On my divorce day, several songs helped me through. Just in time, a friend introduced me to Rilo Kiley’s song that repeats the words “It’s so good to be free.” I also played some of Paul Simon’s songs about divorce and I got stuck on Josh Groban’s “You’re Still You” which I played over and over, interminably. It was like balm for my sore ego.
But two songs that came up on my iPad’s “shuffle mode” surprised me by how much they helped. They were my originals. I wrote “Not So Bad” about a terrible depression I had years ago and how surprisingly well one night, in the middle of it, turned out. It’s an upbeat song with conga accompaniment that concludes that maybe life isn’t so bad. “Solterona” is my anthem for women who have purposefully chosen not to marry and it’s my only song with a chorus that’s in English and Spanish (my mother helped me translate it). “Solterona” is the song I heard with new ears on the morning of my divorce day because its pro-independence, feminist lyrics support my current determination to stay single from now on and be who I really am.
This weekend I’ve been playing “Going of Age,” which expresses how it feels to grow out of youth, lose the attention of a certain part of the population, but gain a different appreciation for oneself in this new stage of life.
(Here’s the story of my music career. Here’s the explanation of why I didn’t release this album until 2013.)
If you’d like to hear my original songs, you can find them on iTunes or the CD Baby website (if this link doesn’t work, go to www.cdbaby.com and search for “Rodriguez-Martin”). Because it’s a digital album there are no physical copies of a CD: you can only purchase this album by downloading it to your computer, phone or other device.
Although these songs were written by a chronic depressive, it’s a remarkably optimistic album. Take a listen. You can purchase them individually or pay $9.99 for the whole thing (14 tunes). Buying my digital recordings supports the publication of my dog ebook, which will be happening in 2014. I just have to fund it!
Update 4/17/21: the publication of my dog ebook didn’t happen in 2014, but it will. It will.