Meet The Ramshackles!

So we finally got some band publicity photos taken! We have a couple gigs coming up in the next several weeks, one of which is fairly big, so we needed photos for advertising, but also for general marketing purposes. Our cello player is a graphic designer by day (and sometimes by night too!), so she'll get everything all prettied up for us. In fact, here's a flyer she's created for our next gig!

Here are a few shots that I've played around with.

And a couple of silly ones... where we were laughing about who knows what...

and where my mind has wandered off... probably looking at a bird, as usual!

You can find us on myspace by clicking here.

Remember to sing a little, dance a little, and love a lot!

Summer Songwriting

Sometimes songs come easier than others. Sometimes a song begins and then lays dormant... the words stuck on the paper, unwilling to grow. But songwriting means working on those lyrics, playing with phrasing, switching lines around, allowing the words a chance to rise up and call out to others and allowing the songwriter a chance to meet the challenge head-on, pencil in hand, guitar on lap.

Such has been the case with one song I started about two weeks ago... a song about the river and living in the here and now. The first verse came quite easily, along with the chorus. The second verse followed fairly nicely, but the third? After leaving the song for a couple days, I came back to it. And I spent almost two hours on four lines! And I'm still not sure if I am satisfied with the lay of those lines. So I set it aside and made dinner. And a few days have passed since, while I have had band practice and singing with the old folks and playing in the Winston-Salem Shuffle on Saturday night. That turned into a very late night for this old gal, and so yesterday, I was fairly good for nothing.

Here are a few photos from the Shuffle. I asked my mandolin-playing friend, John Hartman, to share the stage with me, which he graciously agreed to do. Our first song was Marlboro Man, which is on my CD. Our second song, which is the one during which these photos were shot, was my brother's song, When You're Alone, which I absolutely love singing and will perhaps put on my next CD (yes, I'm planning on a new one!). And best of all, it uses a kazoo, which my husband agreed to hold hidden in his hand until the appropriate time. It got much laughter and applause! Our final song was a new song I finished up about two months ago called A Little Mercy, and which, by the way, came easier than some... thanks in part to its rhythm.




So this morning I took an early morning walk with my three adopted dogs (I'll be dog-sitting this week), and the air was cool, there was fog lying low on the mountain, and there was a freshness all about me. And lo and behold, new lyrics came rushing into my brain. Not for the above-mentioned river song, but for a brand new one. I love it when that happens. It's often unexpected but oh so welcomed! So as soon as I could, I got the words on paper (in a nifty little journal that I bought from phofun on Etsy) and got out the guitar. I think it will be a traditional sounding song, full of fun rhythm and fun rhymes... a song of summer, a song of love... "c'mon, darling, come on home."

Stay tuned... literally and metaphorically.

A Story of Mountains and Connections

What a great week... not only did spring finally arrive with my daffodils in full bloom, beautiful sunshine, warm temperatures (which means also fewer fires in the woodstove... and less dirt in the house!), but I had the pleasure of having my grandpuppy here again for the week (she was great company for me while John was away and for Abby who is still missing Bruschi, as am I!). And, and this is a big ol' AND... my bracelet / cuff arrived from LaTouchables... all the way from Germany!

I have been following Dawn's blog, and I've been watching her progress since she began creating these gorgeous bracelets and cuffs from amazing materials. She's not been selling them too long on Etsy, but man, does she sell them! Many of them get bought up just after she lists them. And that's what happened with Nanga Parbat! As soon as I saw this one on Dawn's blog, I knew that I had to have it.

It spoke to my soul... its colors, its textures, its design... and of course that fact that Nanga Parbat, as Dawn wrote in her description, "is the mountain with the highest face in the world." I live right beneath some of the oldest mountains in the world, the Sauratown Mountains. One of my neighbors has written in his blog, "North Carolina’s Sauratown Mountains are between 500 million and 1 billion years old. These unique mountains could be called hills after being worn down by so many years of erosion. They were once higher than the Himalayas but now top out at just over 2500 feet." So is it any wonder that I felt immediately connected to this wonderful Nanga Parbat creation? I think not.

So yesterday, I ventured once more to the Post Office hoping to find what I've been waiting for, and there was a note in my box that I needed to sign for a package! Yippee!! This bracelet is everything I'd hoped it would be and more. It fits perfectly, feels so soft and light on my wrist, and I feel that I bought the best bracelet Dawn has ever made.

These are some photos that my son took for me today when he drove up to collect his dog. He's a photographer in real life, so I'm quite pleased that he came here today... just in time to get some fabulous photos for me to show off my new purchase! And yes, I can and will wear it when I play guitar because it looks fabulous there on my strumming and picking wrist!

Homespun Girl

It appears that I will be a homebound girl this weekend if the weather forecast is on target. Starting this afternoon, we are supposed to see some lovely snow start falling in these parts, with a total of approximately 6 inches, and maybe more, before it's all over tomorrow night. That's enough to keep the wisest folks at home, hunkered down for the duration. We've got the woodstove nice and toasty and plenty of wood to keep it going, lots of food, good books, and hiking boots for a walk around the mountain.

We're all set... unless the power goes out. We can stay warm, for sure, but since we have well water, if the power goes out, so does our ability to have water for bathing, and most important, toilet use!!! And with several inches of snow on the ground, I am not too keen on going out to the woods for that purpose! We're just keeping our fingers crossed that it is indeed snow that we get and not ice, which tends to wreak havoc on all things higher up, like tree branches and power lines. We will be able to have coffee and tea since we keep a camping stove, fuel, and an old camping percolator-type coffee pot for just this reason, and a few extra gallons of clean water.

So it will be interesting to see what the weekend holds for us. One thing that will keep me busy is getting cover art and labels on my CD, which I am soooo happy to say is finally finished! Thanks to a huge effort by my bandmates, Trey and Diana, we were able to complete the mixing on Wednesday night. While it isn't perfect, we all agreed that it sounds pretty darn good and we were pleased with the outcome. And we really weren't aiming for perfection, more for a real sound. As long as the electricity continues to hold out, I will need to burn the CDs, affix the labels, and get the cover in the cases.... just in time for Christmas! That was the plan from the start, and we worked really, really hard to achieve it!

Here's the cover... that's a dress by freeflightclothing on Etsy... and it's so soft and comfortable!

And here's the playlist, 12 original songs...

The three of us learned an awful lot from this process... it was a challenge, for sure. And it was amazing to see how it all came together, to hear what Trey did with leadwork and Diana did with cello arrangments, and to learn about the recording and mixing world. It's a huge, huge job, but we are glad we made the effort. It was definitely worth it, and I am indebted for a long, long time to my friends, Trey and Diana. Thanks, guys!

Back in the Saddle Again

Did you think I was going to blog about riding a horse? Nope... this is all about music! After a couple weeks of not being able to sing much because of a cold or some virus that managed to create shortness of breath, wheezing, and a dry cough, I am thrilled to be able to sing again! So this week has pretty much been devoted to musical art rather than visual art, though I did make one new necklace... which you may have seen in my earlier post. It's now finished, but not photographed yet.

This photo is of my dear, dear Guild... circa 1974, a D-35... which means a dreadnaught guitar, nice and hefty. I've had her since 1976; she was a high school graduation gift from my parents, interestingly enough, purchased way back then from my bandmate, Trey! So now you know how old I am and how long I've played music with Trey, though fortunately the two of us have come a long, long way since then... musically and in other ways as well! Over the summer the Guild had a little work done... a new bone bridge and nut installed, some fretwork and new pins, and man, oh man, I love the way she sounds now! Rich and true, a little bright, but not too bright. I'm sooo pleased. Of course, the right strings help and those that are on her now, Elixir Nanoweb Light Phosphor Bronze, are just perfect... they'll be my staple from now on.

So I'm thinking about the originals I'll be putting on my first CD, and the order they'll be in, and I've been working on those songs, polishing them up a little, fine-tuning and such. But I've also got two new ones that my bandmates haven't heard yet, one that I wrote this week, and yet another one in the works. My songs tend to reflect my mood, of course. They are sometimes humorous, sometimes sad, sometimes silly, sometimes happy and bright... love songs, songs about loss, songs about the current state of affairs, songs about growing old, and even one song about murder! Some are story songs (I love the story-telling Texas songwriters!); some are not. Sometimes my songs start from a word that I love or a phrase that sticks in my head. Sometimes from a conversation with my husband or from a story I've read in the news or an experience someone has told me about. Sometimes they come from a feeling that is so strong I can't see past it.

Sometimes people ask why I wrote a certain song, and sometimes people assume that every song is true. Well, of course not all my songs come from personal experience. In that sense, they are not all "true." But in some way, they all start from a thought I've had, or a story I've heard or read, or even an image I've seen. But you can't listen to a song and assume it's something the songwriter has experienced. If that's the case, I'd probably be in jail or dead since I wrote a song, told in first person, about first degree murder!

Songwriting is all about word play, enjoying the sound of words, of rhymes, of being very intentional with your word choice and the mood you want to set with your words. And you have to think about rhythm and melody, pacing, and for me on guitar, whether the song will be strummed or picked. It's not unlike painting in which you take a blank canvas and add color, texture, patterns and lines, foreground and background to create an image that speaks of an emotion, a story, or a vision.

Next week, perhaps I'll get back in the painting studio where there is a half-begun canvas waiting for me. And plenty of blank ones as well. But when the song-writing mood hits me, as it did the other night 'round midnight and I had to get out of bed and write down some lines so I wouldn't forget them, I have to follow through.