Chapter one of Eyes Like the Sky starts on June 12th, 1854 in the Arizona territory. While this is eight years before the American Civil War, it’s directly in the middle of the Yavapai Wars, and the broader Apache Wars. Two Yavapai-Apache men watch a small farmhouse lived in by a white family: a tall man, a woman, two shorter men, who they assume are their children, and a kid who follows behind his mother. Only an hour away is a group of eight armed men approaching the farmstead. The reason they’re here is to raid the ranch, as it was easier to take from the white men of the Arizona desert than the Mexican troopers who roamed the land. After a signal from one of the watchers, the raid begins. “Year Of Our Lord” is a powerful song with prominent bass, a catchy country guitar line and a great groove. While not much is known about the specifics behind Eyes Like the Sky’s creation, the 2018 liner notes state that chapter one was written by Broderick the same day the band sent him early versions of “Fort Whipple” and “The Killing Ground.” It was released on February 22nd, 2013.
The earliest known performance of the song was on 2018-12-01 during Gizzfest at the Royal Melbourne Showgrounds in Naarm (Melbourne), which was teased on November 16th in a social media post. Here the song was played with narration done live by Broderick Smith. The only other known performance of the song was on 2023-06-21 at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, performed as a tribute to Broderick Smith with his narration played through the PA.