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Feels like Home Release Day!

Feels like Home is finally out on all streaming platforms today!! I hope you’ll add it to your playlists, share it with friends and your loved ones! Some of you are already familiar with the live studio version on Youtube.  I’ve also created a playlist of songs that remind me of home, some picks were inspirations for my song and some just give me that warm fuzzy feeling <3 

I’ve been completely blown with the feedback and reaction from all of you. This song has really taken on a life of its own including winning Grand Prize in country from the John Lennon Songwriting Contest in 2018, a Lennon Award in 2019 and it’s even been the first dance wedding song for a 2 couples this year!

Writing the song: I wrote the melody of this song in one afternoon on July 5, 2017. Let me set the scene for you…picture a love dazed Grace sitting on the couch with my guitar and humming away, pieces of paper with lyrics scribbled all over in illegible handwriting are scattered around the floor.

I went through my Iphone vocal memos this morning and found the initial voice recordings from 7/5/17 to share with you!!! This is documentation of working out the song in its first form. You’ll notice one version has similar lyrics that I ended up tweaking and the faster version has completely different lyrics! I often like to roll with whatever words and sounds come up in the moment while recording a melody and then see if any lyrical ideas stick. I then go in, write some solid lines down and tweak from there. 

Background of the song:  I was inspired by the unexpected thrill of meeting my boyfriend back in the summer of 2017. I had recently returned from my European tour and dating was the last thing on my mind but sometimes life surprises us in the best ways right?! Meeting him and frolicking all around NY on our magical dates was the greatest feeling and I found myself falling deeply in love. And when love comes around… a song often does too 🙂

Recording the song: I tucked this song away in my catalog never expecting to record it. Tbh, I didn’t know how this singer/songwriter sound would fit into the sonic world I was imagining for my record. Fast forward to the making of my video album GO TiME: Brooklyn part I and part II in 2018.  This song became a contender but was once again almost cut from my list because I couldn’t place its sonic sound in relation to the rest of my song selections!  It did end up making its way back in and I made a last minute decision to record it. I decided we would record it in its acoustic nature and let the song be what it wanted to be.  I thought it would be really cool to record this one as a duet and immediately thought of Elliott Skinner – a brilliant artist with an unforgettable voice. I could literally hear his voice on this when I initially brainstormed the duet idea. Elliott heard my demo of the song and loved it. He came over to rehearse the song 3 days before the recording and walked in with the freshest vocal harmonies. We rehearsed the song for 2 hours and the next time we met was the actual recording! Btw, this is the first time we had ever made music together!!  What you see and hear was the true live take that we rolled with. I do believe we captured the feeling of the moment and all the emotion that took place from the dialogue we had moments before where we dove into a conversation about love and expressing oneself through music. 

Thank you all for your incredible support, encouragement and kind words about this song. I appreciate all of you that voted for this song in its nomination for a Lennon Award! This song is one of my most personal ones and it means a lot to hear from you. I’m curious who are the people and moments that feel most like “home” to you? Comment below!! I look forward to hearing from you!

Peace and love,

Grace