A lot of people have commented that January felt really long to them. In some ways that holds true for me, but in other ways time continues to fly by. I’ve mentioned that I am a co-host on the Big Daily Blend podcast on the first Sunday of every month. It feels like we just rang in the new year and now we’re rolling out the February edition. It streams pretty much everywhere you find podcasts.
Host Lisa Smith thought it would be fun to talk about love songs and explore the many different forms they can take. For me, love encompasses everything. So, a love song can be romantic, happy, sad, instructive, or have universal themes. We had fun assembling a playlist of love songs for Spotify and YouTube that reflect the many aspects of love. We left off many obvious choices to try to get the ball rolling and let people think about the love songs that have enriched their lives by covering different angles. The conversation led to a discussion about how music impacts our lives in general. Lisa is a great conversationalist and I hope you’ll check it out.
If you search “different kinds of love” online, you’ll find articles about 7 distinct words for love that the ancient Greeks had. There are others that talk about 12 or 15 different kinds of love. It’s all love, though. The phrase “Love is love” has been a slogan used by the LGBTQ movement since the early 2000s, but it began in the 1960s as a way to challenge laws prohibiting interracial marriage (How perfect is it that the Supreme Court case that paved the way for interracial marriage was called “Loving vs. Virginia”?) Of course, clarifying what aspect of love one feels in a situation can be helpful. For example, a person might tell a suitor, “I love you very much, but not in that way.” But in every aspect of life, coming from a place of love is very different from any other approach. Imagine if we infused our politics, our work environments, our interactions with everyone we meet, all our relationships, and our business dealings with love. Imagine if love for our planet and the generations that will come after us were to fuel our actions. As the Beatles sang, “All you need is love.” It doesn’t feel wrong to me. Love shows us what we need to do.
On my Acoustic Remedy album, I included a song I wrote called “April Fool.” People often ask me if it’s about my relationship with my husband because it deals with culture clash and navigating around the hurdles and misunderstandings that can arise when two people have very different backgrounds.
I thought we found a way across each other’s borders
And into a place where we can co-exist
Well, I know that God’s not sitting up there taking orders
But I’m sure He sees the beauty
In an unconventional relationship like this
We were in a good place when I wrote this song, so it wasn’t specifically about us, but I’m sure it came from our many experiences together, as well as those I have observed around me. It’s one of those songs that was bouncing around my head when I woke up at 3:00 am one morning. We synthesize our life experiences, and they shape our stories and our art.
I’ve written before about the beautiful project I was part of surrounding my friend Gayla Turner finding photos and letters in her mother’s closet that revealed a love story between her grandmother and another woman in rural Wisconsin a century ago. Don’t You Dare is a beautiful book and, if you have not read it yet, I cannot think of a better Valentine’s story. The song with wonderful guitar work and vocals by Jill Knight continues to be one of my most streamed tracks.
My storied duet with Melissa Manchester, “You Can’t Hide the Light” received the acclaim that it did partly because I was at a moment in my life where I tapped into some of those universal themes of overcoming obstacles to love that come up, or are imposed on us. Sometimes they come from within and other times they are external. With love in our toolbox, we can surmount a lot. When we are open and using love as our guide, solutions we never dreamed of appear and we can cut through the symbolic barbed wire that seems to separate us. As we approach Valentine’s Day, let’s let love lead the way. It will surprise us in unexpected ways, I promise.
What I’ve been Up To
Speaking of Melissa Manchester, she has a birthday coming up on the 15th and, as part of her 50th anniversary in the business, is about to release an album Re:View, in which she revisits ten of her hit songs. I had the fantastic experience of joining her in Stephan Oberhoff’s Creation Station West for the new recordings of “Whenever I Call You Friend” (featuring Kenny Logins with whom she wrote the song, and Dave Koz), and “Just Too Many People” as Associate Producer. These are songs I used to listen to while laying on my bedroom floor in Porterville, CA as I pondered life and the dawn of my adulthood. I often wondered what the recording sessions were like and wished I could have been a fly on the wall to experience the creative process. It was such a gift to participate in new presentations of these songs. Watch for the official release of Re:View on Feb. 23. It features a new version of her classic hit song, “Midnight Blue” recorded as a duet with none other than Dolly Parton. How cool is that? You might also watch for Melissa as Mrs. Brice in the national tour of Funny Girl. The reviews are amazing!
Grammys
I participated in Grammy voting for the second time. It was an educational experience. It exposed me to a lot of amazing music being created by my peers! They cram all the nominating into a few short weeks and the volume of music to listen to is daunting. It helps explain why many of the same people win year after year. Very few of the artists I voted for were nominated, but I am happy to learn of their work. I always wanted to be part of the process and I’m meeting very talented people and learning a lot. In tonight’s show Tracey Chapman and Joni Mithcell epitomized the magic of what we are doing. I’ve also been getting more active in the Society of Composers and Lyricists, and it feels great to rub elbows with so many gifted musicians.
New Songs
Before Stephan Oberhoff moved to Nashville we recorded a song I wrote about the practice of meditation. The song is called “Find a Place.” It’s a smooth jazz ballad that might fit well alongside Sting’s Soul Cages songs. I sent it to brilliant saxophonist, 9-time Grammy® Award Nominee Gerald Albright and he responded that the song and track are “Simply lovely.” He provided a gorgeous soprano sax solo. We don’t have a release date yet, but it is coming soon, so watch for it. I would like to do some promotion and humbly ask that you consider chipping in. There is a tip jar on my website and I also have links to PayPal, and Venmo, I can also send you a Zelle link upon request, if you’d like. I promise that every penny will go to making and promoting my music and your name will appear at the end of the music video. Any amount helps. Thanks! If you haven’t yet subscribed to my @hearjohnny YouTube channel, please do so now.
I was recently connected with multi-talented film and television composer, filmmaker, and overall musician Geoff Levin. He has been generously mentoring me on many aspects of music-making and the workings of the industry, as well as helping me learn recording software. He has a wealth of knowledge and a unique perspective which has been valuable to me on a very personal project I am working on with him. It’s a song called “When It’s Your Kid,” and I’ll be telling you more about it soon. In the meantime, I hope you will get to experience his film, Brothers Broken: The Story That Stopped the Music. It’s a compelling film that tells the story of how Geoff and his brother formed a popular band in the late 60s, only to abandon it to join the Scientology cult. It chronicles fifty years in music, the inner workings of the cult, and their ultimate exodus from it. The film works as a rock documentary, an inside look at a cult, and as a tale of love and kindred spirits. It is currently on the film festival circuit. It’s very moving.
Aside from this, I am always writing and have numerous projects in various stages of production. I continue to do a lot of church “gigs.” I can’t keep doing this without you and am truly grateful that you are hanging around.
On that note, if you got this email, it’s because you have expressed interest in my music at some point. I hope you will stick around, but please know that you can unsubscribe below. Much love to you.
Johnny