I want to thank my very excellent wife, Natalie, for the bird on this album art. I wrote this in March 2020, not long after I wrote Annabella's song, which I wrote 6 days after our daughter passed away. This song is the follow up in a collection of songs that reflect on our story...and that have taken me way too long to finish and release. I've released "Sunshine" which is about the anticipation of everything happening, Annabella's song is a tribute to her, and "I'm Still Standing" is about leaving the hospital as a duo instead of a trio but still standing strong and continuing even though it felt weird to carry on with our life. This is a sad thing that happened for us, but we don't consider it a tragedy. You have to tear your muscles to build muscle. This was exactly that for us; our spirit and our relationship have grown so much stronger, and we thank God everyday for the inexplicable strength and clarity we were given to get through this chapter of our story. Annabella will always be with us, we’re relieved knowing she didn’t suffer here and she isn’t suffering now. At the single release for Annabella’s song I gave away a free copy of a demo of all 6 songs from this collection as a gift to celebrate the occasion together. Since then I’ve been working on proper mixes to release the rest on the broader platforms. When you compare the two, you’ll hear why. This is one of my favourite songs from the collection and I feel like it’s my best work of any song I’ve produced myself. There’s a hint of both Fleetwood Mac and Butch Walker in this smooth arrangement of instruments, mostly in the pairing of lead guitars and chord progression alone. I decided to commit to a single vocal track rather than working on layered vocals. I’ve become a simple, meat and vegetable, kind of guy and I think this captures the time in my life when I wrote this during lockdown in my basement studio. I eventually had Jay Riehl record drums for me, but I committed to my vision of doing this as an isolated from the world effort. I’m very proud of how this track turned out and I hope you find a connection with it.more

In February 2020 I started writing a small collection of reflective songs about my experiences as we welcomed and said our farewells to Annabella. We left the hospital the day the world seemingly shut down and after spending two sleepless nights in the hospital, paired with thankful grief, the timing couldn't have perfect for us. I can't express enough how that statement is purely from a introspective point of view. For more about our story with Annabella, visit: https://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/entertainment/local-arts/new-single-a-tribute-to-chris-streis-late-daughter I just had a room finished to be my studio and I spent lots of time sitting there, thinking, noodling on guitar, and writing reflective songs the way I do with any heavy situation in my life. It's how I cope. While I was just writing songs - without any intended direction - about what I was feeling and experiencing, one of the artists that has influenced my songwriting the most released a concept meant to tell a continuous story. Without even hearing it, it sparked the idea of arranging these songs into a journal style concept. I thought it would be a great idea to make this EP something of a musical short story. The time has finally come to start releasing these songs. Story synopsis: The EP titled "Annabella" is a story that begins with a mix of emotions. The wonderful feeling of joyous anticipation of meeting Annabella contrasting with the realism of talking about how we'll only have a limited amount of time with her. When Annabella arrives we're overwhelmed with happiness that we do get to spend time with her. Even just a few days feel like the greatest blessing. We know this is only temporary but for now we're at peace and enjoying the moment. Once we say our farewell, there's nothing left do but go home as the world is closing in order to control the spread of a virus. We're not alone though, we have each other, we're thankful for what were given, and we're thankful that we can just stay at home while we recover from this experience. Each day we wake up different. Some days have tears, some days have smiles and laughs, some days have adventures through our minds and examine who we are and who we want to be. As we venture our minds there are moments where we can't tell if we're falling apart or if we're rebuilding ourselves. The story concludes with a self-reflection of the reckless person I used to be with substance, who I see my past self as, and who I've become through sobriety as I make the choice to be better for both of us.more

LYRICS VIDEO ON CHRISSTREI.COM/BLOG What do you do when someone reminds you that their live stream is featuring Christmas music, and you have no Christmas songs? You say, "Oh, just a minute..........................*an hour later* ok, I wrote one." I don't have any insightful messages behind this one. It's nothing more than a fun and Scroogey piece promoting my idea of a perfect Christmas in 2020. I hope you enjoy my little anti-Christmas song: "Damn Pandemic Christmas"more