- There is only one song on Hymns that I wrote, 'Hymn to Mary.' I wrote that when I was right in the middle of chemotherapy for breast cancer in 2000. As horrible as I felt, I would make myself go to the piano every day, turn on the tape recorder and plunk around for 10 minutes. Then I'd go back to lying on the couch, moaning. I did it because I had to keep my foot in the water: I was more afraid of losing my ability to write songs than anything. When I got my strength back, I listened to all those days of plunking and clinking. And there was this melody that was very special to me. A month or so later when my body was cleared of the chemotherapy I wrote the words, a prayer that came from the deepest place of reaching to Mary for faith in the midst of feeling abandoned.
- I've always had this belief that diversity of faith is like the brilliant scattering of light shining through the angles of a diamond. Even as it appears fragmented, it is all borne of the same source of light and each of us have an equal right to define and celebrate this beauty and sureness of the love of God in our lives. I have always wanted to use my voice like a thread winding through the many languages of these songs of devotion. It is only natural that I start with the songs of my spiritual roots.
- I never went to college. I forgot. I was going to college, and then I got a gig. Then I got a publishing deal. Then I got married. Then I had a kid. Then one day I looked up and went, 'Oops, I didn't go to college.'
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