“Music is the divine way to tell beautiful, poetic things to the heart.” 

(Pablo Casals) 

THE OBLIGATORY WHO AM I PAGE

I figured I'd write this so that no one reading this would EVER think an A.I. wrote it for me… 

SO: Who am I and why listen to anything I've ever written?

This is an excellent question and one I often ponder. Really, when my tombstone is polished and placed in the graveyard (which will be interesting since I'm being cremated), it will likely have this as my epitaph:

She died with five listeners. 

Now that might seem sad in a world where FAME is everything and people tend to get judged (harshly at times) by their popularity. But five or ten or twenty wonderful people who listen to me?  Then my little contribution to the world has been felt.

If I had a gun at my head (which is possible in the United States) and someone was asking me, “Why do you write?” I'd tell them I write for these reasons:

  • To Share
  • To Empathize and Sympathize
  • To Express
  • To Touch

And the main reason:

  • Because the universe made me this way. 

Some folks feel compelled to paint, to write, to build houses, to figure out quantum physics, or to answer questions like: Did Elvis Really Leave the Building?  

But me? I write songs to write songs. Because. 

Why is the sky blue?
Why are trees green?
Why do people grow old?
Why is there death? 
Why do dogs only live 14 years? (That's a particularly cruel one.)

Because… 

There ARE scientific reasons.  Because chlorophyll. Because telomeres. Because light hits particles in a certain way. 

And that's the way songs often come – i.e., when driving or taking a shower.  Seriously!  I'm never near a keyboard, guitar or studio when they hit. I'm in a car at 70 miles per hour wondering if I could just get to the iPhone (which has fallen under the passenger seat of the car) and launch a sound memo application AND start singing out the idea (while still plowing along at 70 miles per hour), I might have a song.  It's like capturing magic out of the air. It's like taking dictation for something a lot bigger than me.  

So that's why I write. It's not because I played oboe for thirty years or freelanced in Los Angeles for two decades or played a lot of coffeehouses and recorded a bunch.  My musical background is superfluous to the cause. 

I write just because. And that's good enough. 

🙏