Prodigal Tomboy

Musical Offerings from Kay Martin's Solo European Tour

9 Concerts over 13 Months- The Bold Adventures of a Wandering Minstrel

A Single Grandma Solo Tours Italy, Spain, Portugal, Wales, UK, France, Morocco & Greece, 
performing Pop-up Concerts in public and private spaces.   

More Stories and Music!

If you’re new to my site (or just forgetful:) what’s going on here is:

This new music was spawned by Covid, when folks were dying all around, songs I needed to sing—and which I then performed across Europe, the UK/Wales, and Morocco.  I’ve been telling those stories in my blog and releasing the resulting album, Prodigal Tomboy, one song at a time. See all the singles released here & on the Prodigal Tomboy page at the bottom. The last  release is:  All I Want, a Joni classic!~    >>>>>>>

And I’ve written about my month+ stays in Sicily, Spain, Portugal, Wales, France,  Italy, & Morocco.  Go backwards at the bottom of the Blog page for those~

& The last travel story blog evokes ranges of history in:    Greece . . and Berlin!  The gorgeous collages for the different countries were created from my photos by Helena Powell of LuminArts—I’m sorry if you missed the previous ones but they’ll resurface—

That main photo of me starting (staring at:) the camera while recording—that was taken in Manjula & Max’s cottage in western Sonoma, just before leaving for Europe. . .

For the last travel story on Greece and Berlin, scroll down past the singles. 

Love having  you visit, thanks!~

 

 

 

 

 

All I Want

Kay Martin and FeFe Lee

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All I Want is one of Joni Mitchell’s greatest greats—it couldn’t have fit my traveling year and all that learning—all I discovered & experienced & was blown away by—any better. In ways it’s a love song—but it goes Read more

All I Want is one of Joni Mitchell’s greatest greats—it couldn’t have fit my traveling year and all that learning—all I discovered & experienced & was blown away by—any better. In ways it’s a love song—but it goes deeper, and feels like an anthem to travel, to discovery— inner and outer discovery—& to passion and compassion in love.
Like all the Prodigal Tomboy songs, this features Fefe Lee on guitars, bass & synth, & Paul Tavenner—here playing perc. Thanks for listening!

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Prodigal Tomboy singles

Lighthouse

Kay Martin, with Fefe Lee

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Here it is—Lighthouse, the first Prodigal Tomboy song! :-)
Speaks for itself, really, in a world where Covid lurks!~ Thank you everyone who came to my Pop-up Concert at Aptos Center!! It was a beautiful morning!! Read more

Here it is—Lighthouse, the first Prodigal Tomboy song! :-)
Speaks for itself, really, in a world where Covid lurks!~ Thank you everyone who came to my Pop-up Concert at Aptos Center!! It was a beautiful morning!! Lighthouse by the Waifs. kay martin vocal, spoons. Fefe Lee guitars, bass, synth. Paul Tavenner drums, percussion. Engineered by Paul Tavenner at Big City Recording. Music recorded in Fefe Lee's garage studio in Ventura & Paul Tavenner's studio-home in Granada HIlls; vocals recorded in my studio (friend Lorenzo's back house) in Santa Monica, my friend Mary's garage in Capitola, & my daughter Manjula's cottage in Camp Meeker.

ProdigalTomboy #MontalbanoHouse #PuntaSecca #PopUpConcerts #MyKindOfTour #kaymartinmusic #ConcertsFarawayPlaces #FourSweets #Softly #LighthouseKayMartin

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Chovendo Na Roseira

Kay Martin, with Fefe Lee

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Listen! It’s Raining in the Rose Garden! Chovendo Na Roseira is one of the loveliest songs of the 20th/21st centuries. Brazilian Portuguese is among the most beautiful of languages; Brazilian music (deriving from Read more

Listen! It’s Raining in the Rose Garden! Chovendo Na Roseira is one of the loveliest songs of the 20th/21st centuries. Brazilian Portuguese is among the most beautiful of languages; Brazilian music (deriving from African/samba rhythms—check out my Four Sweets album!) is among the most vibrant, melodic, and soulful on the planet. I originally chose Chovendo for this project thinking of it as relieving stresses and strains of our post-Covid world. With its lightness, its sweetness, beauty, and joy, this song relieves and comforts at this (frankly) frightening, worrisome historic moment. Kay Martin vocals, Fefe Lee guitars bass and synth, Paul Tavenner drums and percussion. (if you use the link I've posted, you can see the lyrics under 'info') . . . Here's at the big boys' sites:

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/track/0ufd6AiG7nAQbRG7tMh0Qw

Apple https://music.apple.com/us/album/chovendo-na-roseira-feat-fefe-lee-single/1774853091

Amazon https://music.amazon.com/albums/B0DKB57TY8

Pandora https://www.pandora.com/artist/kay-martin/chovendo-na-roseira-feat-fefe-lee/ALjm44bf62JpjZw

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Rich Man's World

Kay Martin, with Fefe Lee

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Rich Man’s World came to me via the Shady Characters band here in Santa Cruz, who got it from artist-composer Eilen Jewell. The song fits Wales, as part of the UK—the other main imperialist country that, with us, runs Read more

Rich Man’s World came to me via the Shady Characters band here in Santa Cruz, who got it from artist-composer Eilen Jewell. The song fits Wales, as part of the UK—the other main imperialist country that, with us, runs (controls) the world’s banking, finance, and therefore wealth. I could say the Brits long treated the Welsh as 2nd-class citizens, but the Welsh know their own worth.~ And are proud UK citizens, like loving the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee (I was there for it!:). The UK (this my first time staying for any length) does share the US’s materialism in spite of its longer richer history and related interests and quirks.
I love this song for expressing the joys of feeling & moving free—even broke & lonely, needing work & stability. My “lonely rambler girl” is freewheeling, celebratory. Wales carries both sides of that equation: the power/$$ structure keeping us subservient &/or poor, struggling—and the freedom to transcend all that through nature, culture, companionship, simple pleasures, humor—music! I have to confess, the spoons in this one always crack me up . . !

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Tell It Like It Is

Kay Martin, with Fefe Lee

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Tell It Like It Is has long been a favorite, a superlative tune by Aaron Neville back in the day. It speaks to delicately balancing truth and integrity in relationship—when cultural (maybe even natural) tendencies propel Read more

Tell It Like It Is has long been a favorite, a superlative tune by Aaron Neville back in the day. It speaks to delicately balancing truth and integrity in relationship—when cultural (maybe even natural) tendencies propel a couple into a kind of opposition or even war—who wins, who holds power, who’s subjected to the other, who calls the shots. . . who gets what they want, and who doesn’t? I love how the song confronts, holding to truth & deep values, seeing life as fleeting, that we should realize & actualize our potential, our needs & deepest desires, while we can! In this “post”-Covid world—now a world of firestorms and giant tides—this speaks to me. Also, fyi, Tell It was the 1st of these travelin’ tunes that I worked on— I think I recorded 5 or 6 takes, compared to all the other songs, which were recorded on the move & with only 2 takes each!

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Losing My Religion

Kay Martin, with FeFe Lee

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I think I was in Dijon when, besides watching the Jan. 6 hearings, I listened to interviews with Michael Stipe of REM—brilliant, fascinating, inspiring. Asked about this song, now my new release Losing My Religion, he Read more

I think I was in Dijon when, besides watching the Jan. 6 hearings, I listened to interviews with Michael Stipe of REM—brilliant, fascinating, inspiring. Asked about this song, now my new release Losing My Religion, he brushed it off as a light story about a crush at a party. You never know—but . . . To me it captures the most difficult of intimate or family relationships, when everything you do is wrong and makes things worse; you walk on eggshells, tense and fatally self-conscious, self-sabotaging. To the person with all the power, who controls your love, you’re insignificant—almost like an insect. This song captures that terrible loneliness, for me. Fefe Lee: guitars, bass, synth; Paul Tavenner, drums

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Corcovado

Kay Martin, with FeFe Lee and Paul Tavenner

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This song is the beating heart of my music. I fell in love with Brazilian music from its first explosion in the US. Then when I started singing publicly, I had a dream (an actual dream): just an image, half a notebook Read more

This song is the beating heart of my music. I fell in love with Brazilian music from its first explosion in the US. Then when I started singing publicly, I had a dream (an actual dream): just an image, half a notebook page with a big “Corcovado” scrawled in my writing (that came from my actual notebook)—but in the dream, the word was surrounded by guitars. I sensed the song (& all it represents) would be central to my music & life, as would guitars! And dare I say, is a credible nomination for Most Beautiful Song!~ Re: this version: one jazz friend chided me, “the guitar is not Brazilian.” No, it isn’t—it’s Argentinian! by AC Jobim; guitars, bass, synth—Fefe Lee; vocals—kay martin; percussion—Paul Tavenner.

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Prodigal Tomboy-the blog