01/15/2026
Even though this exceeds the one post every couple months quota I’ve unintentionally established this past year, I’m posting again to say that yesterday I released my song “Clara” on streaming services!
I’ve obviously been performing this song live for many years, but I haven’t released anything since 2020 and just felt like it was time to get the ball rolling again—as opposed to continuing to find reasons to postpone or hide from the world. Plus, yesterday would have been Clara’s 120th birthday, and it felt like a perfect excuse to start putting myself out there again (as if I needed one, lol). Ultimately, I’m just excited to say that I pushed past some of that digital age paralysis and have something to share—with, frankly, no ambition or expectation. I just have always been really proud of this one, and I know Clara would have been beside herself knowing she inspired a song (and that her picture made the cover!)
For those that don’t know the backstory, Clara was a very special person in my family. I grew up hearing all these vibrant stories of her—all the playful memories she made with my mom, aunts, cousins; teaching my brothers to ride bikes and finding out she didn’t know how to brake after she tried to assuage my brother’s fears by going down the biggest hill herself (when she was sixty, btw); and most of all, the extraordinary generosity and purity of heart with which she lived her life in spite of humble, truly difficult circumstances. She was a mother to all despite not being able to have children of her own and was just an all around beautiful and constantly giving soul who could always find something to be joyful about. Perhaps you know the type.
That said, by the time I came along (born on her birthday) and was old enough to remember, Clara was in her nineties and lived at a nursing home nearby. Dementia had wrought its horrors, and she could barely remember for more than a few minutes at a time before the conversation would repeat. She didn’t know who we were anymore, which I know was devastating for my mom, aunts, and cousin Maureen who would still go out to sit with her regularly—bringing me along so that I could “know Clara,” though I didn’t understand it at the time. I had heard the legends, but the woman in front of me—though still kind as could be—had lost some of her vibrance.
She’d ask the same questions over and over. “Is my little house still standing?” My mom knew that they’d torn it down, but to this day she’s never actually taken the street to look, just so that she could honestly answer that “it was last time I saw it.” Clara also thought the years she’d spent in the nursing home had only been a week, and my mom always told me that she thought it was a blessing. It was as devastating for her and my family to have Clara in there, and her thinking it had only been a week felt like a mercy.
It wasn’t until many years later, mid pandemic, that I looked back on those memories of sitting with my mom and Clara and saw what an extraordinarily beautiful and loving act it was to continue going out there and including her in our lives—even long after time had taken it’s toll. She never stopped being that light to my family, and my mom never allowed us to forget that even though Clara’s disease caused her too. I am so grateful to my mom for that, and I decided I would write this song to celebrate them both—a song that is entirely true in its illustrations. These were just some of the countless memories and actual conversations left behind of this light.
There’s so much more that could be said, and I’m not confident anyone’s even read this far (which is okay!), but what I’ve always said is that the life of Clara won’t be included in the history of the world, but it is on the life of Clara that so much of the good of my family’s history is built. She (and my mom and family), of anyone I’ve ever met, deserved to be “immortalized” in a song, even if no one listens. I know she would have been just thrilled in that humble, beaming way of hers—and I like to think that maybe she still is.
I’m so honored and grateful to have gotten to write this, to share a birthday with Clara, and to be related to such vibrant and loving people. And one thing I’ve learned from playing this out is that there are a lot of people who have their own Clara in their lives, and this song is for them too. Absolutely. No matter what, they never stop being our lights.
Finally, I’m grateful to Bryan Clark (Rainfeather Records) for his exquisite production and mixing and to the Voltage Exchange for mastering. I hope everyone enjoys who wants to listen—it’s on all the streaming services, now. But regardless, here’s to Clara!
PS) It’s on all the streaming services, but I’ll link the YouTube in case anyone wants to listen from here:
Provided to YouTube by CDBabyClara · John DennisClara℗ 2026 John DennisReleased on: 2026-01-14Auto-generated by YouTube.
