Beginning the Ending
The story of Everything's True by Jessica Wolfbird
Hello…
My friend James thought it’d be nice if I made a little song + essay pairing, and I thought of doing it over on my lapsed Patreon…but this Existential Lullabies Substack is sitting and waiting for a purpose, soooo….here we go, I guess!
First off, if you didn’t know, I’m in album release ‘season’ as I like to say. It’s a way to account for all the release shows and pulling together of details, because I’m much too much of a messy Jessie throw-spaghetti-at-a-wall and see what sticks to organize one ‘perfect’ release show / event / moment.
So for those new to this moment…
After rebranding as Jessica Wolfbird (from Jessica in The Rainbow / Jessica Fogle) in June-ish of 2023, over a year before legally becoming a Wolfbird, I started releasing pieces of this still-upcoming album “Everything’s True.”
If you want to read about it in depth, it’s splattered all over my Instagram @jessica_wolfbird and the liner notes at Bandcamp http://www.jessicawolfbird.bandcamp.com
But basically, 10-year-long story a little shorter, the songs in Everything’s True are mostly from 2014 - the year I met my now-husband - and they had a weight and importance to them, so I kept envisioning more and more pieces to this project / album until it grew unwieldy - a dozen or so collaborators, and some 12-minute long songs (with beautiful cello arrangements by my brilliant friend Elisabeth Blair, and cello performed by prodigy meets kindest soul Hunter Zhao)…so as a way to keep my sanity, I started releasing it in pieces last year.
Everything’s True pt. 1 came out in November of 2023 and it’s the two long forest-folk orchestral songs from the album - currently streaming everywhere you listen to music, FYI. I played some of my biggest fests to date in 2023, leading up to this- Blissfest, Holler Fest, and Earthwork Harvest Gathering with a 6-piece band, and then on 11/3/2023 we had a Pt. 1 release show in Grand Rapids, Michigan at the DAAC.
Next, we moved into the folkier dreamier (shorter:) tracks + some Mister Rogers for Adults style piano ballads, and my dad played bass, my brother played drums, my nephew mixed them, and a couple of the friends who joined me at the Earthwork full band show played a part too - Tana Johnson (harmonies) and Ty Maxon (guitar) - and we played a release show for Everything’s True pt.2 at Speciation Ales in Grand Rapids, with dear friends Ditch Lily.
Then there were some more shows, more work on songs, I got married to Bryan (we’re officially Wolfbirds now :)…and FINALLY we began the ending 🌟
Everything’s True will be out EVERYWHERE on 12/21/2024 (4 more new songs - including one you can have now with the pre-order, only on Bandcamp, called Words, featuring Bryan my husband on harmonies along with Tana, and Ty on guitar, and Nathan Coles on drums).
We played a release show in Grand Rapids already, the day the pre-order was announced (10/26/24 at the Stray), and now we’re playing a little set at my house this weekend…along with a final release show at Esquina Chicago on 12/14.
And then…ONWARD!!!
These 10 songs have lived with me for so long - 10 years most of them - that I decided it makes sense to do the song + essay pairing with these songs first.
For today, just this update.
And the lyrics to True Things are True (below)…to give you a sense of where this is going. I think I’ll add the song too, for those who don’t like clicking over to other apps.
Thanks for listening, and for being here. I hope these existential wanderings soothe your heart in places you didn’t know needed healing. ❤️🩹
Take care!
Jessica
Xoxo
~
1- True Things are True
by Jessica Wolfbird
Every joy sits on a spectrum
Every pain connects at the bottom
In the middle’s the point.
Sitting in the middle
Looking at each joy and pain
Sitting in the middle
Not floating far away
Not looking to feel safe
Not hiding in the center but
Experiencing pain born out of the joy you long for
It’s true, this joy we long for and
Desire is in our being and
Joy can’t exist alone
Accepting the full dimension
Accepting the truth of being
Not holding onto suffering
Not holding onto bliss
Picturing life
Picturing life like grains of sand
Through our hands
Through our toes
Up our nose
Floating floating
We can choose
We can pick it up again if we can stand it
If we don’t mind losing it again.
Feeling this pulse in me
Feeling your energy
I am alive and free from the lies that were taught to me.
There is no destination
There is no safe escape
Right in this moment I feel safe, and then unsafe
In my mind I am safe, and then unsafe
In my mind where I harbor lies that I tell myself to feel okay
and you feel things deeply, I feel the same
We feel ourselves growing deeper, deeper, deeper in the light.
And I will not judge the light that flows through me
I will not judge the words that come from my mouth
I will not judge each chord I witness in my mind the second before it comes out
And I will not judge myself at all.
I will not judge myself at all.
I will not take this experience and make it cheap for you.
I will not hide myself – my heart doesn’t want me to.
The world is full of people who
may need to hear what’s on my mind
Just like I’m inspired by people who
are not afraid to share their minds.
The world is full of broken people
The world is full of people who
are trying to find their dream come true
They think they're owed their dream come true.
But the only dream
The only dream we’ll find
Is the one that says that time is on our side.
Every moment that we breathe or speak
We choose to be
We choose to breathe
And I choose this life
And I choose to breathe
And I choose to be here
with the war that’s inside of me.
Fighting the past that hurt me
Fighting the lies that shaped me
Knowing my breath can help
Knowing my voice has meaning
for others who want to breathe
for others who want to be here
for people who need to be here
for people who can’t help but feel fear
like me
like you
like me.
~