40 years of Songwriting

Song Share: 'Mad Man' Written & Performed by Cheryl Beer  for The Dragon Tree.

I wrote my first song when I was 13 years old and it dawned on me today that this year, I will have been writing songs for 40 years. 

I have had a blessed life meeting amazing people and travelling all over the world to write and sing songs.

What started as a something to cheer the family at Christmas, became a lifetime of songwriting.

I have performed in just about every acoustic music venue in the UK, countless festivals, so many I have lost track and throughout the live music scene in Europe. 

I have toured India and was a special guest at the opening of Zimbabwe Women's Music Academy. I have given talks, won awards and played alongside people that were my idols.

But when I went deaf in 2016, I gave up all hope of continuing to live as a songwriter. It was too painful. The tinnitus and hyperacusis made live music untenable ... although I continued to write songs for myself to help me through the dark times, I gave up on my dream ... until this week, when something major shifted inside me. 

It is as if the tectonic plates of my being have shifted back into place, allowing all the pennies to drop. I am a Songwriter.

Perhaps because a dear friend has recently passed away, teaching me how precious life is, or perhaps because of a conversation I had with another dear friend, who is also a songwriter ... there is no need for me to know why the time feels right, just that it does.

All I know is that I am filled with this thought ...

Why shouldn't a 53 year old deaf woman with tinnitus and hyperacusis live her dream? 

What is stopping me? 

And off course, the answer is ... ME! 

And with this realisation, I picked up my guitar and wrote a song ... and then another one and oh my word, it felt so good. It felt like coming home, like being mended. 

Off course, I can't sing like I did because I can't hear myself very well, and the guitar is distorting in my head as I play it ...  but who cares! Somehow, I'll find a way to overcome these little obstacles.

In gratitude and to celebrate 40 years of songwriting joy, I am going to share my back catalogue here at my blog, posting songs from my Youtube & Bandcamp  clips. Today's Youtube Clip is 'Mad Man' written as part of a film I made called The Dragon Tree, funded by The Arts Council of Wales. (It's at the top of the page.)

It feels so good to be falling back in love with writing new songs ... I'm not sure where that might lead. Best set the intention and let the Universe work her magic, trusting that she will bring the right people into my world to make it it so.

If you would like, you can purchase tracks from my back catalogue here ...