addiction
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the thing I most dreaded when I began making songs at age 12 was being killed in a classic Brooklyn hit-and-run before I could create a world-famous masterpiece. not so much anymore. these days I don’t sit and wonder if my next song will make me famous, or whether someday critics will consider it a…
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I work at a donut shop in lower Manhattan. between shifts I earn extra income as a server. a few times a month I’m also a nighttime dishwasher. I pick up some part-time work at Macy’s Herald Square at Christmastime, and I have stood on 6th and Broadway with an ad board over my neck,…
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I’ve been thinking about this recently. it’s something we talk about a lot in group. we wrestle with, at the same time, trying to maintain this sense we’re OK as we are, and where we are, being works in progress, while striving each day to climb out of someplace dark over to somewhere brighter. it…
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my mom loves, really loves, this song. so much so that she named me after something sweet and surprising she heard in the lyrics. (it’s at the 1:07 mark.) it was released in 1970. she couldn’t have known then (she wasn’t even born) how much the words, hold on, it’s gonna be alright, you’re gonna…
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today I am coping with the loss of a friend who was in recovery. he was 26. this isn’t the first time someone in group didn’t make it. when it happened before, a counselor came and told us a bunch of things I wrote down in my notebook and recite each day. she said we…
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I’m riding the Q train, crossing the bridge. I’m leaving Manhattan, on my way back to Brooklyn to play a set for the recovery group. but the train stops because something’s on the tracks ahead. from my place on the bridge, I can see people in their apartment windows. their lives are on display as…
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when I was a little kid, I wrote a letter to my favorite TV show, Scooby Doo. I told them they should do an episode where the monster turns out to be real. I’m grown up now (pretty much), and I still know that monsters are real. and that when you’re fighting one, it’s really…
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as a songwriter and performer, the work of opening the heart can be a lot.it can seem like you’re going around feeling everything — and that can be overwhelming. the audiences I seem to connect with the most are the ones that are feeling some of the same things I am. sometimes I play for…
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my songs have a way of letting me know what’s going on. they accompany me through depression and dependency. they make me feel less alone. they help me feel some light, and even sometimes a little beautiful.
cookie nieves 