The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music

YouTube clip “Fresh Pots,” a two-minute short film

there was a certain joy that you only feel when reunited with someone from your past, like some kind of reassurance that life really happened.

After all my years of watching MTV and staring at the KISS and Led Zeppelin posters on my bedroom walls, I foolishly thought that bands performed only on giant stages with smoke machines and massive displays of lasers and pyrotechnics. To me, that was rock and roll. Little did I know that all you needed was four walls and a song.

The emotional vulnerability that is often necessary to summon a great song can also work against you when sharing your song for the world to hear. This is the paralyzing conflict of any sensitive artist. A feeling I’ve experienced with every lyric I’ve sung to someone other than myself. Will they like it? Am I good enough? It is the courage to be y

I DECIDED NOT TO WASTE THIS MOMENT. I decided to stop asking “How did I get here?” I was there. I told myself that I was not going to spend a second being scared or wishing I were somewhere else.