Big Poem

Lovelies,

Every once in a while, life demands you stop creating poems and start creating it.

I mean this:

You're writing a poem. You're in deep. It's vexing you. It's delighting you. You're dizzy but holding on, at the very least to a pencil.

It's all that's real, and in that realer-than-real poem way. 

(What are poems but life experiences distilled to the hyper-real?)

And then you get a call.

LIFE calling. The normal-level-of-real version.

And LIFE would like to take its turn at vexing and delighting you. Life would like to make you dizzy with loss or love or failure or crossroads and no, a pencil won't help.

What a mess.

And yet.

I've come to understand creativity is uncertainty training. A creative project is 1,000 questions you don't yet know the answers to. Also a creative project 999 questions you don't yet know the QUESTIONS to, since the questions only get parceled one per creative step. 

I think at this point I've created so much it's altered my disposition: now when life presents me with uncertainty, I end up treating it like just another poem. 

Life calls and I think, that's a Big Poem. 

The difference, though, is that I cannot (for the life of me) sit down to work on it. The Big Poem is too bright. It's like the sun. Even as I feel its warmth on my skin, even as I sense it raising the seeds to sustain my next chapter, I cannot look directly at it.

And so I turn all the way away. I return to my little poems. I give myself permission to do this.

And I trust that between lines three and four of mussy villanelle, my mind slips upon something it direly needs.

With all my love,

Rachel

I couldn't be happier to introduce phenomenal young artist, Frankie Rae. Frankie stole my heart the moment I met her... when she was but fourteen! We spent a couple years honing her love-drenched songs and now here they are, in the form of an extraordinary debut EP.

Come for her voice, stay for her depth. Check out especially the haunted Grieving, the slow-but-hot-burn Here's to Hoping, and the sweet as sugar unbreaking.

It was such a joy to work with Frankie from start (picking melodies on my upright piano RIP) to finish (pushing the limits of how many vocals you can layer on a single track).

I am for one so excited to hear whatever she's writing next.

Again, the usual suspects: Jason Slota (drums), James DePrato (guitar), Daniel Fabricant (bass), and Max Cowan (keyboards). 

I produced, co-wrote, and played piano.

I'm so proud to share the new Adam Alviso EP, Dear Myself. 

Adam and I recorded this album a year ago. And because then 2025 required my attentions toward other projects, I didn't listen for about a year. Imagine my joy when last week my freshest of ears discovered it's... GREAT!

I was also flooded with the joyful memories of working with Adam. He's so talented, so soulful, and the trust he showed me meant I did my best work. 

I want you to hear every one of these pop-fabulous songs, but most especially the poignant Where We Left Off (mandolin!), the so-fun Man's Dream (bouquet of hooks!), and the epic Dear Myself (so poignant).

I trust you've missed my co-conspirators: Jason Slota (all the hits in all the pockets), James DePrato (place your bets of how many sounds can he get out of a single guitar), Daniel Fabricant (keeping it deeply real), Max Cowan (keyboard fascinations), Shaina Evoniuk (gorgeous string arrangement), Erik Jekabson (BRASS!), and Cory Wright (REEDS!).

I produced, co-wrote, arranged the horns, and did a little singing. Yes, that is me impersonating Stevie Nicks on Told Me.