About the Tracks
I hope you enjoy listening to the music and reading the stories behind the songs.
Time
Music written by James Moseley lyrics written by Carrie Souza
Time: 4:07
This song was sent to me by my good friend James Moseley. He was looking for some lyrics and we have a great symbiotic and intuitive connection musically where I can almost hear and pull the lyrics out of the song. It comes to me in minutes. James sent this to me at a time I was going through a friendly dissolution of my marriage. The lyrics are reflective of how everything changes, how everything has a beginning and an ending and how this is the nature of time. It is one of my favorite pieces on this album and brings a melancholy feeling to me whenever I hear it back.
Vox: Carrie Souza
Guitar: Chris Haugen
Bass: Angeline Saris
Drums: Jeremy Steinkoler
Piano: Ken Cook
Cello: Alex Kelly
Percussion: Silvestre Martinez
With You
Music and Lyrics written by Carrie Souza
Time: 5:05
This song was inspired by an old boyfriend where we spent many hours creating music together. He played around with a lot of Latin influenced chord progressions that influenced the writing on this piece. It is reflective of that time in a beginning of a new relationship where the world dissolves away and the only thing that matters is the current moment with the other person and the energy exchange. This is a state of being in the love space that is temporary, and it is what couples try to hold on to indefinitely and often unsuccessfully. If you put a firefly in a jar, it often dies.
Vox: Carrie Souza
Guitar: Chris Haugen
Bass: Angeline Saris
Drums: Jeremy Steinkoler
Piano: Ken Cook
Cello: Alex Kelly
Percussion: Silvestre Martinez
Mirror
Music and Lyrics written by Carrie Souza
Time: 5:05
This song was channeled in a dream. I often dream full songs and have trained myself to wake up and capture them. I always keep a recording device on my nightstand for this reason. The message behind this song is that you are never really alone when you look within. If you look outside of your self, you will often feel without. It is about finding true love and your soul mate in your own reflection. Your true love in life is yourself.
Vox: Carrie Souza
Guitar: Chris Haugen
Bass: Angeline Saris
Drums: Jeremy Steinkoler
Piano: Ken Cook
Cello: Alex Kelly
Percussion: Silvestre Martinez
FITS (Fall into the Sea)
Music and Lyrics dreamed by Carrie Souza
Time: 4:43
This song was also channeled in a dream. It was intended to be a round in three parts. You can have group of people sing each part and it will combine together as it does in the end of the song. In the dream there was a young boy in a musical singing. The second part, I saw it from the perspective of the young boy watching himself singing and feeling proud of himself and singing the second part. The third part, I saw the mother of the boy watching the boy watching and singing to himself and she was also singing how proud she was that the boy was proud of himself. It was profoundly beautiful and I did my best to capture it. Is your head spinning?
Vox: Carrie Souza
Guitar & Mandolin: Chris Haugen
Bass: Angeline Saris
Tenor Saxophone: John P Douglas
Percussion: Silvestre Martinez
Wanderin’
Music by Chris Haugen Lyrics by Carrie Souza
Time: 4:02
This song was sent to me by my good friend Chris Haugen. He was looking for some lyrics and these came to me right away. When I shared it with Chris he said he felt like he could have been the one to have written them himself. They were perfect for the song and his situation. Chris will also be singing this on his album. It was really written meant for him to sing it, but I loved it so much it made it on this album too.
Vox: Carrie Souza
Guitar, Mandolin, Synth: Chris Haugen
Bass: Rob Fordyce
Percussion: Silvestre Martinez
Go Back to Gold
Music and Lyrics dreamed by Carrie Souza
Time: 2:31
I dreamed this song after my daughter lost her college friend, Cage, in the GhostShip Fire in Oakland, Ca. Cage was a beautiful songwriter and musician and was lost too soon. I like to think of her as released from this earth glistening in specs of gold and transforming into an angelic realm as part of music itself. Rest in Music.
Vox: Carrie Souza
Guitar & Bass: Chris Haugen
Tenor Saxophone: John P Douglas
Percussion: Silvestre Martinez
Brook Steps
Music and Lyrics dreamed by Carrie Souza
Time: 3:49
I dreamed this song and had no idea what Brook Steps meant. NO IDEA. I sent it to Chris anyway, who was helping me to take my snips and ideas and create actual living breathing songs out of them. Some of the stuff I sent was very raw and undeveloped and it takes a lot of vulnerability to share these without letting self doubt and judgement shrink them back into the ethers. Chris was non-assuming and safe and helped me actualize and create the songs. I said, I have no idea what Brook Steps are and he said, "well… I do, call me". Chris and I had been working closely together on music so I’m not surprised about the information share. Chris explained that at one of the happiest points in his life, he lived on a street in Southern California and at the end of the block there were old steps that led down to the beach where he would go to surf when he needed to find balance. Those steps were called.. yeah you guessed it… Brook Steps.
Vox: Carrie Souza
Guitar: Chris Haugen
Bass: Rob Fordyce
Drums: Jeremy Steinkoler
Percussion: Silvestre Martinez
Bonita
Music by Chris Haugen, Arrangement: Carrie Souza, Lyrics Carrie Souza
Time: 3:33
I knew I wanted a Samba or Bossa Nova feel on one of the songs. Chris came to my living room and plugged in and I just recorded him doing some chord progressions. After he left, I chopped them all up and made Bonita (which also happens to be the name of the street I live on). This is a song for my daughter who I nicknamed Birdy. It is kind of a lullaby of sorts. Think of a big mama bird and her one fuzzy baby taking flight for the first time. How you worry and guide simultaneously. How you encourage them to spread their wings and fly even when they are so fragile and all you want to do is protect them.
Vox: Carrie Souza
Guitar: Chris Haugen
Bass: Angeline Saris
Drums: Jeremy Steinkoler
Flute & Soprano Sax: John P Douglas
Percussion: Silvestre Martinez
Sausalito
Music by Chris Haugen, Arrangement: Carrie Souza, Lyrics Carrie Souza
Time: 3:58
My great grandparents are of Portuguese descent and immigrated to Sausalito from the Azores in the late 1800s to Sausalito. It is a very special and magical place and I am so happy to call it home that I wanted to honor it in a song. It feels like home.
Vox: Carrie Souza
Guitar: Chris Haugen
Bass: Angeline Saris
Grace
Music by Andy Bradt & Carrie Souza, Lyrics Carrie Souza
Time: 3:11
We have a grandmother named Grace. She was the kindest, gentlest most non judgmental soul I have ever met. When I was an angry teenager doing my best to destruct everything around me, she would just say “I am so proud of you, honey”. This is the kind of woman she was, complete unconditional love. Last time I saw her in Upstate New York where we visited every year, she held both my hands with her soft fluffy grandma hands and looked me deep in the eye and said “All good things must come to an end, Honey”. Sigh. She was such a powerful influence. I know I wanted to do a tribute to her on my first album, and went to visit my musician cousin in Texas to write a song with him in her honor. We sat down and came up with this in one afternoon and I am really happy with how it came out. Now that she is not in the physical realm, Grace can be found, everywhere.
Vox: Carrie Souza
Backing Vox: Andy Bradt
Guitars & Mandolin:
Andy Bradt, Chris Haugen & Steve Gibson
Bass: Steve Gibson
Drums: Jeremey Steinkoler
Men Like You
Music & lyrics by: Michael Mesmer
Time: 4:37
Well, well, well. This is a cool story. Wayyyy back in the day, I was putting a blues band together and wanted to meet some fellow musicians. I put an ad on CraigsList and started talking with Michael Mesmer, who seemed really cool. He was a professional therapist and invited me to his office to share some music and originals he had written and maybe jam and get to know each other. We met and he shared a few originals with me but one specifically stuck out. It was a song about Domestic Abuse called Men Like You. It resonated with me so deeply because I myself had been in an abusive relationship with my first Love when I was 19. Michael and I never got together to jam again as life sometimes has it, but that song was always in the back of my mind. I had almost finished my CD and wanted to add another song but wasn’t sure what it was when I came across Michael in a “people you may know” feature on Facebook. Holy smokes, could that be that musician from 10 years ago??? I clicked and sure enough it was! We started corresponding an he said he’d be honored if I recorded his song. The more people to hear this message the better! My heart sword! I would like to donate proceeds from any downloads to MAWS, Marin Abused Women Services who helped me when I was 19.
Vox: Carrie Souza
Guitar: Chris Haugen
Bass: Angeline Saris
Beautiful Song
Music by Chris Haugen Lyrics by Carrie Souza
Time: 2:08
Well, I thought the album was complete but this one snuck its way in. Chris had come over to work on music and he started playing something that sounded amazing. I captured it! I said, just keep playing, keep it going! He recorded this in one take. Witin 10 minutes I had lyrics for it. This was during a time when my Mom had suffered from a stroke and I was really upset about it. Congruently, Chris’ partner was in the hospital fighting for her life. This song conveys the deep despair and helplessness you feel when caring for a loved one that is flirting with death. In this case, both have recovered but many of my friends are currently caring for their aging parents and have taken on the role of the mother. Oh, life… why is letting go so hard? Time goes on, you see.
Vox: Carrie Souza
Guitar: Chris Haugen
