A Teen Voyager and an Elderly Bombmaker

Send us Fan MailWelcome to the first episode of Noted Stories. I'm David Ray Skinner, and for more than fifty years I've written songs inspired by real people, real events, and real life. This podcast shares the stories behind those songs.The first song is "Robin." As a teenager, I read about sixteen-year-old Robin Lee Graham, who sailed alone around the world. Years later, while in college, I rediscovered his story in an old National Geographic magazine and wrote a song about his remarkable journey—and about every young person searching for purpose and direction. That song became a staple of my performances for years.The second story comes from an unexpected meeting at a small East Tennessee gas station. An elderly man noticed my college bumper sticker and told my roommate and me that he had left school during World War II because "they needed physicists." Then he quietly said, "I worked on the bomb at Oak Ridge."Before he drove away, he said something I've never forgotten: "All of us from that group are either sick, dead, or insane."That brief encounter stayed with me for years and eventually became the song "The Boys from Oak Ridge."© 2026 David Ray Skinner/Electric Quilt Music, BMI