Recorded Live at Eddie's Attic on April 20, 2011

Nightingale: I wrote this song back in 2008 on a lonely Friday evening. Since then it's kind of grown to be one of my favorites to perform, and I like to start with it sometimes because I know it really well and it helps me feel confident.

Brevity: This isn't really my mom's favorite song. I just say that to bug her because it's actually her least favorite. Maybe I shouldn't have played this one? I think I was out of practice, but I do like this song and I like the sense of hopelessness that it invokes.

Cherry Blossoms: This is a more recent tune. Just sort of a spring-time love song, and I like the earthy feel it has. I have a specific image in my mind when I play it, and I'm pretty sure it's somewhere that doesn't exist, somewhere I'd like to get to someday.

Gentle Woman: I found the first 4 lines to this song written out in a journal entry from a few years ago. I guess at the time I didn't think much of it, and so I didn't do anything with it. When I re-read it last year, though, I was pleased with the simple image of a young man and his sister sitting on the porch, and I built the rest of the song from there.

Hope and Sorrow: I can't remember why or how I wrote this song. It's maybe the most vulnerable song I've written, so I was nervous about playing it. I think my voice is a little shaky because I was feeling kind of emotional, but I made it through it!

Bright and Beautiful: I remember writing this one. It was written pretty fast compared to most of my songs. I was coming out of a stint of writer's block and I just started writing these images. Personifying the flowers as these gossiping little marigolds reminded me of a story by Kahlil Gibran that I read. I think when I get old I will remember simple images like these, and cherish those sorts of memories most.

Mecca:
I sought you, oh, I sought you
only to discover
that there is no Mecca that can contain you
No holy city, but a holy spirit
No great temple but the heart
No stony silence but a sea of whispers