The Dirt Under My Nails

If you've ever gone through the process of recording, and releasing an album, you know all of the feelings that go along with it. Will it stink? Will it connect with people? Sort of a nervous excitement as you now get taken more seriously as a performer, writer and musician.

As I was excitedly showing my mother the album cover - me with the symbolic and esoteric mound of dirt with a hybiscus plant gently cradled in my hands - she looked at it for moment and, in the way that only she can, said "Look at the dirt under your nails!" It must always be left up to your mother to keep you grounded.