Singled Out: Martha's Trouble

Rob and I decided we would record a lullaby CD the beginning of this year. We had some traditional lullabies we knew we were going to rearrange and record, but we really wanted some originals on there. We were thinking about what we wanted to say to our kids, and how we wanted the feel of the songs to be. Basically, something sweet and melodic. The way we used to write quite a few years ago was wait till we were inspired by something, and this time we didn't have that luxury. We had decided we wanted to release this CD on Mother's Day and that meant if we were going to publicize it, it would need to be completed two or three months before the release date. We had a very little amount of time to waste!

We also raised the money through Kickstarter and wanted it be a fan funded project, so that meant a thirty-day campaign of raising funds. We set the dates to record and started the campaign. During that time, we set aside two weeks of writing time. This usually meant in the mornings while our kids Wilson (6) and Emery (4) were at school, or in the afternoons while either our babysitter or neighbor would watch them. The first song we wrote for the project was "Goodnight Sweet Child." Rob had a guitar part half-written and was working on it when I got the idea for the song. Most of the time the lyrics come here and there, but this I started penning out the start to the song and the rest just came. It was a simple lullaby that spoke of quiet and dreaming and security. That began the tone of the rest of the songs we were going to write for the album. Our kids now sing that song all the time and our four-year-old, Emery, made her stage debut last weekend when we did a release show in Birmingham, AL. She got on stage and sang the whole song with us, and after gave a very modest bow. It was very cool. Never having done children's music before, we weren't sure how people were going to respond to the songs, but so far it's been really positive. It's been amazing to hear feedback from parents on how their children react to the music. They always say that it helps the child to relax, so we feel like it's mission accomplished!