June 14th,2011

BLOGGIN

Paris/Chicago/Branson/NY and SUMMER!

Hey guys. First of all I want to say out loud and in print that I do NOT want to miss the summer. I'm busy and its already moving too fast for me. Ever since I lost a million pounds years back I have had a love affair that just won't quit with heat and humidity. With shorts and sandals and little summer dresses and bronzin up my Greek skin to go with my black hair and prance around in the warmth with the sun on my shoulders and my natural femaleness mixin in with my hot perfume. (Guerlain/cloves,geraniums & vanilla) Knowing men are looking at me cuz men look at women in the summer when they are showin skin. I wanna run in the heat with my ipod and a bandanna around my head, I wanna swim in any body of water as often as humanly possible and I want to fall in love in it. I want to get dressed to go out to dinner with that familiar tingle and clean hair. A heel that makes any woman's leg look like a million movie-star bucks and that twilight that last just a little bit longer then it oughta when its summer and when you might be on the verge of the love of your life. I wanna feel like a teenager below the waist and a sage above it.
Swimming. I am a water maniac. I have loved the water since I was a kid. Before I remember. If I live until 100 there isn't enough lifetime left for me to sing and swim.The crystal clear creeks in Missouri, the Long Island Sound in Port Jefferson with my family and the summers of my youth, the ocean anywhere and the private city pool that was built in the late 1800's in Paris. Bicycles and sun roofs and flip flops and BOYS! (the grown up ones!)
S U M M E R.

Did a show last month at Joes Pub. So many new tunes. My band did them and me proud. Thank you boys. The tunes are good kids and we're just gettin them on their feet. Look for us in the fall ok? I wanna do le poisson rouge in NYC, so keep looking for us, maybe thats where we'll be. Did a show in Paris last week and hung with people I have known and loved for over 25 years now. I forget I have a "family" in France until I get there. Yet I sink into their collective loving arms like a baby in my mothers embrace. Opening a show with "Lush life" only works in Paris. Thank you Jacques Brel and Edith Piaf I guess! Passion is for the courageous in Europe, its never a dirty word or something any red blooded woman oughta keep to herself. Gotta love that. They are planning a mini tour for me in the best of ways. Sort of a dream gig for a  month if you will. I'll start with some standards, all sort of Torchy and grown up, piano and vocals and then we'll add an acoustic guitar. The show will mount and end up with me doing Whipping Post with a full band. Why? Why would I sing standards and then rock and roll and originals and beautifully arranged covers all in one hour and get paid for it? Because I can!!!! Yep. I figured that part out. I got a great band, I write songs with my friends, I do rock clubs. I sing standards with magnificent piano accompaniment and players in small boites, I teach, I wrote a musical, I produce workshops...why? Cuz I can!!! I want to be happy and want to sing. So there you have it. I am and I am. No definitions or pigeon holing necessary anymore. This is the good part. Who knew? You sure couldn't have told me that when I was 17! :)

Ya know, lots of stuff happening in life , real life stuff. Life and death, love and loss, etc....that are very much apart of my everyday these days but somehow I'm good with it. The core of me is grateful and happy as hell. The "mourning" if you will is just that. I walked down 34th Street today crying buckets of tears about love and loss and life and death behind my $200 RayBan's and last week in a church in the Madelaine in Paris I got down on my knees and wept. Told God I was ready and I do believe I am. I am ready for me not to try and control it all anymore. If I love him still and he doesn't feel the same, I'll just keep on loving him till I don't.  If someone I love is sick I'll be there. If there is a gig I'll say "yes" to it. If there is an opportunity to sing something that fills my heart or breaks it I'll take it. And if there is a body of water big enough to dive into, I'm in!

Chicago: I'm doing a show there this Friday as part of a teaching weekend. I'm doing new tunes I don't know yet, but I love them and they are part of whats making me cry on 34th street.

I helped write a musical and its almost ready to be SUBMITTED! With the Tony's opening up the Broadway to the straight folk I know and love, SOUTHERN RAIN, our musical, is gonna kick some major ass once it gets there! I'm ready. I want to be with my dad and see my family as much as I can. I want to sing and write and record. I want to cry when my heart is full, never be embarrassed about my annoyingly passionate self, I want to meet and love the shit out of someone ridiculously deserving and I want to SWIM!

HAPPY SUMMER - I'm ready!!!!!