The Buddhists consider the conscious act of letting go an essential part of a journey. It is the beginning of learning to live with yourself again — despite what happened, despite what was, despite everything. Our bags are packed with experiences both good and bad.  Loss and grief, pain and hurt, happiness, and regret. Sometimes the greatest strength is in knowing when to let go and move on. There is beauty in the cycle of death and birth. Beginnings and endings. There is beauty in letting what is not working blow away. The song was written in room 214 of the Sugarloaf Key Lodge in the lower Keys Florida. It took about 10 minutes to write but I had been living with the feeling that sparked the song for a long time. On my way to perform at the very end of the highway in Key West, Florida, I was on the run from a few years filled with heartbreak and change. In my rearview, were a lot of miles of hard road. Long drives have a way of romanticizing one’s world. I felt the cosmic nudge that I needed to get something down. I checked into the room, believing I would wrestle with a song for a whole night. I walked out to the Gulf of Mexico and felt a profound feeling that it was time to let go of the past. The wind was blowing. There were metaphors everywhere. The song wrote itself. It just fell out. By sunset, I was in Key West feeling a lot lighter and ready to proceed.  

The video for the song was created on the February 2023 “Vagabonds By Choice Tour” with dobroist Abbie Gardner that traveled through Florida. It was intended to tell the song’s story using the locations and overall feel of where Letting You Blow Away was written. It also acts as a travelogue of the trip itself as Abbie and I made our way from shows in Key West to stops in Key Largo, Sarasota, St Augustine, Tampa Bay, and Ft Myers. The video was edited by Marc Douglas Berardo and Susie Markland of SHC Music Tribe in Pemberton, NJ in March of 2023.  

Letting You Blow Away ©2023 Overhead Map Music/ASCAP  
Produced by Marc Douglas Berardo and Chris Berardo  
Recorded at Mark Dann Recording Inc., Woodstock, NY.  
Mastered by The SoundLab, Charlotte, NC, Jan 2023  
Marc Douglas Berardo - vocals and acoustic guitar  
Abbie Gardner - (Red Molly) Dobro  
Eric Parker - (Orleans, Steve Winwood, Joe Cocker) drums  
Mark Dann - (Richard Shindell, John Gorka) bass  
Dr. Westchesterson- organ and piano  
Chris Berardo - background vocals 

Video credits: Filmed on location at various locations in Key Largo, Key West, St. Augustine, Fort Myers, St. Petersburg, and Sarasota, FL including: Forgartyville Community Media and Arts Center - Sarasota FL., Cafe Eleven - St Augustine, FL., Southview Arts - St Petersburg, FL., and DCS Studios - Pawcatuck, CT. March 2023 Edited by Marc Douglas Berardo and Susie Markland (SHC Music Studios) in Pemberton, NJ on March 10, 2023.