On June 29th, as I was driving north to oversee a tenancy change and construction on my longtime home in Aptos, I got the call from my cousin that my aunt had died. I know—we are all going through these changes now—but the process is still so mysterious and vast. This one hit particularly hard, and not only because we had been close since I was in college and she took me into their home for school breaks. She became a model for me then—a high achiever, a woman who really could do it all—home & family, work & self-sufficiency, creativity.
But more immediately, now, Joan was the one person who never wavered an instant in her devotion to and solicitousness for her big sister, my mom Mary Alice, whose Alzheimer’s has grown very severe over these long years of the illness, and who is solely my charge now, albeit in a small home facility down the street here in Santa Monica. (That’s the coming out part, for those of you who didn’t know this.)
But there it is, and so, along with my sister Ibby Cline who lives near Boulder, I planned to perform at my aunt’s memorial service in Vail in August.
The magical part was that, while looking through old emails to see what songs I had sung at a memorial a few years ago, I spontaneously fired off an email to my friend & former accompanist Dan Andersen, to see how he was faring in Austin, where he moved two years ago. He wrote back that he had moved to Boulder a couple months ago—!! So it turned out he could come and play with me at the memorial service!
And the other magical thing was that the tunes Yesterdays and How Deep Is The Ocean are in the same key for me, so we could make a perfect medley. And less miraculously but equally wonderfully, my sister and I had time to work out and practice harmonies on another tune, Today. A video of that performance didn’t come out... but just as well to keep the farewells within the family.
But just for fun, here is a video of me and Dan performing The Man I Love at the (hot!) reception afterward.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVKBqcEfc5U
In other music news, am still performing regularly with our pop vocal trio, Three of Diamonds with Eric Vincent and Tony Perez, and I assure you my friends, it won’t be too too long before I perform again publicly in LA...
Was able to see a few of you up north when I performed last-minute at the cool new wine/piano bar Zizzo’s in Capitola with Greg Powers on keys—thanks so much for coming out—it was wonderful to see you!
And Most Importantly, the new CD! I know, it seems like crying wolf, but I am rolling out tunes and videos starting September 15th, and you can get it via paypal on this site—just click on the music link at the top. xoxoxoxoxo