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My song didn’t make the cut to the final round of the Song of Arkansas contest.  There are positive and negative aspects of that.  The only negative aspect, really, is that I’m a little sad and disappointed.  The positive aspects far outweigh my barely bruised feelings.   First of all, nobody among my followers will have to put up with me fretting and nail biting and CONSTANTLY POSTING ABOUT IT for the rest of this month. 🙂  Also, I’ve gotten a bucket load of compliments from all sorts of people, from family to strangers, about the song that I came up with, “Celebrate in Arkansas”.  Those words of praise mean more to me than any contest outcome ever could, and that’s the absolute truth. Thanks, everyone.

I pushed myself, I wrote something outside my comfort zone and outside my typical musical style (this was about as close to country & western as I could ever get, folks, despite obvious regional advantages in that direction), and I put it out there just as fast as I could.

If you want to check out the songs that did make the cut (the judges chose SEVEN instead of five!) just do a Google search for Song of Arkansas, and you should find the page easily.

I’m leaving the YouTube version of the song right where it is, and sometime soon I’ll polish the recorded version up further for release as an online single.

Read more…

I am pleased as punch to announce that I get to share the stage once again with my favorite Canadians, Heather Dale and Ben Deschamps!

We’ll be performing together in Nashville on March 8 and in Little Rock on March 15, bookending their trip down to Gulf Wars.

This is gonna be good, yall!

First, and most happily, I’m watching Betsy, Clint and Geli perform right now, thanks to the miracle of livestream!  They covered my song “Rootless” tonight, and it made my heart float.  It’s not every day you get to hear your friends nourish you with a new version of something that came out of your own soul.  I recommend it.

Next, I’ve got a WHOLE bunch more shows with active ticket sales as of today, from this month through to May 2014!  My favorite newly confirmed stop on the tour: Fertile Ground Gathering in Virginia!  Here are the rest of the currently confirmed shows coming up, in chronological order.  More will be going up soon, including Nashville and Little Rock in March, and Colorado in June.  Hope to see you at the concert closest to you. 🙂

Seattle – Women of Wisdom Conference (Feb 15)

NJ – Wicked Faire (Feb 21-23)

Memphis, TN (Feb 26)

Conway, AR (Feb 28)

Kansas City (March 1)

Chicago (March 29)

Fayetteville, AR – Amazon Music Fest (April 12 – early bird tix $40 ’til Feb 14!)

Madison, WI (April 19)

Toronto area (April 25-27)

Youngstown, OH (May 7)

Triangle, VA – Fertile Ground Gathering (May 9)

Fredericksburg, VA (May 10)

Greenbelt, MD (May 11 – no tickets for this one, just come on over.)

Hi, everybody.  Just got off the phone with Renée of Big Bad Gina, and we’ve all agreed that we should postpone our Little Rock concert scheduled for tomorrow.  Hard decision to make, but the weather is just sketchy down here, and we know we can try again another day.

Repeat: Tomorrow’s Little Rock show is postponed.

To all of you who were ready to brave the weather anyway to come and dance with us, WE LOVE YOU SOOOO MUCH!! We’ll keep this one for a later date and make sure you hear about it. Please join us for the rescheduled show if at all possible- news as it comes!

Just want to make sure everybody knows:  my March 22nd show in Cape Girardeau, MO is changing location! I’ll post details as soon as they’ve firmed up, but for now, just know that all’s well and the show is still going on. 🙂

I’ve got my first show of the month this coming Friday evening in Little Rock, shared with three of my favorite wimmen in the world: Big Bad Gina!  If you’ve heard “Beetz in my Salad” or seen the music video for that song, you’ll recognize all of them.  They’re my best sisters, and I can’t wait to share the stage with them again.  Please spread the word, and grab your tickets here!  We’ll debut at least one new song!

I had a fun radio interview with Kris Steinnes this afternoon!  You can catch it here if you like.

Also new today:  Here’s a lovely new review of my WONDERS album from Kirtap the Bard.

Thinky thoughts about reviews and evolving your art under the cut.  Read on if you like.

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Working on recording new things this week, as well as some very patient projects that have been waiting their turn.  The belle of the ball today is a collaboration with a friend, a song called “Black Swan Blues” that I get a chance to make my own.

And no, we’re not talking about something inspired by the Black Swan film or by the popular financial events analysis book- though there is one quote from that book’s author (Nassim Nicholas Taleb) that I really appreciate: the normal is often irrelevant.

The phrase Black Swan has a whole bunch of connotations these days.  The most popular one seems to me to be what people call Black Swan Events.  World War I, for example.  More on all of that here.  In the case of the song I’m working on, we’re thinking of Black Swan in a different sort of way – think of a black swan as a black sheep, crossed with an earthquake or a thunderstorm. 🙂  A mover and a shaker.  Someone you least expect.  A prophet.  A radical.  A witch.  A god-form.  Joan of Arc.  Christ on the day he dressed down the money lenders.

Sound fun?

Stay tuned. 🙂  I may post a video blog entry of the recording process in a bit.

Special thanks to SatyrPhil, Syme, and Sandi for letting me run off with this idea and give it guitars.  Looking forward to the return of Arpeggio the Webcomic.

New Song! Hope you all enjoy this. Pretty well sums up how I feel about the positive aspects & beauty of the place I came from. 🙂
I wrote this for a song contest which closes today. The pro judges will pick the top 5 entries over the next two weeks, and then general voting begins on February 10. We’ll see if I make it into the top 5!

In the meantime, if this gets stuck in your head, that’ll make my day just fine.  If you look at the video on Youtube and click “show more”, you can read the lyrics and, if you’re curious, check out my explanation of the Arkansas references I use throughout the song.

Fingers crossed!  I very rarely enter contests, but I’m more happy than nervous about this one.  Feels good.

I had a blast being a guest on the Dr. Pat show yesterday.  She calls it Transformative Radio for a reason.

Dr. Pat and her crew have archived the interview, so click here if you’d like to listen!  We had a wonderful time boosting my upcoming show at the Women of Wisdom conference in Seattle, talking about what it takes to live your dream, and talking about my Wonders album.  Definitely in my top five favorite interviews ever!

Dr. Pat!

One thing I did not get a chance to do during the interview was mention my foremost collaborator and stage mate, the incredible Betsy Tinney.  Betsy will join me in performance at the Women of Wisdom conference, and I’m thrilled to have her with me.  Plus, there’s that awesome new cello-tastic album of hers that you should go and download ASAP!

Many of us are fortunate enough to have woken up every morning of our lives, secure in the thought that somebody loves us. So many more of us have never had a morning like this. Plenty of us fit somewhere in between, and we know the ups and downs of both situations. Some of us have had that strong foundation of unconditional love since we were young. Some of us haven’t yet had a chance to learn what that feels like.  Where would you place yourself on that spectrum?

I’m not perfect, but I work to be kind and compassionate every day.  People have even told me that I make it look easy.  🙂 The truth is that I’ve never, ever had to wonder whether there is someone out in the world who loves me.  I’ve always known.  This, together with the innate compassion I believe I’ve inherited as a result, is such an amazing gift, and I’m very, very grateful to have it.

It’s the responsibility of those of us who are standing on rock solid ground, mentally and emotionally, thanks to that endless well of support we feel, to be as kind as we possibly can. I believe it’s one of our super powers, no matter what someone who prefers to think of kindness as weakness might say.  From what I’ve seen, compassion takes metric arse-loads of strength. Just ask anyone who’s had their heart stomped into the ground over and over, but who still keeps hope alive. Or, for instance, ask anyone who’s ever worked with Doctors Without Borders, or any other disaster aid organization.  I believe it makes a difference when we pull off being kind.  Even when it gets thrown back in our faces.  Even when we lose the battle.  Even when there’s no reciprocation at all.

You are so very strong. 🙂 Use your powers for good whenever you can.