Learning Your Name preorders available now!

plus cover reveal and March merch drop news

Here’s the scene: my kids are (finally) at school after February break elongated itself with the biggest snow storm since 2015. I am toggling back and forth between browsers designing stickers, tote bags, physical cds, emailing people to see if they have any interest in telling their people about our music and the cat is growling at me because she is geriatric and can no longer jump onto the counter to drink a trickle of running water from the faucet which is her favorite thing to do in the small universe of our house.

I pick her up, put her on the counter, turn the water on. I’m thinking about all the work I’ve been doing to get Mia’s and my new music into the world. On some level it feels like laboring with a child although the pain is intellectual, not physical. It is disheartening to email every local newspaper, radio, and podcast host I can think of and just…not hear back. There is so much good music and art in the world; why am I shouting into the void about ours? Why am I knee-deep in tote bag companies when our neighbors are being snatched and democracy and the climate are falling apart?

Here’s our stunning cover, designed by talented musician and artist Alex Fam

But as nearly every decent human will tell you, we need art now more than anything which, if you ask me, feels like not enough but also is all I know how to do. So first I donate to anti-ICE efforts and then I read books and poetry and listen to podcasts and music like my life depends on it. But the dulcet (albeit rude) tones of my imposter syndrome voice love to hum gently in my ear: why does anyone care about what you are making?

When I get quiet the answer is clear: this particular album of ours is special and not in a way that calls attention to ourselves but in a way that asks other people to pay attention, to listen deeply, to access the wonderment of caregiving often buried beneath layers of burnout and exhaustion. In the words of our older sister Rabbi Shoshana Friedman, these songs are “caregiving as liturgy.” And as my husband says, “I wish the album were twice as long.”

Which brings me to my next point. Why is it only 8 tracks? Because, to be blunt, it is phenomenally expensive to make an album. We have deliberately chosen not to crowd fund, so this is an official nudge to preorder the album—you’ll immediately get one song to download and the rest will follow on May 10!

This is the first time we’re leaning into merch beyond physical CDs and let me just say, it is all really cute. We’ve got a short run of CDs on its way to my doorstep, but we also have stickers, postcards (with download codes on the back), and tote bags for which pictures and purchase links will appear in my next newsletter. Also, limited edition cassette tapes with original art by our kids will be available at our spring concerts.

Stickers, cards, Alvie sporting a sticker on his water bottle

On that note, I’ll leave you with yet another song off the album. This is the title track, written and arranged by Mia. She wrote it while pregnant with her son. Does it spark thoughts for you about your own journey to parenting? When did you know what your child’s name would be? We literally want to know.

If you are finding meaning in these songs and musings, please subscribe or share with a friend or two. It all helps to get our music to the ears of people who may need it. With my whole heart, thank you.