Even when I'm with you, often when I call
Especially when I fear you don't get me at all
I'm alone, I'm alone

It's not that I'm so needy, what's wrong with wanting care?
Affection is what feeds me, though you seem unaware
That I'm alone, I'm alone

Maybe then it's better for us to be apart
For me to be my own girl, to make it a new start

Now that I'm without you, now I'm on my own
There's something that's exciting about this new unknown
I'm alone, I'm alone

I'm Alone

Birkat Hamazon – Rory Michelle © 2014

with thanks, appreciation, and gratitude to Nathaniel Moldoff for being my 'chevruta' (learning buddy) in unpacking the first paragraph of 'Birkat Hamazon', The Grace After Meals. Our discussion is the inspiration for this song.

Chorus:
Hazan et haolam kulo
You are the One who nurtures
In its vast expanse, the whole universe
Hazan et haolam kulo

Umfarnes lakol, umfarnes lakol
You support and maintain
Hold the space and sustain
Umfarnes lakol

Chorus

Umaitiv lakol, umaitiv lakol
You cause us to grow
Become more and more whole
Umativiv lakol

Chorus

Umaikhin mazon, umaikhin mazon
You prepare and provide
Make real dreams from inside
Umaikhin mazon

Chorus

Rav Daniel Landes' “Rashi” (Commentary)

"I've been bentchen (blessing) the Birkat HaMazon since I was a very little child, at least once a day. I do my best to avoid the public singing of it, while I do respond or lead the zimun (invitation, i.e. Rabbotai Ne'Varech), and say amen to the blessing at the end of the final paragraph.

"The public singing has only one musical form - I have never heard another! And I have so tired of this semi-football cheer / German biergarten chant. It does work to learn the words, and to finish this long blessing. But for me, it is not conducive to thankfulness, which is the point of it all.

"Rory Michelle's beautiful take on this blessing slows us down, and puts the emphasis on contemplating and thanking God who does... everything... for us. Her Kavannah (intention) allows us to feel the miracle of that large expanse, which is the universe being sustained by the even "larger" (such a term is only evocative rather than descriptive) God.

"And for that, Rory Michelle, I am moved and thankful and strangely hungry! After all, you can only bentch when you are satisfied - 

"And thou shalt eat and be satisfied, and bless the LORD thy God for the good land which He hath given thee."

"וְאָכַלְתָּ, וְשָׂבָעְתָּ--וּבֵרַכְתָּ אֶת-יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ, עַל-הָאָרֶץ הַטֹּבָה אֲשֶׁר נָתַן-לָךְ"
Deuteronomy 8:10


Birkat Hamazon - Acoustic version

Musical Team

Tagid Li (Tell Me)
Vocals - Rory Michelle
Backing vocals, percussion – Olivia Brownlee
Drums – Anthony Cimino
Electric guitar and bass, backing vocals, percussion – Jay Psaros

Song to You
Vocals – Rory Michelle
Backing vocals – Olivia Brownlee
Drums – Anthony Cimino
Electric guitar and bass, percussion – Jay Psaros

Let Yourself Be Found
Vocals – Rory Michelle
Acoustic guitar, human pipe organ – Olivia Brownlee
Drums – Anthony Cimino 
Banjo, electric and bass guitar, percussion – Jay Psaros

Spring Cleaning
Vocal – Rory Michelle Sullivan
Toy piano, acoustic guitar, organ – Olivia Brownlee
Drums  - Anthony Cimino 
Bass and percussion – Jay Psaros

Birkat Hamazon
Vocals – Rory Michelle
Acoustic guitar, backing vocals – Olivia Brownlee
Conga – Anthony Cimino
Upright bass, backing vocals – Jay Psaros

All Will Be Right
Vocals – Rory Michelle
Backing vocals, acoustic guitar – Olivia Brownlee 
Drums – Anthony Cimino
Bass and electric guitar – Jay Psaros

Rabban Gamliel
Narrator, chorus – Rory Michelle
Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya’s wife, chorus, acoustic guitar – Olivia Brownlee
Chorus – Jay Psaros
Rabban Gamliel – Joe Cimino
Rabbi Yehoshua, chorus – Matt Ford
Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya, students, chorus – Max Haskell

Goodbye, Shabbat, Goodbye
Vocals – Rory Michelle
Acoustic and electric guitar – Jay Psaros

Studio Team
Co-produced by Rory Michelle Sullivan, Olivia Brownlee, and Jay Psaros of PB&J Records
Recorded, engineered, mixed and mastered at Mojo Studios, Franconia, NH by Anthony Cimino

© 2015 Music and lyrics by Rory Michelle Sullivan, ASCAP
© 2015 Live It Studios, ASCAP

Tagid Li (Tell Me)

Rabban Gamliel

Let Yourself Be Found

God Has a Plan

Erica, Lucy, Alan, and Stan, discuss music, The Pretty Scoundrels Tour, hidden passageways at Joe's Nautrical Bar, and air tambourine with Olivia Brownlee and Rory Michelle on South Shore Live! at 95.9 WATD. 

South Shore Live! WATD 95.9 - April 6, 2015 - Pretty Scoundrels Tour Radio Spot

My Baby Darlin' Porcupine

Oh, my baby darlin’, oh, my baby darlin’ porcupine
Oh, my baby darlin’, oh, my baby darlin’.won’t you be mine?
You’ve got spines on your tail, but you’re so cute inside
Why do you show your quills, oh, why do you hide?

Oh, my baby darlin’, oh, my baby darlin’ porcupine
Oh, my baby darlin’, oh, my baby darlin’, please, please be mine!
I give you my lovin’ and I give you my time
Isn’t my love enough for you to feel fine?

So, my baby darlin’, tell me something, darlin’, why would you find
Every reason to leave me behind?
Why must you send up your strict defense
I simply must love you, it makes complete sense.

Oh, I love you, darlin’, yes, I love you darlin’ porcupine
Tell me baby, darlin’, tell me baby darlin’, that we’ll be fine
‘Cause I will not love you, if you won’t be mine
I will find another porcupine.

So, you say you love me, so you say you need me, porcupine
Let me in and show me, that you really know me, porcupine
Tell me that you’ll love me, tell me that you’ll need me, and want to be mine
Oh, my baby darlin’, oh, my baby darlin’ MY porcupine…

Won’t you be mine?


My Baby Darlin' Porcupine

Rockin' pump-me-up groove.

Concept and Commissioned by Brian Califf as a Kickstarter Reward. Thank you, Brian!

Lyrics:
You’re used to hyper-speed and hyperspace
Things accomplished in one click
Allow me to say it face to face:
In real life, things don’t happen that quick!

Let time take time
Take it one day at a time
Let time take time
Take it one day at a time

You’re used to ready satisfaction
Want the baby, not the embryo
Someone should have told you
Some things need time to grow

Let time take time
Take it one day at a time
Let time take time
Take it one day at a time

Building trust, allowing change
Healing old familiar wounds
When it doesn’t happen right away
We assume we’re doomed

We want it right now, right out of the gate
When the best thing to do is “Hurry up and wait!”
Plants don’t grow when you pull on their leaves
Sometimes it’s faster when you leave things be
So even if you’re standing still
Remember, you’ve got time to kill!

Let time take time
Take it one day at a time
Let time take time
Take it one day at a time

Whoa, Whoa
Yeah, yeah, yeah, whoa, whoa, whoa
Yeah, yeah, hey now
Take it one day at a time

Let Time Take Time

Let Time Take Time - For Brian Califf

Crusin' music for your next road trip.                         

Concept and Commissioned by Joseph Grollman as a Kickstarter Reward. Thank you, Joseph!

Lyrics:
Nothin’ in this world is denied me
Happy to have a good friend beside me
Got a beatin’ heart to guide me
Gotta love this feeling inside me

Chorus:  Sunshiny day, it’s a sunshiny day
And everything’s going just my way, just my way, just my way

Golden sun and one white cloud
Top down as we sing out loud
Car’s as yellow as I’m proud
More fun than should be allowed

Chorus

What adventure lies ahead?
Get it in before we’re dead
Livin’ life is my street cred --
That’s the thing I’ve always said.

Chorus

Nobody knows where this road goes
Nobody knows where this road goes
Nobody knows where this road goes
I sure don’t know where this road goes

Chorus

Rory Michelle Singles

Sunshiny Day - For Joseph Grollman

Written as a Kickstarter Reward song for Yve and Tom Sullivan - thanks, Mom & Dad, for supporting me, for all the memories, and everything else.

THE BEACH SONG - FOR MOM & DAD
On Gilgo beach, basking in these familiar sands
Buried in a golden car made with love and daddy’s hands
Oooh Daddy’s hands

And Mommy made us sandwiches like she always does
An emblem of her care, and Mommy’s love
Oooh Mommy’s love

 Daddy’s out on the windsurfer off on his way
Kids are crying, saying, “Daddy don’t leave us!”
Mommy sells it at the garage sale next week
But you can’t sell the memories
You can’t sell the memories

On a break from the ocean, in a Carolina Beach shop
Next we’ll go for burgers, grilled by Pop-Pop
Oooh, Pop-Pop

We all walk to Squigley’s for an ice cream cone
Year after year, till we’re all full-grown
Oooh, and we’re all full-grown

Pop-Pop’s moved to Massachusetts
The Carolina condo is empty for a while
Now someone’s renting it out
But you can’t rent the memories
You can’t rent the memories

And I miss the drive
All fourteen hours of the drive
Fitting the dog and a family of five
In a tiny, packed space
Getting on each other’s case
But what I wouldn’t give
If I could just live out one more drive
The best times of my life
Were on the beach and the drive to the beach

On the fridge’s an old photo of Mom, and I overheard
She wore a white bikini with a little bird
Oooh, a little bird

Mom would visit Dad, he was the beach lifeguard
They lived in different states back then, it must have been hard
Oooh, it must have been hard

I drive to Long Beach Island where they used to hang
Buy a beach pass, and a turkey sandwich
Imagine them and what it must have been like
But I can’t buy their memories
No, I can’t buy their memories

On the drive to Gilgo beach, 23 years older now
The car’s more empty without the dog, somehow
Ooh, without the dog, somehow

Then, I’ll go home to shower, wash off all the salt
No more cat to lick the shower floor, but that’s no one’s fault
Oh, that’s no one’s fault

And sometimes I look up and I look around
Think I see the dog, or hear the cat
But there’s just those new kittens Kaley got
And you have to make new memories
You have to make new memories
You have to make new memories

The Beach Song

The Beach Song - For Mom & Dad

LIVE PERFORMANCE
Thank you to Beverly Peress and Congregation Tifereth Israel for the invitation and honor to represent them at the 2017 Morgan Park Summer Faith Festival.

Songs: 
Rabban Gamliel
God Has a Plan

2017 Morgan Park Summer Music Festival

Rory Michelle Sullivan is a singer-songwriter and composer who has recorded and performed her songs internaRory Michelle Sullivan is a singer-songwriter and composer. Her work explores relating to ourselves, others, and a spiritual Source in healthy, authentic, creative, and constructive ways. She has recorded and performed her songs internationally, from parlor rooms in Jerusalem to bars in Vienna to Jimmy’s No. 43 in NYC’s East Village. Notably, she has performed at the Morgan Park Summer Music Festival on the same stage graced by folk legends Peter Yarrow and Dar Williams. Rory Michelle and her music have been featured at festivals such as ISH, Cincinnati's Jewish and Israeli Arts and Cultural Festival, on the Emerging Artist Showcase on Jewish Rock Radio hosted by celebrated Americana singer-songwriter Joe Buchanan, and in Philadelphia RowHome magazine.
Rory Michelle has released four studio albums of original songs: Rising in Love Concept Album (2019), The God Album (2015), Inner Child (2014), and Turtledove (2013). Her Jewish-themed musical endeavor, The God Album, includes fun folk, funk, rock, and swing music with songs infused, inspired, and informed by Jewish text. Listeners have called Rory Michelle's music "most enjoyable ... worshipful as well as fun" and "clever, honest, soul-bearing folk songs that transcend place, time, and circumstance and stir the imagination and tug gently but deservedly and genuinely at your heartstrings."
When she is not composing music, Rory Michelle is singing it with Jewish communities. Rory Michelle holds a Bachelors in psychology from Harvard University and a Masters in Arts in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is currently working on a musical. Watch the trailer, hear the music, and learn more at risinginlovethemusical.com.

Rory Michelle Sullivan

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