TOPIC: Wife to husband

TOPIC: A closer look at two love songs

FOREVER LISTENING: THE STORY (1996)
I wrote this song ten years ago, when I was newly in love with the man who turned out to be THE man--my husband Jim. This was one of those great experiences when a song just sort of "appears," fully formed. I was at a unique turning point in my life--I had left a painful marriage and a powerhouse Chicago advertising career in  the dust, and I was a 30-year-old, living back at my parents' house, licking my wounds, regrouping, working as a cashier in a little retreat of a store that sold incense and candles and spiritual books, and, all of a sudden, I was falling in love. (love!)  (LOVE!!!!) This song showed up in my head and it was sort of fighting its way past the piped-in music in the store so I kept on making up excuses to step outside with a pencil and a crumpled store recipt, scribbling down the words as they seemed to fall from the sky.  This song was like a marvel to me. I felt like I was almost "channelling" something, and that has been the feeling that has kept me creating songs for all the years since. This song is the most-requested song when I do live converts. It has been performed at weddings, played in birthing rooms, and every so often I get an email from someone who heard it at a spiritual retreat and wants to know more. It's definitely a song from one lover to another but I was astonished to discover when my son was born that it worked as a love song from a parent to a baby, too. And the folks who use it on spiritual retreats assure me the lyrics can fit for one's relationship with The Divine as well. Ah! The joy of tapping into a unversal truth!

TOPIC: A Love Song to MY Husband

Dear Jim Tull, Love of My Life,

I have never known anyone in whose presence I feel the way I feel with you. I feel like a stronger, sweeter, braver, more creative version of me, because of our connection, because of your steadily-flowing love, and because of what I have discovered is possible, when you wrap your arms around me and I open my heart. As you will likely well remember, I wrote this song for you, and for us, all the way back in 2000. Fourteen years later, who would have guessed that our life would be even sweeter, our shared bounty even greater, and our love even deeper? My heart is open, more than ever before, and I am yours. 

With love,
Your Wife,
Anna, 2-14-2014

For Valentine's Day this year, here is one of the deeper LOVE SONG projects I have ever had the luxury and joy and honor of falling into.

It's also an interesting tale of how one song can, very unexpectedly--from all the way on one side of the country--lead to a song on the other side of the country.

This is a song of deep and abiding love between two partners, whose family is comprised of two loving parents and their two adopted-from-Guatemala daughters. 

TOPIC: A Husband and Wife Create a Song With Anna to Mark Their Wedding Anniversary

THE STORY
Alan came to me wanting a song for his wife Gina that I could perform live for her at her 40th Birthday Party.  The goal was to blow Gina away in the presence of all the people who loved her best of all. As I listened to Alan talk about all that Gina is to him, a sense of this song began to emerge. Gina is and always has been a very powerful woman.  But  listening to Alan talk, it seemed to me that her power had evolved, as she had grown into her own womanhood, and wife-hood, and motherhood, in a unique and beautiful way. Alan explained how the first time he saw Gina in all her strength and certitude, he had been so blown away, he could barely think of a word to say. That lead to the opening lines of the song:
 
The first time that I saw you I was speechless
The way you wore your power like a bullet-proof vest

What I have come to find over the years is that I basically get requests for two kinds of songs: the kind that tug at your heart strings and make you cry, and the kind that are very silly.
 
Max, an elementary school principal from NYC, called me up--all devious and excited--asking for a song for his bride Eve, for Valentine’s Day. I was raring to go. When we got into the interview, though, I learned that the assignment was more challenging than I might have at first guessed. Max wanted three things: