Journeyman James

Homecoming

Jul 25, 2025

Listen to "Homecoming"

Homecoming is now available on streaming! 

 

Original Post:

Here's a studio recording of Homecoming, which I hope you will enjoy and will serve as a kickoff to a new phase in which I'll be releasing new songs more frequently than once every eight years.

For the past several years, this song has only existed as a live recording, but I always had it in the back of my mind to release it as a more polished single. Well, let me tell you that there is nothing that gets you interested in re-working old songs than an attempt to write brand-new ones! While I am getting closer to releasing something all-new, the more I worked on new material the more I felt pulled back to this one and the urge to really complete it.

It took me a while to get this recording posted, for a lot of reasons totally under my control and avoidable. One was the song artwork, which I always struggle with because you're trying to create something to represent a song, which I find difficult. I hunted around for photos I had that might do the job, and didn't really have anything that represented "Homecoming", at least not in the melancholy mood of the song. I started to go down the road of using AI to set the mood of a photo I had, and I chose an interesting one of myself and my friend Banks. So for you, dedicated fan, I offer the initial artwork for the song, which maybe I'll add as a fold-out poster when I'm super famous and the box set needs something extra.

I really am intrigued by what AI can do, particularly since this photo started out as one taken on a sunny day! Though I'm not sure the homecoming feel is in the art here, I really did like the way this dark, rainy scene really seemed like it had a story to tell.

Alas, a wise person (who I will not name because she doesn't want to leave a big footprint on the Internet) advised me to stay away from AI generated (or, in this case, enhanced) artwork, because of the risk that people may see the AI art and assume the song itself is AI-generated (a real problem these days!). That seemed like a reasonable concern, but it left me with precious few options. Ultimately I decided to go with one photo for the entire "album", just making some small variation between songs (once I've posted more songs, you'll see what I mean about that!). So while Homecoming doesn't have anything at all to do with trains, that does hopefully capture more the sprit of the album and it will all sort of make sense in the long run.

Compared to some other gear-repair posts I’ve done, this one is really pretty basic, but as someone who is often trying to repair something for the very first time, I always appreciate if I can find out ahead of time what’s involved and how difficult it is. So in that spirit, here’s a very short how-to.

The good news is that this is a very simple fix: it will take you less than fifteen minutes. All you need is a small-ish Phillips-head screwdriver and some WD-40.

Step 1 (of 3) is to open the case. You do this by unfastening all of the screws on the bottom side of the keyboard. Actually, you probably only need to remove the screws along the perimeter. there are a half-dozen or so screws more in the center of the keyboard, but it doesn’t seem that they connect to the upper housing. I did remove all of the screws and didn’t have a problem, but I’d try just starting with the perimeter screws because I think that’s all you need.

All of the screws are of the same size and length, so you do not need to keep track of which came out of which hole.

Once the screws are removed, lift the housing from the front. Pay attention to the two ribbon cables that connect the lower housing to the upper housing. You do not need to disconnect the cables; they are long enough that you can lift the upper housing with the cables in place.

The squeaking sound you hear when you press your problem key is caused by friction between the key and the spring that provides resistance to your playing (and, of course, returning the key to its starting position). A tiny bit of WD-40 sprayed on the spring should quickly resolve the issue.

Play each key repeatedly and check to make sure it’s not squeaking. If it is, give it a shot of WD-40. Do not overuse the spray.

When all the keys are quiet, lower the upper housing and replace all of the screws you removed in step 1. That’s it. I did have a squeak return after about a year, but this process is so easy I did not really mind repeating it. I suppose you could consider other lubricants if this fix doesn’t last long enough for you, but I have no specific recommendation.

Best of luck!