I’ve walked through my life as a dreamer. Dreams are beautiful. I always believed that if my faith were strong enough my determination would follow, and all the pieces would fall into place. /

It’s now many decades into the slog of the country rock music business writing my own songs, booking, and performing my own shows, recording my songs as well as lending my voice to other artists songs. There is a camaraderie among we artistic fools. Connecting with each other in this adventure revealing our truths together makes us feel a little less vulnerable along the way. Or at least that we are fighting for the greater good in some abstract way. I’ve hung onto the belief that anything is possible. 

To my surprise a few weeks back I was approached by a producer for a rap/hip-hop artist. The artist had been a child star and was making a comeback. They sent me a song that they could not complete and asked me to take a crack at it. Not one to walk by an open door I took the assignment. Having just played many shows back-to-back I was physically exhausted, and my voice was ragged but when I read the desperate lyrics from this young man I was deeply moved and immediately understood why the song was difficult to complete. His loneliness and desperation, lack of hope and the need for approval in this very fickle and cruel business dripped from the page. There was a brutal honesty that revealed herculean courage. My motherly instincts were overwhelming and all I wanted to do was take him, hug him, and tell him everything was going to be OK. That he was special in his very own way, and he didn’t owe anything to anybody in order to be deserving. I finished the song and sent it off to the producer in the hopes that whether or not the song made the album that maybe in some small way this young artist would feel understood, accepted, and even loved. 

Awaiting any updates on the project I was horrified to find that this young artist had passed away suddenly. The tragedy was so much greater knowing that he was on the cusp of a new beginning. My heart broke for him, his very young child, his family, and the legions of fans that have to find a way to say goodbye. The beauty of art is that it never dies. My hope is that his family finds comfort in his precious memory. That they can effectively share the best of him to his young child as the years roll along. I hope that his soul is at peace and that at long last he can completely absorb the love he longed for.