The Twelfth Album
It started a year ago in the Spring of 2023, there was a lot going on, planning for my retirement from the Army, writing a book, songwriting, and being a grandpa. That was all in my free time (and all of my free time). The song I was working on evolved from some verses lodged in my notebook a decade ago, a riff on the guitar, and a harmonica melody. This worked out to be the title track of a twelfth album I started to call Loving, which would complete the 4th Collection in my repertoire. The other two albums in this collection are called Rehoboth, and The Last, both came out before I started blogging on this site. The heart became the symbol used to identify the songs in my repertoire from the Loving album, a tent for Rehoboth (because it was a campsite from the Bible), and an alarm bell for the songs from The Last (because class is out when the bell rings).
After getting the first few songs recorded, the realization came that I had to reprioritize things in order for all of them to be successful. I stopped playing guitar and songwriting to focus on writing the book Buffalo Sergeant, and didn’t start songwriting again until I finished the book the following Spring, 2024. Notice the year of the songs on the microphone. Other instruments used in the songs are placed on each song graphic.
As I write this blog entry the album is working its way through the Library of Congress Office of Copyrights, but the songs have all been released. You’ll notice a film background to the song graphics which means they have a video on YouTube. All of the songs after my 1st Collection have videos. You’ll notice the treble clef changes color based on the song key, the 16th note based on the tempo, the ruler for the length of the song, and the time signature on the drums. Choosing the colors of the rest of the song graphics were based on the mood I was in which became quite cathartic. So, let’s listen to it now and I’ll make a few highlights for each of the ten tracks. Straight through, may I present to you the album Loving, enjoy!
Loving
The albums lyrical motif of loving (symbolized by the heart in the top left corner of all the songs in the album) enters through the experience of a biracial marriage in modern society told in this song. The basic human right of freedom to love, and the pain resulting from its denial, are brought to mind. How much has changed in society since the decision of the US Supreme Court case in Loving v. Virginia? Legally, the 14th Amendment ensures citizens’ rights are protected but in practice, fear (in the form of threatening denial) projects upon those who would express their love publicly by those who defile love.
Bridge
The journey of human love towards divine love is arduous, beset by the obstacle of a great divide, which requires a bridge to cross. Who knows what drowns out the spark of love if it falls off the way, doubt, self-loathing, fear of rejection, etc.? This song speaks to the drive, longing, and determination to go the distance to attain love even if the way is too far or falling apart beneath your feet.
Remind Me
This song is a type of love letter, the kind written to yourself, to remind yourself in case you forget. The process of writing music is in a way to record how it was made so that it can be reproduced if you forget. This song was written when there needed to be a break in making music to focus on writing a book. It was the last song written in the Spring of 2023, and I didn’t know if I would remember the joy that songwriting brings me or if I would come back to it.
Sensations
At times love can be enigmatic, a gut feeling or sensation. These lyrics seem to meander through the four verses of this song with phrases that don’t logically connect. A broader view of the entire song gives context and meaning, maybe a lifecycle, its enigmatic, I don’t know (and yet I wrote it). It was the first song recorded since my book writing break but wasn’t meant to be. The next song took too long to finish, and this one just happened in the process.
Diamond
Out of all the songs on this album, this one I put the most work into. I wanted the first song coming back into music to be at a new level, spending the time to make it sound professional and effort into creating meaningful melodies. The song lyrics are again enigmatic. There are many different thoughts combined making it a full story for the imagination.
Onward To Liberty
This song started as a poem I posted to the Army Recuerdos page on Instagram in the Spring of 2022. I was motivated by current events in the world, war had returned to Europe which had enjoyed peace for the last 80 years. The verses reflected on how we got to this point, where peace in our hearts is being attacked, and it was titled “To Liberty”. Expressing my desire for peace was eventually harmonized with this tune and it was recorded as “Onward, To Liberty” in July, 2024.
Rains In Washington
As many songs do, this began as a poem. My long affinity for the use of moving water as a musical element was awakened by the Springtime showers of 2024. Many hours I spent out in the rain, in the car, on the streets of Washington, DC. My observations recorded within the poem began there, and somewhere between recording tracks four and six, it germinated into this song. The natural world teaches us humility and love by leveling the ground through rain.
Delivery
There is a mosaic behind the Christina Cultural Arts Center, in Wilmington, DE that I caught a reflection of myself in walking by one night in the early Winter of 2022. My shadow combined with the reflection, inspired a photo for the gram which demanded an equally inspired caption. I spent way too long writing the caption, with the app open and my phone battery dwindling. At some point I wrote the lines down and plugged my phone in to charge, saving the picture as a draft. Those lines became the foundation of this song, its verses drawn directly from the caption I eventually posted. Its message delivered, the message “love will always exist where there is freedom.”
You Cannot Bury Love
This song is about the enduring nature of love, and the haunting specter love sometimes portrays through its characteristic traits of mercy and forgiveness. It uses a loosely told story about love corrupted by greed that ends in murder to show how justice is a tool used by love to bring about renewed love in the world. Love should never be neglected, or buried, but safely explored and understood.
Gold Morning
The album comes to a conclusion with this song, about the nature and purpose of love. The title, a metaphor for the presence of pure love also known as heaven. We struggle to understand what love is and why we exist. Our schools of thought, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics provide clues by their exclusion of love. In essence they tell us what love is not. Similarly, society and its history tell us about heaven by giving us examples of what heaven is not. Those who profess to understand life and love show us by their service and sacrifice that these works are evidence of loves existence. The purity of our love can measure our closeness to heaven. It is both a journey through this world and our awareness of heavens presence in the moment.