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about
I wrote this song when I was trying to evaluate how to love. How to know the word love as a verb, how to be love in action. I think it’s really hard to love others and see them without looking through the lens of how we want or need them to be. Whether it’s our partners, our parents, siblings, friends….we all have ideas of what we need and want from the people in our lives. But how can we take that away and really see them as separate from ourselves, through a clear lens, for who they are independent from us and for what they may need regardless of how it serves our lives. I was inspired by my own challenging experience of trying to sustain a long term partnership while growing myself and allowing space for my partner to change and grow as well. This song has deepened in meaning immensely this past year watching my family relationships through my mother’s stroke and recovery as well as becoming a mother myself. I think we inherently look out for ourselves which is healthy, but that can be at odds with caring for others when the time is needed and the negotiations that happen within as well as through relationships can be really challenging. Watching my parents navigate such a devastating and drastic change to their lives and their relationship dynamic; my dad becoming my mom’s sole caretaker, my mom becoming disabled and dependent on my father…. it has been a master class in the truest rawest meaning of sacrifice, love, commitment, devotion and the reality that it is not easy or always pretty but very exposing of our truest character.
-Michaela Anne
lyrics
I’ve been looking at the stars these nights
wondering if you are too
Those lonesome little lights
shining on me and you
Spinning round the sun so fast
I can hardly keep my place
Looking down worrying that
I’m coming off the wrong way
It’s hard to look at you and not see my own face
How to love for love’s own sake and not for my own gain
I want to see you I want to know in the end
Who you are baby who you are my friend
I want to know you when
you’re standing on your own
Everything that you do
you gotta know how to do it alone
Like how to pick up the pieces
when it all comes crashing down
How to keep your head held high
but keep it out of the clouds
It’s hard to look at you and not see my own face
How to love for love’s own sake and not for my own gain
I want to see you I want to know in the end
Who you are baby who you are my friend
credits
released February 18, 2022
Written by Michaela Anne & Jordan Lehning
Aaron Shafer-Haiss - electric guitar, synthesizer, synth bass, percussion
Jeff Malinowski - acoustic and electric guitars
Ray Jacildo - piano and wurlitzer
Kristin Weber - strings
Darling West - background vocals
Produced by Aaron Shafer-Haiss & Michaela Anne
Engineered by Aaron Shafer-Haiss
Assistant engineering by Michaela Anne
Additional engineering by Jeff Malinowski, Philip Sterk, Burniss Earl Travis
Mixed by Shani Gandhi
Mastered by Alan Silverman
Gonzo. Passion. The Ming Vase. Haunting and beautiful. Every listen brings a new favorite.
Do something like this again, Miss Emma. Please let the answer be yes. Please let the answer be yes! alien9
The latest from Jim Lauderdale is exclusive to Bandcamp, its songs drawing on bluegrass, country, and classic American music. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 28, 2020