I was getting closer. I now had the drum track, the rhythm piano, and the vocals. I put everything together in DAW and it sounded great but somewhat hollow. it needed another instrument on top, something with a bite, something that wouldn’t clash with the traditional feel of the lyrics. I tried a few riffs on guitar and lap steel but wasn’t satisfied. The next in line was the banjo. I plucked a few strings and realized that yes, that is what the song was looking for. I needed to keep it simple so I played around with some variations of a D minor chord and a G major. It sounded really good, so I put my earbuds in, started the metronome, and got to work.