I wrote the song “Day by Day” as part of a songwriting challenge about our future hopes and dreams. I was having a pity party at the time because of the pain I suffer daily from debilitating arthritis and fibromyalgia.
I realize that we all have our struggles, whether physical or emotional…and sometimes I personally am thankful just to breathe. So I wrote a song about how we feel on the toughest days.
When you can’t make plans even for the day, how can you make future plans? Sometimes life is so hard, but I am thankful that God is helping me.
I hope you enjoy this song about the tough days of life.
I recently wrote this song during a time of having migraines for several months. They start in my neck and go up the back of my head, then wrap around to the frontal lobe. I also feel it up sides of face. During the worst of it, I was not able to play piano or fiddle because it would cause it to flare up quickly. So I wrote an acapella song about dreaming of playing my fiddle. This song ideally has a beautiful fiddle solo at the end. I finally had about 3 days in a row without a migraine the first week of March 2024, so I recorded it with a quickly made up fiddle break. I know I am very rusty so be kind and forgiving of how it turned out. I am just happy I felt like playing for a few minutes finally! I hope you enjoy the song.
I am happy to share with you a Christmas Album of 11 Christmas Songs I recently recorded on BandLab. These are traditional songs you will likely recognize…all piano instrumentals.
We wanted to adopt a dog, so I searched the online resources for dog rescue groups in our area. I came across a dog that I felt needed us as much as we needed her. We filled out the application and before we knew it, April came into our lives. She was a mixed breed, with cattle dog in there pretty heavily. She was deaf and heart-worm positive, so she needed a great deal of care initially. The rescue group Trooper’s Treasures from whom we got her, helped us with some of the costs initially, and before long, April started hearing again! It was a beautiful moment when we first realized she heard us. She sometimes did not respond to noises the way you would expect. I think she just did not know what the noises meant. She became a vocal dog, whereas she had been very quiet before, never barked before her hearing was restored…except at deer and wild turkey. Now she finally associated the grunting noises in the woods with the deer, the animals she loved to bark at on sight. Now she barked when she heard them, too. Her hair would stand up all the way down her spine, at the very hint of a deer on our property.
April also loves to go. PERIOD. Anywhere, anytime, just say “let’s go”…and off she goes to the door. She associates words with actions now. Whereas before we used hand signals to communicate with her, now we use words and whistles. “Up, up” means to jump up on the bed, or recliner, or couch, just wherever she might want to lay down. She always waits for permission to get on the furniture. This is not something we trained her to do, though. She came to us with this notion that she must ask before getting comfy, no matter what. We encourage her to sit where she pleases, but she insists on waiting for our cue.
She gets treats in the vehicle, beef jerky! This started as a result of trying to make her feel more excited about her constant trips to the vet, but now it just means she’s special, so she gets the jerky just because.
April is a great companion and we can’t imagine life without her at this point. She loves trips to see nature, or water, or just to take a walk. She is quite flexible, she even likes tagging along to take the trash to the road for trash day. She does not care. She just likes being with us, and getting her special treats.
When we first got her, she did not like to eat very much, so we put cheese dip on her dog biscuits. She loves cheese. We also put shredded cheddar in her dog food. She now eats dog biscuits anytime they are offered, but she still expects shredded cheddar in her “dog salad” she eats twice a day, and it also includes turkey, yogurt…and a bit of dog food, too! She loves pumpkin and sweet potatoes, so her food has ingredients that she loves like this. This is good for her digestive system as well.
I could write about her all day, but I mainly had planned to tell you about this…you guessed it…a SONG about April, our dog! Of course I had to write a song about this magnificent animal! I may change it around a little in the future, but here it is for now. It was a joy to write about this splendid dog that is now part of our family.
Here is my song titled “April Blues”. (Click below, and it sounds best with headphones).
I am happy to introduce to you the first instrumental piece of music I have ever written! I was not sure what to name it. As I wrote it and then heard it back for the first time, I felt I was taken on a journey, like down the road of life. So when I posted it on Facebook and asked my family and friends for song title suggestions, I was quite happy when my cousin Caleb Benefield suggested I name it Sunday Stroll Waltz. It felt right to me! So here it is…
This song is about growing up frugally, and a mom with three daughters who found inexpensive ways to stay active during summer breaks from school. I am the youngest, my middle sister is Lavonda and my oldest sister is Tina, as seen in the photo above.
When I was a little girl, my two older sisters and I used cardboard boxes to create a playhouse in the yard. This has always been a fun memory of my childhood. I always enjoyed creativity. My sisters and I were very crafty.
I have recently noticed that cardboard playhouses are actually available for sale on Amazon now! We were old-school, though, our cardboard playhouse was totally homemade from a large cardboard box that likely has previously held a large appliance or something similar.
My older sister was too old really to play in the playhouse with us, but she was very creative, so she helped us cut out windows and doors, and she helped decorate it. The bottom was left open, so we had zoysia grass for the floor.
I enjoyed walking down memory lane by creating this light hard in the song. I hope you enjoy it too!
Here is the link to social media platforms currently streaming “Making Memories One Summer Day” click here.
In March 2023, I released three songs on social media platforms. The first one is “He Has a Beautiful Life”, which I blogged about already (click here to read about it). The next song I want to tell you about that I wrote this year, is called “I Won’t Shed a Tear“.
My idea was to create a country song with a country blues vibe in my piano playing attempts. I often write from personal experiences, but this song is totally fictional. I feel it is very relatable though, and it was super fun to create!
This song is about a married couple going through a midlife crisis. She feels vulnerable and defensive, and he seems to be hanging onto his last thread of youthfulness in hopes of not growing old just yet.
The husband in the song drives a vintage Camaro and has been chasing after younger women. His buddies use peer pressure to aid in his bad choices. He “finds“ himself at a pool hall, playing eight ball with a young woman who embodies youthful beauty.
Meanwhile, as gossip has a way of spreading, his wife has found out about the brunette beauty, and she is having none of it. So she tells him to “get on outta’ here!” when she hears of his indiscretions. Besides, who knows what else was told to her in the gossip chain. She even throws it in his face that he has a bald spot, which I doubt she would ever normally be so cruel as to point out something that is such a natural part of the aging process in many men, and even women. Desperate times call for desperate measures!
I hope you enjoy my light hearted attempt at a country song and my country blues piano playing! Feel free to leave a comment, just please do not be rude if you do not like this song.
Here is the link to social media platforms that currently stream “I won’t share a tear in crowd. Click here.
laying mountain stone with his trusty wheel barrel
I live next door to my parents, and I often sit on my porch and listen to the birds, watch wildlife, and just enjoy nature. However, I kept hearing a squeaking noise that seemed oddly out of place shortly after I moved into my new home. I finally realized the noise was the wheel of my dad‘s old wheel barrel! While I was building my house, I had a problem in the form of a huge concrete block wall in the front, about 6 feet tall on one corner. I had planned on just having it painted for he time being due to budget constraints, but dad gave me one of the biggest gifts I ever could imagine. He decided he would lay mountain stone on it instead…and not just on that wall, but around all four sides of the foundation of my house!
My dad is now 84 years old as of 2023, and he still plants a garden in the Spring…full of tomatoes, peppers and other goodies. He also has beds full of flowers, such as daylilies, daffodils and tulips…and in the summer, he has lantanas, moss rose, cleomes and petunias…just to name a few.
Well, as time went on, he finished at my house and started his garden at his house. I started listening for the squeak of that wheel barrel each morning so that I would know that my dad felt like getting outside that day and working in his yard and gardens. He has severe arthritis, so I am always relieved when he feels well enough to be outside.
I wanted to write a song about him and that wheel barrel, but I stewed on it for about four years. Finally, I wrote the first part of “He Has a Beautiful Life“ for a Songwriting Contest that Country Superstar and songwriter Lance Carpenter had posted on TikTok in 2022. I did not win, but I loved what I had written so far, and so I completed this song this year (2023). I have posted the link below for your enjoyment on most social media platforms. In my opinion, it is a great Father’s Day song, too.
Welcome to my songwriting blog, where I will give a background of the songs I have written. I will also post links when the songs are available on social media. I write for myself, but I also write for you, the audience. I feel stories are often relatable and I love to take you on a journey through song. Music means so much to me, as I’m sure it means much to you, as well.
Let me know if you like the songs I post by leaving a comment on the blog. I look forward to hearing from you. Just please be kind even if you give a serious critique.
Thank you so much for stopping by, and for listening to my music.
