Bloggerlife.blog

08/01/2025

Today’s blog

Lynn Murphy Mark

Singer, songstress

Every once in a while an artist I have loved and listened to in the past, but have lost touch with over the years, pops up. Then I am reminded how much I enjoyed the music, and the words, and the rhythms coming from their soul. This happened yesterday as I was on the elliptical, blasting tunes through my earbuds. Somehow I had not heard any of her work for maybe two decades. 

This jewel’s name is India.Arie. When I last really listened to her music she was approaching 30. This year, in October, she will turn 50. I found this out when I looked her up. To me, she will always be a 20-something producing big tunes with words about life on life’s terms. She has won four Grammy Awards and been nominated over 20 times. Her first album, Acoustic Soul, was released in 2001 and was quite successful. 

She writes songs about spiritual things, race issues, self-determination, and cultural identity. One of her songs says, “How could I live without music?”, a sentiment I share passionately with her. She writes about love lost and found. She writes about everyone’s right to a genuine self-respect. 

She has sung with other great artists. Adele, Stevie Wonder, Carlos Santana, and Herbie Hancock,  are just a few. But her solo work is mostly her path. She writes songs like, “I am not my hair”, implying that a person is so much more than the way they style their hair, or wear their clothes, or choose to fashion their lives. She writes about human rights and how people can get along if they are willing to look beyond the surface.

In 2022 she joined several artists who decided to remove their music from music service Spotify. She based this on the fact that Spotify featured racist podcaster Joe Rogan. She objected to his use of inappropriate language related to racial issues. She once wrote that her songs are  “made to be listened to in a quiet time, prayer, meditation, yoga. My wish is that these songs bring softness, clarity, calm and inspiration.” I love those songs, and I pair them with her R&B songs with very cool beats.

In 2009 she decided to retreat from the music industry. She talked about this on Super Soul Sunday with Oprah. Like Tracy Chapman, the business was eroding her soul, and she recognized that her body was suffering too. Her throat was closing and hurting when she spoke and sang. Her spiritual exhaustion caused her to make the decision to back off of the craziness of her schedule and the pressure to always produce more music.

On June 15 of this year, on Father’s Day, she and her mother spoke out for the first time about the domestic and sexual abuse they both suffered at the hands of her father, Ralph Simpson, an NBA player. Her mother especially wanted the message to come across that it is possible to break the generational trauma that so many families experience. It was a courageous act that India.Arie posted in her Instagram account. She wrote, “I’m not posting this today to tell you that I’m struggling, because I’m not. I’ve spent my entire adult life working through my issues with my father. I’ve come a long way. My mother, though, is coming to terms with her feelings and we are supporting each other in telling a deeply personal, shared, story. A family story.”

I am grateful to have re-discovered this fine musician. I love her messages.