A beautifully designed book and curated playlist of the 10–15 songs that defined a life — paired with the stories behind each one, in your loved one's own voice. Built from in-person interviews with a clinician who's spent his career listening.
By Scott Shadrick, Board-certified PA-C
There's a song from your mother's wedding. A song your father taught you to dance to. A song your grandmother sang in a kitchen that doesn't exist anymore. These songs hold stories — and the stories hold people. And every year, more of them slip away.
Not a list of dates. Not a CV. The texture of who someone is — the moments that shaped them, the people they loved, the ordinary days that turned out to matter most. Most families mean to capture this. Most never do. By the time we realize what we've lost, we've usually lost too much.
A chronological interview asks the brain to recall on demand. Music does something different — it surfaces memory through feeling, through place, through the people who were in the room when the song was playing. The stories that come out are richer, more honest, more alive.
"Familiar music stimulates areas in the brain associated with autobiographical memory, allowing patients to connect to personal memories that might otherwise be inaccessible."
— Music & Memory clinical research, used in dementia care since 2010"Music has two ways into your brain — through the tunes that create hooks into your neural pathways, and through lyrics that speak to where you were in your life at that moment. Some songs become permanent."
— On the autobiographical power of music memoryThe world's best memoirists know this instinctively. Bono structured his memoir around 40 songs. Bruce Springsteen built Born to Run around the music that made him. Dolly Parton's Songteller walks through 175 songs and the lives behind them. The structure works because memory works that way.
— Why the most powerful memoirs use this structureNot a transcript. Not a video. A finished, beautifully designed book paired with a curated playlist — built from real conversation, with the work of preserving voice and meaning done by a clinician trained to listen.
Two to three hours together — at your loved one's home when possible, by video when not. Structured around the songs that shaped their life. The wedding song. The album from the summer everything changed. The hymn from the hardest year. Each song unlocks a story that might not have surfaced any other way.
Each of the 10–15 songs gets its own pages — the title, the artist, the year, and the story behind it in your loved one's own words. Photographs from the family woven throughout. Custom-designed by a professional book designer. Printed on premium stock. The kind of object grandchildren will fight over years from now.
Every song from the book, gathered into a curated Spotify playlist for the whole family. Listen on a Sunday afternoon. Play it at the next family gathering. Save it for the day you need to remember. The book holds the words; the playlist holds the feeling.
Every project includes a private, family-only link to the full unedited interview audio. Years from now — long after you've memorized the book — you'll be able to hear them telling these stories in their own voice. This is the part most families come back to. This is the part you can't get any other way.
Both options include in-person interviews when possible, professional design and printing, a curated playlist, and a private archive of the full interview audio.
50% to begin · 50% on delivery
A focused, beautifully designed book centered on the 10–15 songs that defined your loved one's life — paired with a curated playlist and a private audio archive.
Families ready to capture something meaningful now — a focused project that fits within a typical family budget but produces a finished, professional keepsake.
Begin with a free conversation50% to begin · 50% on delivery
A full memoir covering the entire arc of a life. For families who want to capture more than the soundtrack — the whole journey, beautifully told.
Families wanting the fullest possible record — typically commissioned for a milestone birthday, a parent's transition into care, or after a serious diagnosis when time is the most important variable.
Discuss a full memoirA free 30-minute conversation about your loved one and what matters to capture. No pressure, no pitch.
I send your loved one a letter a few weeks before — asking them to let songs surface in their mind. The memories warm up on their own.
Two to three hours of conversation, structured around the songs we discover together. Most subjects find the experience meaningful in itself.
I select the strongest stories, edit lightly to preserve their voice, and work with a professional book designer. Your family reviews a draft.
The finished book arrives, beautifully printed, alongside the playlist and the private audio archive. 6–8 weeks from interview to delivery.
I'd rather tell you upfront than have a project that doesn't serve you well. Life in Songs probably isn't a fit if:
If any of those apply, I'd still be glad to talk. Sometimes the right next step is a different kind of project entirely, or simply a conversation about how to approach this with your family.
I'm Scott, a Board-certified PA-C with experience in psychiatry and gastroenterology. Most of my career has been spent learning how to listen — to people who are anxious, who are unwell, who are trying to find words for things that are hard to say.
I watched both of my grandparents disappear into Alzheimer's, and watched my parents try to capture their stories before they were gone. We didn't get to most of them in time. The songs my grandmother used to sing, the stories my grandfather only told once, the version of them that existed before the disease — most of that is lost now, and we won't get it back.
Life in Songs is what I wish we'd had. A way to sit down with someone you love, while they can still tell you, and capture the music and the stories that made them who they are. I do this work because I know what it costs not to.
Solvida is the parent practice; Life in Songs is its signature offering. Solvida is not a clinical service and does not provide medical care.
I'll send occasional thoughts on capturing family stories, the science of music and memory, and what I'm learning from the families I work with.
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If you're reading this, someone in your life has come to mind already. A parent, a grandparent, an aunt, a friend's mother. Someone whose stories you'd be heartbroken to lose.
The first conversation is free, takes 30 minutes, and there's no pitch. We'll talk about your family and figure out together whether this is right for you.
Their songs are still here. So are they.
Book a free 30-minute conversation30 minutes. No charge. No pitch. We'll figure out together whether this is right for your family.