A Big Ball of Yarn
Woke me up in the middle of the night...
A warm welcome to you, dear Gentlefolks. I hope you’re having a wonderful week. I’m learning a lot about myself these days. It seems like that’s happening right now for just about everyone I know. You too?
It’s written in the stars. It’s writing me a batch of new songs.
A chorus for a new song came rolling in as I was driving across the 275 bridge from Ohio to Kentucky the other day. It fell right into line with my big plans for my new band, April Eight’s Hoot n’ Holler. Writing these old time/bluegrass songs for this project is the joy of my life.
A little peak into the chorus of my newest song, The Groundhogs are Making Coffee from… the coffeeshop!
Sing it with me –
The groundhogs are making coffee
and the katydids are humming their song.
If I hum along I’ll be where I belong,
over yonder where the rivers run free
in the holler in old Kentucky.
Do you know what “groundhogs making coffee” means? If not, I’ll tell you next week!
Although I’ve never lived there, I’m in love with the state of Kentucky. I’m a monster-truck-size fan of their current governor, for one. For the other, I grew up in Indiana but my family roots grew deep in Appalachia for hundreds of years. I seem to tap into that when I drive over the giant bridge that crosses the Ohio River into Kentucky.
That Ohio River is a big reason why I wanted to move to Cincinnati. My husband grew up here, and his family lines run deep in these rolling hills on the Ohio side and over across the river into “God’s Country” as his folks call Kentucky.
I do love a river. When I was little, we used to sing the songs of the Wabash River whose banks we drove along every day. “Oh the moonlight's fair tonight along the Wabash. Through the fields there comes a breath of new mown hay…”
You can hear that “new mown hay” in my Whippoorwill song.
My brother, a butter-churn of a songwriter (so prolific, so good!) James Combs, has a great song about rivers. It’s a family thing.
Rivers, Kentucky. Wait. What was I writing about?
Oh, yes, back to the song I’m currently writing. It’s not quite done yet, but the first line woke me up this morning. That’s usually a good sign that I’m on to something. Here is the first verse as of now. New songs are in flux until they’re done. Sharing this is fragile but I’m intentionally stand up straight and strong these days, in the face of all that coming at us. As my friend Carrie says, We can do this hard thing.
“The world is unraveling like a big ball of yarn,
but I know we’re knit together by something so strong.
And nary a heart isn’t a whole from the parts,
I’m telling you friend if your asking...”
My brother James’ feedback for the first line: “the world is unraveling” was, “that’s a little dark for a children’s song”. How about “the day is unraveling” instead? Hey, let me try out this poll thing:
We can do hard things because, as I said, we’re knit together by something so strong. We’re knit together with us. We’re the strong thing.
Question:
Have you had any juicy self-discoveries lately? Sometimes it’s the ten thousandth time you’ve had the same realization but this time it hit differently? Or maybe something completely new?
Take care, have a wonderful weekend. See you next time.
Keep the story close,
April
Wow, love this and your sweet voice! Here are my thoughts on the verse choice. World unraveling may be a bit dark but day is unraveling just doesn't quite carry the weight needed to keep this song's poignancy. You could keep it vague like "it's all unraveling" or just keep the world verse. There is a beautiful native american tale where a woman weaver (who makes the world) has her piece accidentally unravelled by her dog. She does not get upset. She simply begins weaving a new tapestry even more beautiful than before. I love what you are saying about knitting together with eachother strong. Weirdly in these tough times i do feel more closely with my community.