Hallelujah it is Fall! Bring on those cooler temperatures, I’m ready. My family welcomed in the Fall with my Mom’s 95th birthday party. What a landmark, and she is one amazing woman! We are very lucky to have her in our lives. The quintessential nurse, Mom trained at John’s Hopkins, and is still our first “go to” for all things medical. She is always up for company, spontaneous meals and conversation sprinkled with laughter. Mom claims that humor is her recipe for longevity.
Mom’s wisdom is also shared by the elders of a number of Native American Indian tribes, something we learned while visiting the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, AZ this summer. What a wonderful museum with a fantastic collection of artifacts and cultural information, it is definitely worth a visit if you find yourself in that area. We also swam in Sycamore Creek in the photo above. There is a cave with ruins on the hill on the right. It was a steep descent, but the creek was a cool pleasure replete with crawdads on a very hot day!
COMING UP!
Sam and I are absolutely thrilled to be invited to perform at the COMMON GROUND MEETING HALL in Northport, FL on Friday, October 25th. It the perfect singer-songwriter venue: a 60 seat dedicated listening room, and the only BYOB listening room in Sarasota County! There are not many dedicated listening rooms in Florida and so this will be a real treat for us as well as for you.
7:30 PM FRI OCT 25, 2019
COMMON GROUND MEETING HALL
12735 Tamiami Trail, North Port, Florida
(at the Warm Mineral Springs Turnoff)
Limited seating.
$10 advance tickets, $15 at the door
Click here to get your advance tickets
SOME NEW VIDEOS & NEWS
In July, Sam and I had the wonderful opportunity to play at the Woodview Coffeehouse in Lecanto, FL, hosted by one of my favorite soundmen: Tom Ellis. It was our second full length show and so I asked videographer Houston Wells to record it for us. He was generous enough to make the long drive out there in the pouring rain, set up two cameras, and record the full show. He did a wonderful job and provided me with the raw footage of A and B rolls which I then amateurishly put together. A couple of songs are below. He color corrected the footage he gave me, but my old software couldn’t read it properly. I tried somewhat in vain to get the color right, but it was beyond my software to do so. It was an education in video production and I learned a lot about what doesn’t work in the process! I hope to continue my video processing education in the future, with a newer system and more cooperative video editing software! With all these caveats in mind – please take a few minutes to watch the two videos below. Let me know what you think. I’m still learning and so welcome all the help I can get!
In May, my dear friends Jeff and Ann Wolf hosted us for a lovely house concert in their St. Petersburg, FL home. It was our first full length show as a duo. What a wonderful time we had and the show really gave us the impetus to pull a lot of material together. Creating arrangements for a duo is very intensive hard work, but Sam and I enjoy collaborating immensely. Many thanks to Jeff and Ann for giving us something concrete to work towards. Working with a twenty something really highlights the agility of the young mind at learning and retaining information. I can only hope that by working with Sam, my mind is getting a good agility workout!
You may recall that I tore the meniscus on my right knee last April. That laid me up for about three weeks but now I am back to yoga and hiking again. No tennis, for now. Mobility is something I am grateful for every day! During that time of healing I dove headfirst into writing and managed to complete three songs in two weeks. Being back in writing mode feels good, and I still have a few more songs very close to completion.
Now that I’m collaborating with Sam it is possible to move straight to arranging during the writing process. It is wonderful to have his excellent creative input and feedback. It can, however, be a challenge to retain the old material while creating new material. We are a dream team in my book, something I never envisioned outright. With hard work and perseverance, we have created something truly magical together. To have this creative time with my son is a gift and I treasure every moment.
It is a new experience for me to write melodies for someone else’s voice. There’s no question that Sam’s voice should be featured more in our shows, but for that to happen we need more songs. Since it takes almost as long for us to learn covers as it does to write and arrange new songs, we have decided to stick primarily to writing new material this Fall. The challenge for that, as always, is to balance this with our busy schedules.
Sam is currently working full time as a critical care tech in the Emergency Room at UF Health/ Shands and fronting his band Xenogenesis, which will be playing at the High Dive in Gainesville on Friday October 11th. Some of you might be interested in checking out Xenogenesis and seeing a completely different side of my talented sideman! I don’t know what time they go on, and so a call might be in order day of show. Earplugs a must! We’ll be there – so hope some of you might venture out!
GAINESVILLE GOTHIC
My multi-talented friend Callie Williams agreed to take some promo shots of Sam and me. After looking through them I decided that black and white best captured the mood of the shoot. My favorite is the second, gothic looking one, though probably not appropriate for promotion!
LOOKING AHEAD
Sam and I love to play house concerts, so if any of you are interested in hosting a get together with your friends at your home for a concert and potluck, or concert and desert, please get in touch. We’d be thrilled to help you make it happen. In November we’ll be playing a private house party and I’ve been invited to be an Artist in Residence for a camp in December.
Wishing each of you a wonderful Fall season, good health, and quality time with friends and family. Even though this crazy world is full of things to fret about, there is a bounty of wonder and joy to be found by being truly in the present. Remember, you are not alone, we are all in this together, as human beings on this beautiful planet.