What Happens When We Trust Ourselves

Plus Chapel Hill this Wednesday 3/26!

A few weeks ago I headed down to Austin to meet with Professor Feathers and figure out how to move this new album forward.

Something interesting happened. I was reminded of the ease I felt in Austin being part of a tight knit songwriting community. Songwriters are a weird bunch. Our egos are wrapped up in a strange craft everyone thinks is magic, but we all know is both serendipitous and mundane. Songwriting is a practice that, when you are lucky, leads to transcendence. There are no guarantees. You just have to keep your muscles warmed up so you can run alongside a passing inspiration when it swoops near.

So it’s nice to be around other folks who are doing that same work. There’s also a thing that happens in Austin: when you get up onstage you know you better bring your best game. There’s a base level of skill amongst the population and you don’t want to be half-assing it or resting on your laurels. Personally, I need that pressure to push me to do my best, as a writer and performer.

In the first few hours at the studio, we had visits from Pat Byrne and Colin Brooks. I was staying with Jenny Reynolds and her wife. I was surrounded by folks who speak the same language, live the same dream as me. I felt like a fish returning to water. I realized need to be around those folks regularly, and am making plans to do so.

CHAPEL HILL, I am so lit up about this event this week. Wednesday, March 26th at Flyleaf Books, I will give a solo performance, and then be interviewed live by Donovan Livingston, the brilliant Hip Hop and Spoken Word artist, UNC Professor and Chapel Hill Poet Laureate. Donovan and I will chat about creative self-expression, and the freedom and resilience that comes from digging beneath fear and finding your strength to speak up.

Another interesting thing happened. I realized these new songs still aren’t done. I’ve co-written a bit with Feathers in the past, especially for When We Rise, and we took a stab at co-writing with some of these newer song fragments. But on returning home I had a deep realization that I need to mostly envision this album myself. I need to really understand what I’m writing about and why before I bring in someone else’s opinions or start recording. I need to sit with my own discomfort and learn to trust my writing instincts again. That felt scary. I tried this approach with the existing unfinished songs and was still going in circles.

Then I surrendered. I threw it all up to the sky. I said, “I don’t know what to do! I’m lost! Why can’t I finish these fucking songs already?” I fell asleep angry, my brain pacing its own myopic dead-end maze.

When I woke, a very different song was in my head, one I had started about a year ago and abandoned. It was weirdly simple, innocent even. I went out for a hike and this new-old song started rushing in on a wave of clarity about what I really want to say and why. I want to write songs that imagine a freer world than we are currently physically living in. I want to help dream us forward. I want to make something that gives people hope. Suddenly I could barely keep up with the ideas. It felt really good. I threw my acoustics into a million different alternate tunings and just started imagining chords, scenes, possibilities.

I know that I want an album that feels wide open, acoustic-driven, spacious, rootsy, like people sitting around playing together - loose, naturally dynamic. People need lightness. People need to feel not alone. I need those things. I told Feathers I want it to be somewhere between Astral Weeks and Led Zeppelin II.

I’ll be sure to keep you posted, but this time has taught me not to force anything. It’s one thing to keep your muscles warmed up. It’s another to beat yourself into the ground chasing a goal.

Thank you beloved subscribers who joined me for our 3rd Sunday Salon last week! We chatted about our favorite story songs and came up with this killer playlist.

Next month our gathering will be Sunday 4/27 and I’ll play a livestream concert, because I love y’all. Details and registration coming soon.

SPRING SHOWS:

3/26 Flyleaf Music Series, Chapel Hill, NC - “Uncovering Truth Through Songwriting” - Interview and performance sponsored by Carolina Public Humanities.

4/10 The Bitter End, NYC - Neo-Folk Extravangaza w/Rachael Sage

4/13 Rosie’s Cafe, Brick, NJ - Seating is limited & will sell out. RSVP to get your spot/info.

4/19 The Flat Iron, Greensboro, NC

5/2 Trinity House Theatre, Livonia, MI*

5/3 WFMT Folkstage, Chicago, IL*

5/4 Bishop Hill Creative Commons, Bishop Hill, IL*

5/8 Cafe Carpe, Ft Atkinson, WI - supporting Richard Shindell

5/9 The Stellar Cellar, Effingham, IL - ticket link coming soon

5/10 Bluff View Concerts, La Crosse, WI

*co-bills with Jenny Reynolds

Down in Austin, we got to play a very fun and beautifully produced “Jess Klein & Friends” show at Casa DBs. Many thanks to Robert and all at Casa DBs for making all this happen last minute!