How can understanding the lives of our ancestors help us make sense of our own lives, even as we live them?
This was the question driving every song I wrote for the music album Dreams & Ghosts, independently released in 2015. Like the traditional photo album, I wanted this album to be like a collection of musical snapshots of my family history, with characters, stories and ideas that are rooted in the universal themes of growing up, being brave and finding purpose. But I also wanted to go one step further, zoom out just a little more, and look at the person looking at the photos, telling the stories, and ask what difference it makes in our lives right now to remember the lives of our ancestors?
I’d like to believe that these songs stand alone as distinctly human stories on their own. However, I also hope that, together, they are united in the original purpose of folk music – to capture stories of real people – and in taking one step further to find the meaning in these stories that could help make us a better collective people.
You can listen to and read the lyrics of each song by clicking on the titles below. You can also order your own copy (CD or download) at CDBaby.com
- Hello & Goodbye
- 93 Lewis Street
- Summer 1957
- I Want to Know You
- God Save the Watchman
- Missouri
- The Other Side of the Water
- Road to Colorado
- All These Years
- Lover’s Leap
- Who Are You From?
- The Work I Do
Dreams & Ghosts 