Song Writing/Singing as a Work Line

On songwriting as a Work endeavor—

The process of writing a song is different from other creative work I’ve done. When I am writing a song, it doesn’t feel like creating or making something new; it feels more like remembering or allowing. Someone, or something, shows up, and it’s my job to open the door and let in whoever or whatever is waiting on the other side. The song is not the one who is waiting. The song is the key that opens that opens the door.

To write a song is to make a key.

During the most difficult ordeals of my life, the songs of others have been my teachers, my friends, my partners. They have given me comfort, healing, solace; empathy and understanding; hope, joy, and love. Songs opened doors that led me up and out of bottomless wells of grief. Songs showed me the way back to myself again and again.

Now, in the spirit of gratitude, I search for new songs that long to be made here in this world. And as I look for them, I feel them looking for me. We choose each other. I write songs so that I have something to throw back into the darkness to other voyagers who may be flailing and fumbling, hurling themselves against doors that refuse to open.

Listen very carefully:

the songs are keys;

the keys are keys.