SHERVIN LAINEZ
RACHAEL SAGE
Rachael Sage’s song “Bravery’s on Fire,” from her new album Character, resonates today when we are trying to be brave and calm during very uncertain times caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The album explores the idea of putting on a “brave face”; as a survivor of endometrial cancer, Sage has a lot to say about how making music during times of strife can keep us healthy.
“With much of the world being told to ‘stay home’ and not touch one another, literally, there is going to be a lot of anxiety and stress and literal as well as emotional isolation,” Sage says. “I think we are being forced as a collective world community to take the hardest look we’ve ever had at how we’ve been treating one another as well as our planet, and it’s necessarily very painful but it can also be something that helps us make wiser, more positive choices moving forward, in so many realms.
“I guess what I’m saying is that even in the context of suffering, we have opportunities to find renewed purpose and distill who we truly want to be. My prayer right now happens to be embedded in this music, and it is a message of hope derived from the fact that every single one of us has the ability to be a ‘light’ and to make choices that improve the state of our own well-being, our family, our friends, and therefore the wider world.”
Sage and her band The Sequins — featuring James Mastro, who also played on Character, on guitar — will perform at Joe’s Pub in New York, June 2 at 7 p.m.; visit joespub.com.
To purchase Character or support Sage in other ways, visit facebook.com/rachaelsagepage.
NJArts.net’s Songs to See Us Through series is designed to spotlight songs relevant to the coronavirus crisis and encourage readers to support the artists who made them (and won’t be able to generate income via concerts at this time). Click here for links to all songs in the series.
We encourage artists to email us submissions (newly recorded, if possible) at njartsdaily@gmail.com. Please include links to sites such as Patreon and Venmo. Readers can also make suggestions via that email address.
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