Sara Groves' is renowned as a potent singer/songwriter. When it comes to songwriting, Sara influences the influencers. Her most vocal admirers range from pioneers of Christian worldview music, including Randy Stonehill, Michael Card and Charlie Peacock, to her peers today, Natalie Grant, Jars of Clay, Nichole Nordeman, Point of Grace and Bethany Dillon, among them.

Add to that the fact that Sara has always shied away from hype and spin doctoring, and you have a bonafide headline on your hands. Her new album, Fireflies and Songs is a "songwriter's album" indeed. As the record's producer, the aforementioned Charlie Peacock, attests, "That's what I loved about working on Fireflies and Songs. I got a close-up view of the songwriter at the top of her game. It's so inspiring to work on music that is so focused and alive."

Fireflies and Songs gives a more candid look at Sara Groves and her writing. New NRT Contributor, Holly Russell, recently spoke with Sara about her songwriter’s album and discovered the new directions and inspirations that created one of this artist's most personal albums to date.

You have proclaimed Fireflies and Songs to be your songwriter’s album. How was it different from any album you have done before?

I referred to it that way because I’ve been very thematic on my last three albums. I did not come at this album with any themes but was just digging in the dirt of my own life. It is about me. The last few albums have not been about me, they have been more about looking at social justice and external things. Fireflies and Songs was about returning home and looking at my life.

Where do you get your inspiration from?

Everything. Anything can be a trigger, or provide input and deposits in the bank. I just keep my eyes open. I have always been a connecter and making connections. I never think in a compartmentalized way. If I think of one thing it almost always leads to something else. My brain is more like one of those old-fashioned switchboards or something. I am constantly stepping back and looking at the whole picture. That is constantly driving me and I am always collecting information while adding it to the whole picture.


Your music has always been labeled as transparent, but you talk about Fireflies and Songs being confessional. Which songs were the hardest in that regard and why?

Clearly “It’s Me” was a hard song to write, but I've received great response. Any time I am confessional I feel like other people follow suit. They are able to work through a process. I wrote a song a few albums ago called “Roll To The Middle,” and it was about various trials I had. “It’s Me” is “Roll To The Middle Part II.” It's certainly the follow-up. My husband, Troy, and I were joking that our tagline should be “Troy and Sara--Helping you fight better since 2003!”

“Like a Lake” is about forgiveness. That is another personal song. It is difficult when I am writing songs while asking myself Ok, how confessional am I going to be in this song? Then once you have written it, and you start playing it, people begin hearing themselves in the song. They might wonder what the fight was about or they might wonder about you, but they are always going to hear themselves in the music, and that is good. I think the more confessional you can be as a songwriter, the more honest the listener will be when they are processing the message.

Tell me the story behind "Fireflies and Songs." What made you choose this song as the theme for your album?

It feels like a good representation of what is on the album as a whole. The album is very reflective. The first line of “Fireflies and Songs” says thirty years ago I was a little girl--which is hard to believe. The song is reflective and reminiscing. It's also about looking for love in all the wrong places or holding each other hostage with all the expectations of what love should be. Really, love is not something you can tame or nail down. Any time you say “how dare you,” you just set the stage for brokenness and offense.

I think a lot of women move through life like that. "How dare you" this or "How dare you" that. We are looking for love and swearing we are not finding it in our marriages, in our friendships, in our children or where ever. It is there, but our expectations are misplaced and poisoned.

My experience is that my expectations can be very poisonous to my family. I am learning to let them be who they are and not crush them with my expectations. I am learning to be the coach and come alongside them in the places where they are growing. I feel like God is just continually stripping those expectations and telling me, “Those are not my expectations. That is your own set of rules for people in your life.” I have seen an incredible season of tenderness and growth as I have backed off of some of those demands. I've let my husband grow and be who he is going to be and love me the way he is going to love me. That is where, all of a sudden, there is music and fireflies everywhere. This is the marriage I have been dreaming of and had hoped for, but because I am not demanding it of him or anyone, then they are able to give it as a freely given gift.


You stated that this album is “more me” than any other album. Can you explain what you mean by that?

In production, I tried to keep the songs as close to what happened in the very first draft. Typically, I freely give the songs to the producer, and I work with other people to try to morph and change the songs into something better or something different. The last two albums have been very pop driven and full of production. On this album, Charlie Peacock, who was my producer, took my hand, lead me and helped me not layer on so much. He wanted me to keep the songs the way they were born, as much as possible. The way you are hearing these songs are closer to the way they come out on the piano. That is why the songs are more me. It is because they are truer or closer to the original. Some of the songs have elements of the original demo in them, which is not something I have ever done before.

What do you want your listeners to take away from the album?

I can’t even guess what people will take away, and that is what I like about the Holy Spirit. He will say many different things to many different hearts and listeners who pick it up. The best part of this process is when I hear back from people and hear what they took away from it.