Ciara Grace Is Writing It Down

Bruce Von Stiers

Ciara Grace is a young singer songwriter. She has been called a rising star and has accumulated a large fan base. Ciara Grace began writing songs while still in high school and now has released a long-anticipated debut album.

The title of the album is Write It Down. The album has eleven songs, all of them written by Ciara Grace. The album was recorded at Morningstar Studios.

Ciara Grace has a strong music heritage. Her father is Glenn Barratt, a twice Grammy winning producer / engineer whose work includes albums by Gladys Knight and Kool & The Gang. He co-produced the album with Ciara Grace. Her mother is Lizanne Knott, a fantastic singer/songwriter whose albums I have reviewed in the past.

Having parents who are involved in music on both sides of the microphone, Ciara Grace grew up learning a lot about the industry. She was around her dad's recording studio a lot and hung out backstage at concerts and smaller gigs where her mom performed.

The songs on the album were written during Ciara Grace's high school years. The songs reflect some of the things she went through. A statement from her on the writing was that she “was really just writing it down how I felt as a way to cope and to process things…” As she began to write her music, she drew inspiration from artists she admired like Fiona Apple and Lorde.

There were several musicians who assisted on the album. Those musicians were Ross Bellenoit, Eric Johnson, Chico Huff, John Conahan, Dan Rouse, Logan Roth, Arjun Dube, Brandon Mullen, Chuck Staab, Devon Greenwood and Glenn Barratt.

Lost Cause is the first song on the album. It is about a relationship that is not going to go anywhere. He is a lost cause to her as she lists all the things wrong with him and what he's doing.

Don't Love Me Now is a cool, toe tapping R & B flavored sort of pop sounding tune.

The title track, Write It Down, is about keeping score for all the wrongs that had been done to her. She might forgive but she won't forget. And that those people will become a “footnote in the story” of her life. Even though the song is a bit dark, Ciara's vocals are very melodic.

Play Pretend is an interesting song about how they might have something real, but it is probably just pretending.

Choices is a great melodic song with nice acoustic guitar in the background. The song made me think of the style of her mother's music.

Summer Interlude has a light pop R & B groove.

Lover Dearest is mellow, with some terrific music backing flowing lead vocals and nice backing vocals. The only thing is Ciara drops the F-bomb a few times in the song, making it a bit harsher. But I think that's how she felt when writing the song, so I guess it works.

I'm Doing Fine is about her not really doing okay, that's she's dying inside. But she puts on a brave front, letting them know she was doing fine, “for your peace of mind”.

Stalker On The Internet is about a kind of scary person. She is following a couple on the Internet and wishing she was the girl. And she is sort of stalking the couple via social media. The song has a toe tapping beat and flowing vocals, but, wow, what a theme.

Echo is a bit of a sad song. She's lamenting her past and moving on. One lyric in the song particularly stands out is “sometimes life is exactly the way it needs to be.”

Jesus or Elvis closes out the album. It is a mellow, yet very deep song with lyrics that asks who “will save us? Elvis or Jesus?”

Write It Down is an excellent album. The music is great and the vocals are superb. The lyrics really seem to reflect Ciara Grace's feelings. To paraphrase her statement about the album, she wrote songs about relationships, becoming an adult and trying to figure out who you are as a person.

Write It Down is now available on all of the major digital platforms.

The official website for Ciara Grace is www.Ciaragracemusic.com It has a limited amount of content but does have links to her social media pages, including X, Instagram and Tik-Tok.

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© 2024 Bruce E Von Stiers