it was an advantage for collins to have the fleming/morgan writers working with him on a daily basis. fleming stated, "if he's cut a couple of songs on somebody and all of a sudden he says we need a song that's 'more country' than this, or 'more pop' or whatever to fill out an album, then he can tell us." not only could collins custom tailor the songs to each artist, but the writers benefited because their creations were then much more likely to be recorded by established artists. in the summer of 1980, collins told his writers he wanted a new song for ronnie milsap that featured the region of western north carolina where milsap was born and raised. he suggested "appalachian rain" as a possible title. fleming and morgan decided to let the geographical spot be an image that would stimulate the imagination of the listener, without a lot of detail, reminiscent of jimmy webb's song "wichita lineman".