Author Archives: theculverproject

This past weekend, I ran the Jingle Bell 5k in Franklin, TN. The funds we raised supported the Arthritis Foundation, and participants wore little jingle bells on our shoes – which makes for a very noisy race! Some runners wore jingle bell necklaces, earrings, headbands, others wore costumes… needless to say, it was quite a spectacle!

After the race, I stayed in the area for some Christmas shopping down Main Street. As I made my way from store to store, there were a few people along the way providing some musical entertainment. First, I passed a young woman playing Christmas songs on her flute. Her music created the perfect atmosphere for the season. I continued down one side of the street, and made my way back toards the square (although it’s really a circle, but it sounds weird to say that) and came across two young people singing and playing guitar and drum.

I felt bad that I didn’t have any cash or even coins that I could give to them. Here they were, spending their Saturday afternoon playing for anyone that would listen. Playing for even just a little jingle in their pocket.

It’s a crazy thing, wanting to be a musician. You spend a lot of time, and money working to be the best you can be. It takes a long time to truly break even. But it’s musicians like this, that do it for the love, the passion we have. We know we might not ever make it to the big leagues, or break sales records like Adele or Taylor Swift. There is a burning desire in us to share the music that moves us, with the hope that it just might move you too.

I know this is a little late, and it’s been a while since I’ve posted – but it’s better late than never!

Thank you for taking time to follow my journey. Thank you for the encouragement. Thank you for the support, you’ll never know how much it means to me.

I’d like to say thank you to my familiy for being guinea pigs – listening to me play songs even while I’m still mastering the tempo, chords, and strumming patterns. I played two songs for my family at Thanksgiving. My niece had already heard one of them when I played it for my dad earlier that evening (she gave me a round of applause afterward). As I was getting ready to play it for the rest of the family – post dinner – She said, “I can’t wait to hear it again!” She gets the #1 fan award!

Though I know this journey is going to take a while to accomplish the all of the goals I have set; I am grateful every day for the people who have spoken words of encouragement, liked and/or shared my posts, and inpsired me along the way. I have so much to be thankful for this year, and you are one of the biggest things I am thankful for. You are helping me realize dreams are possible when you have a support system that believes in you.

Thank you.

After a long and BUSY day working, I was excited to sit back and relax tonight. Ordered pizza = no cooking. Check! Deleted a few recorded episodes of Cougar Town. Check! Go to bed at a decent time. Nope.  That’s where it all fell a part – and here I am, at 10:30 pm. Writing.

The t.v. and lights were off. One dog was curled up under the covers, and the other on the oversized bean bag chair. The cats… well, they were laying down wherever it is that they like to sleep (probably under the bed). Then it hit me. A funny idea for a song.

Inspiration usually comes to me at the weirdest, and sometimes, inconvenient times. Because I have learned the hard way, I decided to get up, grab my notebook, pen, and phone (partially to use as a light to manuver downstairs without turning on a million lights). I sat outside on our deck and began to write. I didn’t get very far, just a verse and a chorus. In all honesty, it might not make it any further than the page it’s right now, but I just had to see where the idea would take me.

Earlier this week, I read an article of quotes from various songwriters. Tonight I was reminded of one from John Fogerty. He talked about a notebook he bought to write songs and said, “…the fact that there are a lot of good songs means there are also a lot of really bad songs I’ve written that you never hear.” I can’t tell you how many choruses, verses, or just song ideas I’ve written down over the years. In journals, on the side of church bulletins, and even receipts or random pieces of paper I find in my purse. One word from a sermon, radio show, movie… pretty much anything can spark an idea and get the wheels moving in my head.

These moments of inspiration, no matter how inconvenient they may be, are one of the greatest things about writing a song. It can come from anywhere and it can become anything!

Over the last few years, I’ve tried (here and there) to teach myself guitar. I would find chords to a song online and try to figure out what I could and go from there. As soon as I saw a bar chord, I wanted to run as far away from that version as possible! Surely someone out there has sympathy for beginners and created an easier version! Maybe something with G, D, and C 🙂 Needless to say, bar chords scared  me.

I love Adele’s versoin of “To Make You Feel My Love” and desparately wanted to learn it. But guess what? IT HAS A BAR CHORD! Now I guess I have to start learning them. So I strummed away as much as I could, very bluntly going from C to Cm. Oh, it sounded awful, but I kept trying. Finally, last week I took the song to my guitar teacher and told her I was having trouble and needed help. Naturally, it just takes constant practice going from one to the other. She had me practice 10 times in a row while I was there to get used to the transition. This week, I used that approach, and found myself getting better.

Today, I brought another song to practice. Low and behold, it too had a bar chord. Guess I’m going to be getting some more practice with these! The good thing was, I was feeling better about it this time since I have been working on it a little, and they don’t seem so scary to me anymore!

When you want to learn something new, it’s easy to get discouraged when you come across an obstacle. but if you just keep jumping, and trying to get over it, sooner or later you will!

Normally when I let my dogs outside,  I wait patiently inside checking Facebook,  Pinterest,  or doing the dishes. Tonight,  I decided to go outside with them, lay on our bench, and stare up at the night sky. It was a nice, crisp, fall night,  and although clouds filled most of the sky,  it was so peaceful. Looking at the (few) stars I could see,  I thought,  “wow, those stars were created for a purpose,  and placed exactly where they are to provide the right amount of light in the night.” What a great reminder that each of us are in this world for a purpose.

 This wasn’t music related,  but I wanted to share in case you needed a reminder that you are perfectly created,  and have a purpose in your life!

Learning guitar means lots of practicing. For my husband… that means lots of me running across the house shouting, “Hey! I just learned the first verse, and part of a chorus.. wanna hear?!” Graciously, he listens as I perform half of a song for him, stumbling through at least one chord change that is new to me. Some days I’ll be inspired by something and bombard him like a child at Christmas, ” I wrote two lines of a new song I had an idea for… wanna hear?!” I am forever grateful for his untiring support. I found this image on the internet the other day, and it reminded me of these moments.

On Halloween, I was in charge of passing out candy to all of the trick-or-treaters that came by our house. We have two dogs who eagerly want to meet everyone that rings our doorbell. As you can imagine, it would be extremely difficult to try to give out candy and hold back two dogs, while informing any scared children that they won’t hurt them, they are just really excited. With that in mind, I decided to setup camp in my garage (it was raining for part of the night) and pass out candy from our driveway. As I was waiting, I had the novel idea to bring my guitar out there and practice. ] I sat in the back of one of our SUV’s and began to play. I went over a few songs I’ve learned over the past few months, and looked up chords to new songs that I want to learn. I’m slowly getting used to playing for small audiences (I didn’t actually play for any trick-or-treaters, but I usually play a song or two for family when we visit). It may not be the Opry stage, but hopefully I’ll work my way up there!

Music has the capability to pierce our souls in a way that words often times fail. A simple line or melody can cause a flood of memories to pour through your mind. The perfect song can inspire you, encourage you, or comfort you during hard times. This. This is why I love music. This is what I hope to bring as I continue to grow as a musician.

One of the goals that I would love to accomplish is bringing encouragement and hope. For my husband and me, infertility has been an unexpected journey. I’m so grateful for the celebrities that have opened up about their own personal experiences. They help thousands of couples see that they are not alone. You may think this is an obvious revelation, especially since there is an entire practice of medicine devoted to helping couples with infertility, but when you are in the midst of it, you can’t help but feel like everyone around you is pregnant, or has a growing family that you long to have yourself.

It’s been just over 5 years since we started trying to become a family of 3 (or more by this point). To say we have experienced a whirlwind of emotions would be putting it lightly. 5 doctors, 4 treatments (to date), countless months of taking medicine, ultrasounds, and so many blood tests that I feel more like a pin cushion than a person… and we are still a family of 2 (6 if you count our 2 dogs and 2 cats). During the hardest days, songs never fail to bring peace and comfort to this exhausted soul. Even now, there are days that are hard. They seem to come out of nowhere, and with no warning. It’s in those moments that I hope to encourage someone to keep their head held high. Take this time to grow spiritually. Know that you still have a purpose for your life. Take a step back to evaluate and see what other opportunities you can take advantage of while you wait.

When I wrote “Come to Me” I drew from my emotional state at the time. A time where we had gone through 3 failed treatments just a few months prior. I longed to be back in the mindset where trying to get pregnant didn’t consume my thoughts. As I listened to songs to include in my recording, I was drawn to the ones that talked about being in the midst of a storm, or coming through a storm.

While I don’t plan on making all of my music about heartaches, I’m excited about the potential that these songs can bring hope to you.

About 3 years ago, my mom mentioned that her church (FBC Woodstock) was starting a songwriting group. She knew how much I loved writing, and thought I would enjoy being a part of the group. This is where my journey began (thanks mom)! I had no intentions of sharing anything during the first meeting, as I only had a little over half of a song (I’m not going to lie.. I still can’t come up with the last two lines… this has plagued me to this day, and drives me crazy). Somehow, I decided to just go for it. I had no music (chords, notes, anything), just some plain white sheets with the lyrics. It had been a while since I sang in front of anyone, so as I stood up, I turned my back to everyone, and began to sing. I was nervous, but so glad that I had taken the leap of faith to share. I received great feedback, and couldn’t wait to finish my song. Ha!

A few months later I began writing “Come to Me.” Again, I came to the meeting with a verse and a chorus, and nothing more. I knew I needed something in between, but I just didn’t have the words. I explained the feeling I wanted to evoke to the group, and a few minutes later, one of the members, Brad Cox, pushed a piece of paper across the table to me. This became the first pre-chorus. The words were EXACTLY what I needed. I could not have said it any better! Over the next few months, I wrote the second verse, and about a year later (there’s something about the end of a song that I seem to struggle with) I finished the last four lines.

After finally completing “Come to Me,” I flew up to Georgia to record it, as well as a few other songs. I just knew everyone would love them… and I would instantly be asked to talk about them on the radio, and bam! World tour, here I come! But, no. That’s not how it works in the real world. I feel a little silly thinking that (and now letting you know), but at the end of the day, I want to be as authentic as possible.

While the journey hasn’t always been easy, or quick, it’s still been everything I have dreamed of and more!

I’ve never felt more vulnerable in my life than starting a blog. Typically,  I have no problem talking in front of people,  yet somehow,  hiding behind my smartphone,  I feel more nervous,  more exposed. At any rate, thank you for joining me on a journey of a lifetime!

As the title suggests,  everything has a starting point,  and that’s exactly where I am.  Square one. Becoming a singer/songwriter has been a dream of mine since I was a little girl. I never actually thought I would get the chance to pursue this,  so I never focused on the path to get here. I wrote cute little songs all the time as a child, but again, never sang them to anyone… just little trinkets to keep to myself.

A few years ago, my mom encouraged me to join a new songwriting group at her church. This is where a little girls dream became a possibility!  I didn’t have the equipment to bring in my own demo, so instead, I trotted in with nothing more than a few lyric sheets and my voice. The group was very supportive, and I could hardly wait to finish my first song!

The following year, a friend of mine recommended that I reach out to a man named Mark Dowdy to help me bring my song to life.  In the beginning of 2014, I recorded my song,  “Come to Me” as well as a few others written by some very talented folks in Nashville.  While my first step down this road has been a long one,  I’m excited to see where the next one takes me!