It was years after Toby was gone when someone found it — a small flash drive tucked inside a weathered leather case, labeled in his handwriting: “Dad – Unfinished.” Inside was a single track. Half a song. Half silence. The first few notes were old, crackling — the voice of Toby’s father humming in the background. Then, halfway through, Toby’s guitar quietly joined in. Not to correct. Not to complete. Just to accompany. “You hear that?” said the studio tech who opened the file. “That’s two generations… in one breath.” Nobody knew why he never released it. Maybe it wasn’t meant for radio. Maybe it was meant for that quiet place where memories go when they stop needing an audience. Now, every so often, when the Keith family gathers, they play that file — no lyrics, no fanfare. Just the sound of a father starting a song, and a son helping it find its way home.
Introduction I remember my uncle at a family BBQ one summer, grinning ear to ear as he raised a cold beer and toasted to “still being dangerous in small doses.”…