I was a dramatic teenage dork that walked around with a beat-up collection of Emerson poems in my backpack. Not because I loved the subject matter, but because I loved his meter and rhyme. His poetry has a pulse and a groove and I used to love the way his words felt flying off my tongue when I said them out loud. They were seductive and anticipatory. When I started writing my first songs, I wanted them to feel like Emerson.
Fast forward 30 years. My songs are built entirely around rhyme. I love writing this way, and I always will. The only downside is that I often let the rhyme overshadow the emotion and story within the tune. It's a compromise I've been willing to make.
Up until now.
This week--for the first time ever--I wrote a few songs that were raw. They were about my daughter. I wrote them with exposed feelings, not hidden behind slick patterns. It was a vulnerable feeling. The songs may not sound as clever, but they feel a lot braver.
Reader, the moral of my week is: sometimes it's nice to step outside our comfort zone and be brave for bravery sake. Taking rhyme out of songwriting took away layers of protection I had placed around my songs. Being that open felt empowering, and I look forward to this kind of naked writing in the weeks ahead.
I leave you with this picture of my daughter and I at a concert this weekend. I'll forever be grateful that I have a handful of people in my life that make me want to cut to the quick and get to the heart of my feelings faster. And I'm grateful to you for being on the other end of this screen as I reflect on these wild weeks we live. See you next Monday. -Em
