Making the Leap

A few years ago our son Josh was looking at some of my artwork and said he wanted to write some music that would inspire me while I paint. I told him I love to work to instrumental acoustic music. That December he wrote me a really beautiful piece of music–soothing harp, soaring trumpets, the works–and gave me the finished recording for Christmas. To this day it is one of my most memorable and treasured gifts! I'm pretty sure I cried when he played it for me that Christmas morning.

Since then every once in a while Josh would send us some new music he was working on...the soundtrack to a buddy's movie, some "beats" for rappers to use,  a silly Beatles-esque song about the name he picked out for his baby brother, etc. It became very clear that music was his passion. And I love that.

About nine months ago, Josh quit his full-time job, rented a U-Haul Trailer, and drove across the country in his Ford Mustang, with all his possessions trailing behind. He had a couple thousand dollars in a savings account, the address of a friend in Massachusetts, and the dream of becoming a music producer.

His story took several twists and turns, involving:

• A roommate who came home drunk and tried to beat him up
• Lovely people at the church in that small MA town who listened to him, fed him, and tried to help find him a new place to stay
• A strong whisper of a feeling that he was supposed to move to Brooklyn
• A church housing list in Brooklyn that miraculously had someone with a spare bedroom
• Driving a U-Haul trailer through Manhattan (I love this image)
• A kind branch president who helped him move in, invited him to dinner
• A funny freelance job removing wrinkles from sheets in photoshop for hours on end
• A guy at a storytelling event who just happened to need a lead guitarist for his band
• Interning at Electric Lady a couple of times
• Eating lots of ramen and dollar pizza
• Finding a terrific full-time job in Midtown working for with some jewelry photographers
• Still doing the freelance job with the sheets at night
• Moving two more times in two months
• Finding a great brownstone apartment in Brooklyn with space for all his sound equipment
• Getting up at 5 am to work on his music before riding the train to his day job
• So many miracles, and so. much. work.

I am so proud of him. It's been awesome to have a front row-seat for all this drama in his life...and then slowly watch the miracles unfold and see our boy work hard, trust his intuition, and learn how to make his way in the big, beautiful, scary world.

Today he released his first album. How cool is that? It's available on every possible streaming service and device. To my great delight, it is nearly all instrumental–my ideal painting music. (WARNING: I guess it also sports an explicit label–but he assured me it is only one song that got the explicit rating–and I'll be skipping that one.) Here's the link, since I know you're interested: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/the-tane/id1171215380

No matter what else happens, I believe he has accomplished something extraordinary! May we all so courageously follow our passions and bring our dreams to reality.