Brayden Baird wrote Lord, why do you do these things to me? in the winter of 2023, while simultaneously going through the most difficult challenges of his life. Amidst deep grief and irreparable loss, he found solace through playing the guitar, tinkering on the piano, and writing songs. While some of the songs are cathartic exclamations of doom, some are messages of love to himself and to those around him.

In “When Will the Sun Rise Again?” Baird exclaims:

You just need to sit in a field on a blanket with friends,
Or maybe share laughter with another in the green grass instead

Taking this self-advice to heart, he realized that these songs’ greatest potential lay in growing the compositions with friends and collaborators. With production assistance from Dan Rome (Big Lake Recording Company) and Mark Balderston (Slings & Arrows), Baird assembled an all-star cast of musicians from Brooklyn and Vermont to bring the songs to life in a whirlwind week in Burlington, VT, culminating in a single day of live band tracking. The newly-assembled Once in a Lifetime Band responds to Baird’s every breath and emotion, swelling wildly through peaks and valleys while turning the songs toward the light.

Baird has spent his whole life writing and producing songs and after 28 years and 25 albums under various names this has proven to be the formula for the strongest and purest work of his career. From existentially-grave sadness to screams of triumph, with LWDYDTTTM, Baird has delivered one of Anti-Folk and Recession Rock’s finest offerings; as on “I Saw Nothing” with a dry wit and a wry smile, he shouts:

I climbed to the top of the mountain
I swam to the bottom of the sea
And I saw nothing

Brayden Baird is a producer and songwriter based in Brooklyn, NY.