Everyone’s life story is a little unique. We are all given different opportunities and chances. We all make decisions differently and handle those outcomes in our own way. But one commonality everyone shares is the human experience. The cycle of life is inevitable. We are all in it just the same; doing it the best we can. We are in the middle of a global pandemic and even though we are all handling it differently, the fact remains that we are all affected by it. The need for empathy, understanding and patience is great right now. I have seen a lot of good happening in the world to benefit our fellow man, but I have also seen a great deal of hate and violence lately. Now, more than ever, is an important time to realize we are all in this together and although our stories are not all alike, we are all going through a unifying experience. That’s the reason Justin Wells has given us this meaningful collection of songs right now. We are and need to be The United State – a state of unity.

Sometimes I feel like songwriters have this sixth sense or some level of enlightenment that allows them to know before we do, when we are going to need a song or songs to pull us through something. That’s how I feel about this album. It’s as though Justin Wells knew we would need a bright light in the dark we were unknowingly about to enter this year. He said that his first instinct after the entertainment industry shut down was to wait to tour in support of the album. Many artists put off releasing their albums because of this fact and he considered that himself. However, he knew that this album needed to be released and heard at this very moment, no matter what the industry’s situation was. I think he chose wisely.

Although a few singles have already been released throughout the summer, this is an album best digested as a whole. It takes you through the journey of life and all the stages necessary to complete it; the highs, the lows and everything in between. The album opens with the ethereal pedal steel of J. Tom Hnatow, meant to symbolize the beginning of life in the womb and how a child knows the voice of its mother before birth. The significance of the title, “You’ll Never Know, Dear, How Much I Love You,” comes from Justin singing “You Are My Sunshine” to his mother when he was a kid. The outro of the album is symbolic of whatever happens or doesn’t happen after life. I asked Justin where the title “Farewell, Mr. Hooper” came from:

“Mr. Hooper is Mr. Harold Hooper, a character on Sesame Street in the early 80’s. The actor passed away, and the writers went back and forth on how to write the character out of the show, with care and consideration for the children that were their audience. An option was to write the character as having moved away, or something along those lines. Ultimately, they went with writing it parallel to the truth, that Mr. Hooper had died. Big Bird struggles with the concept, and the adults walk him through it. This let the show address death-as-a-part-of-life as a concept to children, rather than letting it be this mysterious, frightful thing. The title of that episode was ‘Farewell, Mr. Hooper.’”

The first full track and lead off single, “The Screaming Song,” is a powerful one. It’s a thoughtful prose on the throes and wonderment of being born into this wild world. There is no other experience like it, for the birther or the being birthed. I am sure it is with good reason that a child cannot recall that memory or that the mother experiences an extremely high level of endorphins during the process, yet what an experience it must be to be born.