New Release Announcement!
Elvis Graduation | Davis Wells + Immunity | Spokane Public Radio | Live Each Season in Awe Webinar
Last week, our family was traveling back to Ohio for Elvis’s high school graduation. Y’all, my middle child graduated from high school. Wild.
Because we were traveling, I didn’t have a chance to share with you this HUGE news—the Davis Wells album release!
I am so, so, so proud of this project and of my husband, who has been working tirelessly and joyfully on the production of this album for the last six months.
Brandon (Davis) and I started writing music together during the pandemic. I’ve written a little about that process in To Say One Million Times, Wow, but let me just say here that songwriting with my husband is one of the greatest surprises and delights of my life. If you’d put “write songs with your husband” on my life’s Bingo card back when we first got married, I would have laughed. That’ll never happen. Forget that row’s potential for Bingo.
But here we are! A whole album! With songs we wrote collaboratively! Bingo!
Immunity is an album of hope and heartbreak and hope renewed. We’ve got some protest songs, some love songs, and some lost love songs. We’ve got some songs that’ll make you dance and some songs that’ll make you laugh. Co-writing lyrics with my husband might be the most fun I’ve ever had writing. And I have a lot of fun writing.
People have asked if I contributed to the vocals or instruments on this album, and the answer is yes! If you listen closely to the first song on the album, you can hear me clapping.
Let’s just say I don’t have the most vocal confidence in the world. If you read “Along for the Ride” in To Say One Million Times, Wow! you’ll understand.
When I first started writing, I couldn’t imagine collaborating with people on a project. To me, it seemed like a compromise of the integrity of your work, a cheapening, like the only way to be authentic was to go it alone.
What a silly girl I was! All writing is collaborative. All of life is collaborative. We fool ourselves if we think we’re flying solo in any single jet stream. Each of us is influenced, formed, and held up by a host of others who are shaping our work and our lives. To deny that is to rob ourselves of the joy of connection, the pleasure of seeing something become bigger and better than it could’ve been if you kept to your isolated box, pretending you’re the best and only person who can make great art.
Immunity is such a collaboration—between Brandon and me, yes, but also with other musicians and vocalists in other states, with a producer in Ohio, with our son on the drums in one song, with James McMurtry and John Hiatt and Marc Cohn and Billy Joel and Dave Matthews and Mary Chapin Carpenter.
What? You didn’t know we were best buds with all these musicians?
They don’t know it, but they also collaborated on this album. Their genius is infused in the music and lyrics, inspiring us to find our own voice and songs. It is this way with all art. We are all contributing artists on the latest album release of the universe.
Go take a listen—I hope you love it.
In Other News
A couple poems of mine will be included in the next issue of Rock & Sling, including “The Meaning of Prairie Dogs,” read by Olivia Blank on Spokane Public Radio! Listen here →
Daniel Cooperrider and I are hosting a conversation online July 7 at 7:30 PM EST, and you can now register for it! I just finished Daniel’s book, Live Each Season As It Passes, and the writing is beautiful, just as beautiful as the thoughts and attention to the natural world given throughout. Cooperrider is an ecotheologian and pastor of Flicker Wild Church in Wisconsin. Register here to join us!
A Word about WOW:
LMBrandonSmith had this to say in her review of To Say One Million Times, Wow!:
“I picked up “To Say One Million Times, Wow!” expecting a focus on big, breathtaking moments and while those are certainly there, what I found was something quieter and, honestly, more meaningful.
Sarah Wells writes with such honesty about family, faith, and the complicated, often messy seasons of life. This isn’t a polished, picture-perfect road trip story—it’s one filled with teenage indifference, unexpected detours, physical limitations, and the constant tension between what we hope an experience will be and what it actually is. This is real life.
What stayed with me most was Sarah’s commitment to looking for awe anyway. Not just in the sweeping landscapes of the West, but in the ordinary, the frustrating, and the deeply personal moments of motherhood and change. As someone who also juggles work, family, and the desire to be present, I found much to relate to here.
Her integration of faith felt authentic and grounded—woven naturally into her reflections rather than forced or preachy. It added depth without taking away from the universality of her story.
This is a thoughtful, reflective read, less about the destinations and more about the transformation that happens along the way.”
Have you gotten your copy of TSOMTW? I’d love to hear your thoughts! You can now order signed copies directly from me, if you’re so inclined.
Upcoming Events
I’m really looking forward to this season of conversation around subjects I love! Here are a few places you can find me in the next few months:
Live Each Season in Awe: A Conversation with Daniel Cooperrider and Sarah M. Wells
Register Here
July 7 at 7:30 p.m. EST
“Creation Care: Loving God, Loving Neighbor, Loving the Earth”
Brethren General Conference, Fort Wayne, IN
July 20-24
Book Reading and Signing in Fort Wayne
Sunbound Bookstore, Fort Wayne, IN
July 22 at 4 p.m.
“Use Creativity to Empower Hope”
Wild Goose Festival, Harmony, NC
September 3-6
Into the Wilderness Writers Retreat
Wilmington, NC
October 22-26
Spaces are available for this retreat—come away with me and a couple of my writer friends to explore your story and escape into the beauty of creation! Registrations are due September 1.
Have You Read To Say One Million Times, Wow?
If so, would you do me a favor and post a review? Reviews make a big difference for future potential readers. You can review it on Amazon or Goodreads—either place will help me out.
Having had the pleasure of the Sarah Wells karaoke experience, I think you do have some vocal confidence 😬
Your newest essay collection has made it to the top of my book pile. Can't wait to read it! -C.D.