I am a singer and songwriter who loves in Brooklyn, NY. I have been writing songs for a very long time. My writing journey started with poetry and since then, I have found myself dabbling in other genres of writing and songwriting seems to have become one of those things I fully immerse myself into the most. My father surprised me the other day by telling me that he had been enjoying watching my YouTube Channel and that my original song that I penned, "Wherever You Are" is superb.
"Wherever You Are" is track number 5 off of my first ever musical release entitled Finally JNote. All lyrics, music, and vocals on the original tune are by Stephanie Jeannot and can be found on CDbaby if you are interested!
It was so unexpected to hear such a warm compliment that just inspired me in so many ways; especially coming from my dad. What a blessing to have heard it! It is weird but compliments coming from my parents when my music or anything that comes out of my spirit is concerned, still makes me feel like that was the one word of confidence I was waiting to hear to know that I am doing alright! As I think about that, I wonder about my younger cousin who a few days after Christmas committed suicide and left us in mourning. Maybe all he needed was a good word of confidence to feel like he was okay. But, one never knows and yet, it is still hard to comprehend what he might have been going through. Wherever you Are cuz, I hope that you have found peace with yourself. I did not expect people to enjoy "Wherever You Are" as much. This is the first song I have ever performed internationally and wherever I was singing it, I noticed people were singing along and it is always a pleasure to see people reacting to these lyrics. If you are interested in knowing the lyrics, you can check them out here: http://www.songlyrics.com/stephanie-jeannot/wherever-you-are-lyrics/#disqus_thread
I recently had the opportunity to perform this song with my band, The JNote Band, and as usual when performing with them, it was bursting with energy, great sound and a whole lot of fun. On bass was my twin brother, Mark Payne; I call him twin because we celebrate our birthdays on the same day. And on drums was Richie Johnson. On keys was Prrrl. On vocals we had Jazz E Matt, Chynnah Doll, Nico and me singing my lyrics to the song. The live music photograph from this performance was taken by Laurence Sparks. Our performance was at Shrine World Music Venue which is located in Harlem, NY.
I would love to hear what you think! Please leave me a comment, a good word, or even a song that you think might suit my voice that you think I should try. I always appreciate the idea of enhancing my awareness and knowledge about music. It was a pleasure convening with you today. Hope that we can do it again soon. God bless and thank you for stopping by my blog!
I have made it my mission to write a thousand words a day
and to make the words that I share positive as a way of engaging a smile in someone
else.
Through it all, I will benefit by festering my own wounds
that have yet to heal and have been holding me prisoner to my doubts since they
first left scars. I will not admit to living a life full of immense sadness but
I will say that the past took such a toll that it still has fire power over my
mood because of the heaviness of the scenes where and when the bulk of negative instances
occurred that sort of affected the entirety of my huge heart.
Sometimes I am happy and then I think about those moments
in time which I fell and then I unhesitatingly choose to withhold my beautiful smile. I get
lost in the music of the thoughts of how I lost my step and what did not go my way in these detours that
shouldn't have, and then I feel this emotional fragility that should not be present
but is, because the past takes over.
I don’t know if you can relate to constantly blaming yourself
for where you are or are not in the present moment that leaves a physical
reminder of how you messed up. Though accomplishments may occur daily, you
overlook them because you never allowed yourself to experience closure from
your past. You rather stay tightly bonded to your disappointments than to experience the
momentary joys which I could say are on the flip side of the bad yesterdays.
Positive thoughts are the glasses that are half full. They create the sensation of looking on the bright
side. Being upright and positive would result in the good feelings that you could have though you feel nothing but numbness where the sunshine should be beaming.
Here Are Some Things You Can Do to Ward Off the Self-Negative Reactions.
1.
Encourage yourself.
Make a list of the good things
in your life. Acknowledge the accomplishments. Pat your own self in the back
with each rung you climb. Award yourself with a golden star or a mani/pedi when
you take a tiny leap into the direction of your choosing.
2. Shake
it off.
Turn on some feel-good music
and just dance. For one, it will burn off a couple of calories. Secondly, music
has a way of creating positive energy within. It can be that one thing to
instill hope in those great, big old eyes.
3.
Style
When you look good, you feel
great. I don’t know about you but if I dress up and look stylish, I can’t have
bad feelings about myself when I am looking at my dolled up, sexy self in the mirror. Dress up! Put on
some stylish jewelry on. Put some makeup on and smile at how beautiful you are
in your coordinated fashion. Look in the mirror and see the fearfully and
wonderfully made heir to the throne that you are. Royalty in fact. Do you actually
really see the truly blessed individual looking back at you in the mirror?
4.
Have a conversation
I understand that some people
feel that having a therapist Is the answer to everything. If you can talk to
someone and tell them your problems than it makes a difference and in some ways,
I agree. However, have you ever let out our thoughts to a great friend? Do you
have someone you can trust? If you get sad and think no, then you are wrong.
You can always turn to God with your problems. You don’t have to worry about
what you say being repeated in gossip. You don’t have to worry about being
judged for your thoughts and feelings. Get on your knees and let it out. He is
a great listener. IT also will feel good to get it out your system to someone
worth talking to.
5.
Write it.
If you think you do not have anything
worth writing about, sometimes letting out your emotions on paper creates the
best stories. The way our thoughts operate on us is the way that a reader will
look at what is written if you share it and feel the emotion ripping through
the pages. If you had a hard lived life,
write a song about it. I am not sure about you but, my favorite Mary J Blige
songs were the ones that she was singing sad songs. I could sing along to like the
first five albums word for word. Then she started getting happy and the songs
didn’t hit the same for me anymore. Some of the questions you may have that
bubble in your heart, readers and listeners might be able to relate to because
we all have baggage, songs and dances alike and across the breath of society, we
are no different from each other in the fact that we all had a past that we jumped
feet first into. The strain of the task might leave you exhausted because I
often end up in tears writing when I do write but, it will help to experience a
sort of clarity that you may not have had.
6.
Yoga/Meditation
Yoga helps to experiencedeep breathing. I can honestly say
that I don’t take deep breaths enough and not because I don’t want to but
because my body was built this way and I mostly take shallow breaths while
awake and while in resting mode. But, meditation hushes the overthinking. It
makes you focus on your breathing. It brings you to the point of quiet of mind
which is the only thing that never changes in a constantly changing world. Meditation helps to bring you into
unity with yourself and also helps to correct your thinking. For 15 -20 minutes
a day, if you focus on just your breaths, it can help to detox the clutter in your
mind.
Enjoy
Life
I hope that my words find you in good spirits as it was
written as I sit back and process the beautiful message I received today at church
as well as my dwelling on the first month and half that has left us in the 2017
year.
I attended two funerals already; one which was a double
casket one for a friend of mine who lost his brother and mother in the same
week. Days later, two other friends lost their mom, another friend an aunt and
a plethora of others who have lost people already in 2017.
Life is so short and considering my friend cleaning out
what is left of his recently departed, something to think about is the fact
that things, physical or spiritual are just things. There is still so much life
to live while we are in the land of the living. If lived with regret of what
should’ve would’ve could’ve happened which again are just things, our days will be hard and we will suffer. But if lived with hope of what
is to come, there is so much more promise than just the things. We have been kept for a reason.
Never forget that!
I’d like to invite you to check out my song, Enjoy Life,
about living and enjoying life regardless of our trials. Everything has an
expiration date; things, situations, relationships, people and even our trials. But our internal
joy is everlasting so don’t ever let go of it. Here is the link: https://youtu.be/qPCvcQLGd2o
Thank you for reading my blogpost. Have a wonderfully blessed day!
On bass was my twin brother, Mark Payne; I call him twin because we celebrate our birthdays on the same day. And on drums was Richie Johnson. On keys was Prrrl. On vocals we had Jazz E Matt, Chynnah Doll, Nico and me singing my lyrics to the song. The live music photograph from this performance was taken by Laurence Sparks. Our performance was at Shrine World Music Venue which is located in Harlem, NY. 
On bass was my twin brother, Mark Payne; I call him twin because we celebrate our birthdays on the same day. And on drums was Richie Johnson. On keys was Prrrl. On vocals we had Jazz E Matt, Chynnah Doll, Nico and me singing my lyrics to the song. The live music photograph from this performance was taken by Laurence Sparks. Our performance was at Shrine World Music Venue which is located in Harlem, NY. 
