AllFreeNovel
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“A lot of your songs are visceral. They paint a picture of life in a very realistic kind of way which, in my opinion, isn’t often found in other music.”
“Right, right. I try to stay as true to the reality of the world as I see it as I can, and that includes the good, the bad, the muddled, the weird, and the random. Life is just kind of a mixed bag of jellybeans and you never know what flavor you’re going to get next.”
“Well, I do look forward to hearing this new song of yours, but before we get to that one, will you singNow’s the Time?”
“Absolutely.”
Sarah stood up from the small red chair and moved over to the guitar stand and microphone. She wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans and closed her eyes, counting to herself. This was where she could excel. While interviews were not her passion, here she would be amazing. She could do this. Letting out the breath, Sarah strummed the guitar. Music and words flowed from her, rising to a high before going to a low and then back up again. She was hyper-focused on the music, ignoring the audience, ignoring the cameras, thinking only about her guitar and the notes she was singing.
When she finished, she set the guitar down. They went to a commercial break, and she sat back down across from Carrie. They chatted briefly before they were called back to the camera and went live again.
“That was a beautiful song. I don’t know how many times I’ve listened to it, but every time I’m reminded of how fragile life is and how we’re all walking on this journey together.”
Sarah nodded. “Yeah, I had hoped when we decided to record it for this album that was the impact it would make.”
“You’re on tour right now.”
“We just started our new tour. Our first concert was outside of Seattle and then Portland, and we’ve been down here the last two nights.”
“Where do you go next?”
“Uh...I think Phoenix next. Arizona, I’m coming for you.”
“I can’t imagine how hard it is to balance life and everything when you’re on tour. Does this song really help you deal with that in any way?”
Sarah’s lips parted and she closed them sharply. Her initial response probably wouldn’t have been the best answer, but she could weave in variants of it if she wanted. “It is hard. Like I said before, I think it’s hard for anyone, but having a job that takes me away from home for months at a time isreallyhard. I miss things like my nieces’ birthdays, best friends’ weddings, all that stuff. My family are really understanding, though. They are truly beyond supportive of me and my career. It’s amazing what they’ve done for me over the years. I couldn’t have done it without them.”
“It sounds like you have a wonderful family.”
“Yeah, I do.” Sarah wrinkled her nose. “My twin sister still gets annoyed when I miss our birthday, but she’ll live. We shared them all growing up and she hated it, you’d think she’d be happy to have her own day since she begged for it the first twenty years of our life.”
Carrie laughed appropriately. “I didn’t know you had a twin sister.”
“But not identical, promise. So don’t try looking for my doppelganger anywhere.”
Smiling again, Carrie glanced at her notes. “You told me earlier that you were going to sing a new song for us.”
“I wrote this song just a couple months ago, actually, but I performed it last night for the first time and thought I’d share it here as well.”
“Well, let’s hear it then.”
Once more Sarah stood up and walked across the stage to the guitar and microphone. She wiped her palms on her jeans and let out a slow breath. She bobbed her head to the beat no one else could hear as the song she had written at Eli’s came to life for everyone watching.
When she finished the song, her nerves worked overtime, and she couldn’t quite figure out why. As they cut for commercial, Sarah took some deep breaths. Her handler came over with water and made her drink half of it before he led her to the chair and sat her back down. Eli wiped the palms of her hands against her jeans, surprised they were still sweaty. She only had a few more seconds to get a handle on herself, and she managed to pull the strings together enough to be presentable.
“That song, wow. Sadie, that song was amazing.”
“Thank you.” Heat rushed to her cheeks. “Really, thank you. I find it so hard to sing some songs for other people until I’ve done them about three million times.”
“Why is that?”
“They’re so emotional for me. Every song is important, every lyric has so much meaning behind it. And until I work through my own life around that song, it’s very hard to sing it for other people, so thank you for being the guinea pig on this one.”
“No, thank you. It was amazing. What inspired it?”
Sarah paused. She was about to talk about Buddy. She had planned her speech about him, figured out exactly what she was going to say, how she’d fed him and taken care of him, but she stopped. Her voice left her. Her face felt clammy again, but she pushed through it, and gave a small smile.
“When I first wrote this song, I thought it was about a cow.”
