"Blue and Borderlined (Tiny Telephone Sessions)" - reflecting on my early singer-songwriter days

{Public post}

Aloha, Patrons!

Today I'm releasing a song that circles me all the way back to the beginning of my songwriting career.

I wrote "Blue and Borderlined" over 20 years ago on my first $300 Ibanez acoustic guitar. When I first quit my tech job to focus on acting and music, I committed to writing a song a day. Even back then, I practiced the "100 Days" philosophy of showing up every day, and allowed myself to write lots of bad songs so that I could develop my craft and dig through to the truth of what I was writing. "Blue and Borderlined" was one of the first songs I wrote that felt honest in my soul, and that might uniquely be my style.

I first released it in 2005, as the title track on my debut album. It even got a little recognition on NPR back then. I've also recorded it with my band, Cynthia Lin and the Blue Moon All Stars. Heavily Joni Mitchell inspired, "Blue and Borderlined" helped me define my fingerpicking style. As a touring singer-songwriter, I opened hundreds of shows with this song. It was my calling card.

When my YouTube channel started taking off and ukulele became my main focus, I tried to see if I could play this song on ukulele, but I think I was too attached to the guitar arrangement. After more than 10 years of developing my style and craft on the ukulele, I finally felt an itch to return to the guitar - because I missed my guitar songs. I missed the guitar singer-songwriter that I used to be.

Did I know in 2005 that I would still be doing what I'm doing? I think so. I knew I had a passion for singing, for songwriting, and for performing, and I could see myself continuing to grow on this path. Did I know that I would still want to play this song? As a songwriter, songs come and go, because you process life by writing them. After they're written, you might not need them anymore. I feel grateful that "Blue and Borderlined" continues to be my go-to guitar song. Playing it again feels like home, and I hope you can feel that in this new recording.

You can watch the video here and stream the track wherever you listen to music.

Thank you for listening to my original music and supporting my journey!

xo cynthia 🌺 

CL TOUR

8.3 San Francisco Ukesplosion

8.17 Honolulu Summer Jazz Journey Series