When You Come Back Down

This song describes a relationship where one person goes off to start a new life, but the other will always be there when the other falls. It can be between a girl/boy, friends or parents/child. A bond is formed when someone is behind you when you need a backbone.

This song was originally released by the West Virginia singer Tim O'Brien on his 1997 album When No One's Around. He wrote it with Danny O'Keefe of "Good Time Charlie's Got the Blues" renown. "Not sure what the inspiration was, but it was written the day Bill Monroe died," O'Keefe told Songfacts. "I love the Nickel Creek version." That day was September 9, 1996. They were working on the song when they got the news that Monroe had passed.

Nickel Creek had been around a while, but this song was their first single. It came at a time when bluegrass music was having a moment, thanks in part to the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?.