Songs/Lyrics
Great songwriting, feeling lyrics, stellar vocals, and innovative arrangements about good love, long love, love gone wrong, getting fired, losing someone, vacay, and surviving life with a heartfelt look into the soul. Acoustic roots deliver a range of emotions with positivity and authenticity.
Dancing in the Storm is a rich compilation of songs that cover living and losing in life from a female perspective. The music is born from acoustic roots and sensitively expands into infectious rhythms and melodies with layers of background vocals that bring energy to the tracks. As a whole, these tunes are a feel-better elixir for the storms we all weather every day.
Mexico
The city lights have gotten way too bright
I see the furrow in your brow and nothin’ else tonight
Do you wonder what it’s all for? I don’t think you can work anymore
Let’s get out the door and we’ll go
Under the trees, float down the river
No need to shiver, the water’s so warm
Under the canopy, baby just you and me
We’ve got the sun up above, water down below
Uh, oh, I’m taking you to Mexico.
Cause we gotta let go.
I don’t know when I’ve seen you wound so tight
Nothin’ but heavy traffic, and endless, sleepless nights in sight
The IRS is giving you an audit
Where one mans’ job is another man’s wallet
I wanna take you where, it’s anyplace but there, and we’ll go
Chorus
What if you could see a different view?
Get some distance, find out what is false and true for you
Oh, you could be floating on your back
A margarita in your hand, a big straw hat, baby let’s go pack, we’ll go…
Being with You
Being with you – My heart beat a little stronger
Being with you – My light shines a little longer
And I don’t know just where it’s goin’
It’s a little scary with my insides showin’
Ooh-ooh, Being with you
Seeing you – My eyes can’t help but reflect
That with you – It’s impossible to disconnect
I feel my heart come breaking through
Every minute I steal with you
Ooh, ooh, Being with you
I never worry how the river flows
I always figure, that’s how it goes
Now I wonder how I spent my time
Cause I can’t imagine what it would be like
Without you on my mind
Ooh, ooh, Being with you
I can finally read the signs
Cause with you – I don’t have to read between the lines
And I’m feeling something so amazing
I’m scared to death and my heart is racing
Ooh, ooh, Being with you.
Putting me first, quenching my thirst
Life is to be lived and not just rehearsed
Already Gone
Everybody walks that road, everybody walks that mile
Blindfolded in the dark in the undiscovered wild
When you come around that bend and realize the road ends
If I go I lose my home, if I stay I lose my soul
I’m so tired of feeling alone
There’s no fire, this trail is cold
By the time you realize there’s no love left in your eyes,
I’m already gone.
It’s time to take that path that leads far away
From everything you love that’s lost and there’s
nothing left to say
I could never find myself in all this debris
You can’t be another you but I can try another me.
Chorus:
I tried to tell you so many times
You couldn’t hear me, you couldn’t even see me
You can’t deny there were so many signs
Pushing us so far away.
If You Do
When I was stuck, Buddy would show up with an early morning call
He always knew if I was spinning my wheels or headed for a fall
He gave me some good advice, he wouldn’t hesitate to tell me twice.
If you do what you’ve always done, you will get what you’ve always gotten
Oh and if you stand where you’ve always stood
You could be frozen forever, your future forgotten
Speak out, stand up, let your voice be heard
There’s no reason to play it small, you get more if you give it all.
I had a doubt but Buddy’s theory panned out and it proved to be right
Time passed and Buddy went off into that great goodnight
But his words stay with me, wisdom etched in my memory.
Chorus
It takes a little courage to break out of your cacoon
But time is fleeting, your heart’s still beating
Maybe it’s time to make your move.
This was inspired by the late Buddy Portugal, LCSW, who introduced so many to this phrase “If you do what you’ve always done…”. I thought Buddy made it up but have since found it’s been attributed to Henry Ford, Mark Twain or Counselor Jessie Potter…whoever said it, thanks!
Dancing in the Storm
Once upon a time when everything made sense
It all happened moment by moment we lived in
present tense
Now the years are passing here in this life
We fall together, we fall apart
And wonder when the ending starts to unwind, is it time
And we wait, wait, wait.
Sometimes it feels like a raging hurricane
We board up our windows and hide
But nothing compares to that feeling
when we finally step outside and try
Dancing in the storm, dancing in the storm
When they come for me I wanna be
Dancing in the storm, dancing in the storm
Like a weathervane I may spin around
Like a willow tree I may bend down in the dance
As I hold, hold my ground.
You stand in a place, of something I myself couldn’t face
You stare it down, look it straight in the face
I know you must be afraid but it looks like grace
And I’ve learned we’re surprised every time the
Fairy tale turns.
Hell in the Hallway
They say when one door closes another door opens wide
Life is full of second chances, you just gotta open up your eyes
But they forget one little detail and maybe it’s no surprise
That it’s hell, it’s hell in the hallway, oh, oh, oh it’s hell
Hell in the hallway.
I walked into work today
The boss sees me and he fires away
He says we gotta cut back, cut down, cut off
Revenues are down and the books are soft.
Here’s a box, pack up your desk
Security will give you one last check
He says, Don’t worry you’ll find your way
Because you know we’ll help you write your resume.
I called my lover to cry on his shoulder
He listens for a minute then he drops a boulder
Says we really don’t click, don’t mesh, don’t gel
I need space, don’t take it personal.
Here’s a box pack up your stuff
If you’re out by tonight it won’t be soon enough
Don’t worry you’ll find your way
Just leave your key under the rug in the hallway.
When you’re hanging off a window ledge, when you only feel the hard edge
Remember every hallway has doors, have faith, nobody else can open yours.
Thanks to the late Robin Eurich for saying “it’s hell in the hallway” after The Bozo Show cancelled; he spent many years playing Rusty the clown and spreading laughter.
After All these Years
After all these years, I can catch your eye
I can touch your hand and you understand
That I’ll be here, I’ll be standin’ by
Come what may, I’ll be here
After all these years.
After all this time, though so many storms
There is still that spark, something so strong
You know that I’ll be here, I’ll be standin’ by
Come what may, I’ll be here
After all these years.
I wouldn’t give up one wrinkle
I wouldn’t give up one fight
I wouldn’t give up one minute of living or crying or struggling
To keep getting it right.
After all these goodbyes, to so many gone,
We somehow still survive, like a phoenix rising at dawn.
You know that I’ll be here, I’ll be standing by
Come what may, I’ll be here
After all these years.
Thanks to Andy Mitran for encouraging me to finish this song; it began as a commercial pitch for an insurance company!
Five Hundred Ways
You and I go way back and way forward at the same time
You wanna know how I feel about you
Well it’s hard to define, there’s
Five hundred ways I love you,
Five hundred things I could say.
I don’t know just how I can tell you, ooh,
But there’s at least five hundred, five hundred ways.
If life is a book that we write as we read, I’m a chapter ahead
I’ve already got the ending written right here in my head, I got…
There’s your kiss, your smile, your touch and your heart,
And that’s only four
It could take a lifetime to count
The other four hundred ninety-six more, cause there’s
Years from now, when we’re older with more years behind than ahead
We may not remember it all but it’ll never go left unsaid that there’s…
Stand Up
Are you waiting for a hero on a pure white horse
Standing in a corner
Where no one can see the fire in your heart?
Are you reading real life like a fairy tale
Sleeping with the dragon
Who’s doing all he can to put your fire out?
Stand up, be your own best lover
Stand up, be your own best friend
Reach out your hand to just one other
Shine your love like lightning on the airwaves
Open up your heart
Don’t you be afraid
You tangled with a few Romeo’s and they left you crying
They dumped you and now you dumped yourself
Well I’m standing with you but I can’t stand still
When I see you pining
You can’t stand up if you can’t stand yourself.
Don’t you throw pearls before swine
Don’t let them eat you up inside
You’re so beautiful, have some self-respect
And feel yourself revive
Feel yourself surviving…
Chicago Song
I walk down the street and under my feet
I feel my father
On Western Ave at Margie’s Candies I can
Feel my father
So far from Sicily, he came off the boat when he was just three
The doctor who lived the American dream
My father
Walkin’ near Clark just West of the park
I feel my mother
That’s where she lived, taking care of sick kids
That was my mother
Born poor, she worked her way through
Dressing windows at Carson’s and nursing school, too
They made her graduate late when they found out her date
Was my father
She had to convert to marry Dad in his church
But they made their way through it all
When the bombs dropped at Pearl, with a little boy and girl
My father enlisted before I even existed, and went off to war
With the world at rest and some post-traumatic stress
Life resumed and they had three more kids
They moved us out to the farm, we grew up with no harm
But my brothers enlisted, Vietnam, they insisted
An went off to war
Two out of three of my brothers survived
It’s the only time I saw my father cry
I walk down the street an under my feet I feel my father
Not far from the graves and the ways that the paved
I feel my father and my mother
Here in the days that I live, in the city and shoreline of Lake Michigan
I remember their story, we’re all part of the glory, of our mothers and fathers.
Connection
Can you feel the constant beating of your heart
Can you feel the breathing earth of which you are a part
Can you feel the water rushing through rivers to the sea
Can you feel the blood rushing through your veins and arteries
This is your connection, this is your connection
This is your, your connection to me.
Can you feel your lungs expanding with the air
Can you feel the moon that’s glowing somewhere way up there
Can you feel the roots reach into the earth from every tree
Can you feel the wind in eagles’ wings reach up to be, part of your connection…
Oh, this is life in you and in me
Oh, let the heartbeat comfort you, comfort me, comfort me.
Can you feel the beating drums across the earth
Can you feel the tears at every death and every birth
Can you feel the tides pull the years out from underneath your feet
When the lessons come so hard, control is out of reach…
Thanks to therapists Wendy Kopald and Kay Gardner who inspired this song from their Women Circle weekends.
Free
If the sun dares to shine and the river still flows
If the cars keep driving by and the wind still blows
If the birds can fly and the clouds float by
And the moon has the nerve to glow
Is there a message?
If the earth keeps turning and children play
And here am I still breathing, living day after day
I see the hawk, up in the sky, I know you’re circling
Your spirit is flying
I know you’re flying – free.
If the stars can twinkle and the tides ebb and flow
If the seeds still sprout and the seasons come and go
Like the sun and like the moon
Your life just rose and set too soon
And I know you’re flying
Your spirit is flying – free.
If you’re free of your body, you’re free of your pain
Who am I to say that it’s not better that way
In my heart you’ll stay alive
But it’s so hard to say goodbye
And I know you’re flying
Your spirit is flying – free
I know you’re flying – free.
The day of my dad’s funeral we drove past their home and my mom said “The sun dares to shine today”…years later it inspired the first line of this song.
You Are a Light
You are a light, inside my soul
Inside my heart so full of hope
Your light shines in my memory
I honor you as part of me.
I still remember all the things about your smile
The way you always made me feel
All those little things about you in our time
In me your energy is real.
Having had you in my life is such a gift to me.
I know you didn’t want to leave
My life goes on and I change and grow and learn
I know that’s what you’d want for me, for me…
This song was inspired as I was given the task of providing music for a memorial where the families of organ donors joined with those who had received their organs. This was one year after my dad died. As a music therapist, I channeled my own grief and gratitude to help others deal with their losses and in this case, gifts.