RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Brooke Waggoner finished her new album "Sweven" hours before giving birth to her first child. So it makes sense that on the record, she deals with the big stuff - adulthood, aging and the surprises the future holds. And in the midst of all of that, there's this song that's called "Widow Maker."
BROOKE WAGGONER: It was like a 6 a.m. coffee run. My husband and I went to our favorite coffee shop, and I got a text from a friend who said her husband was having heart problems. And I don't know if it was the early morning, the kind of fumes of pre-caffeinated, you know, mind games (laughter), but that inspired the song. So I went back to my studio immediately and started fleshing it out.
(SOUNDBITE OF BROOKE WAGGONER SONG, "WIDOW MAKER")
WAGGONER: Straight out of the gate, I wanted it to feel like you just dropped the needle on it.
(SOUNDBITE OF BROOKE WAGGONER SONG, "WIDOW MAKER")
WAGGONER: I wanted to put, like, a gospel-y (ph) organ as the foundation, something that you would typically hear at a funeral.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WIDOW MAKER")
WAGGONER: (Singing) Widow maker, undertaker, please understand. You see the Harvey (ph) had a brief attack, and now he is dead. I've got a loss on my hands. The future now...
The bassline is just kind of a straightforward, walking down a minor scale.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WIDOW MAKER")
WAGGONER: (Singing) Speculator, generating panic inside. You see his body's gone. And now I'm all alone and deprived. I've got a loss on my hands.
I wanted to talk about the term widow maker in and of itself. It's truly, like, the textbook definition is what I'm reciting.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WIDOW MAKER")
WAGGONER: (Singing) Widow maker is a nickname used to describe a highly stenotic left main coronary artery or proximal left anterior descending coronary artery of the heart.
So here I felt the need to, like, in a drop-down, low tone (laughter), octave-lowered voice, talk about what that term actually means scientifically.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WIDOW MAKER")
WAGGONER: (Singing) Instigator, see you later (unintelligible). The widow maker (unintelligible). His ashes are dust. I've got a loss on my hands, no future now to regret. Oh, how I'm missing my man. I keep on missing my man.
It has just this feeling of let's get in. Let's get out. Let's have a quick reaction, not even thinking it through.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WIDOW MAKER")
WAGGONER: (Singing) I've got a loss on my hands. No future now to regret.
MARTIN: That was Brooke Waggoner. Her song "Widow Maker" is on her new album "Sweven."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WIDOW MAKER")
WAGGONER: (Singing) I've got a loss on my hands. No future now to regret. Oh, how I'm missing my man. I keep on missing my man.
MARTIN: This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin.