Beautiful Man - I had just left the studio back in 2010 on a rainy summer evening. I spotted a man walking his dog down the street. He was a Native, a beautiful man with long, straight, black hair. He looked out of place to me and my mind made the leap to a spectacular Arizona landscape with wide open blue sky and dramatic landscape. I couldn't help but think that this man, or his ancestors before him should still be riding with "no bridle and no rein." Listen for the lyrics "his feet are as lightening, his footprints desert rose" Fulgurite or desert rose is a naturally occurring substance formed when lightening strikes sand.
Love Eludes You Still could be about any one of us, especially ones who shoulder the burden of not having found their true love. The image I came up with was of the mythological Sisyphus who was forced to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down – for eternity.
Worlds Apart The subjects of this song were inspired by a couple in a book I was reading called Modern Lovers. They were at the point in their relationship where they were examining their life together and questioning how to move forward.
Your Angel is about feeling the burden of being counted on when you know you’re less up to the task than appears. Many of my songs, including Your Angel contain images of the coast. If you stand on the beach, looking out over the water, the horizon is fifteen miles away due to the curve of the earth. “I’m your beacon on the horizon but still fifteen miles away.” “…can I last forever, as constant as the tides?”
The Ring is about questions and second guesses that surround the breakup of a marriage just as the wedding ring surrounds our finger. The removal of the wedding ring, “that classic simple token,” is a significant and emotional event that leaves a mark forever.
Father’s Fire asks the question “what can a grieving father do?” How would a man respond to the tragedy of losing his daughter? It ends with the promise to never forget.
She Broke The Rules speaks of people who are pious and judgmental. “She broke the rules by simply being” – “somebody’s rules, from a book the page was torn.”
Telescopes & Time Machines I am a child of the 1960’s and NASA’s space program had a significant effect on my life. Telescopes and Time Machines is a break up song for space geeks. Know what a Quindar tone is? You’ll hear it in this song.
Smoke Signals is about neighbors, laziness and missed opportunities. Listen for Doug Henry’s beautiful clarinet!
Red Red Rocker When I am sitting on the porch of my house on the coast of North Carolina, the rocking chairs will rock on their own in the wind as if someone is sitting in them. I choose to think that my parents, who have passed away, have come to join me on our porch and we’re all rocking in our chairs as we look out at the beautiful ocean. Red Red Rocker follows a woman’s lifetime of watching her family grow and move on – with the constant of the red rocking chair.
Tsunami The idea of Tsunami came to me as a dream. When the tsunami devastated Japan in 2011, I had a dream of a man standing on a seawall helplessly watching as his loved one is swept out to sea. I then added the story I had heard of how boat captains saved their boats by rushing out to sea which meant they would have had to leave their families behind. "Gone in a moment - no more."
Your Sweet Familiar Face The inspiration of Your Sweet Familiar Face was a photograph I saw on Facebook. A college friend posted the photo of her husband she had taken during a camping trip. The lighting in the photo and the shadows cast made me think of the glow of an unseen Coleman lantern. And yes, she actually did wear red, high-top Chucks under her wedding dress.
Mother Doesn’t Live Here Anymore is about a task so many of us have to do in our lives – cleaning out the home of a parent. The melody and the cello arrangement in Mother Doesn’t Live Here Anymore beautifully surround the bittersweet lyrics. The line “The truck is gone, last box is packed, scotch poured in her Waterford glass” is a nod to my mother’s Scotch-Irish heritage. Listen for my son Patrick’s cello.
Love Eludes You Still could be about any one of us, especially ones who shoulder the burden of not having found their true love. The image I came up with was of the mythological Sisyphus who was forced to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down – for eternity.
Worlds Apart The subjects of this song were inspired by a couple in a book I was reading called Modern Lovers. They were at the point in their relationship where they were examining their life together and questioning how to move forward.
Your Angel is about feeling the burden of being counted on when you know you’re less up to the task than appears. Many of my songs, including Your Angel contain images of the coast. If you stand on the beach, looking out over the water, the horizon is fifteen miles away due to the curve of the earth. “I’m your beacon on the horizon but still fifteen miles away.” “…can I last forever, as constant as the tides?”
The Ring is about questions and second guesses that surround the breakup of a marriage just as the wedding ring surrounds our finger. The removal of the wedding ring, “that classic simple token,” is a significant and emotional event that leaves a mark forever.
Father’s Fire asks the question “what can a grieving father do?” How would a man respond to the tragedy of losing his daughter? It ends with the promise to never forget.
She Broke The Rules speaks of people who are pious and judgmental. “She broke the rules by simply being” – “somebody’s rules, from a book the page was torn.”
Telescopes & Time Machines I am a child of the 1960’s and NASA’s space program had a significant effect on my life. Telescopes and Time Machines is a break up song for space geeks. Know what a Quindar tone is? You’ll hear it in this song.
Smoke Signals is about neighbors, laziness and missed opportunities. Listen for Doug Henry’s beautiful clarinet!
Red Red Rocker When I am sitting on the porch of my house on the coast of North Carolina, the rocking chairs will rock on their own in the wind as if someone is sitting in them. I choose to think that my parents, who have passed away, have come to join me on our porch and we’re all rocking in our chairs as we look out at the beautiful ocean. Red Red Rocker follows a woman’s lifetime of watching her family grow and move on – with the constant of the red rocking chair.
Tsunami The idea of Tsunami came to me as a dream. When the tsunami devastated Japan in 2011, I had a dream of a man standing on a seawall helplessly watching as his loved one is swept out to sea. I then added the story I had heard of how boat captains saved their boats by rushing out to sea which meant they would have had to leave their families behind. "Gone in a moment - no more."
Your Sweet Familiar Face The inspiration of Your Sweet Familiar Face was a photograph I saw on Facebook. A college friend posted the photo of her husband she had taken during a camping trip. The lighting in the photo and the shadows cast made me think of the glow of an unseen Coleman lantern. And yes, she actually did wear red, high-top Chucks under her wedding dress.
Mother Doesn’t Live Here Anymore is about a task so many of us have to do in our lives – cleaning out the home of a parent. The melody and the cello arrangement in Mother Doesn’t Live Here Anymore beautifully surround the bittersweet lyrics. The line “The truck is gone, last box is packed, scotch poured in her Waterford glass” is a nod to my mother’s Scotch-Irish heritage. Listen for my son Patrick’s cello.