Singer-songwriter Mindy Gledhill celebrates the release of The Phone Booth Sessions Vol. 2 at the Orem Public Library on Saturday, March 14. The concert starts at 7 p.m. Albums are born in curious ways. For Mindy Gledhill, her latest stemmed from therapy.
Three years ago, Gledhill was questioning why cyclical problems continued to resurface in her life when her therapist suggested she try inner child work as a solution. Return home and pick up whatever reminds you of your childhood, she said. Gledhill complied.
When she returned with them during her next appointment, the result was entirely unexpected.
“As we looked at each, considering why I chose it and what it meant, I started seeing them as songs and lyrics,” Gledhill told me. “As a songwriter, it’s how I process the world sometimes.”
On her way home, Gledhill chose to decompress in one of her favorite ways: by visiting an antique store. She was drawn to an old phone booth there, which immediately held a deeper meaning.
“It came to me all at once. I knew what I needed to do,” Gledhill says. She wanted to dial up her younger self and have a long conversation, sharing all she wished she’d heard as a girl many years prior. It inspired what became her 2024 album, The Phone Booth Sessions, Vol. 1.
She bought the phone booth, lined it with acoustic foam, and transformed it into a vocal booth to record those new songs in. While writing, she intended to talk to herself the way a loving parent would when negative self-talk surfaced, helping refine faulty childhood wiring.
“More music came out than I expected,” Gledhill says, “A one-album project turned into two.”
Do the latest songs match those that came before? Are they a sequel? Something else?
“They are a progression, and were harder songs to write, directed not to the younger child I once was, but to my adolescent self,” Gledhill said. “There were more walls, which isn’t surprising. As teenagers, we’re more guarded. We have hormones. We’re confronted with deeper challenges as our brains develop. Still, I wanted to address those years.”
Hear what Gledhill discovered on March 14. Consider it a rare chance to reconnect with whoever it is you used to be.
“Every challenge we face as we get older — especially the ones that surface repeatedly — can be traced back to our earliest wiring. Our developmental years are so foundational to the way we operate,” Gledhil says. “Reconsider your younger self and how they still live in you. Honor that. Help them heal so you can function the best that you possibly can.”
Based on Gledhill’s previous album release at the library (The Phone Booth Sessions Vol. 1), Saturday’s performance is expected to sell out. At posting time, fewer than 100 tickets for the 500-person capacity venue were still available. Get your tickets here.
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