I’ve just released a new album, Wish I Could Be Here, and it’s one of the quietest records I’ve made — not in volume, but in intention.
This album grew out of a simple realization: how often we live through moments before we’re fully mature enough to understand them. Not in a dramatic way — just slightly out of sync. Saying the right things a little too late. Understanding patterns after they’ve already repeated. Mistaking awareness for absence.
The songs in Wish I Could Be Here are built from small, ordinary scenes — conversations, glances, routines, familiar phrases we lean on when we’re not quite ready to stay still. The music leaves space on purpose. Fingerpicked guitars carry most of the weight. Electric lines comment rather than announce. Nothing rushes to prove anything.
This isn’t an album about fixing the past or promising the future. It’s about noticing where you already are — and choosing to stay there a little more honestly.
The final track, Right Where I Am, closes the record with a realization that surprised me as much as anything I’ve written: that “being here” was never missing. I just didn’t know how to recognize it yet.
You can listen to the full album here:
👉 https://bill-leyden.bandcamp.com/album/wish-i-could-be-here
As always, thank you for listening — and for taking the time to sit with these songs.
— Bill
Bill Leyden's Blog 