The Real-Life Couple behind the song “Our Story Began in These Seats”

On my new CD, “Don’t’ Do Lazy Like That” I wrote a duet, “Our Story Began in These Seats,” which chronicles the real-life romance of Shawn and Twyla. I was fortunate to record this song with the incomparable Belle Plaine. I asked Twyla if she would mind writing a few words about the song. Here they are….

The CD, “I Don’t Do Lazy Like That” is a comforting celebration of love – love of familiar places, love of nature’s bounty and love for the people that give these experiences meaning. In our song, “The Story Began in These Seats” our friend Scott Anthony has captured the essence of our life-time of love in a beautiful ballad. It is probably still true today but certainly during the 80’s in rural Saskatchewan, the local theatre was the epicenter of budding teenage romances. Not all of them resulted in a 34 year relationship, but ours did. This song brings back wonderful memories of our hopes and dreams that came with our young love. Certainly, this song is about romantic love – that part is true.

Shawn and I really have had a real-live romance from the first moment we sat in those Falkon Theatre (see the pic) seats but it is also about love that transcends time. I was almost 15 and Shawn had just turned 16 when we started dating. In those days we were, as Scott writes, “just learning our scripts;” love was about anticipation – “hoping our lines would come true.” Thirty-four years later our story, our movie, might never be a block buster but Shawn is my hero and our rom-com, action-adventure, drama, stars two children and a bucket full of laughter, all of which “began in these seats.” Now that we have those theatre seats our in our house, Shawn, I still “like your arm as it hugs my back.”

Thank you to Scott and Belle who must also know real-life love to sing this song to make it feel so true.

Twyla and Shawn Salm
The real-life couple that met at the movies….