Looking at the title and the track that it was created from, "Grey Shades", you might think that songwriter Irene Jackson is preparing to give up the ghost.

"Actually, the idea of Shades of Grey was two-fold...of course, it deals with getting older in songs like 'Gravity' and '49 Plus 1'. But what has always fascinated me as a songwriter is the idea of unresolved feelings, unanswered questions and those grey areas of life that can't quite be categorized."

Irene's main focus in the past ten years has been teaching guitar and maintaining her popular songwriting website, and it has been less about performing live. She gave up live performances in 2008, when her husband was laid off from a job he'd been at for almost 30 years. Since then they've recovered, but it left Irene with a lot of food for thought.

"Pretty much every song on Shades of Grey had been performed in front of a live audience, and they were ready to be properly recorded and released. After the shock of my husband losing his job, I realized that I just had to get it done, because you never know what's around the corner!"

Now that Shades of Grey is out there, she is ready to put the experiences of the past few years to pen and start writing songs again.

You can find Shades of Grey on iTunes, Amazon and many other online retailers. You might also want to check out her songwriting blog at IJ's Song Blog

Website: Irene Jackson Shades of Grey