Just Beyond is a record about how connection begins — and how it deepens.
It starts small. A glass set down carefully. A breath that lingers. Two people standing close enough to notice the quiet between them.
Across eight songs, that quiet opens into something steady and alive.
There’s a hardware store at the end of the day, dust suspended in late sunlight.
A bargain bin with the same squeezy toy in two different hands.
Dogs that recognize each other before their owners do.
A courthouse lawn on a Saturday afternoon.
An evening porch with the windows open and warm air settling in.
The dogs appear again and again — leash to leash, nose to nose — moving toward each other without second-guessing. They become a quiet reminder that instinct often arrives before certainty. While the people measure their steps, the dogs simply know. Their ease becomes the thread that pulls the story forward.
Each moment builds gently on the last. A sentence is spoken. A habit softens. Space turns into presence. What begins in pauses learns to grow. What grows begins to bloom.
By the time the porch light comes on, the story feels complete — not because anything was forced, but because something real was allowed to take root.
This album means a lot to me. It’s about discovering that closeness can unfold naturally, that warmth can deepen over time, and that sometimes the most powerful step forward is simply saying the first word.
Just Beyond begins in restraint and ends in connection — guided, in its own quiet way, by two dogs who were never afraid to walk toward each other.
You can listen to the full album here:
👉 https://bill-leyden.bandcamp.com/album/just-beyond
Thank you for listening — and for being part of the journey.
— Bill
Bill Leyden's Blog 