"Shelter in Places" - (from John's 2020 release "Shelter in Places"

This latest Spotlight is about one of the songs from the new album, which happens to be the title track, "Shelter in Places." This was the first song I wrote for the album. I have been asked, a few times now, why the title is Shelter in PlaCES (plural). When I wrote the song, not only was I experiencing the destabilizing affects of the pandemic, but I was also going through the biggest personal transition of my life. At the time, my "home" really stopped feeling like, and being, a home. So the idea was that, during that time, I experienced "shelter" everywhere BUT home. It was a period of high anxiety and legitimate escapism, to be sure.

Ultimately the album, and particularly songs like this were really important for me in marking the end of a chapter in my life in the beginning of a new one.

This was also the song that help me decide that I wanted to a least attempt to play as many of the instruments as possible on this album. That decision wasn't because I think I'm the best at any of them by the way. Quite the opposite. But despite my insecurity as an instrumentalist, my hope was that playing as much as possible on each track, would just help me get it done faster and also connect to each song more profoundly. I was completely wrong about the former (the album still took forever to finish lol) but was very right about the latter. The song feels very me at it's core. Would love to hear your feedback/thoughts/questions. Hope you enjoy! CLICK HERE TO LISTEN