The Color of Love 
It all started in the fall of 2001. I was feeling ready to start writing again, I was collecting memories and impressions and moods and grooves. I would like to tell you the stories of how and why the songs were written and how we put this project together!
Winter
One day there was a big snow storm, the city was shut down. Living in Los Angeles I had not been in a storm like this in years. It was so exciting! Everything was white and the city was actually quiet! Leni and I took a break to stretch our legs out and walked across the street to the park. And there a I saw this perfectly black dog in this perfect white snow! We went back up stairs and our song Winter just seemed to pour out of us. I love this song! We wrote it sitting in the silence of the snow!
Lyrics
Black dog, white snow
Cold feet, moon glow
It’s winter, it’s winter
Sharp wind, blue sky
Warm heart, wide eyes
It’s winter, it’s winter
The veil of quietude surrounding
Gracefully resounding
Winter song is here
The milky cloak offering her solace
Time to look inside us
It happens every year
Red shoes, wool hat
Tip toe, soft cat
It’s winter, it’s winter
Blackbird, white wing
Angel, singing
It’s winter, it’s winter
Brown bear, sleeping
We are dreaming
It’s winter, it’s winter
Pickin’ Weeds
One of my big hobbies and teacher of patience is gardening. I have learned to respect and look up to nature in a whole new way. One of a gardeners most important tasks is weeding. Well, last year I was laboring over some very deep rooted foes when it dawned on me what a metaphor this cleaning out is for all of the emotional work I have been so committed doing regarding my past. Once again I wrote a poem and asked Russell to write the music. A week later I was singing Pickin’ Weeds! I love this song because it is just a bit off of left center!
Lyrics
Resistant to release their grip,
To the ground
Stubbornly rooted
Endlessly proud
They live only to take,
They steal from the soil
Shamelessly spreading
Claiming all for their own
I dig, i pull, i curse and cry
For the freedom to to breath
I give, i take, i search and sigh
For the courage to try
For the energy to foster,
A more deserving green
The earth our gracious host
The womb of our dreams
But weeds can be sneaky,
They can flower and shine
Mask their intentions
While they shadow the skies
I dig, i pull, i curse and cry
For the freedom to to breath
I give, i take, i search and sigh
For the courage to try
‘Cause i’ve been picking weeds
Like tap roots to my soul
Only one way to work it
Dig, sweat and go
The metaphor is mighty, fuels my quest
To keep a weedless mind
For an honest nights rest
Bringing secrets to the surface,
Wsorries to light
Unleash the best in me
That blooms out of sight
I’ve been gathering tools for the job at hand
Want to make things simple
Want to clean my land
Get to the bottom of this poison i’ve let grow
In my soul and my spirit
Love is aching for a home
Let Peace Surround You
I studied classical singing for many years but have not really sung much in that style. My ex-husband Michael had the idea of asking Russell to write a choral piece for me to sing all of the parts myself! We had all been incredibly touched and inspired by Lux Interna. What Russell wrote far exceeded our expectations. He wrote Let peace surround you shortly after September 11. It was such an honor and a gift to get to record this piece!
Lyrics
Let peace surround you
Let healing light descend
To comfort brace and guide you console and mend
Though pain and sorrow
Seem more than we can bear
An unseen hand will lift us beyond
This world’s despair
Let peace surround you
Thorns Have Roses
Thorns have roses is about finally seeing the possibilities, beauty, and love that surround us even though they are often not visible if we don’t know how to look for them. I wrote the lyric and found myself singing the chorus one day. It stuck and Michael Miller filled in the rest. This is one of my favorites on the CD!
Lyrics
Raised in a bed of negativity
Imitating sorrows done
Bound by a tinted reality
I never saw the promise of the sun
Jaded by the forked tonguev Crippled by the fear
Thicker than molasses
Love never lived here
But you touched me with your courage
With your confidence and faith
You offered me the rainbow
You circled me with grace
My life was but a shadow
Of the dreams i lived at night
Now i see that thorns have roses
My wings have taken flight
I see that thorns have roses
My wings have taken flight
I am flying by the river
Leading me to open sea
Through the clouds of sweet desire
To the quiet heart of me
It is there that i shall find you
With the smile upon your face
Weaving ginger candied gum drops
Bring cinnamon and lace
Now you touch me with your courage
With your confidence and faith
You offer me the rainbow
You circle me with grace
My life was but a shadow
Of the dreams i lived at night
Now i see that thorns have roses
My wings have taken flight
I see that thorns have roses
My wings have taken flight
You’re Getting To Be A Habit With Me
We have become friends with the actor Hector Alzando through various benefits we are involved in. Hector is a wonderful singer and musician and we have had fun singing together. I wanted to do a duet on this album, something in the vain of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong (they recorded such a sweet collection of songs together). So hector and i got together with Russell and started singing through standards until we found Your Getting to be a habit with me. It clicked, it was funny, and sweet and groovin’ and lose!
The Color Of Love
While I was in New York working with Leni, her husband who happens to be guitarist Mike Stern gave me a song to write a lyric to. I fell in love with the melody and decided i wanted to write a true love song, which is The Color of Love! We were lucky enough to spend an afternoon in the studio with him recording this one while Mike was out here playing some live gigs. His solo is magic!
Lyrics
The color of love
A floral affair
Awaken the sweetest perfume anywhere
My heart in your hand
Your head to the sky
The shadow of ancient blues beyond your eyes
A lavender moon
A tangerine sky
We lye
Safe in shelter of our lullaby
You and I
The color of love
Alive in your arms
I’m finally home again
Home again
Lilac dreams mellow tone
Warm and true home with you
The color of love
When two become one
A riot of rainbows dancing with the sun
Where once I lived life
Bedarken and grave
Now I see golden hues and ruby smiles
I Wish You Enough
Sometimes I catch myself and others complaining about the most unimportant selfish stuff. Anything from breaking a fingernail to having to go to the store and being too lazy, or, being too full after a big meal, or being too hot, or, on and on.
I have so many wonderful people and things in my life that I really should be slapped for being so spoiled. After traveling to many poor counties and spending time with the wonderful people in these countries, I have come to realize that I really don’t need much to find peace and serenity. It is really much more about finding peace inside!
This song speaks of my wish that others will also find that they already have enough!
Lyrics
My head hurts, i’m hungry,
There’s rocks in my shoes
The view’s dulled by smog rings,
I’m singing the blues
The beach is too sandy,
The waters too wet
The sun gives me wrinkles,
I’m loosing this bet
Complaining and moaning and hey, it’s no fair!
I wish you enough, to enjoy what is there!
The food is too salty
Or maybe too sweet
For sure it’s too fattening
To rest on my seat
To rate satisfaction
By what we don’t own
Is to live in the darkness
like a fool on her thrown
The privilege to wallow,
Insult and ignore
I wish you enough,
May you soon find the shore
It’s either too much or never enough
The blankets too short, to cover you up
Like my wise auntie told me when i was 16
Let my apple fall, far, far away from the tree
Complaining and moaning and hey, it’s no fair! I wish you enough, to enjoy what is there!
I wish you enough of all you might need
To know when to rest, to learn to believe
We are Gods precious children,
Perfect and pure
We are born with enough,
We don’t need any more
My Cherry Tree
I think it must have been April or May when I was lying under my orange tree Jack (all of my trees have names). I was remembering the cherry tree in our back yard in berlin where I grew up. I wrote this poem describing the tree and my life surrounding the tree and Berlin. Russell had written several songs to my poems in the past, he has such a way of just pulling the passion out the words and matching them to melodies and harmony. Within a week or so the song was done; my cherry tree! so we went in the studio and recorded just this one tune. We were all so touched by and just couldn’t wait to get in on tape!
Lyrics
Picture the 60’s
Berlin and the hippies
Teaching me all about
What it meant to be free
With war and confusion
Hatred and sorrow
The walls of the city a symbol of gloom
The world in an uproar
Peace signs on every door
My home life a feared life, like no home at all
But 3 weeks a year,
I escaped from uncertainty
Into the arms of my delicious cherry tree
From high on the roof top, safe and secure
Picking precious candy, to nourish the soul
With stains on my lips
Fingers and clothes
Her rich crimson flesh
Stayed with me for long
I took comfort in climbing
It was private and true
My own secret island how I long to see you
Picture the nineties,
The wall nearly gone
The city a fragment of what I had known
A trip to Berlin
To bury my father
The visit an honor, to what I’m not sure
I venture to see my old friend, the tree
Are her cherries as sweet as in memory?
I drive down the street,
It looks smaller somehow
The houses so even, all straight in a row
I stop at the address; one thirty one
No house, no tree, no signs of the sun
The Heart Of A Child
My sister katie has 2 little girls, 4 and 6 years old. I am childless (I have 4 kids with fur, but no human kids!) and really love to spend time with them. One morning I was feeling much too serious and out of touch with the goofy little girl in me and I was missing Helen and Hannah.
I started singing this melody and before I knew it The Heart of a Child was born. I gave Mike Miller my ideas and he came up with the harmony! This song reminds me that I am never too old to be young! I love how acoustic the track is and the 6/8 rocks!
Lyrics
Hold your breath, count to 10
Turn me around
Emily where’ve you gone
Please make a sound
Tiny hands, tickling
Twirling with joy
The perfect place to be a girl or boy
Lollipop, purple trees filling the sky
3 headed unicorns floating on by
Mommies shoes, make believe
Anything goes
A shadow dance revolving on the wall
I am learning to be young again
I am yearning to be free again
Just like the child I was, I now begin
I am learning to love, learning to love again
Merry go round you go
Circles and smiles
Always the light of life shines in your eyes
Little one, lullaby
Fairies and elves
Every dream you dream of will be yours
It’s the heart of a child that keeps me free
With the heart of the child reminding me
Life is much simpler than it seems
With the heart of a child embracing me
Strawberry Fields Forever
Like most music lovers, I can’t imagine life without the Beatles! Actually the record company asked me to do a cover tune for this record and I jumped at the chance to sing Strawberry Fields!
We had no plan as to how we would arrange the tune before recording. We just went in and started playing and this is what happened! I love it and it is so much fun to sing in our live shows!
Lyrics
Let me take you down,
‘Cause I’m going to Strawberry Fields
Nothing is real and nothing to get hungabout
Strawberry Fields forever
Living is easy with eyes closed,
misunderstanding all you see
It’s getting hard to be someone
But it all works out,
It doesn’t matter much to me
Let me take you down,
‘Cause I’m going to Strawberry Fields
Nothing is real and nothing to get hungabout
Strawberry Fields forever
No one I think is in my tree,
I mean it must be high or low
That is you can’t you know
Tune in but it’s all right,
That is I think it’s not too bad
Let me take you down,
‘Cause I’m going to Strawberry Fields
Nothing is real and nothing to get hungabout
Strawberry Fields forever
Always, know sometimes, think it’s me,
But you know I know when it’s a dream
I think I know I mean a ‘Yes’
But it’s all wrong,
That is I think I disagree
Michael’s Home
This story has two parts. Part one; I love my ex-husband’s family very much. Since we we’re first dating they all embraced me and I quickly became a family member. I wrote this poem while visiting his sister Ellen about the wonderful house they grew up in.
Part two; we have a large tiger cat named Gulliver who has the loudest purr know to any feline! He lulls us to sleep and settles my nerves with his music! I had wanted to use his talents on a song and this was the right time. The bed of the track is Gulli’s magic voice!!! I was able to tell the story of Michael’s childhood home and include an important element of our home!
Lyrics
Going back to your house
To see where you grew up
The room you slept and dreamt in
Kitchen table
Plates and forks
And folks that fed you
The mirrors that watched you turn
From a young boy to a young man
The floor supporting
The door jam charting growth spurts
The four walls absorbed
A house filled with the commitment to stay
Bound by love and loyalty
The sense of permanence and peace
Where sorrows are swallowed up
By the deep seeded history of family
Family
Imbedded in the wood and stone
Of Michael’s home
Luna And Butterfly
Leni told me about this woman in northern California who lived in one of the great old redwoods for over 2 years to save the tree’s life. This story moved me so much that we started writing a song to honor both Luna, the tree and Julia Butterfly hill, the young woman. We called it simply Luna and Butterfly. I have always had a huge reverence for nature, especially trees. I think of them as old people with deep souls and wisdom. They offer comfort and beauty and shade too!
Lyrics
Long before the time
Columbus sailed the seas
Natives trading songs
Berries, roots and leaves
Luna was born
To a forest alive
Earthquake and fire
Luna survived
Her canopy grew strong
The centuries movin’ on
Roots reaching deep and wide
Her wisdom from inside
The giant of trees
Your family half gone
‘Till a girl claimed her home
In the branch of your womb
Luna and Butterfly
Luna and Butterfly
Thank you our peaceful warriors
Thank you for standing tall
Two years they lived as one
With anger from below
Her message loud and clear
To keep the forest whole
Honor thy old
It’s what we’ve been told
Learn from the earth
Treasure her gold
Luna and Butterfly
Luna and Butterfly
If I loved You
Playing with Russell is one of my favorite things to do. Playing ballads with Russell is like walking on the clouds. That sounds so corny, but it’s true! We play this in our live show sometimes, usually at the end of the evening, which is why it ends the CD! I hope you like it!