Many thanks to Tidal for the opportunity to write about two of my biggest heroes, Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn. This essay was published March 7, 2019 to mark Women’s History Month. An excerpt:

“My real education in songwriting began that night. You have to be real. The songs come from a place that lives deep inside you. The rest is show business; the songs are bits of your soul. You don’t create them from shiny, sequined words, you create them from that place that holds your pain, your dreams, your unguarded self. The reason the circus is magic is because, beneath all the tawdry sparkle and sleight of hand, there is a child’s innocent heart. So it was, and is, with Dolly.”

To read this essay in its entirety, visit Tidal Read.