Announcing “Through It All”
I’ve been writing love songs for over a decade.
Songs scribbled in journals at 8 AM. Voice memos recorded in parking lots because a melody wouldn’t leave me alone. Lyrics typed into my phone while my husband Dan thought I was scrolling Instagram or TikTok Shop.
Some were about loves that didn’t last. Some were about the love that did. And some? Some were about kinds of love I didn’t even recognize as love songs until I lined them all up and looked at what I’d been writing all along.
This February, I’m releasing all of them. Sixteen love songs. Every kind of love I know.
Welcome to “Through It All”
This album is my love letter to love itself—not just the Valentine’s Day, roses-and-chocolate kind (though that’s in here too). I’m talking about the real stuff. The messy, beautiful, hilarious, heartbreaking, ordinary, extraordinary reality of loving people for the long haul.
Because here’s what I’ve learned after years of marriage, two homeschooled boys, career changes, cross-country moves, grief that knocked us flat, and joy that lifted us back up: Love isn’t just one thing. It’s everything.
It’s the first kiss that ends your search and the thousandth kiss that says “I’m still here.” It’s laughing until you cry over the “where do you want to eat” argument you’ve had four hundred times. It’s standing at three graves with your mother and understanding that love doesn’t end—it just changes shape.
The Twists and Turns of Married Life
Let me tell you something they don’t put on wedding invitations: marriage is weird. It’s wonderful and weird and sometimes you find yourself writing a song about how your husband’s beard has colonized the bathroom sink and you’re not even mad about it anymore—you’re just… impressed? Annoyed? In love? All three?
Dan and I have been through it. Job losses that made us question everything. Seasons of grief so heavy we could barely look at each other. Financial stress that kept us up at night. The exhaustion of building a life while raising two boys who have more energy than any human should legally possess.
But we’ve also been through the good stuff. Inside jokes that make no sense to anyone else. That look he gives me—you know the one, the tilted head, the soft eyes, the little grin that says “I’ve got you” without a single word. Dancing in the kitchen. Planning vacations we actually earned. Watching our boys sleep and feeling that fierce, protective love rise up so strong it almost hurts.
Love conquers all—but not in the fairy tale way. It conquers because it shows up. Day after day, argument after argument, hard season after hard season. It conquers because you choose it, even when choosing is hard. Especially when choosing is hard.
That’s what this album is about. The choosing. The staying. The laughing when you could cry. The crying when you need to. The loving through it all.
Two Songs, Two Stories: Meet the Singles
Before the full album drops in February, I’m releasing two singles—and I have to be honest with you: these are my favorites. Out of fifteen songs I love, these two hold the most tender places in my heart.
“Last First Kiss” — Coming Early January
Do you remember your last first kiss? Not your first kiss ever—your last first kiss. The one you didn’t know would be the end of searching.
I remember mine. I remember exactly where I was standing, what I was wearing, the way my heart was pounding. I had no idea that kiss would be my last first kiss. I didn’t know I was done. But looking back? That was it. That was the moment everything changed.
This song is pure nostalgic romance—the kind that makes you want to slow dance in your living room and text your person “I love you” for no reason. If you’ve found your person, this one’s for you. If you’re still looking, this one’s a promise that it’s coming.
“Dance With Me” — Coming Late January
If “Last First Kiss” is about where love begins, “Dance With Me” is about where it goes.
I wrote this one imagining Dan and me at eighty years old. Gray-haired, slower, maybe a little creaky—but still dancing. Still choosing each other. Still swaying in the kitchen to a song only we can hear.
It’s a waltz, because waltzes are timeless. It’s a promise, because marriage is daily promises. And honestly? It makes me cry every single time I sing it. The good kind of cry. The “I can’t believe I get to have this” kind.
This is the wedding song I wish I’d had at my own wedding. If you’re engaged, planning a wedding, or celebrating an anniversary—put this one on your radar.
What These Blogs Are All About
Over the next several weeks, I’ll be sharing the stories behind every single song on this album. The real stories. The “here’s what was happening in my life when I wrote this” stories. The embarrassing ones, the heartbreaking ones, the ones that make me laugh out loud.
Because here’s the thing: I love music. I love making it. I love sharing it. I love when a song lands in someone’s ears at exactly the right moment and they think, “Wait—how did she know?”
I’m not a major label artist with a marketing team and a publicist. I’m an independent musician writing songs at my desk while my kids do math problems at the kitchen table. I’m building this one listener at a time, one share at a time, one “hey, you should hear this” at a time.
And that’s where you come in.
Share the Love (Literally)
If these songs resonate with you—if a lyric makes you think of your best friend, your spouse, your dad, your kids—share them. Text a link to your group chat. Play it at your Galentine’s party. Send it to your coworker who just got engaged. Add it to your family road trip playlist.
Music is meant to be shared. Love is meant to be shared. These songs are my gift to you, and if they mean something, I hope you’ll pass them along.
Because every time you share a song with someone, you’re saying “this made me think of you.” And isn’t that its own kind of love?
What’s on the Album
Here’s a sneak peek at all fifteen tracks—from comedy to grief, from Galentine’s anthems to lullabies:
1. Last First Kiss — The kiss that ended my search
2. Cheaper By The Bottle — Because your girlfriends ARE your valentines
3. You Get Me — Gratitude for being truly understood
4. Lucky Me — A loving roast of married life’s quirks
5. Anywhere’s Fine (But Not There) — The “where do you want to eat” anthem
6. Smile and Nod — Loving what you’ll never understand
7. Dance With Me — Growing old together, one waltz at a time
8. Through It All — Surviving the hard seasons, together
9. That Look — The silent language of long love
10. I Hope You Miss Me Sometimes — Honoring the almost-loves
11. The Ritual — My mom, three graves, and love that outlasts death
12. My Original Valentine — Dad’s chocolate rose on my nightstand
13. Safe Here — A lullaby that’s also a love song
14. Dear Younger Me — A letter to my searching self
15. We Earned This — Celebrating the joy we worked for
16. Girls, Let’s Go — Party Anthems for the Moms
Join Me on This Journey
I can’t wait to share these songs with you. I can’t wait to tell you about the night I wrote “Through It All” while crying at the kitchen table. About why “The Ritual” took me three years to finish. About the real “where do you want to eat” fight that inspired “Anywhere’s Fine.”
Subscribe, follow, bookmark—whatever you do—so you don’t miss a single story. And if you’re already excited? Leave a comment. Tell me which song title intrigues you most. Share this post with someone who needs a new love song in their life.
The love starts here.
With so much love,
Melanie
The Melanie Grace
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RELEASE SCHEDULE
January 5th: “Last First Kiss” (Single)
January 19th: “Dance With Me” (Single)
February 2nd: “Through It All” (Full Album)
