Case file no. 001 — ongoing
Marrowlight Songwriters · Nashville, TN · Writing since 2019
Scroll to open
Voice memo
3:17 AM · Oct 14, 2024
2m 43s
0:00 / 2:43
“—wait, what if the chorus lands on the four instead—”
tuning, pickup hum, rain outside
“i left the porch light low / you left the gate unlatched / one of us was hoping / the other coming back”
— first draft, 3am
Lyric draft
draft 4 of 5
You swore that you'd be home by midnight you're never home by midnight
I left the porch light on, I left the gate unlatched
We both knew what we owed and neither one would ask
→ one of us was waiting, that's the whole first verse
CHORUS:
So keep the porch light burning low
So keep it lit till morning when the dark gets 'round you heavy
I'll be right here waiting up for you where you left me
With the porch light low and the gate unlatched
The shift from “waiting up” to “where you left me” gave the whole song its spine. That's the line the record hangs on.
Song no. 01
From Low Light, 2024
Written in one sitting after a 3 a.m. voice memo. The bridge took three weeks. The verse took eleven minutes.
Stream
Porch Light — Final Master
0:00 / 3:41
Response
847K
plays
Core specs
Signal chain
↑ the BigSky shimmer on the bridge was a mistake that became the song's signature
Collaborators
bridge melody
self-produced
mixed at Blackbird
Sterling Sound, NYC
Stems available to Notebook subscribers. Includes isolated vocal, acoustic, and reverb bus.
Get stems →Arrangement map
3:41 total
↑ Bridge is in red — that's where the BigSky shimmer lives
Song no. 02
From Low Light, 2024
Started as a piano figure I kept flubbing. The “wrong” voicing — a Gsus2 with an added 9th — turned out to be the harmonic fingerprint of the whole record.
“The wrong chord was righter than the right one.”
Open the case file →
Session · March 2024
Blackbird Studio B, Nashville
Raw demo
Voice memo + kitchen-piano sketch
0:00 / 1:37
“carried your ember down to the riverbed / left it on the sill when I / couldn't find my way back”
Piano + vocal only · no headphones · kitchen table
Final master
Cinderlight
3:55 · mastered
0:00 / 3:55
Mixed by Nadia Reyes
Mastered by Anya Vogt
Evidence of resonance
Free download
A 24-page PDF of annotated lyrics, production notes, and the calls I nearly didn't make. Every page looks like the original draft — crossed-out lines and all.
What's inside
No spam. One email when new notebooks drop.
Marrowlight Songwriters · Nashville · 2026
Writing log
Songs at every stage. Some will never be finished. That's part of the record too.
Dec 14, 2024
BPM KEY
STAGE
92 A min
Lyric draft 2
The pre-chorus keeps collapsing. Might be a feature.
● not yet released
OPEN →
Nov 02, 2024
BPM KEY
STAGE
68 Eb maj
Awaiting master
Tracked in one six-hour session. Every keeper was a first take.
▶ — plays
OPEN →
Sep 19, 2024
BPM KEY
STAGE
84 C maj
Final master
Three months of rewrites. The first bridge was still better.
▶ 312K plays
OPEN →
Aug 11, 2024
BPM KEY
STAGE
110 F# min
Final master
Only song I've cut in 7/4 that doesn't feel like 7/4.
▶ 590K plays
OPEN →
Feb 10, 2026
BPM KEY
STAGE
? ?
Voice memo only
“I keep humming this and I don't know what it wants to be yet”
● not yet released
OPEN →
Jan 07, 2025
BPM KEY
STAGE
78 Bb maj
Lyric draft 5
Started as a poem. Still not sure it should be a song.
● not yet released
OPEN →