I’m Not Alright...But I’m OK
Benny Mann
April 2002

The title for this song came from an experience driving down College Hill Road in Clinton, NY after a visit to Hamilton College the year after I graduated. People had been asking me about my life and if I was happy all weekend. I kept replying that while I wasn’t particularly overjoyed with the state of my existence, overall, things were bearable, and sometimes, even enjoyable. I had a job, a home, enough food and good friends to go out drinking with. Furthermore, working in New York City made me realize that there were many people who would kill to have life my life even on my very worst day.

Driving down the hill reflecting on the conversations of the weekend, I realized that while not everything was perfect in my life, I was, for the most part, fine. Hence the phrase, “I’m not alright… but I’m OK”. I wanted to write a song about the title then but neither lyrics nor music came to accompany the idea for the song so I just wrote down the expression and shelved it.

In April of 2002, in the fallout of my failed pursuit of a love interest (See "Soul Kissing"), I wanted very much to find myself on the other side of the wretched pain and depression I was in at the time. I wrote this song not so much as an expression of how I felt then, but rather how I hoped I would feel someday. The experience and subsequent title from that weekend at Hamilton was an easy fit as a staple of the main chorus and the lyrics just fell together. After a time, I did experience the outlook expressed in the song and I truly believe the penning of this tune helped me get there.