Folky piano song with a fun drumbeat. A little funky. One of Christine's first 3 recordings.

A light-hearted tune about falling in love. Fun, upbeat, and with a touch of silly.

I Will Follow You

The starting notes of this song are strings I pick while I'm tuning my ukulele to check that it's ready to go. After having done this enough times, that little bit starting sounding like a song in my head, hence this song came to me -- aptly named The Tuning Song. 

But, instead of being about tuning one's ukulele, the lyrics of the song about tuning one's heart.

With the help of a native Italian friend, I translated the lyrics to Italian and sing that version as well.

The Tuning Song - English Version

The starting notes of this song are strings I pick while I'm tuning my ukulele to check that it's ready to go. After having done this enough times, that little bit starting sounding like a song in my head, hence this song came to me -- aptly named The Tuning Song. 

But, instead of being about tuning one's ukulele, the lyrics of the song about tuning one's heart.

With the help of a native Italian friend, I translated the English lyrics to Italian.

The Tuning Song - Italian Version -- Accordatore

I imagine the protagonist of this song, in the center of whatever town she lives in (since I'm from Northampton, MA, that's what I picture in my head, but it doesn't have to be that). She's subtly observing various with their particularities. At the end of the song, she realizes she's being observed too.

People Watching

It was the title of this song that came to me first. The Sword Maker's Wife. Sounds like a book. Or a movie. But for me, it was to be a song. The first to verses came very easily. The third started to, but the story was becoming sad and I RESISTED. I stopped writing it for a while. Then I got some guts and finished it and was glad when the fourth verse came to me. Not the hollywood ending, but the positive-taking-control-back-and-owning-it ending.

But I don't actually get to really choose what my songs are going to be. If you don't write music or create art, this might not make sense, but the best way I can describe it is each song already has a soul and a purpose. At certain moments, that gets revealed to me and I try to capture it. It's not really as spooky as it sounds. It's just I don't know how to explain it any other way.

The Sword Maker's Wife

The more I listen to music, the more I realize that 99% of songs are about love, sex (not always the same thing), or some bizarre story (which could encompass the two... or not). I was explaining this to my son (a very mature age 13) and he nodded agreement for a moment, then said, "There's also protest songs."

This song is about love.

You Better Hold Onto Me

When a certain president kicked off his presidency by closing our borders and basically just being obtusely closed-minded, I just couldn't believe it. Then out came this song... my first protest song.

Special thanks to these amazing musicians who were part of the making of this track:

Giuseppe Pescrilli - Lead Guitar (and also the one who encouraged me to write a protest song in the first place).

Lorenzo Iacovone - Percussion

Alessandro Anastasi - Bass Guitar

Michelangelo Attardo - Drums

Chris Gentes - Saxaphone

We Are

Red Rover (Rough Cut)

This song was inspired by the true story of a friend of mine. The story broke my heart. On Christmas morning, 2016, this song arrived to me. The upbeat tempo and melodic pattern is an intentional contrast to the heart-breaking story that inspired the song.

Dear Brother - Bonus Track - Rough Cut

Christine Mark is a web designer, indie author, 400-meter hurdler, and co-founder of gravity switch, a Massachusetts-based web design & marketing agency that works with businesses, higher education and non-profits.

She’s also a wife of 1, and a mom of 4 and LOVES speaking Italian (having lived in Siena, Italy for a year recently with her family).

Xtine Mark