The backstory... 2020 started with my attempts to distract myself from feeling dangerously raw and vulnerable. The previous year felt like a rollercoaster and I was losing trust in the world, life, people...

My mom's emergency brain surgery, glioblastoma brain cancer diagnosis, watching her learn to walk, eat, do radiation, chemo... Travel from TN to CO to TN to WY to CO to WY to TN to almost immediately leaping into 45 days of travel around the Northeastern US. I returned to Nashville exhausted (in a relatively good way) from all the touring, speaking, and performing.

Two days later, I found myself in a very unnerving situation with an online fan/stalker who was talking about mass shootings and suicide. He had a rap sheet as long as I am tall. Of course, police were involved.

So just before 2020 began, I retreated to a good friend's house to record my next album in his living room studio. We finished up just in time for the Nashville tornado to destroy his house. I huddled in my bathroom at midnight while the tornado missed my top-floor apartment by 5 blocks. It left our neighborhood and city reeling.

2 weekends later, the pandemic had us in lockdown...

and the rest is history, including last week's terrorist suicide bomber here in Nashville. The bomb blast shook my building and woke me up, 2 miles away.

There are a lot of people who had it worse than I did during 2019-2020.

Job loss. Evictions. Hunger. Hospice. Death.

So. Much. Grief.

It's not all bad though...

Some folx had a great year! Including me in a lot of ways. Honestly, lockdown felt like a relief. All I wanted to do was read books for 2 years.

Grad school seemed like a chance to give my nervous system a much-needed break. So I got accepted into the University of Wyoming's Executive MBA program. I'm now also pursuing a graduate minor in Gender & Women's Studies. (The 2020 MVP award goes to my student loans, seriously.)

If I've learned one thing in the last 2 years, it's this: The best-laid plans are flexible, easy, and sustainable.

So instead of doing my annual year-in-review and quarterly planning by myself, I'm inviting you to JOIN ME and the students of The School of Bravery for our first (annual? bi-annual?)...

Seasons of Bravery Retreat! 

IT STARTS TOMORROW!

Saturday, January 2nd, 10 am - 2 pm CST & Sunday, January 3rd, 10 am - 2 pm CST

The goal of the weekend is to spend 2 days walking everyone through my favorite way to conduct a year-in-review deep dive and map out a foundation for planning the next year (aka an updated version of the previously released Seasons of Bravery Ritual course). 

Attendees get all this stuff. Registration is $75 total and flexible payment plans are available if needed.

Please share and invite your friends who’ve mentioned their need for something like this. (Psst! If you live in a COVID-safe area for it, you might consider making it a sleepover/rent-a-hotel-room/get-away kind of situation!)

MORE INFO & REGISTRATION HERE

Let's punt 2020 into orbit and have a much better 2021!

If you have any questions, shoot me an email.

xoxo!

On July 9th, 2018 President Donald Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. Dr. Christine Blasey Ford accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her during high school. Three other women also accused him of sexual misconduct. One woman recanted. Kavanaugh denied all accusations. The Senate Judiciary Committee held a supplemental hearing over Ford's allegations. Despite nation-wide protests, on October 6, 2018, the full Senate confirmed Kavanaugh's nomination by a vote of 50–48. Two votes.

1 year later Dr. Ford received the Rodger Baldwin Courage Award at the ACLU of Southern California's annual Bill of Rights dinner.

2 years to the date of Dr. Ford's testimony and completion of this song, Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg died of pancreatic cancer on September 18th, 2020. She dictated a final statement to her granddaughter: "My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed."

_____

CREDITS

• music & lyrics by Emily Ann Peterson (http://www.emilyannpeterson.com)
• co-produced by Nathan Evans Fox in East Nashville, TN

Exclusive versions of this video were featured at the 2020 ACLU So Cal’s Annual Gala (10/4/20) and at the #FaceTheMusic4ERA concert (9/26/20).

Photo Credits

All photos public domain unless listed otherwise.

• "File:Kavanaugh rally at Supreme Court - group going to visit senator Chuck Grassley office in the Hart bldg 9775.jpg" by Avery Jensen is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
  
• "Supreme Court" by Mark Fischer is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
  
• "Slightly out of balance copy of Temple of Mars Ultor." by exoimperator is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
  
• "USA-COURT/KAVANAUGH-WOMEN" by brucedetorres@rocketmail.com is licensed under CC PDM 1.0
  
• "USA-COURT-KAVANAUGH" by Backbone Campaign is licensed under CC BY 2.0
  
• "Kavanaugh Unfit To Sit With RBG sign; Reclaim The Court Rally at the Supreme Court" by Lorie Shaull is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
  
• "File:SCOTUS - panoramio.jpg" by photophat is licensed under CC BY 3.0
  
• "File:A Day In New Yotk 4th Oct 2018 (45060995172).jpg" by The All-Nite Images from NY, NY, USA is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
  
• "File:Shan cawley in washington dc .jpg" by Shancawleywvu is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
  
• "File:Women's March - Washington DC 2017 (32430003222).jpg" by S Pakhrin from DC, USA is licensed under CC BY 2.0
  
• "RJ Day of Action" by ConwayStrategic is licensed under CC PDM 1.0
  
• "RJ Day of Action" by ConwayStrategic is licensed under CC PDM 1.0
  
• "US Capitol Dome Through Stars" by Matt Popovich is licensed under CC0 1.0
  
• "File:No Kavanaugh (44279370854).jpg" by Mobilus In Mobili is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
  
• "Kavanaugh Unfit To Sit With RBG sign; Reclaim The Court Rally at the Supreme Court" by Lorie Shaull is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
• "File:A Day In New Yotk 4th Oct 2018 (44198932145).jpg" by The All-Nite Images from NY, NY, USA is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

So anytime a songwriter releases a new song, especially one like this, we hope it's well-received by as many people as possible. This is why I was absolutely floored and deeply honored that ACLU So Cal featured my song and a lyric video I created (which will also be soon released) at their Annual Bill of Rights Gala, on October 4th, 2020. Because of the pandemic, this year the gala was hosted online by Billy Porter and so many other familiar celebrity faces who are well-known for their social justice advocacy! 

It was absolutely surreal to see that star-studded cast of celebrities mixed up with this song of mine. Surreal, yes. But also a perfect pairing too.

At last year's gala, they gave Dr. Ford the Rodger Baldwin Courage Award for speaking truth to power. I knew any organization that would commend her for such strength would be a worthy partner for this song. Not to mention, they've been advocating for bravery, social justice, and freedom for much longer than I've been alive!

The ACLU is responsible for the following civil rights victories...

• Halting the Trump Transgender Military Ban in 2017
  
• Challenging Trump’s Muslim Ban in 2017
• A Landmark Voter Suppression Decision in 2016
• The Fight for Freedom to Marry in 2015
• Standing Up for Voting Rights in 2014
• Defending Reproductive Rights, 2011-2015
• Helping LGBT Americans Serve Openly in 2010
• Protecting the Right to Privacy in 2009
• Keeping Religion Out of Science Classrooms in 2005
• Exposing Torture from 2003 onward
• Protecting Internet Free Speech in 1997
• Taking a Stand for Free Speech in Skokie in 1978
• Defending Reproductive Rights from 1973 onward
• Protecting Students' Free Speech in 1969
• Desegregating America's schools through Brown v. Board of Education in 1954
• Fighting the Internment of Japanese Americans in 1942
• Defending Science through the Scopes Case in 1925
• Championing Political Freedom during the Palmer Raids in 1920
• listed from https://www.aclu.org/aclu-accomplishments

Please join me in sharing gratitude for their crucial work. 

Donate to the ACLU today.

Carmen loves hugs. She missed hugs so much during quarantine that she recently donned a hazmat suit and walked around her neighborhood with a can of Lysol so she could offer her neighbors hugs.

Carmen and her husband, Nate, also love music & music makers.

When I was mid-career change and financially struggling, my studio space was in a huge, dark, empty, and VERY COLD, unheated church sanctuary. It made practicing hard, painful, and unnecessarily difficult. I made an exasperated post on Facebook about this. In a split-second, Carmen and Nate bought me a pair of fingerless gloves. They are the ultimate patrons.

They live in Tacoma, WA, and regularly host house concerts for other musicians too.

But here we are in a pandemic. Singing and gathering in groups is still very dangerous for the local and global community. 

So Carmen and Nate invited me to co-host a concert online THIS SATURDAY!

We're still bumbling around with names for it...

• Concert-In-Your-Home: because you won't have to get out of your pajamas to join us!
• Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Concert: because the audience (you!) will determine which songs I play in my set!
• Not Alone Concert: because even if you and I are stuck in our homes separated by geography or a virus, we are still together

YOU'RE INVITED TO JOIN US!

All you have to do is click here to reserve your own seat or reserve a seat for someone else you know. Easy peasy, you'll be on the list to get the secret Zoom link at the appropriate time!

At 9 pm Eastern / 8 pm Central (UTC-5) / 6 pm Pacific, we'll all log on to look like the Brady Bunch together, take a group screenshot pic, listen to some tunes, talk about how the quarantine life is going, and enjoy life together.

The good news?! No haz-mat suit required for attendance! Just your beautiful self on the other side of a screen somewhere in the world! (Hopefully wearing pants! LOL!)

Reserve Your Concert Seats Here

Only 100 seats are available! And this invitation is going out to a lot more people than that, so DON'T WAIT!! RSVP'ing takes less than 60 seconds.

xoxo!

Mackenzie Spear and I met through the glorious thing that is social media. There's this not-so-secret Facebook group for Nashville Music Women and it's been an amaaaazing resource to have as a new Nashville resident. Especially, as someone who wants to see that previously mentioned percentage change drastically, preferably as soon as possible.

I worked with Mackenzie as my mixing engineer on Covered in Clover for several reasons:

1. She has a background as a trumpet player, so I knew she'd know how to (and really enjoy) mixing all the layers of horns on this album.
2. She helps balance out the gender inequality that I was painfully aware of from day one, even in my own project! (This is a topic I care deeply about.)
3. She's easy to work with.
4. She's really good at her job.

We talk about all of that in this episode, but also.... this conversation happened right before she headed out to support the band The War and Treaty (they're so great! check them out!) on a month-long festival tour to help them with their live sound. Bonus! She and I will meet up at the last day of their tour because I get to perform at that same festival! So fun!

I'm so looking forward to working with Mackenzie again and more female audio pros like her. If you're in the music realm already, enjoy listening to a new perspective! If you're in the audience realm, get ready to hear how everything magically gels together!

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Watch & Listen

Other links mentioned:

https://www.proofinmusic.com/

https://makeiteql.com/profile/532

I admire Coltan so much. His perseverance, vulnerability, and authenticity are so crucial to not only being a decent human being, but also an excellent musician.

When he and I recorded Covered in Clover, he had just graduated with his Bachelor's, not quite sure where to go next, and still not completely comfortable in his own skin.

When he and I spoke for this episode about 4.5 years later, he was entering his 9th year of studying bassoon at a collegiate level, thriving in a musical community, and relieved to be out of a closet he never really knew he was in.

I think you'll find this episode to be a bright spot in your day and a reminder that living "in the in-between" can have a lot of power and bring a lot of healing.

Please go take a minute to visit Coltan's projects below. I'm really so glad you get to meet him and get to know a bassoonist today!

Watch & Listen

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In today's episode, we discussed what that working relationship was like, how it was to bring in so many musicians for this album, how the Seattle music scene has changed (or not changed), and what our various new projects look like now that almost 5 years have passed since we recorded these tracks! 

Please go take a minute to visit his website and check out his other projects. I'm so glad you get to meet him and get to know him more today!

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Please go take a minute to visit her website below and check out her music. She's brilliant and I'm so glad you get to meet her and get to know her more today!

The music mentioned in today's episode:

https://fanlink.to/eap-cic

http://mandytroxel.com

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Never miss an episode! 

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The goal is to use songwriting as a tool to process the feelings and events that have happened and are happening in their lives.

I was pretty nervous, having never been to prison before. But also really excited. Writing a new song with two new friends?! Ultimately, that sounds like a dreamy way to spend a day.

Brian Irwin (songwriter/guitarist) and I were assigned to inmate S. Wilson, who is 24 years old. Within the first 2 minutes of our meeting, he did not hesitate to tell us the exact date of his expected release ...in the year 2031.

The three of us sat in a small room -- the prison-side of one of those visitation cubbies with a glass window to talk through.

We were given under 90 minutes to learn as much as we could about Wilson's story and then write this song. He had some really excellent contributions. Like "her laughter brings the light" -- are you for real?! That's gorgeous!

We then took turns singing our new songs to the other inmates:

OMG, so much fun! Hootin' and hollerin' and cheering and standing ovations. Real joy right there.

Not only that, but there were some really good songs too. One of the men wrote a song for his aborted baby. "If only I could've met you, maybe I'd be in a different place now." I cried.

One thing I noticed in ALL the songs written was the longing for change--it was visceral. In our writing session, Wilson mentioned that even something as simple as having a meal with someone that you actually enjoy spending time with sounded like heaven.

I do not want to negate the severity of the deeds Wilson committed. He got caught up in some really bad decisions--not all of us are born with the luxury of making easy decisions in life. It's not fair.

And so my heart breaks.

Because I am human and he is human and we are human.

And we are so broken.

And so here we are, looking at our brokenness...

And so we wrote a song about Hope.

Wilson is a total sweetheart and an absolute gentleman who is in love with a girl he met before he was caught up in the events that brought him to prison. You'll hear his story in the song below.

This song is for Wilson's girl. Her name is Hope.

I kid you not. Songwriter gold.

Patrons can listen to the song here!

Since we were not allowed to bring our cell phones into the facility, Brian and I ran out to the parking lot after everything was over to document the song before we both forgot how it went. If you look close, you can see the barbed wire behind us.

_____

FYI - All brand new, unreleased songs are available to my patrons in their Patron Library! If you're not a patron yet, you can check it all out here.