Love is a Garden // Vinyl

LOVE IS A GARDEN // This album was written in the trough between two waves. My wife & I had recently ventured into a life of music as our way of earning a living in this world, and we were pondering a long-held dream of moving to another country for our kids to learn to speak Spanish while I worked on new album. At one point I couldn’t imagine when a window might open for us to make a year-long move to a foreign country on our variable, musical income. But after touring with To Have You Around across the United States and knowing I had written most of a new work, we realized it could be as good of a time as any to go (we made some spreadsheets too). So we packed up our van and drove to Mérida, Yucatán, in southern Mexico.

It was a year of heat and humidity —a year of Saturdays spent at a cenote, swimming and resting as a family —a year of la comida Yucateca (totalmente diferente y tan deliciosa) — a year where we learned to sleep in hamacas through the night —a year of working from a small, sweaty side room and collaborating long-distance with artist friends across the US to bring fullness to these songs —a year of being welcomed and embraced by our Mexican neighbors and church community.

In the inner courtyard of many homes in Mérida, full of fruits and flowering trees, is a garden. And gardens are an image of so many things: love and growth; seasons and loss. Even though Yucatán has a year-round growing season, the trees know the time of the year. The plumerias came in early spring. The orange-red flamboyán trees bloomed in early summer. Some heliconia stayed till October. And a small flowering tree with tender white flowers bloomed only in winter. Everything has its time. Seasons bring healthy rhythm into life, remind us where we’ve been, make us set certain things aside for a time...

As I write this, we’re freshly back from Mexico. Our kids speak Spanish, and we’ve brought this new album back to share with you. And some hamacas. I hope you enjoy and can find some rest in the garden that is this collection of songs, grown with friends and family and seasons and love. — ZW