Christine Graves remembers some simple truths in her thoughtful new single and video Keep This In Mind — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
Marvelling at the wonder of Everyday Life — which also happens to be the title of her latest album — the Ottawa folksinger and songwriter tries to make the most of it in this track, while acknowledging the undeniable fact that we don’t get everything we dream of experiencing before we’re done:
“Gotta keep rolling gotta go with the flow
Hope my time left moves long and slow …
High on the mountain in the valley below
Never found an answer anywhere I’d go
Sure I’m a seeker yet I’m cautious to throw
All my seeds to the wind and hope the flowers grow…
If I die before I’m done
Hope I did enough good and helped someone
I keep this in mind.”
The results are both simple and sublime — and in keeping with Everyday Life, Keep This In Mind is here to serve as a musical blessing upon all those who look back on a life and wonder how they did. “During the pandemic, working in a mental health hospital catapulted me into intensely writing again,” she says. “Believing that my gift of making music is an important healing tool is a lesson learned from the hardships we all faced in COVID times.”
The album is not, however, a “COVID album,” she is quick to add, though “that might come next.” The album represents works from before, during, and “after” COVID, and the message of Keep This In Mind about finding the beauty in the mundane is about as timeless as you can get. “The song relates to how we define reality,” she says. “We can live something each day and it seems normal. Live it different, and reality is redefined. Do we have this capability? I think we do.”
Graves has released music independently since 1995, and served as the artistic director of the Blue Skies Music Festival from 2006 to 2008. With her remarkable voice and poetic heart, she is a performer who knows something about everyday life and can draw an audience into discover together how we are all the same. Everyday Life is her fifth studio release.
Watch the video for Keep This In Mind above, sample more from Christine Graves below, and follow her on Facebook and Instagram.
