“Been a Groundhog Day of a year
Equal parts of sadness and of fear
You hobble toward a cold and bitter end
And you worry what the coming days portend.”

Perhaps you’re feeling this today?

These lines —from my album’s title song, “Rock Hammer To the Stone”— are new today in a “deja vu all over again” way. We collectively peer into an uncertain 2025 with anxiety and fear. 

So, I offer this remastered/re-edited video for you, as we head into New Year’s. (Both the video and audio have been enhanced from a version of a few years back…)

It’s a tad strange, but this is the first time I’ve mentioned the new album here on WhenEFTalks. I’ve been posting a lot on social media and on ericfolkerth.com for the past several months.

The album is a labor of love, years in the making. In a sense, it’s my own “rock hammer” story. I’ve written a long description of the album process here on ericfolkerth.com

Click here for all the ways to listen or buy the album. And thanks in advance.

I think the song is helpful because it names the challenging task of persevering in a time when it feels like you’re in a dark hole with no way out.

The metaphor of the title is borrowed from Stephen King’s short story/book “The Shawshank Redemption,” where Andy Dusfrene chips his way out of prison, one tiny rock fleck at a time.

The words of the chorus are my imagination of what he must have said to himself, and perhaps what we all need to say to each other, through all these days.

Whenever you feel like curling up in the fetal position, and no matter how challenging or hard things may get, keep chipping away.
And as you wield your own rock hammer, inhale/exhale the chorus as a mantra for you, and me, and our broken world:

“Just keep on breathing
Keep on seeking
Keep believing
We’ll leave this grieving.”