Category: Songs

Insecurity. Quite simply, that’s what I’m feeling about this entry. There are many artists on my list and songs that I look forward to singing. Steve and I will also upload an occasional new song that we are working on. So, I say again, insecurity.

Today, I am posting a song that we just finished a few days ago. It’s been “in process” for awhile… maybe a year or two. A new line here and there. A new verse, and another verse trashed. Sometimes songwriting comes easy and you slip into a new song like a nice worn pair of slippers. This song, not so much. It has taken me a while to find my voice inside these lyrics and this tune.

With other artists songs I can hide behind them. They sang it first and they created the vibe, I can add a little of myself to give a different spin but at the end of the day it’s not my song. It’s a copy. With this new song there is no hiding.

It has been 10 years since we have written a song, well, since we have finished a song. Steve wrote this one. It is a like a journal entry of how we have felt the past few years. Especially before our recent move back to Texas. I think the feeling of an “open road ahead” will always speak to something rooted deep in both of us. We have pictures all over our house of roads untravelled. I noticed this recently.

We are are two people who have always loved the idea of adventure. We have had dreams for our entire marriage (almost 17 years) of boarding planes or packing our car and heading out and seeing what adventure awaits us.

Life changed our plans, not in a bad way but in a way that was unexpected.  Our adventure these past 12 years has taken the shape of three loud, creative and time consuming children who we adore. There is no roadmap that came with them, so everyday is a new journey but its a journey confined to a few square miles of our little life.

When I sing this song I feel that sense of adventure seeping back into this dormant dreamer but it also means putting myself “out there.” This is my adventure today. To put aside my insecurity and try. So, here we are. Let the adventure begin… Now I need to go get supper going : )

December has been an interesting month. There has been a lot of celebrating and family and rest. Underlying it all for me though, has been a current of sadness and fear. Fear has crept into my little world. I can’t go to a movie theater without making sure I know where all the exits are. I can’t go to the grocery store without looking for a place we can hide, just in case. I cried as I walked home after dropping my kids off at school the first morning “after”.

As I look back on this year, 2012, I see huge adventures and triumphs and hope but if I let myself I can also hear and feel the breath of something wicked circling my thoughts and looking for a way in.

The other day Steve was humming an old song and it sunk into my heart and has taken up residence there. It says everything I have needed to hear. When I hear it, I remember hope.

The song is “Show the way” by David Wilcox.

I actually got to sing with David about 10 years ago in Oklahoma City at a venue called the Blue Door. My friend Jeff Mann went backstage and told David that I could sing and could I please sing with him. Jeff had bravery that I did not and I have never been able to thank him properly.. “Thanks Jeff”.

Me singing with David Wilcox in OKC. The Blue Door – 2003.

Another me singing with David Wilcox in OKC. The Blue Door – 2003.

Me, Steve (my husband), Matt (my big brother) and Jim (a very dear friend), singing “Rusty old American Dream” with David Wilcox.

A “Solo” plate that Dave signed for me.

I sang several songs with him. “The kid”, “Sunshine on the Land” and “Rusty old American Dream”. The last I got to sing with David, Steve (my husband), Matt (my big brother) and Jim (a very dear friend). I loved that night and think of it often.

David Wilcox is really a poet. He has written songs that burrow deep into a person and have a way of helping to heal things you didn’t even know were broken.

The world bumps us and chips us and can make us afraid to try. Thank You David for reminding me at the beginning of a new year that, life is worth it, and that sometimes, just by singing a song, we can send fear running.

Happy New Year!

Well. So it starts.

This is my very first entry here on, “I want to sing with”….. I felt it only fitting that I sing “Wichita Skyline” by Shawn Colvin.

I have covered this song many times in little gigs that we have done. Normally I play the chicken shaker but I was too nervous to do that on camera.

I love this song. “A few small repairs” is one of my absolute favorite CDs of Shawn’s. I just used her first name like I know her, creepy.

I remember sitting in my apartment listening to this album for the first time. Steve and I had been married for only a little while and I was folding laundry and was taken away by this song. I wanted to go to Wichita and see the black clouds roll in. That is what her voice and her music does. It takes you someplace, other.

What song would I love to sing with her, you ask? Well, “Summer Dress” or maybe “Trouble” either one would be pretty great! Actually there is a song by David Wilcox called “The kid” that would be so incredible. So, there’s that.

I’m not super happy with the recording but we will get better at the set up as we go. It’s uncomfortable for me to be “recorded”. I hate seeing myself on camera. I have some crazy “Gene Wilder” hair thing going on but I am letting that go. Our 8 year old daughter Grace was sitting in giving me a “thumbs up” and holding her little grey kitten Henry. My husband Steve is playing the guitar. I love the way he plays this song and also, he is cute.

Enjoy! There is more to come.