Right Where I Belong
Americana • Country • Blues • Folk
The Story Behind Right Where I Belong
After stepping away from public performance and recording, I decided in 2025 that it was time to return to music—to writing, recording and telling the stories I had accumulated during the years I had been away.
I realized that the previous sixteen years of my life told a story worth preserving. More than simply releasing music, I wanted to leave my fingerprint behind for posterity. I wanted my descendants to someday be able to hear my stories told in my own words and in my own voice.
I began by bringing several earlier songs back into my musical life: In Your Heart, Rhythm of the Breeze and my recording of Raining On Me.
The first song written specifically for the new project was the title track, Right Where I Belong—a tribute to Oklahoma, Americana music, rural living and the peace I find in simply being home.
From there, the album became increasingly autobiographical. Its songs carry pieces of single parenthood, motherhood, heartbreak, difficult relationships, legal battles, illness, resilience, homecoming and the strength that can grow out of painful experiences.
The music moves naturally between country, blues, folk, soul and singer-songwriter traditions because my story doesn't belong inside one neat musical box.
These are songs I hope resonate with people who recognize pieces of their own lives in mine. But they are also something more personal: a record of who I was, what I experienced and who I eventually became.
The Songs
Side A
Right Where I Belong
A love letter to Oklahoma and the quiet satisfaction of rural life. Morning coffee, wildlife, red earth, porch swings and Oklahoma wind become symbols of a life that finally feels like home.
Read Lyrics
Morning sun shinin’ on my hair
Cuppa joe in my favorite chair
Bluebirds sing their mornin’ song
Yeah, this is right where I belong
Water bubblin down the stream
Spotted fawns playin’, runnin’ free
Huntin morels after spring rain
Bakin bread for dinner today
Here we’re livin’ a country song
Yeah, this is right where I belong
Wild grasses bend in Oklahoma wind
Squirrels play chase up and down the fence
In this moment there’s nothin’ wrong
Yeah, this is right where I belong
This Okie heart’s made of red earth clay
I’ll be an Okie ’til my dyin’ day
Water bubblin’ down the stream
Spotted fawns playin’, runnin’ free
The sound of hens, the smell of hay
Porch swings and friends at end of day
Here we’re livin’ a country song
Yeah, this is right where I belong
I’ll be an Okie my whole life long
’Cause this is right where I belong
Rhythm Of The Breeze
Written years before the album, this reflective song explores the way memories of someone we have lost can unexpectedly return through the smallest things—in this case, the sound and movement of the wind.
Read Lyrics
I've never cared for autumn
It meant winter's on the way
Spring was my favorite 'til you left that rainy day
I shouldn't let it get to me, but my heart won't sit at ease
Because you keep calling me through the rhythm of the breeze
Why do you call to me through the rhythm of the breeze?
A steady beat and easy flow brings back your memory
I can feel you breathe as it gently blows through the budding leaves
Why do you call to me through the rhythm of the breeze?
I know I'll have to let you go and face reality
Goodbye was never a strength of mine, I need the company
Although the past is over, it just won't let me be
Because you keep calling me through the rhythm of the breeze
I can take the summer, I can take cold winter days
But when the wind begins to blow, your voice carries me away
Raining On Me
One of the recordings I chose to resurrect for Right Where I Belong, reconnecting the album with an earlier chapter of my musical life.
Lyrics
Lyrics are not displayed on this page for this cover recording.
Still My Baby Blues
Written from the heart of a mother whose children are grown. It holds both pride in the adults they became and the ache of wishing I could go back just once more—to muddy shoes, scraped knees, bedtime comfort and rocking my babies to sleep.
Read Lyrics
You knew better than to slam those doors
Trackin’ mud ’cross my nice clean floors
Runnin’ wild at the crack of dawn
“Momma, I ain’t got no shirt’ to put on!”
Those were the days of your youth
Yeah… momma’s got the still-my-baby blues
Stayed up late watchin’ SNL
Kissed your scrapes every time you fell
Slept in my bed till you were ten
Lord, I’d love to do it all again
Miss the days of your youth
Yeah… momma’s got the still-my-baby blues
Missin’ dirt on your Sunday shoes
Runnin’ home to tell me your news
Now you’re grown… babies of your own
And your news comes through a telephone
Ohhhhhh… momma’s got the still-my-baby blues
You hid your face inside my hair
Tryin’ to hide from the doctor’s stare
Held you tight at two a.m.
Countin’ breaths again and again
Been through it all—I paid my dues
But I still got the still-my-baby blues
Now you lock your own front door
Don’t need mama like you did before
But when your life leans hard on you
You still come runnin’ like you used to
I may be missin’ your Sunday shoes
But I’m proud of who you grew into
Same wild heart in a taller frame
Same stubborn fire—a bit more tame
You were my life, now it’s your own
When you need me—come on back home
I’ll hold your hand like I used to
I’m always here—waitin for you
Side B
Enough
A song about recognizing that love cannot survive when only one person is doing the work. It marks the moment when continuing to give becomes less important than finally knowing when you've given enough.
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You found me at a local fair
On a cold December day
Offered coffee with a patient stare
Work kept my eyes away
Knew you though we’d never met
Like we were old friends
After days of late night calls and texts
Our story already wrote its end
You can’t fill a leaking vessel
Can’t pour love into the air
Dreams of forever got no muscle
When only one chooses to care
Love takes two
Me and you
Now I’m through
I know the truth
Whatever I do…
It’s never enough
Red flags waved dangerously high
With stories that didn’t add up
Months of my silence sailed by
While I kept on trying to fill your cup
I gave and I gave
You took and you took
Look at my face
Do you see this look
I’m walking away from who I thought I knew
A wiser me
For loving you
Love is never enough
And I’ve given you way too much
I've had enough
Enough
I Became
One of the album's most autobiographical songs. It touches directly on raising children, custody battles, an abusive relationship, illness and difficult seasons—and on choosing not to become bitter because of them. The experiences didn't simply happen to me. They helped shape who I became.
Read Lyrics
Inside my mind live younger days
Late-night calls and dinner plates
Baby eyes, soft and bright
Kept me sane through sleepless nights
I was running on a tired heart
Four little lives, doing my part
Smiling when I knew I should
Doin the best I knew I could
I walked through fire, I walked through rain
Found my strength inside the pain
I didn't have it figured out
But I never backed down
I’m still here
I didn’t blame… I became
Seasons I could barely breathe
Promises I couldn’t keep
Courtroom halls, legal fights
Trying just to do what’s right
Words that cut, hands that bruised
Sickness had its day too
Still I showed up every day
Found my courage on the way
Every road that led me here
Made the picture crystal clear
It took the dark to see the light
Took the wrong to turn me right
I walked through fire, I walked through rain
Found my strength inside the pain
I’m still here, and I’m okay
I didn’t blame… I became
In Your Heart
Originally written in 2004 and first released in 2010, In Your Heart reaches much farther back in my songwriting life than the newer songs on this album. Bringing it into this project allowed an earlier part of my musical story to exist beside the person and writer I am today.
Lyrics
Full lyrics will be added here.
Dusty Roads
A song about leaving home in search of something larger and eventually understanding the value of what was left behind. It closes the album with the pull of home—the same sense of belonging that begins the record.
Read Lyrics
Growing up in a small town
With dreams of greatness calling out
To highways filled with flashy cars
And city lights that outshine stars
The dusty roads that I called home
Once so deeply loved, desired
Held too tight to this gypsy’s soul
And quenched her inner fire
Dusty roads, wait for me
I’ll return to you one day, you’ll see
Dusty roads, can I count on you
To welcome me home when I’m through
Subways and streetcars, exciting at first
Couldn’t ground me like down-home dirt
The heat of sun-drenched asphalt streets
Lacked the morning’s soft, cool breeze
Dusty Roads, are you still there?
Do you miss me like I miss you?
Dusty Roads, do you still care?
Can I come back after all I put you through?
Home… to my Dusty Roads
Dusty Roads, I’m almost there
Album Details
Leaving My Fingerprint Behind
Music gives me something photographs and family stories alone cannot: the ability to leave my descendants my thoughts, experiences, stories and even the sound of my voice.
Right Where I Belong is part of that fingerprint.
I hope people hearing these songs today recognize pieces of their own lives in them. And someday, long after the circumstances that inspired them have faded into family history, I hope someone who carries a little of me in them presses play and gets to know me.