Grace Blackford captures devastation of losing brother Mark
Family from Marion, Ohio
Grace Blackford, a singer from Cleveland, has written a powerful song about the overdose death her brother and the lasting heartbreak it brought to her life.
Her brother, Mark, died in 2009 when Grace was 14 years old. It took more than a decade before Grace was able to write about her grief. The song is based on an optimistic saying that Mark had: “after every dark night comes a brighter day.”
“After Every Dark Night” is a rare song about overdose that focuses on the emotional devastation that remains, in the living, after an overdose death. “You left when I was 14, I was numb, I couldn’t feel a thing/Now I ache and I wish you were here and I think of how different it’d be/How you’d still look just like me.” (Full lyrics below.)
Grace and Mark Blackford
Mark Blackford hold his newborn sister Grace
Grace is from Marion, Ohio, a city of 35,000 located an hour north of Columbus.
“Mark had an amazing, dry sense of humor,” Grace says. “He had a strong faith in God. He loved music and good food and was loyal to his family and his sports teams.”
Her favorite memory is an everyday brother and sister moment: eating bagel bites together in the family kitchen when Mark came home from work or school.
Since Mark’s death in 2009, more than 40,000 other Ohio residents have died from drug overdoses. Immediate survivors number in the hundreds of thousands, in Ohio alone.
Grace’s music career
In 2011, Grace won the Miss Teen Popcorn contest while a student at Pleasant High School. The pageant was part of the Marion Popcorn Festival, a tradition that continues today. (Bet you didn’t know that!)
Grace Blackford, Miss Teen Popcorn 2011
Grace won the talent contest that year. She sang an original song: “I Want Popcorn.” Such versatility!
Grace moved to the Chicago area for college, received a degree in jazz music from North Central College and later sold ads for Chicago-based DownBeat, the premier magazine for jazz and blues, while pursuing music She returned to Ohio earlier this year and now lives in Cleveland.
Grace released her first album, Inside My Head, a few months ago. (It can be heard on Spotify, iTunes and YouTube.)
“After Every Dark Night” was featured in March as part of NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert search for original talent. (Grace and her music can be found on her web site, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.)
After Every Dark Night
By Grace Blackford
After every dark night comes a brighter day
At least that’s what you said
But you also said that you’d come back home
And you never did
After every dark night comes a brighter day
And it’s something I try to believe
But in the morning I wake after dreaming of you and I just wanna go back to sleep
You left when I was 14, I was numb, I couldn’t feel a thing
Now I ache and I wish you were here and I think of how different it’d be
How you’d still look just like me
After every dark night comes a brighter day
But some things have been dark since you’ve gone
I’m left to figure out all the demons and doubt that you left behind
After every dark night comes a brighter day
And I long to hear you say that now
Instead I play back your low voice in my head and it’s real somehow
You left when I was 14, I was numb, I couldn’t feel a thing
Now I ache and I wish you were here and I think of how different it’d be
How you’d still look just like me
After every dark night comes a brighter day
I think I know what you meant
I see light pouring in after long nights of pain, and I understand