watching TV. Noodling on his daughter\u2019s compact Baby Taylor guitar, he broke into an easy-going, fluttery pattern and recorded it on his phone. When he and two of his Old Dominion band mates \u2013 guitarist Brad Tursi and frontman Matthew Ramsey \u2013 had a writing appointment at SMACKSongs on Music Row, Rosen brought up that guitar part on the way to the meeting and sent the file to SMACK writer Ross Copperman (\u201cDancin\u2019 in the Country,\u201d \u201cLiving\u201d).<\/p>\n

\n\tBy the time Rosen arrived, Copperman had put a beat behind the guitar lick, and the rest of the day\u2019s writing crew \u2013 including artist-writer Ross Ellis \u2013 was already toying with it. As conversation around it progressed, Rosen threw out a title that was also sitting on his phone, \u201cMaking Good Time.\u201d It seemed to fit. It easily applied to both loving and driving, but instead of shaping it with a current storyline, they worked through the prism of nostalgia, paying homage to \u201cNowhere Fast,\u201d a song from their first album that also mixes romance and automobiles, and nearly became a single.<\/p>\n

\n\tThey wrote \u201cMaking Good Time\u201d chronologically from the first line, picking out specific images from the past relationship \u2013 a concert, a Chevrolet, the girl\u2019s braids \u2013 while providing zero clues about the current setting. The former lovers could have bumped into each other, he could be carrying on a conversation in his head, they could even still be a couple \u2013 there\u2019s a mystery about who these people are now.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSometimes being a little more vague helps people be able to bring it into their own lives,\u201d Rosen reasons.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s the opposite tack from the Dan Fogelberg classic \u201cAuld Lang Syne,\u201d which etches out the details of a chance meeting between two exes, never giving any specifics about the time they were together. That Fogelberg piece is a guiding light for Ramsey.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think about that song obsessively,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s the simple vignettes like, \u2018We bought a six-pack at the liquor store \/ And we drank it in her car.\u2019 Those are just real intimate moments that are just like, \u2018Holy shit. How do you get that granular?\u2019 And we try to do that a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

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