The Origin Story
“Deep Cuts & B-sides” is not an ambiguous song. There are no hidden layers of meaning. Barely even a metaphor.
It’s an earnest song about fatherhood. About raising a songwriting daughter. A reminder to myself to appreciate every moment with her.
For this origin story, we have to go back a minute.
August, 2013
In the days and weeks and months that followed the birth of my second child, Anara Pearl Kaufmann, I tried often to imagine what she would be like, how she would grow, what interests and passions would blossom within her.
Would she take after my wife and develop a talent for drawing and painting? Would she get my height and share my passion for basketball? Victoria and I both enjoyed literature, so the odds were good that Anara would be a big reader, right?
Or would Anara chart her own path, completely apart from her parents, like her elder brother had? (By age two, our son, Finley, had already very clearly established an obsession for all things electrical that he most definitely did not get from either Victoria or me!)
And of course, I wondered: would Anara would share my love of music?
Turns out, I didn’t really need to worry about that.
The Musician
As a toddler, each night, Anara wanted lullaby after lullaby. And by day, she’d enjoy playing around with just about any instrument I put in front of her.
And signing. Always singing!
At just shy of five years of age, Anara started taking piano lessons from my good friend (and Dangling Participles bassist) Tim Patterson. While the piano gave her a fantastic foundation, it wasn’t until she switched to ukulele the following year that she truly came into her own. Besides just teaching chords and strumming patterns, her ukulele teacher, Melissa Sigh, encouraged Anara to sing and to perform with other classmates at holiday concerts and farmers markets.
The Songwriter
From a very early age, Anara was writing her own songs, too. I believe her first song was “Christmas Cats,” which she wrote at age three. A few years later (after going through some obsessive Elsa and Moana phases), Anara and I together wrote “Searching for the Answers,” a dramatic, Disney-style anthem about seeking out a mysterious dragon egg. (And, yes, she composed it before Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon came out!)
At age seven, during a family vacation to Marquette in the U.P., she helped me write “Swimming in Lake Superior,” which I ended up recording with The Dangling Participles, though my bandmate Tamiko Rothhorn sang the vocals on the album.
The Fangirl
As Anara got older, she also began coming to more of my music festivals and gigs, and in doing was able to listen to and interact with other musicians and songwriters. At Scrapfest in Lansing in the summer of 2022, Anara was first introduced to the music of Phoebe and Jaclyn Holmes, the Keynote Sisters. Seeing this folk-pop duo of songwriting young women awoke something within Anara.
That autumn, she started writing songs with an audience in mind. And it was about this time that the events referenced in my song “Deep Cuts and B-Sides” began to unfold.
One day in October, I surprised Anara at her elementary school, excusing her from class for an “appointment.” But this time it wasn’t for a teeth cleaning. Nor was it for her annual check-up with the pediatrician. It wasn’t for yet another Covid test or booster, though there had been plenty of those in recent months and years.
Instead, I took her to MSU’s Abrams Planetarium for “Rest with Music,” the relaxing lunch-hour concert series, where her favorite band, the Keynote Sisters, was set to perform under the projected stars of the Milky Way in the darkened planetarium. Skipping school and getting to see her favorite band? Yeah, I definitely earned some cool dad points that day!
Anara and I would see Keynote Sisters perform again a month later at 20 Front Street in Lake Orion. Anara was the only child at that show, too, but she sat there on the edge of her chair, soaking it all in, and proceeded to charm everyone in the house, from the sound tech (who invited her to help run the board) to the hostess.
Anara was truly enamored by Jaclyn and Phoebe, whom she learned had also started out playing and performing at a young age.
That evening was a truly special one for Anara and me, and it was the day after that show, that I wrote “Deep Cuts & B-Sides” (lyrics at bottom).
Not to be outdone, however, Anara decided that she, too, was going write her own song inspired by the Keynote Sisters, and in the months that followed, she did just that. “Just Wanted You To Know” tells the story of her encounters with the Keynote Sisters and the inspiration she drew from them.
Video Coming Soon
(Anara has been sick the past few days!)
“Just Wanted You To Know”
by Anara Pearl
The first time I saw you up on that stage
I could feel the blood rushing through my veins.
Was it excitement or jealousy,
Or inspiration or idle dreams?I just wanted you to know, you got me thinking ‘bout you,
You got me humming your song, and now it’s stuck in my head.
You got me thinking ‘bout you, you got me humming your song,
And now I’m singing along. Can’t get you out of my head.I skipped school to see you again,
Sharing that stage as sisters and friends.
Yup, there’s that tinge of jealousy.
Where’s that sister to sing with me?I just wanted you to know, you got me thinking ‘bout you,
You got me humming your song, and now it’s stuck in my head.
You got me thinking ‘bout you, you got me humming your song,
And now I’m singing along. Can’t get you out of my head,
Out of my head. Out of my head.One thing’s left before I go.
Little something you should note.
The inspiration was the key,
That these words have come to me.I just wanted you to know, you got me thinking ‘bout you,
You got me humming your song, and now it’s stuck in my head.
You got me thinking ‘bout you, you got me humming your song,
And now I’m singing along, Can’t get you out of my head,
Out of my head. Out of my head.© Anara Pearl Kaufmann, 2023
NOTE: I would be remiss not to mention that Anara was very pleased with herself for slipping a hidden message into the last verse. Did you catch it?
The Performer
After turning ten, Anara began performing under the name Anara Pearl, with me accompanying and singing harmonies. The Coffeehouse at All Saints — a monthly, curated open mic show for music and spoken word — afforded Anara a safe, supportive venue to begin testing the waters, and so we started performing there almost every month.
Anara was a natural. It wasn’t like she never had jitters or didn’t feel a bit out of place playing for an audience sporting the silver hair of aging hippies. But she carried herself with remarkable poise, and with every performance her confidence and skills grew.
By the summer of 2024, she and I were playing paid gigs at farmers markets, house concerts, and area restaurants, and Anara was sitting in on a few songs at some of my Dangling Participles shows.
December, 2024
The story of Anara Pearl, the Keynote Sisters, and The Dangling Participles came full circle in December, 2024, when all three groups played a Holiday Showcase together at UrbanBeat in Old Town, Lansing.
In her opening set, Anara and I performed “Just Wanted You To Know” and dedicated it to Phoebe and Jaclyn. They were touched and it was a special moment.
Raising a Songwriter
As any parent, I have great hopes for my children and their futures. For my son, Finn, I am eager to see where his incredible engineering mind takes him. (Finn is also a talented musician in his own right, playing cornet in the East Lansing High School marching band, but that’s a story for another day.)
I’m eager to see what Anara does with her life, whether it is with music or with any of her other many interests and talents.
Now, I won’t lie, after seeing Anara’s interest and talent in music, I have definitely been intentional about providing musical opportunities for her growth — lessons, instruments, mentors, camps, choir. And she’s had the good fortune to grow up surrounded by music and musicians. But credit where credit is due: Anara’s skills and talents are her own. She’s worked hard to develop them, and she’s a better songwriter at 11 than I was at 19.
Sharing the stage with Anara is truly a joy for me, in part, because it means I get to spend so much meaningful time with my daughter doing something we both love. We practice, we critique each other’s songs, we arrange harmonies, we tease each other endlessly. And the drive to and from gigs allows us time to talk.
The reason I love it, however, is not just all sappy dad sentiment, though I admit there’s plenty of that. No, I also love it because Anara is a damn fine musician, and we make good music together.
That said, it’s not all sunshine and Hallmark moments.
She’s also just a kid. My kid. And my role as a parent, trying to tip-toe the fine line between supporting and pushing, between providing opportunity and over-scheduling, is not an easy one. I’m learning that what I intend as encouragement sometimes may get interpreted as expectation. That’s where I need to do better, be more perceptive.
Of course, there’s also the issue of our personalities. Anara and I are oh so similar in many ways, particularly in our stubbornness. I guess you could say that we butt heads!
But that’s for Part 2 of Raising a Songwriting Daughter, so stay tuned!
The Lyrics
“Deep Cuts & B-Sides”
by Austin Kaufmann
My daughter and me
We are two peas in a pod.
Get a song in our ear
And we’ll sing it all the day long.
In the car, at the table, wherever we’re able.
Let lyric and melody flow.
And when her favorite band comes to town
We’ll skip school to go see their show…She’ll be the only kid in the crowd
But, oh she won’t care.
She wears her passion on her face
She’s on the edge of her chair,
Singing along with all of the songs
She knows every line
Even the deep cuts and the B-sides.My daughter and me,
We are two peas in a pod.
Well past her bedtime
I’ll catch her composing songs.
I do my best to scold her,
Tell her there’ll be time for that when you’re older.
It’s a school night, and studies come first,
But if you don’t tell your mother,
I’ll let you finish that last verse.I love it when she’s in the crowd
At one of my band’s shows.
Talkin’ shop with the sound guy,
Charming the socks off the hosts.
Singing along with all of my songs
She knows every line
Even the deep cuts and the B-sides.But what cuts deep
Is knowing just how fast
These days, like B-sides,
From memory might pass
Unless I keep on singing our songs,
And commit every one to heart.
No, I’ll always be be-side her.
I’ll always do my part.And soon I may be the one in the crowd
At one of my little Sweet Pea’s shows.
Wearing my pride on my face,
Amazed at how fast she has grown.
I’ll be singing along with all of her songs
I swear I’ll learn every line
Especially the deep cuts and the B-sides.© Austin Kaufmann, 2022
