Songs

I Can’t Forget How it Felt

July 9, 2022 — Leave a comment

We’re back from a 16-day, 15-state road trip over the course of which (including prepping for it) I missed three weeks of songwriting. But I spent good time with lovely people in beautiful places. Not a bad trade!

Every summer, fragrance or music or the way the light falls or the wind breathes recalls to me other summers – and I’m inspired to write songs like this one, feeling again those summers of my adolescence, that felt deep and wide and like I lived whole wonderful lifetimes through them. And – part of the joy of aging is that I think I’m once again starting to live more like my favorite parts of those summers – rediscovering the beauty and joy of my life through all my senses. It is good.

Silver starlight, lilac breeze, windows open wide
Something ventured, something lovely gained
Spring becoming summer, woman grown from tender child
I was never going to be the same

I can’t forget how it felt, can’t remember what happened
I fell under your spell, got mixed up in your magic

Moonlight on the road, whisper of leaves through the yard
Evening breathing cool upon my skin
Music in the wind and new horizons in my heart
I close my eyes and it comes back again

I can’t forget how it felt, can’t remember what happened
I fell under your spell, got mixed up in your magic

Sunshine and the birds are singing, cold rain, I’m alone
It doesn’t really make much difference
I hold you in the deepness where I keep the love I’ve known
And spread you out in everything I bless

I can’t forget how it felt, can’t remember what happened
I fell under your spell, got mixed up in your magic

Young and Old

June 10, 2022 — Leave a comment

Short and sweet (or bittersweet?) this week – an old poem by Charles Kingsley that lent itself very well to a folk song vibe.

When all the world is young, lad,
And all the trees are green;
And every goose a swan, lad,
And every lass a queen;
Then hey for boot and horse, lad,
And round the world away;
Young blood must have its course, lad,
And every dog his day.

When all the world is old, lad,
And all the trees are brown;
And all the sport is stale, lad,
And all the wheels run down;
Creep home, and take your place there,
The spent and maimed among:
God grant you find one face there,
You loved when all was young.

Perennial

June 1, 2022 — Leave a comment

Here’s a fun song I started last week. Nice to just finish it up and get it posted early this week because it’s a big busy week in my family’s life. Firstborn graduating from high school! And a party shall ensue! And I shall plan and produce it! (with appropriate help of course).

It’s an extra bit fun to post this on the first day of Pride Month because I wrote it to be gender/orientation-inclusive. Love is love!

Feels so good to want you when I know I’m gonna get you
All to myself
It hardly seems believable that someone like you lets me have you
All to myself

Don’t you know you’re truly beautiful
Shining brightly in my eyes
Darling aren’t we just enough of a
Good thing that keeps coming back

There’s things I’m gonna whisper when you bring your fine self closer
Aw, to myself
I’ve got some sweet ideas and I didn’t want to keep them
All to myself

Don’t you know you’re truly beautiful
Shining brightly in my eyes
Darling aren’t we just enough of a
Good thing that keeps coming back

I like the way you like the way I hold you when you hold me
Close to yourself

So if you’re going my way then I’ll keep on going your way
All by myself
Except you’re welcome here beside me anytime and always
Here, by my self

Don’t you know you’re truly beautiful
Shining brightly in my eyes
Darling aren’t we just enough of a
Good thing that keeps coming back

Hold On Let Go

May 27, 2022 — 2 Comments

Last week, after the mass shooting in Buffalo and before the one in Uvalde, my (Lutheran) church confirmed three teenagers including my daughter. A foundational part of Lutheran theology, our pastor said that day, is that we are all “simultaneously saint and sinner.” At the end of the liturgy, we stood and responded together:

Do you renounce the devil and all forces that defy God? We renounce them.
Do you renounce the powers of this world that rebel against God? We renounce them.
Do you renounce the ways of sin that draw you from God? We renounce them.

Our pastor reminded us of these words again after Uvalde. I had a different song started this week but in the dreadful light of these events and with this faith to guide me, this is the one I needed to write.

When you can’t pretend that all is well
but you can’t believe that it’s all wrong
Hold on
Hold on

When you can’t believe humanity
But you can’t pretend you’re innocent
Let go
Let go

We renounce the evil in the heart of us
We believe the healing comes from all of us
Hold on
Let go

When we have no words for what we’ve done
But we understand intimately
Let go
Let go

When we feel the night is all there is
But we know the dawn always comes
Hold on
Hold on

We renounce the evil in the heart of us
We believe the healing comes from all of us
Hold on
Let go

In Good Time

May 13, 2022 — 2 Comments

Some good time is what you need to listen to this song because it’s a bit long (just over five and a half minutes, that is not pop music hit material!). And like many weeks, I wish I had more time to add some more instrumentation, especially for this song, because I think it would have made it more interesting listening.

Instead I turned to Rockwell Kent for some beautiful artwork to linger with as the song plays.

Not much I have to say about the writing process for this one, except maybe that I did enjoy the process as it unfolded, yup, in good time. I started early in the week with the musical idea, got a few lyrics going, but couldn’t get much traction in that first session. Let it brew in the back of my mind for a day, did some more writing, took a walk, added a bit, started a different song out of frustration, came back to this one, and eventually ended up with something I feel good about.

Emily Dickinson wrote “there’s a certain slant of light,” which I first heard in a Vigilantes of Love song called “Certain Slant of Light” (from which one of my favorite song lyrics of all time comes – “Tell me your deep, dark secret / Hey, and I will tell you mine / Oh, is that your deep, dark secret? / Oh well, never mind”).

So I owe part of this song to Emily Dickinson and Bill Mallonee. And part to all the birds who’ve been waking me at 4:30 in the morning with their sweet songs. And many more parts to many more lives. Everything’s connected.

Oh the truth we trade for money
Oh the lies we speak for love
Oh the happiness remembered
When the birds come back
There’s a lot to tell our children
and it costs us all we are
Oh we stutter and we stumble
We expand and crack

In good time, in good time
It comes out right somehow
In good time, in good time
It all comes true in the end
In good time

There’s a comfort comes in darkness
There’s a certain slant of light
There’s a patient tender sadness
That can bear no name
And you hold it like a baby
And you breathe it like a prayer
And you keep it like a practice
That transforms your pain

In good time . . .

You’ll know what you know
You’ll see what you see

In good time . . .