About "Sometimes A Girl's Gotta Put Herself First"

I wanted to write a country song, so I did.

The end.

About "Without You, My Home is Just a House"

I like this song!  I always liked it, even though it took me a really long time to finish.  When it was finally done, I played it for a close friend, who said the though it was really sad.  I didn't think it was sad. I didn't intend for it to be sad.   But I put it away for a while for safe keeping, just in case it was sad and I couldn't see it.    I have nothing against sad songs, in fact, I quite like them most of the time. But this song was not supposed to be sad.

So, it came time to record "Early" and I needed another song or two, so I took it out, dusted it off, dressed it up a bit, and voila!  Maybe it is still sad for some ears, but that's okay.  I enjoy the sweet sentiment of it.  To me it sounds like spring.

About "I Believe"

When I first moved to Vancouver, I got a gig at a local club at Christmas time, as part of a group show,  and was asked to sing an original holiday song.  I said "okay" and then wondered what I had just agreed to.  After many stops and starts, I remembered an old journaliam professor's words of wisdom " K.I.S.S."  "Keep It Simple, Stupid".   So I ripped up my complicated, hard-in-coming first attempts and came up with this very straighforward, simple song.  My favorite line is the last one:  Dona Nobis Pacem.  Give Us Peace.  Doesn't get any simpler than that.  (obviously, I didn't write that!  I just put it in my song.)

Punch line:  I got bronchitis a few days before the gig, and had to cancel.

But I still play the song during the holiday season, for whoever's listening.

About "Hills Afire"

"Hills Afire" was written during an extended  trip across the mighty United States of America.  We (my husband and I, and our two dogs)  spent some time in western Massachusetts, in the lovely Berkshire Mountains.  One day I took the dogs for a walk along a trail that overlooked a beautiful valley.   It was spring at the time, but having spent a decade in New England, I could so clearly imagine that valley in the fall, achingly ablaze with color.  The song is an attempt to capture the beauty, and the melancholy, of autumn in New England.  I think it would be a good song for a road trip.  Every time I hear it, I picture myself in a car on a highway, with an old friend.

About "Early"

"Early" is the cover song for my second CD.  The song is all about the loveliness of the early morning. I've always been an early riser.

The song was written in Yellowstone National Park, at about 5 a.m.  I was wide awake and full of gratitude.  My two dogs were at my feet. The sun was rising.  It was totally beautiful.

At the time, I had no children.  The verses about watching a sleeping boy and being amazed at the sight of a baby girl were not from direct experience.  Now I have a young son, and I do watch him sleep.  The miracle of that, the miracle of the sunrise, it's all too much for words.

ABOUT "STAY WITH ME TONIGHT"

This song wasn't always so Norah-Jones-y.  It began as a plea, a prayer, a desperate rain dance.

 I live in Vancouver, Canada.  It rains a lot here.    I'm not from here, so I am not used to the rain. It depresses me.  Of all the places I could have chosen to live, I picked the one that  presses all my buttons, that drives me mad, that challenges me beyond measure.  Every winter, when the rains start, I brace myself for a battle, and the battle comes, and I fight it with everything I have.  And when it's over, I feel victorious, triumphant, and exhausted.

But all that is for another post.  Let's get back to the song.

I wrote it as the incessant rains were pouring, pouring, pouring from the sky. I was depressed.  But I liked the song. Writing it made me feel better.  Plus, I wrote it on piano, which was a first for me.   But it was really personal, intensely so.  So I changed the words a little bit when it came time to record.  I didn't want to sing my depression song in any permanent way.  Why give the monster such a long life?

If you listen to the song in this context, it's a whole different thing than it is now in its Norah Jones-y version.  Mostly I just changed the last line in every verse, from something like "I need the sun to come out" to "stay with me tonight."   For example:

Crying, oh Lord I'm crying
can't see the river for to cross
even though I'm trying
the curtains are all open
and I'm wishing and I'm hoping
for a little sun and little shine and a little time  - old words, changed to
that I'll be alright and you'll stay with me tonight - new words

in this verse, the curtains being open, and the crying, were literal.  While I was writing the song, I cried a lot -  depression will do that - and I literally opened all the curtains, to let in any bit of light that might be able to come in.  And I stood by the open windows and I looked out at the rain and I prayed for it to stop.  It didn't stop.  Not that night or the next night or the night after that.  It stopped much later, when it was good and ready. I don't think my prayers had anything to do with it.

So that's the story of "Stay with me Tonight",  which formerly had another title which I have since forgotten.

HOW I ARRANGE MY SONGS

I was recently asked how I "arrange" my songs.  An excellent question which I will attempt to answer as succinctly at possible in this posting.

I write songs for myself.  There really isn't any arrangement involved, other than arranging the verses in the right order, or switching a line from here to there, things like that. I'm generally a solo act, so I don't need anything arranged.   The arrangements you hear on the CDs happen in the studio, when I have the the brilliance of others to draw upon.

Generally what happens is that when I have a song I think is ready to record, I go into the studio with the typed-up lyrics and my guitar.  I'm always happy in the studio.  Always.  I play the song for the producer (on "Home to Home," Ted Tosoff; on "Early" and for my dad's song, Tyler Pearson). I play through the song a few times and the producer gives me his thoughts on the songs.  In most cases the lyrics are left pretty much untouched.

 Ted and Tyler are brilliant producers and arrangers of songs. This means in my case that they can take my solo, singer/songwriter version of the song, and suggest other instruments and sounds that might make my little song into a big song.  They make suggestions like "if we put mandolin in the second verse, then it might be nice to add a solo verse afterwards, before you come in with the chorus for the second time."

I have veto power, but usually I agree with them.  Their ideas are generally far better than anything I could come up with in terms of production.  I trust myself with the lyrics, melody and vocal harmonies.  Anything else, I want help with.

Vocal arrangements are generally left up to me.  I have a knack for hearing harmonies, so once the lead vocal track is laid down, then I get to do what I love most.  I sing, then sing again, and again, and again, a different part each time, all blending together so deliciously.  Few things please me more than hearing good harmonies. The vocal harmonies usually get recorded last, after all the instrument parts are on the track, and after the lead vocal is laid down.  I have to wait to do what I love most, but the reward is oh so sweet.

In the studio, there is usually a chart written, with time signature and chords, for the other musicians to follow.  I don't make the charts. I don't read them either.   I don't need to!  I made the songs!  They're in my head!

The vocal harmonies are not on a chart anywhere.  They all come straight from my heart and I never write them down.  That would be very un-fun for me!

 Did I  answer your question?

MOTHER'S DAY

It's almost Mother's Day. Today as I was swimming laps, I thought of all the things my mother was right about.  It turns out that she was right most of the time.  If only I had listened!

Things my mother said that were right:

"Things have a way of working out."
"Pretty is as pretty does."
"You have to eat a peck of dirt before you die."

Things my mother said that I love:

after a good meal:  "That's the best thing I ever put in my mouth."
when taken by surprise: "Great Caesar's ghost!"
on the first day of school:  "School days, school days."

to be continued...

I would love to hear some of the things YOUR mother said that were right, wrong, or otherwise memorable!

ABOUT "END OF THE NIGHT"

The song "End of the Night", recorded on my CD "Home to Home", was the first song I ever wrote.  I wrote it a long time ago. Here's the story of how it came to be:

 I was coming home from an event in Boston with a friend, and the friend was upset with himself for not connecting with someone he had hoped to connect with at said function.  It was late.  I was tired.  I said to him "Don't worry, it's not the end of the world, it's only the end of the night."

He said something like "You are right!  And what you just said would make a great song.  Why don't you write a song about it?"

To which I replied, more or less,  "But I don't know how to write a song."

And so then I worked and worked and worked at writing a song.  And I wrote one, word by agonizing word.  But it was just a little song.  The aforementioned friend, whose name is lloyd Thayer, and who is a brilliant songwriter, helped me in a few parts where I was really stuck.  You'll see that he is listed as a co-writer on the song.  The best lines are his! But the tune is all from my head.

So now the song is done, and all these years later, I still quote myself!  If I find myself fretting over something, I just say to myself "it's not the end of the world, it's only the end of the night" or "nobody died from this" or something like that.

And that's how my first song was born.  It's all grown up now, living quietly on a CD.