Giving birth to a new CD

Today I spent a few hours with the co-producer of my first solo CD, "Full Circle: Songs of Peace and Love by Pat Lamanna." He's Vito Petroccitto Jr, and he's the nicest, most laid-back, easiest to work with person I know. And, he's making me sound good!

I keep wondering why I'm spending all this time on money getting this CD out. I have a full-time job; I'm not a kid; I don't have the energy I used to and I sometimes wonder if I look like a fool at the open mics with the young folk with their electric guitars and jazzy chords. But all I can say is, the songs keep telling me to do it. They won't leave me alone.

I can use the analogy of giving birth, something I'm quite familiar with, having done it three times. The songs are like a baby in me. They're going to come out, whatever I say. The birth pangs can't be denied: the money, the time, most of all, the huge learning curve as I try to figure out MySpace and Blogger.com and creating links and CDBaby and who knows what all else. But like a baby, the songs are not truly of me: they are separate entitities, and though they come through me, they are not of me, as Khalil Gibran puts it in "The Prophet." Somehow I became impregnated with these songs, and they insist upon being heard.