Anne Hills - Accidental August (2021)

When the COVID-19 quarantine threw our lives like scrabble pieces into a jumble, we struggled to find words, new ways to communicate and make sense of it all. My second job is as a therapist, and as psychotherapist Mark Gerald suggested (The New Yorker, 6/1/20), the empty time brought to mind August breaks and vacations making the pandemic feel like an “accidental August” with no Labor Day in sight. But nothing stops time’s relentless march into beginnings and endings. So, just as we begin to adapt, another blow tosses us into a jumble again. In late January, I had begun working on a project of songs to build empathy with geriatrician and writer, Al Power. With my performances, and his dementia care lectures, abruptly canceled, we stepped up our scrabbling. And when I lost my long-time friend, Michael Smith, on August 3rd, the whole project became more deeply personal. I was torn by grief but filled with gratefulness for Al’s continued collaboration. This collection of songs gave us both a vehicle to write our way through our accidental August. – Anne