Getting Ready To Be Lonely is a Doug Midgley Special. I've always really loved this song. There's something deeply sensitive about the idea of someone bracing themselves to feel anything, let alone the painful isolation of loneliness. The words have always captivated me.
Somehow, GR2BL didn't make the cut for my Dad's only fully released album, On & On. So it became a slowly fading melody in my mind for a long, long time after he died. This song was one of several that I was sure I would never again get to hear.
Luckily, on a day when technology and human kindness aligned the past with the present, I hit PLAY on a wonderful gift from one of my dad's writing buddies - a cassette tape he found and passed on to me of my dad singing along to his hummingbird guitar. I remember riding in the passenger's seat of my now husband's car that day after having the cassette digitized, and getting to listen to my father, Doug Midgley, sing out the songs of my childhood. It was so much fun to discover I was instantly able to sing along to songs I had not heard since I was 8 or 9 years old. I felt wrapped in my dad's presence and I knew it was time to get to work.
THANK YOU, BOB PEEK!!!!!!
I began to collaborate on GR2BL by writing "with" my Dad for the first time. I studied his song. I learned it. I inhaled it and, when I exhaled, I found more and more of myself inside. I adjusted some words, added a verse and a bridge, and sought the help of studio musicians to bring my ideas to life. After that, the song remained untouched for quite a few years... until I met my amazing producer friend, Digital Droo. Together, Digitial Droo and I re-recorded my vocal parts and layered harmonies. Then he did what he does best and nailed the final touches. The result is my second single release and the most fulfilling collaboration I have ever known. Getting Ready To Be Lonely was conceived in my father's heart in the 1990's and born from mine as a gift to the world in 2018. Whodathunk that getting ready to be lonely could be a heartwarming and fulfilling process!?