Welcome

This is a completely new venture for me. I am excited to be able to communicate with you about my upcoming performance dates and new musical ideas, as well as reflections on the progress of my music career and musings on life in general. May this be the beginning of many exchanges to be shared.

Today was a large and profound day for me. I sang at the memorial of a very dear high school friend. The song I sang is called "Guide Me." I learned it from Bonnie Barnett (creator of the nation wide "Tunnel Hum") when I first came to San Francisco in 1977. Since then this song has had a rich history for me--I've sung it on mountain tops at 11,000 feet in the High Sierras and at the memorial for my friend's mother as we scattered the ashes in the San Francisco Bay. I also wrote an a cappella arrangement and recorded it with Vocolot (on the "Heart Beat" CD) during the time I performed with this women's group. I sang it again at my own mother's funeral in 2003.

My friend Anne Moses had been battling lung cancer for the last eighteen months and finally died at the beginning of June of 07 in a hospital in Egypt (of all places!) while on her last vacation. When she first told me she was dying she had asked me to sing at her memorial...my breath stopped for a moment, and then I answered: "of course I will." We agreed the song would be "Guide Me." Eighteen months later I downloaded the Vocolot recording and sent it to her partner Gloria, who played it for Anne on a laptop the day before she died---I was able to sing to my friend right in her ear as she lay dying in the hospital in Egypt on the other side of the world. That was, and still is, utterly amazing to me.

Listen to a bit of the song:
http://www.vocolot.com/music/heart_beat/guide_me.html

And today was not a performance. It was a gift I gave to my dear friend, and I was so glad to do so. I wasn't sure if I could pull it off, but I discovered a calmness I did not know I could muster up in such a situation. Gratefully, it was an alcohol free gathering in honor of Anne's 24 years of sobriety. And so, everyone was very present, open, full and authentic. My task became easy...just be myself and do what I do best. And so I sang.

Goodbye my friend. I know you heard the song.
I will carry you in my heart.