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A good friend and songwriting mentor once suggested that I should write a song that was not about me or my view on things. Nearly all of my songs at that time reflected my commitment to stay on my side of the street and write what I knew, so the suggestion was not out of context. That said, the intimation that a life like mine – unremarkable as it may be – is not sufficient material for making art is a critique that is rarely applied to male artists, so I rejected it. I think there is much to be said about writing one’s own life.

While the experience of 2020-2021 has expanded my songwriting scope in this album, I honor the so-called “little” lives of women artists who have created immense beauty from their confines. While I am not confined in any way, I wrote the song about me and my small writing studio looking out on Coit Tower in San Francisco. I was also thinking about Emily Dickinson, who lived an intensely sheltered, almost hermit life, yet produced some of the most beautiful poetry in the English language. I don’t equate my writing to Dickinson’s, of course, but I embrace and claim the beauty of sharing the intimate insights of our lives, even if they are judged to be small or even insignificant. Sometimes apparent insignificance is power.

In addition to songwriting, lead vocals, and writing the harmony vocals, I played cello and acoustic guitar and performed backing vocals on this song. Kenny Schick, my producer, also sang backing vocals and played or programmed all of the other instruments. Kenny recorded his parts at Basement3Productions in Nashville, Tennessee, and I recorded my acoustic guitar parts in March 2022 and my cello part and vocals in May 2022 with Steven Glaze at ToneFreq Studio in San Jose, California.