Catching you all up on the other side of my life:
Radio has started responding to “Motherlode”. We are working non-commercial stations as I write this entry (non-comm are the stations NPR related, or commercial free, like university stations). In a few weeks we start the commercial stations. I will see if Gene can add in the names of stations that are adding me so that, if you would be so willing, you can call/email them and request my music. Your love and energy is what will keep them playing the music. It’s that simple. But people need to respond or the songs will quietly disappear, and then you know what that means…no Sara music on the air waves. And then I will cry. And eat Twinkies. And blow up into a balloon and fly off into the sky with all the other sad songwriters whose dreams are dashed. And I KNOW you’d rather see my dandy smile and grateful heart, hugging you after a show, because your love helped get my songs airplay, and thus, I was able to tour to your town in support of that radio station and YOU!!!!!! Maybe I should just call this the YOU TOUR in honor of YOU!
LAST THURSDAY…MUCKY DUCK SHOW in HOUSTON (which I rate an A++++++):
Drove to Houston to play with Soul Purpose at The Mucky Duck, one of my favorite venues. Jonathan Edwards kicked off the night with high energy, fun antics and great songs. Everyone sang along on “Sunshine (Go Away Today)”.
We had a terrific sound woman named Emily who made the band sound great. My friend, and new co-hort on backing vocals, Lorrie Singer, was AWESOME!!! She plays tamborine and a variety of shakers, and her energy is infectious and positive. She was right there with me, and when you have a singer in the pocket with you as you sing, well, it is indescribable. (Many of you remember the talented and lovely Kristin de Witt, and how effortless she made it sound, too.) So, I feel honored to have these great women in my life who love to sing and do it with grace and finesse.
Zirkel (bass), Eddy (keys) and Brad (drums) all were jamming at high velocity, as well. We just keep getting tighter and tighter, and it is such a thrill to have a BAND!!! Thanks, guys, for all your hard work, coming to rehearsals on time (mm-hmmm…oops, had to clear my throat there) and for being so ding-dang jovial and loving.
(Thanks to Peter Gilmore for the pics!)
It was Carol Gilmore’s birthday, so in her honor, her thoughtful husband had emailed previously with a request for “DUMPTRUCK”, which turned into a saucy, sultry personalized number to the 69 year old man sitting directly in front of the stage…with my right foot on his thigh, I nimbly played guitar and sang into his sweet, unexpectant face (his first show, and he’s on the front row!!!) By the end of the song, he was out of his chair, his hands reaching up towards me, as if in a trance. I had to remind him that it is all just a…dream…and climax…and song ends….and I am hugging him, thanking him for getting his timing just right, just like in the rehearsal we’d had earlier in the week. Oh, yea, he’ll be coming back, my friends! We are in love!
Lorrie and I drove back that night. In the darkness. Alone. With a van full of equipment. Chatting and talking about anything that would keep us awake (like, oh, I don’t know…politics?!) Ok, the rock and roll part of rock and roll is that this part of rock and roll is completely exhausting, but I say: ONWARD!
FRIDAY:
Caught up on office work (emails/phone). Went with the family to see the Golden Acrobats at the gorgeous Paramount Theatre.
Practiced my guitar.
SATURDAY/POOR DAVID’S PUB/ DALLAS:
Left from Lily’s baseball game (in progress when I left), and drove up to Dallas. Delayed by a giant accident that had traffic backed up for about an hour and a half. Stopped and read the paper while I had lunch. Made it to Dallas right around the time my children’s show was about to start, and realized I had driven to the OLD LOCATION on Greenville. Called David Card. Told him I was a numbskull and proceeded to the new location on other side of downtown.
Fun, wacky kids show. Got to spend time with David and Jennifer, old friends, and that was pleasing. Life is so full, that any opportunity to stand around and catch up is a boon. (That’s a word, right? “Boon”? Just rolled off my fingers, there.)
By then, I had about thirty minutes til the band would be appearing, so I raced over to the hotel to check in, and after some confusion, realized that this was no longer the hotel that David uses, so drove downtown to the new one and WOW! Am I glad I stayed there…realllllllllllly nice, nice folks, nice elevator (makes a cool clackety-clack sound), super nice room with all modern art and fixtures. Very comfortable sheets and pillow. The Hotel Lawrence, if you ever need to stay in downtown Dallas. I highly recommend it. And the front desk manager is a complete gentleman and plays R & B music in the lobby. Rock!
Drove back to Poor David’s, finally got a sound check (everyone was running late), Kristy Krueger opened….lovely voice and uses an old fashioned (but newly minted) radio mic for a cool vibe. I predict she will be a star in one year from now. I have decided (and may have written about this before?) that people perform before me go on to huge success….Shawn Mullens, David Garza, Dixie Chicks, Terri Hendrix, Paul Anka, Aerosmith, Mel Torme, President Clnton. So, you see, it could happen to you!
Back to reality: the audience was much more subdued than Houston, so I felt like I was playing in a library. But it was another great show by the band. (An aside on the heartache of being a working musician: Eddy’s car had broken down, and thankfully, he had a room at the Hotel Lawrence, too, so he had a place to rest his weary head. He got up the next day, took a taxi to a Firestone station while a tow truck towed his truck to the location, but then, sadly, found out it was going to cost $1000 to have it fixed. AND he had to drive back up the next day from Austin to retrieve it. Good thing he just got married so he and his wife had some quality driving time!
Eddy and I had a nice drive back to Austin. Good chattin’ time.)
SUNDAY…GRUENE HALL….SAN MARCOS …Mother’s Day
Well, after Eddy and I drove back to my house, we had some fine P.Terry’s burgers, all natural, organic farm raised beef burgers on whole grain buns. Mmm. I am sorry to all my vegan friends, I know I should return to my vegetarian ways. I am lazy. And it tastes good! But I know it is wrong. But I was hungry! But I will stop. No, I will not.
Loaded up the clan, hopped back in the van, drove to Gruene Hall….YESH! This is the place for me!!! I can NOT believe I have never played there before! IT IS SO COOL! Jonathan Edwards performed again, consistently funny, charming and talented…such a joy to listen to…and then ZOOM! Up went Soul Purpose and we had a grand old time.
Gruene Hall has got to be about 120 years old, a long leaning building with a white washed exterior…with worn wooden floors from eons of boot scooting, long wooden benches and tables, a dance area, and open screened windows. I didn’t try the food, but I had some delightfully refreshing bottled water.
The atmosphere reminded me of a barn dance, with people coming and going, milling and sitting, yakking and singing, children and parents, college aged kids and tourists. All walks of life. I could have moved right on it and found some hay up in the hay loft I am sure they have tucked up inside and curled up for ever. LOVE LOVE LOVE this place and can’t wait to return. Which, fortunately, I was asked to!
Doug, who ran our sound, could not have been any more EXCELLENT! I my favorite moment was performing the most perfect rendition of “My Mama’s Hands” and asking mothers and daughters to dance together, and they did…and I looked over at Zirkel, whose mother passed away last year, and there were tears on his cheeks and it hit home for me that music can never die.
Music is internally within us, and when we hear the music externally, our own unique strains rise up to bond with the outside sounds and harmony is created. It was a moving moment for all of us.
Drove back home by myself…verrrrrrrrry tired. But the night was bright and quiet, and I tip-toed into a house full of sleeping children, a husband tucked under covers, and a little dog curled up at one of my daughter’s feet. I live in a Norman Rockwell painting with Van Gogh colors and an Ellen DeGeneres happiness.