You’ve already heard from Tom Tierney. You just might not have known it.

Tom composed “Appletime, Sweet Appletime,” the song commissioned for the festival in 1974. Fifty years later, it has been chosen as the theme of the 75th Murphysboro Apple Festival—and Tom’s music has graced every interview in this series.

And the Apple Festival song is just one piece of an extraordinary career. Tom went on to compose for musical theater, television and more, with work performed Off-Broadway and around the world. His musical NARNIA has been produced more than 1,000 times, and he has performed his own music at Lincoln Center and the White House. His composition for AT&T’s EPCOT pavilion played 144 times a day for 10 years.

This year, Tom is coming home to serve as Grand Marshal of the 75th Apple Festival Parade.

I didn’t know Tom before this project, but during our conversation we discovered a connection I absolutely love: he grew up just two houses down and across the street from my grandparents’ home on Clay Street.

We both treasured growing up there. That struck an especially personal chord with me—I loved my own childhood on that street so much that I eventually named my publishing company, Clay Street Press, after it.

Thank you, Tom, for sharing your Murphysboro Apple Festival story—and for giving the festival a song that, all these years later, is still part of its soundtrack.

And when our conversation ends, keep listening. This time, I’m letting “Appletime, Sweet Appletime” play us out in full.