By Amanda May Metzger

If only light can drive out darkness, then Stephen J. Kalinich — affectionately known to many as Stevie — has released an album that feels like a beacon. I Love My Life is so powerful in its plea for peace, so resolute in its anthems against acrimony, that it seems to travel faster than the speed of sound, illuminating even the darkest moments with love.

This 13-track collection of spoken word, serene guitar, poignant lyrics, and sincere vocals finds Kalinich and friends unwrapping the gift of gratitude and inviting us to partake, whatever our circumstances. He doesn’t call for lofty idealism or place the burden on our leaders to fix society’s problems; instead, he empowers us to act — to save ourselves. That message is especially urgent in 2025, as political violence in the United States has escalated with senseless killings and destruction from radical ideologues on both sides.

The “friends” featured on I Love My Life include vocal and instrumental contributions from Randell Kirsch (Beach Boys, Jan & Dean), LuAnn Olson, Rob Bonfiglio (Wilson Phillips, Al Jardine’s Pet Sounds band), and other gifted musicians. Released by Heyday Again Records, the album was recorded at Pasadena’s The Pie Studios and engineered by Jeff Peters, who has collaborated with the Beach Boys — both collectively and individually — for more than forty years. While much of the work was recorded during the COVID-19 lockdowns, its message continues to resonate. The spoken-word tracks echo Kalinich’s thoughtful Instagram videos, always worth a watch. Beach Boys fans won’t be surprised to learn that he wrote the lyrics for “Little Bird” and “Be Still” on their 1968 Friends album — the moods and themes here feel like kindred spirits, making I Love My Life essential listening for any Friends devotee.

With I Love My Life, Kalinich departs from his earlier format of poetry paired with music, instead offering a blend of songs co-written with Milo Binder and spoken-word performances he improvised online amid the global pandemic.

The first track “Preamble,” sets the stage with organ music and echoing vocals chanting “I won’t be fed a set of beliefs that I cannot live every day/ or have high ideals that are not real/ and I will not pretend.” This feels like a spiritual experience, the sounds, the vibrations, the otherworldly synergy of man’s humming with the ethereal organ. 

Kalinich delivers the second track, “Today,” in spoken word. “Every day we come up with a ‘Living philosophy’ that helps us to survive all the pressures, challenges, problems, when we feel everything is going to fall apart. When we don’t know what to do. How do we get through it? How do we develop a sense of gratitude that is more constant, more consistent, not thrown by every disruption and disturbance?” Kalinich asks. He says he’s been working on this his “whole life,” and he’s come up with “only a few things.” Thankfully for us 13 of them are now compiled on a single CD.

“What Would Love Do?” the third track, encourages us when all else fails to ask what “love” would do. “When life seems to bring you down/ and it all falls to pieces/ do you have what it takes to survive/ to stay alive?” The track had me thinking of how the New Testament writer Apostle Paul wrote about love to the Corinthian church in the first century. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.”

Then Kalinich delivers a powerful verse of “If I Could Write the Poem” that imagines a world in which his words would save it.  “If I could write the poem that would save the world I would write the poem that is so full of energy and goodness…that conquers everything until everything is transformed into pure sheer goodness. 

The next track “Beyond Frightened” with its crisp guitar touches on themes of homelessness and feeling forgotten. “I’m beyond frightened can you help me/ my senses have been heightened/ can you help me/ and just to get by a single day is a challenge.” Anyone who has experienced trauma, loss, addiction — life can leave people bearing the weight of a single day like it’s an anvil.  The “Nobody even looks me in the eye” line points to the willingness of many to walk by and pretend not to notice the suffering of others. 

The track “The First One to Heal is Yourself” is the first that features a female vocalist, LuAnn Olson, and her voice is divine as we’re called to examine ourselves before we look outward. “If you want to change the world/ start by changing you,” she sings.

The tracks continue ever hopeful until we reach the final album-titled track “I Love My Life” sung by Kalinich with gentle strums of a guitar. “This life is a miracle / I love my life,” he sings, his voice welling with emotion in the final line.

Here’s a word from Stevie as posted on his website, from which you can find links to purchase I Love My Life. “I didn’t make this album to be perfect — I made it to be real. To give a little light, a little comfort. To say: you’re not alone, and this moment matters,” Stevie says. Through Stevie and his friends’ words and music, he shines not just a little light, but a ray as powerful as sunlight, the greatest disinfectant. What we do with these words and thoughts, is up to us.

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