Last year a dear family friend passed away.

In the days leading up to his death, I sat by his bedside - my hand upon his still, quiet hand - and I sang. As he slept, I sang. And in the middle of every song I wept. But then I wiped my tears and carried on singing. 

This is one of the spaces I feel most alive...bringing my voice into the painful, unbearable moments of life. The space were song or silence are the only way to hold the weight of the burden. 

Over the years I've brought my voice into hospitals, funerals, and deathbeds. It feels like my own way of bringing light into darkness.

 

Singing has always been my therapeutic outlet, my release, my life source.

It's been a home for me, again and again.

 

 

I'm sharing both originals and covers here.

I hope you enjoy, 

 

 ~ Rae

 

Last year a dear family friend passed away.

In the days leading up to his death, I sat by his bedside - my hand upon his still, quiet hand - and I sang. As he slept, I sang. And in the middle of every song I wept. But then I wiped my tears and carried on singing. 

This is one of the spaces I feel most alive...bringing my voice into the painful, unbearable moments of life. The space were song or silence are the only way to hold the weight of the burden. 

Over the years I've brought my voice into hospitals, funerals, and deathbeds. It feels like my own way of bringing light into darkness.

 

Singing has always been my therapeutic outlet, my release, my life source.

It's been a home for me, again and again.

I'm sharing both originals and covers here. I hope you enjoy,

~Rae

 

 

 

What Was I Made For 

Billie Eilish, cover

One of the best things about my research in Artificial Intelligence is that it's surfaced a deeply important
question on a societal level:

What does it mean to be human?

What is our purpose? What are we made for?

These meaning-laden questions stir a deeper philosophical conversation worth leaning into. 

The first time I heard this song it moved me. It feels like a stunning and poignant theme that many of us can relate to throughout the seasons of life.

 

Denver

Rachel Wood, original

I wrote and recorded this song in college. Late one night I found out the best friend of someone close to me was in a tragic car accident.

I didn't know how to process the pain at the time. So I stayed up all night and this song poured out of me. 

Denver
2:51
 

 

Hideaway

Rachel Wood, original

I wrote and recorded Hideaway in 2017 tucked inside a cabin in the Colorado mountains right beside a quiet river.

The crisp air, the cozy cabin fire, the ripple of the stream...it remains a core memory that stirs delight and contentment within me.

Hideaway
3:30
 

 

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Judy Garland, cover

This beautiful holiday song was written for the 1944 musical Meet Me In Saint Louis. Growing up, I watched old musicals with an obsession.

I remember I took a theater class in middle school and the teacher gave us an assignment to lip sync a song in front of the class (don't ask me why she didn't just have us sing it, it seems like an odd assignment looking back now), and I sang a Judy Garland classic while all my classmates were lip syncing 90's grunge.

 
Ave Maria
1:53
 

 

Ave Maria 

Franz Schubert, cover

This 1824 classic by Schubert anchors me in the classical training I went through during my undergraduate music degree.