Three Chords and The Truth

What better way to love?

It’s been said that to write a good song, all you need are three chords and the truth. The quote is attributed to the songwriter Harlan Howard, who wrote more than 4000 songs, and is famous for the Patsy Cline hit “I Fall To Pieces,” which is indeed 3 chords plus one teensy little chromatic walkdown between the 5 and the 4, so I think his adage checks out.

The chords are the easy part. The truth is hard to catch.

---

“WHAT BETTER WAY TO LOVE SOMETHING THAN TO TELL IT THE TRUTH?”

I told you guys a few weeks ago about my adoration for the poet Andrea Gibson. Here is a story they told in an interview with Jane Ratcliffe:

I see a number of different doctors, and I see this one really far out doctor. He said, “The cancer thinks that it's wiser than you are. The cancer thinks it's a better version of you than you. And you have to tell it that you are a better version of you and tell it to go.”

And I said, “Oh, wild. I've been doing the opposite.”

And he said, “What do you mean?”

And I said, “I've been trying to send the cancer love.”

And he said, “Well, what better way to love something than to tell it the truth?”

---

There was a squashed bug on my baseboard that I’d shielded my eyes from and hustled right on by for months. One day, a couple weeks ago, I was about to do just that and I heard a little” Oh, come on! ” from the - what do we call that internal voice these days- the angel on my shoulder? The part of me that wants the best for me, and sometimes has to get rowdy to be heard? Anyway, it was suddenly the most obvious thing in the world to STOP, (seriously?) get a rag, (what!?) and just (get out of here!) clean it off. I did that, and then, down there on my hands and knees, I looked behind the heater panel.

Oh. My. Stars.

I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, put my hands on my hips, and said out loud, “I don’t want to hide from my life anymore.” I pulled that sucker off, vacuumed and scrubbed in all the cracks and crannies, and started in on a binge festival of cleaning.

I had been getting stuffed up for months every time I laid down in that room. Hiding the mess didn’t make it go away. Cleaning it did. I had to tell the truth. Then I had to break a sweat.

With the room scrubbed all the way to the edges, I started feeling my whole body soften, and I had this sense of my own presence expanding to fill the room to the edges. Clearing the places I had been ignoring and denying made it safe to spread out and show myself, even if it was just to me.

This stretching out also shines a big, bright spotlight on the ways I had surely been shrinking in on myself. My hunching. My hiding. My wearing the mask more than I can sustain.

I’m pretty lost when it comes to trying to control much of anything in the outside world these days. But in my home, in my life: I can tell the truth. Especially to myself.

I don’t want to shrink to the middle. I want to fill it all to the edges. I want to love it all enough to tell it the truth. I also want three chords to sing it to.

HOW CAN I HELP?

I host a Motivate Monday Meeting for working singer-songwriters. We independent artist types don’t have water coolers to toss ideas back and forth. This is that.

Mondays 12-1

I’m also offering a weekly ZOOM office hour/Q & A. Come take your lunch hour with me and we’ll talk about whatever you are working on. It might be a group, but it might be one on one. I am here to offer my experience, since I’m finally old enough to have some.

Wednesday 12-1

Links are being emailed to PAID SUBSCRIBERS on Monday mornings.

Trying To Catch The Truth

As I said earlier- the chords are easy. The truth is more of a shapeshifter. Here’s a recent attempt I made to catch it, and I really want to share what I am working on right now in the moment when I’m still excited about it, since by the time the song is actually released I’m usually pretty over it. It’s a song for my Bear, and it does have four chords, but the 6 is really just another way to play the 1, so does it? (If that sounds like gibberish to you: take my workshop on The Nashville Number system when it comes up this fall.) I’m hoping to get a good demo in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime- the lyrics:

"A Light I Like" by Jes Raymond 2025

Coming up on summer; I know that jacket stung ya, 
But you can't take it out on the honeybees.
Pull down your mask and let that wonder flash 
Honey, that's a light I like to see. 
Honey, that's a light I like to see. 

Storm clouds come up under, and your brightness gets covered
Easy gets awful hard to reach. 
You can't hold it back; you are shinin' through your cracks. 
Honey, that's a light I like to see. 
Honey, that's a light I like to see. 

Your ever-changing colors, you're ever reaching upwards, 
You glow, you sparkle, you beam 
I couldn't love you more, but I'll still try. That's for sure.
Honey, that's a light I like to see. 
Honey, that's a light I like to see. 

Time's a steady drummer. Don't you let it rush you.
 No one gets a day they get to keep.
You will fall; you'll pick up scars, 
But I'll be wishing on that star. 
Honey, that's a light I like to see. 
Honey, that's a light I like to see. 

That’s it for now. Be good to yourself, be good to each other. ❤️