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Cheers for Tears

from These Hands by Martha Groves Perry

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about

This song takes positive ownership of a feature of my personality that previously felt like a liability. Cheers for Tears is an apology – in the Socratic sense – for being prone to crying, which was a pronounced fixture in my childhood, and which continues to some degree today. Although I was called a crybaby in grade school, there were good reasons for my “sensitivity,” as many adults (both encouraging and disparaging) labeled it. I now understand my ability to weep as a gift, and I believe that it is the only reason I’m now a relatively well adjusted person. Although I wasn’t looking to write a song to justify my weepiness, this is one of a few songs that were given to me almost fully formed in a dream, and I usually take that as a mandate to finish the song. As you will hear, it has big swings in dynamics and covers 1 ½ octaves, which was a challenge to get in the pocket vocally. In November 2016, I played this song as the closer of my sold out show at Art Boutiki in San Jose, California celebrating the release of my EP Something Good.

Fun fact: one of my family members thinks this song is the most likely to prompt someone to hold up a lighter at a concert …

I wrote Cheers for Tears in 2016, then dedicated it to the Waldorf School of the Peninsula Class of 2017 the following year.

lyrics

Try to be less weepy, you’re probably just sleepy
You’re making up that sadness to flaunt your tears
You don’t know what I see, I can feel the beauty
I can taste the heart grief in all I see

There’ll be cheers for my own tears, cheers for my own tears
Celebrate intensity
And the cheers for my own tears, cheers for my own tears
Liberate the fire in me

I can weep with you, and you can call out, too for a
Dream down in your heart that you wish were true
Can I see the book where crying shows that you dare
To open to a feeling and own it, too

There’ll be cheers for my own tears, cheers for my own tears
Celebrate intensity
And the cheers for my own tears, cheers for my own tears
Liberate the fire in me

Wash out all the residue, pour it out to make life new
Passion in this moment can heal
Cry out all your liquid prayers, open up ‘til you’re bare
Reality lies past what you feel

I may not have a buffer, that doesn’t make you tougher
Can you lift the burden in one real tear?
I can handle much more, I release what is sore
Free your deepest longings with one real tear

There’ll be cheers for my own tears, cheers for my own tears
Celebrate intensity
And the cheers for my own tears, cheers for my own tears
Liberate the fire in me

Words & Music © 2016 Martha Groves Perry

credits

from These Hands, released March 1, 2020
In addition to songwriting, lead vocals, and writing the harmony vocals , I played acoustic guitar and performed backing vocals. Kenny Schick, my producer, also sang backing vocals and played or programmed all other instruments. Kenny recorded his parts at Basement3Productions in Nashville, TN, and I recorded my acoustic guitar and vocals in March 2018 with Steven Glaze at ToneFreq Studio in San Jose, California.

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Martha Groves Perry San Francisco, California

Martha Groves Perry is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based in San Francisco, California. Her bold, alternative Americana original music has a straightforward, compelling and sometimes edgy clarity with strong blues, rock, and experimental influences. Her penetrating, poetic lyrics reflect the fearless truth-telling and unbothered amusement of a seasoned, female point of view. ... more

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