My Daughter, Me, And Music

I started seeing that I expected something from music that it could not give me. I do that all the time with objects, ideas or people: want something from them that they can not give me.

When my daughter noticeably became interested in music at a young age; I purposely discouraged her and my wife from encouraging the pursuit. But nothing stopped her. She was obsessed with making music. My wife thinks I might have inadvertently made the music life more attractive to Cozy—by making it too taboo.

Who knows. All I know is that my intentions were genuine in wanting her to find something else besides music. I too grew up watching my parents playing music, recording, and performing. As I grew older and faced all the troubles of being in the music life; I sometimes wondered if I only took this path because I saw my parents doing it. Maybe I could have been something else.

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Music Is Not All Song And Dance

The music life to me, for the most part, has been something akin to having a lifelong addiction that you can't overcome, so who in the world would want that for their child.

But over the last 5 years, I began to change my tune. I quit being such a pessimist about my past. I started looking harder at all those bad memories and saw that it was my perception of my life that sucked, not my life.

I started seeing that I expected something from music that it could not give me. I do that all the time with objects, ideas or people: want something from them that they can not give me.

A Pandemic Song

I began to enjoy my daughter's love of music. It was clear that nothing I said was going to stop her so I decided to start preparing her for the artist's life. Almost Everyone's life is difficult in some sense, the artist is no more or less difficult; they just have particular hardships and pitfalls they need to learn to recognize.

I was about midway through my album, The family songbook when the so-called, 'pandemic' started affecting our life. All my shows were canceled. It became difficult to book studios and to work with my regular recording artists. Needing female vocals re-recorded on a song, I was frustrated with all the cancelations.

I called my (then) 12-year-old daughter out to my home studio to just try some ideas out. We ended up recording a few songs and even writing another—which is the song in the video above, Parables. We eventually completed that first song during 2020 and released the whole album that has her all over it.

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Since the release of The Family Songbook, in Oct 2020, Cozy and I have gone on to write almost a full album and began the recording process.

Parables

By Ezra Vancil & Cozy
Add this song on your favorite music app

Never trade your promise for regret
The day you do your laying down a bet
That someones going to hold you when you're old
Let’s hope that human kindness doesn’t fold
Brother, it’s a wild and wary game
Then we count up the pieces that remain

Love will burn then bury you
Hearts will break then carry you
Truth will teach her song to you
As we walk our wild and weary way back home

These bridges were built by engineers
These lips could burn in days what took them years
Be careful when you reach for that last word
The last one is the only one they heard

Oh, Sister, it’s a long-forgotten tale
The lonely one is writing for himself

Love will burn, then bury you
Hearts will break then carry you
Truth will teach her song to you
As we walk our wild and weary way back home

An Elephants will always be your friend
The question is will you remember him
Never teach a bear karate
He’ll punch in the neck and break your body
Teach him how to care
Then he’ll learn to share
Take you out for dinner
Yah, he’ll take me everywhere

Sister, it’s a wild and weary road
Then we count up all the pieces that we sold
So, hang a sign and write it not for sale
These precious little items on the shelf

And sing
Love burn bright, then set me free
Heart be strong and carry me
Truth, tonight, sing your song for me
As I walk my wild and weary way back home

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Thanks for reading. I'm Ezra Vancil a Texas Songwriter and Performer and sometimes writer and artist. You can check out more at www.ezravancil.com