“Granted” – a song by Scott Roughton | 03-11-2015

… in memory of Grant Hepburn

Songwriter remembers summers spent farming in Vankleek Hill
by Theresa Ketterling – with permission of The Review

VANKLEEK HILL – Scott Roughton isn’t from Vankleek Hill, but he spent many summers on his uncle’s dairy farm on Pleasant Corners Road, which is where he got to know Grant Hepburn, his second cousin.
Roughton, who says he’s been writing songs for most of his life, was inspired to write a song about Hepburn after he learned he had been in an accident and passed away.
“This came up and I had to write a song about it,” says Roughton. He has fond memories of his cousin as well as of Vankleek Hill, he says.
Roughton remembers Hepburn as a “gentle soul.”
“I got to spend time with him and hear his simple philosophies on life,” says Roughton. “He was sort of like an older brother that I got to see once in a while, while I was working on the farm.”
He says he remembers Hepburn’s selfless nature, “him helping us out – always – really never asking anything in return, ever.”
The summers he spent on his uncle’s farm are cherished memories, says Roughton, a self-described city kid who now lives in Quebec City. “People like Grant affected me, whether I realized or not,” he says. “There’s very few people like that, seems to me, left in the world.”

 


Roughton last saw Hepburn last summer. “I got to just say a few words to him, and he was on his way, but as usual he asked me how I was doing and, as usual, people like that, they really want to know what you’re doing. It’s not just in passing.”
“Everything he said, he meant,” says Roughton.
Roughton says he attended Hepburn’s memorial, and “wasn’t at all surprised that he touched so many lives.” He says everyone had a memory of a great experience with his cousin, and many people remembered him as someone who would challenge your point of view. Roughton remembers Hepburn as “a man who would make you think.”
“Somehow Grant had a way of touching the thing that seemed to be affecting you…I guess he was sensitive to everybody around him,” says Roughton. That’s a characteristic he hopes to emulate as a songwriter, he says.
Roughton says he’s working on releasing music on a larger scale, via iTunes or something similar, but for now, Soundcloud is a good place to hear more of his work. “Granted” can be heard by visiting https://soundcloud.com/knockingsparks.