Ashley Cleveland - Little Black Sheep: A Memoir

Notes

1 Ashley Cleveland, Little Black Sheep 2012 Sole Sister Music (BMI), administered by Bug Music.

Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., The Big Book , fourth edition (Alcoholics Anonymous, 2001), 83.

3 Ashley Cleveland and Madeline Stone, Broken Places, Second Skin 2002 Sole Sister Music (BMI) and Stonesville Music (BMI).

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1954).

Little Black Sheep

The boy told the Shepherd: Theres a fearful storm.

So I went out to the field to drive the flocks home.

I counted every lamb into the keep,

all except for one,

that little black sheep.

Chorus:

Little black sheep, little black sheep

in the howling wind with no relief.

In a cold, cold world, nothin sounds so sweet

as the voice of the Shepherd to a little black sheep.

Little black sheep, she aint nothin but trouble.

Shes not worth much, and shell cost you double.

Shepherd says he knows, but he wont sleep.

Hes gonna go out and find

that little black sheep.

Chorus

Now the little black sheep was the wandering kind,

but the Shepherd brought her back every time.

Mama says: Child, when your pride starts to creep,

you best remember, we all just

little black sheep.

Chorus

For Becca

Contents

LITTLE BLACK SHEEP

Published by David C Cook

4050 Lee Vance View

Colorado Springs, CO 80918 U.S.A.

David C Cook Distribution Canada

55 Woodslee Avenue, Paris, Ontario, Canada N3L 3E5

David C Cook U.K., Kingsway Communications

Eastbourne, East Sussex BN23 6NT, England

The graphic circle C logo is a registered trademark of David C Cook.

All rights reserved. No part of this ebook may be reproduced, scanned, resold, or distributed by or through any print or electronic medium without written permission from the publisher. This ebook is licensed solely for the personal and noncommercial use of the original authorized purchaser, subject to the terms of use under which it was purchased. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the authors rights.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are take from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

LCCN 2013937517

ISBN 978-1-4347-0529-7

eISBN 978-0-7814-1087-8

2013 Ashley Cleveland

The Team: Don Pape, John Blase, Nick Lee, Tonya Osterhouse, Karen Athen

Cover Design: Amy Konyndyk

Cover Painting: DL Taylor

First Edition 2013

Author photo by Tamara Reynolds

Since her debut on Atlantic Records in 1991, Ashley Cleveland has released eight critically acclaimed albums and received two Dove Awards and three Grammy Awards. She was the first woman to be nominated for a Grammy for the Best Rock Gospel Album and the only woman to ever win the award three times. Ashley is also a writer and essayist who has contributed to books including The Dance of Heaven and The Art of Being . She lives in Nashville with her husband, Kenny Greenberg, and has three children, Rebecca, Henry, and Lily.

Visit DCCeBooks.com for more great reads.

Acknowledgments

Years ago my husband, Kenny, began suggesting that I write a book. Every time he brought it up, I would think to myself: Well, I wont be doing that. I can barely stay in the chair long enough to write songs. I have made a long and meaningful career as a singer/songwriter and recording artist. I have occasionally contributed essays to magazines and compilations, but the idea of writing an entire book was overwhelming, and any thoughts in that direction were shoved aside immediatelyuntil Olga.

Olga Samples Davis, a writer and poet I met at Laity Lodge in the Texas Hill Country, decided for reasons known only to herself, that the time had come for me to write a book. To that end, every time we crossed paths, she would good-naturedly and somewhat relentlessly ask: Hows that book coming?

I would respond, fairly tersely: What book? There is no book.

She would smile and say: Oh, there will be. I know it. Its time.

I was utterly puzzled by thiswhat did she care? But she did and she kept on.

A couple of years ago, again at Laity Lodgea favorite place of refuge and sea changes for my familyshe asked me again.

Later that same afternoon I went for a walk and, as I often do, began talking to myself: Why are you so resistant to this? What are you afraid of? Shortly into the walk, I received an invitation into my own story that dropped into my mind in the shape of the opening sentence to chapter one. I thought to myself: Well, maybe Ill try a few pages.

Gradually and reluctantly and with a great deal of hemming, hawing, and complaining, I surrendered to telling my tale. Every time I thought it was too much and that I would quit while I was behind, someone in the following group would come along to reignite the tiny spark and get me through a couple more chapters.

I received an offer to return to Laity and lead worship at a writers conference in exchange for a memoir workshop with Lauren Winner. Laurens books are on my shelveswell-read and much lovedso I jumped at the chance. It turns out that she is as gifted a teacher as she is a writer, and I gained a good deal of direction in a short period of time. But perhaps the greatest gift she gave me was encouraging me that I had an authentic voice as a writer and a story to tell. I started in with my usual monologue about how unbelievably hard it was to produce a book and who did I think I was anyway to imagine that I had something of value to say? She waited until I wound down and then gazed at me for a moment before saying: Do it or dont. I cannot begin to say how helpful this was.

Lauren also supplied the opportunity for me to attend a longer writing class, this time at the Glen Workshop in Santa Fe, an annual arts conference sponsored by Image journal.

In doing this she gave me not only further instruction in writing but also opened up a whole new world of people and art that I knew little about and instantly connected with.

Kathleen Davis Niendorff knew about me through my album of hymns. She invited me to Austin to play a concert at her church. She did not know that I was working on a memoir; if she had known, she might not have invited me. She is a longtime literary agent and was not necessarily looking for a new client. As a matter of fact, when I offered her my first chapter along with the announcement that I was working on a memoir and could use an agent, she accepted it with silenceno encouragement, no discouragement, no nothing. I left an envelope with my first chapter on her kitchen table and drove out of Austin thinking that I was an idiot to be so bold and that I just needed to keep this book thing to myself.

To my utter surprise she called a few days later and left a message that went something like this: Hello, Ashley, this is Kathleen. Well, when you told me you were working on a memoir, I thought to myself: Great. Just what the world needsanother memoir. But then I read it and I thought: Great! Just what the world needsanother memoir! Send me more chapters. Somewhere around chapter five, she signed me and began interfacing with publishers.