About That Song: Mary Strand & Katy Tessman
About That Song #18
In our special series, singer-songwriter Sarah Morris interviews artists about the songs that shaped them.
Hi! I’m Sarah Morris. I’m wildly in love with songs and the people who write them. There have been a few songs in my life that have been total gamechangers—songs that made me want to be a songwriter and songs I’ve written that made me feel like I am a songwriter. About That Song is a space where I can learn more about those pivotal songs in other writers’ lives.
In the 18th edition of this series, I connected with two Minnesota singer-songwriter friends, Mary Strand and Katy Tessman! We chatted about their new albums, important songs in their development as writers, and more.
Mary Strand (l); photo by Nicole Nelson. Katy Tessman (r); photo by Tom Smouse.
Sarah: Hi Mary Strand! Hi Katy Tessman!! What a wonderful thing to get to speak to both of you today. I consider myself fortunate to have gotten to know each of you through a songwriting group that I belong to. Over the last few years, I’ve heard your most freshly written songs on a weekly basis.
I thought it would be fun to bring you two together in this conversation because you share a few specific commonalities—you’ve both released beautiful new, long-awaited albums this year (YAY!). Mary’s Golden Girl came out this summer, and Katy’s FLY just this month! Also, you’re both mothers, dynamic women, and you’re both AUTHORS! OF ACTUAL BOOKS! I’d love to learn a bit about the songs that have shaped your journey(s), as a songwriter and as an author.
Let’s start with you, Katy! Which came first? Author or songwriter?
Katy: Being a SONGWRITER was part of my identity since I was 22, but only for a decade. The past twenty years I’ve been focusing on being a MOM (at the age of 33 and again at 36), SURVIVOR (I was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer and I had a double mastectomy on my 40th birthday), and AUTHOR (at the age of 43 I published a children’s book about our family breast cancer story). I have recently reclaimed the title of SONGWRITER after a l-o-n-g hiatus.
Sarah: I see how you honor your various identities with ALL CAPS. I sense a lot of gratitude within your story, and while you mention reclaiming SONGWRITER at this point, it appears the other identities remain present. You contain multitudes! Well, going back to 22—do you remember the song that you heard that made you want to be a songwriter? Tell us about that song.
Katy: Luckily my parents have great taste in music. As a kid, some of the songs that were on repeat in our home were “Bridge Over Troubled Water” by Simon and Garfunkel, “Big Yellow Taxi” by Joni Mitchell, “Funkytown” by Lipps Inc, and “Silly Love Songs” by Wings. But it wasn’t until I started playing guitar and listening to songs like “I Don’t Know Why” by Shawn Colvin, “Scorpion” by Lucy Kaplansky, “Poet Game” by Greg Brown, “Both Hands” by Ani DiFranco, and “As Cool As I Am” by Dar Williams did I want to be a songwriter.
If I were to point to that song that made me want to be a songwriter, it would have to be “Strange Fire” by the Indigo Girls. The combination of metaphor and harmonies … the passion expressed in the vocals … the acoustic guitars resonating together … the creative collaboration … that song made me want to be a songwriter.
Mary: I agree that it really helps to have parents (and also older siblings, in my case) who love music. My mom played jazz almost nonstop in our house, and my older sibs introduced me to the Beatles and other great bands when I was just a few years old.
Sarah: Yes, my parents also deeply loved music. Primarily as listeners, though my mom has a lovely voice. In addition to the goodness of being exposed to music through them, I think the importance that music listening was given in our house made me believe that making music was a valuable enterprise. Mary, I’m curious, what came first for you—author or singer?
Mary: Definitely author. And before that, lawyer. I started writing novels in 2000, during my maternity leave after my daughter was born. I won a big national contest with my first manuscript, and that immediate success was one key trigger for me to quit practicing law in October 2001. (There were a few other triggers, too!) I picked up music later, taking guitar lessons for the first time in 2010 or 2011, but then I dropped those because I simply wasn’t committed. In 2016, I joined my first of many Twin Town Guitars bands, which made me start playing guitar again. In late 2017 or early 2018, I sang for the first time (other than in my car). And in July 2018, Rodney Crowell held his first songwriting camp, and that is when I became a songwriter.
Sarah: That sounds like a magical place to become a songwriter! Do you remember the song that you heard that made you want to be a songwriter? Tell us about that song.
Mary: In truth, there wasn’t any one song. Rodney Crowell had been my favorite songwriter for quite a while, and when he announced his 2018 songwriting camp, I signed up immediately … even though I had never written a song.
Sarah: Whoa! That’s an amazing leap! Brava!
Mary: To attend the camp, you had to have written at least one song, although most people at that first camp had written many songs. I wrote my very first song, “Leave You Behind,” simply to be able to go to that camp. I don’t think anything rhymed, but I loved it anyway! (I think Katy’s the one who pointed out that I love to write breakup songs, and my very first song was indeed a breakup song!) I was probably by far the least experienced songwriter at that camp, but the whole experience was beyond thrilling, and by the end of the week I knew I wanted to be a songwriter. One highlight: I got to sit at the front of the room, next to Rodney, playing my song on his beloved acoustic guitar. When I finished, he said, “Well, your very first song is better than my very first song.” Raptures!
In general terms, though, what drew me to songwriting has always been the lyrics. As a novelist, I tell stories, and songs are simply much shorter stories. Rodney Crowell’s songs are chock full of stories; sometimes I marvel at how many words he’s able to pack into a song. The Eagles were the first band I wanted to emulate in my songs, especially songs like “Lyin’ Eyes,” which tells such a long, detailed story. Growing up, I also used to lie in the sun listening to my mom’s jazz albums, but especially Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook. I still vividly remember the stories in those songs even though I haven’t heard them in years.
Katy: I agree with Mary. Songs that tell a story are so powerful. I would listen to Tracy Chapman's “Fast Car” over and over just to hear all the details in the lyrics.
Mary Strand. Photo credit: Nicole Nelson.
Sarah: “Fast Car” is a masterclass! And Mary—Rodney’s words! Such a phenomenal piece of encouragement. Once you began songwriting, did you feel like a songwriter immediately? It took me a few years of writing before I believed it—was there a song that gave you that “a-HA! I AM a songwriter!” moment? I’d love to hear how that happened for you, Katy.
Katy: In 1996, I wrote “Alone” in my Uptown studio apartment, capturing my 20-something loneliness with my signature optimistic twist. My band Joe’s Elevator included it on our 1997 release Up & Down and I reimagined it on my 2001 solo debut Fall. Fast forward to today, my 20-something son Louis (who’s the lead guitar player in my band) enjoys performing it with me. Recently he said “Mom, you’re a prolific songwriter, but I enjoy playing your old stuff too.” That’s the moment that I really felt like I AM a songwriter.
Sarah: AH! LOU! THAT’s a phenomenal piece of encouragement, too! We’ve got Rodney Crowell moving us along, we’ve got 20-year-old sons—here’s to the believers! Mary, how about you?
Mary: I wrote a whopping two songs in 2018 and six in 2019. Two of those six from 2019 were actually good enough to make it onto my Golden Girl album, and the first of those was “Quarter to 10.” It was the fourth song I’d ever written. It’s a song about a classic long-ago love that could’ve been, and maybe still could be, but … let’s just say unlikely. (Breakup song #forthewin!) The verses are a bit simpler than in most songs I write now, but I loved it and still do. (I also rhymed things by that point, ha ha.) And although most of the songs on Golden Girl were written in 2021 and 2022, because I’d become a much better songwriter by then, “Quarter to 10” held its own against them. As a side note, I loved “Quarter to 10” so much that I later used the music and melody from it to write two more songs, “Ryan’s Song” (“quarter to four”) and “Mark’s Song” (“quarter to two”), for my two guitar teachers. Those songs were spoofs of how crazy my guitar lessons are, and “Quarter to 10” was the perfect starting point.
But I truly felt like a songwriter, no question, starting in 2020. That’s when I joined the Singer/Songwriter Songwriting Challenge on Facebook. The challenge gave me deadlines to write songs, and I met all 20 of those deadlines that year. When I did that, I knew: I’m a songwriter.
Katy: Yes! The songwriting challenge group has been wonderful for me too. I started in 2022 after being an observer for a year. I have thoroughly enjoyed stretching and taking risks alongside so many wonderful humans who are songwriters. Six of the nine songs on my new album are songs I wrote based on songwriting challenge prompts.
Mary: I lurked for a year, too, before posting a song in the songwriting challenge group! I highly recommend that for anyone who’s interested but not yet ready to take the plunge.
Sarah: I’m personally glad you stopped lurking and took the plunge. And then you met the deadline. You shipped the work! You did the thing! You did it again. That is absolutely what keeps me feeling in line with my own “songwriter-ness.”
You both released new albums this year—let’s talk a bit about them! Katy, your album, FLY, is your first album in 20 years. Congrats! Was there a song that sparked the album? If so, would you tell us about that song?
Katy: This songwriting resurgence feels like I've found my wings! FLY includes eight songs written in the past two years (one is co-write with Michael Koppelman) and a ninth by Tim Cheesebrow. All share themes of self-discovery and resilience, with “fly” in the lyrics of three songs. “Vines” is a song about love, all the kinds: romantic, platonic, the love a mom has for her sons. Love always perseveres …“it will always reach for the sky / Searching and longing, demanding to fly.” “Courage After All” is a song from a parent, as an offering of support and encouragement, to their young adult child as they stand at the brink of a significant decision … “It’s time to fly, little bird of mine / You’ve outgrown this nest, it’s your time.” “Tulips & Daffodils" is a stripped-down duet that lays bare the profound sorrow experienced after the loss of a loved one … “Stardust is what we’re all made of / We are all destined to fly and soar to the sky.”
Mary: Katy, I love the “fly” motif! Apropos of that, one of my favorite songs by Rodney Crowell is “Still Learning How to Fly.”
Katy: Yes! “Flying” is a beautiful metaphor for being a human who’s always learning and growing.
Katy Tessman and the Turnbuckles. Photo credit: Tom Smouse.
Sarah: You’ve found your wings. Indeed! Mary, Golden Girl is your debut album! Congrats! Was there a song that sparked the making of the album? If so, would you tell us about that song?
Mary: First, Ryan Smith (one of my guitar teachers; the other is Mark Wade) absolutely sparked the making of Golden Girl. For several years now, I’ve written a “list of 100” goals for each year, broken into writing, music, and life goals. For the last few years, I’ve shown the music portion of the “list of 100” to Ryan and Mark. In 2021, my music goals included “record a song” and “sell a song (in any fashion).” I had no idea even what to list as a goal of that sort. When I showed the music goals to Ryan at the beginning of 2021, he looked at those two goals and immediately said, “Record a song? Hey, let’s do a whole album!” We started recording in late 2021. I think the first we began to record was “Golden Girl,” the title track, but it involved trickier vocals, so we recorded one or two other songs before I was ready to come back to “Golden Girl.”
So I guess the SONG that sparked the Golden Girl album was indeed “Golden Girl.” It was difficult to write. I wrote most of the lyrics for it in 2019, and the music and melody for the chorus (only), but I was stumped beyond that. I simply didn’t have the musical chops in 2019 to turn it into the song I wanted it to be. So I set it aside and kept writing other songs. Learning and growing, as some of us like to say! In late 2020 or early 2021, with another 18 months or so of experience as a songwriter, I was finally able to make “Golden Girl” the song I had envisioned back in 2019. That’s probably a metaphor for the whole album: wait until the time is right.
Aside from “Golden Girl” (the song), we talked (and talked) about which other songs of mine should go on the album, but that list kept changing. Ultimately, I saw that there was a common theme of “love” in the songs I was choosing, so that became critical to the songs we chose. Love, love, love: for better, for worse, something yearned for, something you’re trying to repair or escape from. Every song is quite different from the others. And of course, one of the songs on that album was a co-write with YOU, Sarah Morris! “I Don’t Want to Be Your Yesterday”: a sweet and nostalgic song about love.
Sarah: It was so much fun to write with you, Mary! And I love how that song turned out.
Katy: Speaking of songs about love, longing, and the passage of time, Cyndi Lauper’s 1983 song “Time After Time” always makes me swoon. I think the song’s melancholic and reflective tone resonates similarly to the Strand/Morris song.
Mary: “Time After Time” is wonderful!
Sarah: I’m curious—have you ever written a song inspired by a book (of yours, or someone else’s)? Or written a song, and had it lead toward a book? Katy, I know you’ve brought a song to visual life with your lovely “Hero Now Crowned,” and I’m wondering if it’s ever been that words lead to more words—does that make sense?
Katy: I’ve had an author-crush on Emily Dickinson for years and I finally found the musical hook to express my admiration for this great American poet (that we don’t know much about). I incorporated some of her poetry into the lyrics of “Nobody Knows Me,” one of my more upbeat songs on my new album.
A decade after becoming cancer-free, I wrote and released two songs about this significant milestone. “Piece by Piece (the best news of all)” is a personal lullaby for my two sons. I created a lyric video using Jessica Bailey’s illustrations from “Our Mama is a Beautiful Garden,” my book for children about breast cancer. And “Hero Now Crowned” is a love song for those who’ve conquered challenges like health crises, addiction, anxiety, etc. Inspired by the song’s resonance with people, I collaborated with St. Paul-based artist Bebe Keith and published a lyric picture book.
Sarah: Mary, have your author and songwriter lives intertwined or inspired one another?
Mary: Not yet, no, but I wrote a four-book YA (young adult) series that was released in 2016 and 2017 called The Bennet Sisters, based on a modern collision with Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. It wound up having a theme of music at its core, with a high-school basement band and lots of rock ’n’ roll. Things in the books started happening in my life, and vice versa. In fact, I started taking guitar lessons when I started writing book 4, because Lydia Bennet was taking guitar lessons. I had included Coldplay’s song “Yellow” in book 3 of the series, as an embarrassing moment for Cat Bennet in that book, and when I joined my first Twin Town band, one of the first songs I got was “Yellow.” It actually made me nervous! When I was writing book 2, about Mary Bennet, I was listening to a lot of music by the Colombian rock star Juanes, especially his Un Día Normal (A Normal Day) album. The title track from that album felt exactly like it captured the hopes and dreams of Mary Bennet, and I even included a couple of lines from the song, roughly translated into English.
I’ve thought about including my own lyrics in a book that involves music, but I wasn’t yet writing songs when I wrote The Bennet Sisters. I think it’ll happen. In fact, very much so. But, like with my song “Golden Girl,” I think it’ll happen when I have the chops to do it well and when the time is right.
Sarah: Here’s to excellent timing, to words both written and sung, and to each of your beautiful albums! Thank you so much for this conversation.
Get tickets to see Katy Tessman at the Turf Club in St. Paul on Wednesday, December 20, sharing the bill with Wild Horses and The Foxgloves! Doors open at 7pm and music starts at 7:30.
Listen to “Golden Girl” by Mary Strand
Listen to “Vines” by Katy Tessman
Credits for Katy Tessman’s FLY
All songs by Katy Tessman, other than “Broken Part” by Katy Tessman and Michael Koppelman and “Not Too Broken” by Tim Cheesebrow
Katy Tessman – lead vocals, acoustic guitar
Louis Tessman Stanoch – electric and acoustic guitars
Tom Leier – electric bass
Kelley Lima – drums and percussion
Nikki Lemire – harp, backing vocals
Michael Koppelman – acoustic guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
Justin Jacobson – pedal steel on “KISS ME”
Jillian Rae – violin, viola, and cello on “VINES”
Produced by Michael Koppelman
Mastered by Tom Garneau
Credits for Mary Strand’s Golden Girl
“I Don’t Want to Be Your Yesterday” was written by Sarah Morris and Mary Strand
All other songs were written by Mary Strand
Mary Strand – lead vocals, electric guitar, hand claps
Ryan Smith – acoustic and electric guitar, tambourine, mandolin, ukulele, Latin percussion, sitar, piano/keyboard, hand claps, vocals
Mark Wade – bass, electric guitar, gong, vocals
Jack Strand – drums
Sarah Morris – vocals on “I Don’t Want to Be Your Yesterday”
Produced by Ryan Smith, Mark Wade, and Mary Strand
Recorded at Flight Simulator, Time Capsule Studio, and Flowers Studio
Engineered at Flowers Studio by Kris Johnson
Mixed by Ryan Smith
Mastered at Rare Form Mastering by Greg Reierson
AUTHOR: SARAH MORRIS
Sarah Morris. Photo credit: Tom Smouse.
Sarah Morris is a superfan of songs and the people who write them, and a believer that certain songs can change your life. A singer-songwriter / mama / bread maker / coffee drinker who recently released her fifth album of original material, she’s been known to joyfully sing with people in her Big Green Bathroom.
