My Lovely Parents Strike Again

I probably don't speak often enough about how lovely and wonderful my parents are....and since they live in Belize I don't get to spend nearly as much time with them as I would like to but it makes the times I do so so special. I got an email from my Mum the other day with pictures of their new Humane Society/Veterinary Clinic that they were able to open on their property. So so amazing. With the help of some visiting veterinarians (my father is also a vet) they have been able to offer care and education to local pets and their owners! Belize is a developing country and many pet owners cannot afford care as it takes around $150 BZ dollars ($75USD) just to spay a dog! That pays for 4 semesters of school for a Belizian child! How can one afford that? So through donations and lovely volunteers...they have been able to offer these services! Here's some pics of the clinic!

Love, Greenbelt, London, and Evasion of the Inevitable

Hi Everyone. It's been a while since I posted a proper blog! Despite having loads of time to sit and write, my thoughts aren't that cohesive of late....and dealing with lots of personal upheaval has cut down on my ranting about nutrition, music, and the narrow minded.

It's been a great year. Really fab. I've done much! Left Montreal, fallen in love, fnished 3 tours in Europe and the US with a fourth in Europe scheduled for November, and gotten to know my family all over again. Having lived so far away for so long, we've all changed so much. I thank them so much for this time to spend with them and giving me my own space to heal and develop a new plan for my new life.

I'm absolutely loving London. It's so huge and that's a bit overwhelming; if I was doing it on my own like my experience when I first moved to Montreal I think that I'd be freaking out. However, with Steve and all the the amazing people that I've met here...it makes things so much easier. I'm sure it'll get a bit scary when I finally move here for good and am trying to get places on my own every day. :) Different than my experience in Montreal when I first moved there and didn't speak the language and was basically on my own and even after learning French I still felt as if I'd missed most of the deeper meaning in conversation.

So, we've done some great gigs while I've been here in London. The Darbuka gig was small...but a fantastic atmosphere and I can't wait to play there again! Here's a pic from that gig taken by Wulf.



Shortly after some visitors arrived from the US.....Ric Hordinski and Josh Seurkamp from Cincinatti. I'd met Ric briefly when we stayed at his amazing studio while on tour. Such amazingly talented guys and so much fun to hang out with. No pretension whatsoever, as a matter of fact the reverse. They rolled with the punches the entire time, through equipment issues...transportation issues, being treated slightly crap at Greenbelt by some of the workers and sleeping in a room at our flat that is akin to Harry Potter's "closet" in the first book. Take some time to check out their work....gorgeous stuff. These guys are that rare mix of serious talent, serious fun and the seriously sweet.

We all headed off to Greenbelt in our various coaches....Steve and I left slightly late after chasing down our tent from the delivery service due to it arriving a day later than expected and other issues. By the time we arrived in Cheltenham it was after dark and we still had to set up the tent. To any of you who have set up a tent by car headlights....you know this can be a very stressful operation and I was definitely wearing my pissy hat. (more than anything due to the fact that I was anticipating 4 days of having to be extremely social and anyone who knows me also knows that that is a scary-ass thought for me) For those of you who don't know anything about Greenbelt.....it's a Christian festival attended by around 20,000. I didn't really know what to expect, being that my experience with Christian functions are that normally they are extreme in their conservatism and tend to be a vehicle for finger pointing and proselytization. (I'm speaking only from my experiences of attending functions in the Eastern US which might not be the best example) Greenbelt turned out to be the opposite of what I'd expected. A lefty festival with lots and lots of lovely people interested in being challenged with new ideas and opinions. The people were so nice in fact, that I didn't even mind the social aspect for the next four days.

Our first official day there...we had a big gig on mainstage with Sarah Masen. We had a few rehearsals with Sarah beforehand but I didn't feel very prepared and therefore was slightly nervous during the gig. However, I find it so much easier to play to thousands of people than I do to a crowd of 30 or 40. The show went very well and everyone played beautifully. The band lineup was Sarah on vocals and acoustic, Josh on drums, Steve on bass, Ric on guitar, Evil Harv and guitar, and Kari, Jude, Me, Cathy Burton, and Cary on backing vocals. Here's a lovely shot taken by Sarda...



Our next gig was The Recycle Collective at the Cabaret. This is a show of all improvisational music starring some of the best of the best in jazz, classical, and contemporary music in London and around the world. Of course me being a part of this was fantastic and probably more do to the fact that this concept was invented and implemented by Steve. He's taught me well over the months of touring though and I loves me some on the spot improvisation. I was up first so I threw out some lyrics and harmonies on the fly which was really really great fun. Other artists on stage that night were the Amazing Andrea Hazell, Patrick Wood. Andrea is a mezzo-soprano with the Royal Opera here in London (amazing amazing amazing and super sweet) and Patrick is an an amazing multi-instrumentalist equally at home in jazz, funk, fusion and pop (and one of the sweetest people I've ever met). I was in heaven surrounded by so much talent.

What I thought would be my last gig at Greenbelt was Monday evening at the performance cafe. It was very well attended and Steve and I played one of the best sets that we've ever played together. :) It really felt fantastic to be in such a great listening environment. Later at the organic beer tent where we spent a lot of time most evenings...(yay) we received a phone call that they needed someone to replace Duke Special at Last Orders and we were off again (slightly drunken) to play for several thousand people and ended up closing Greenbelt for the year. We played one of my tunes from the first album...I'm Lost and my new favourite cover....Tea in the Sahara.

In between playing lots of gigs we also saw some great ones and met and hung out with some lovelies as well. My faves we're Iain Archer(especially his set at the cabaret with the lovely Miriam who sings for Snow Patrol) sharing a veggie lunch the very gentle and down to earth Dennison Witmer, Billy Bragg, and Duke Special. Badly Drawn Boyo was a highlight of the fest for me due to his hilarious commentary on his own festival experiences at Liquid Lunch....plus he's just brilliant and I like to listen to him talk. :) Was also lovely hanging out with Steve's family. Getting hugs from his nieces and nephew that weren't because they felt they had to made me feel really great.

Here's a pic from the performance cafe gig. (the hat is due to me getting a really terrible case of sun poisoning and my forehead swelling up so that I looked like a Klingon. So forget all you've heard about the English getting burned to a crisp....the token American mentalist strikes again)



Needless to say I was very very happy to get back to the flat and have a proper shower and rest and to see our lovely lovely flatmate Catster again whom I've come to adore this last month. (she's fab and she's a GREAT GREAT cook and loves Scrabble and Skipbo and makes a mean G&T....we're just scratching the surface here) Plus I tend to enjoy being able to walk 20 feet with Steve and not have it take an hour (he's much loved at Greenbelt and seems to know everyone!) ;)

This is becoming the longest blog in herstory....so I'll just close with a word about the freedom of expression gig from the other night. It was my third one....(shows made possible by the lovely Tim Eveleigh) and at a new venue (though I'm quite attached to the Green Dragon in Croydon...and it's mega close now!) We had quite a few lovely friends come out to the FOE in Marylebone but a few minutes into setup...we realised that Steve had forgotten to bring ALL his pedals. That meant trying to control everything by hand which had to be a bloody nightmare, and....the show was being webcast! HA! It was great fun though...we compensated by trying to be funny and it turned out to be a very very entertaining gig for us...hopefully for other's as well. You can watch it here.



Thanks to everyone for all your help on my journey this year and the latter part of the last...you all know who you are, cause not everyone finds the kind of love you read about fairy tales and so many of you helped nurture and encourage this in the face of my disbelief...or just cause you loved me and wanted it to be true. It doesn't really matter either way....as Celie says in the Color Purple..."Dear God, I'm here....I'm here."

A special thanks to Kari who is going through a bout of homesickness....I so know that feeling where you just long for something familiar, and just facing shopping at a grocery where nothing is where it seems it should be is daunting; thanks for being a friend and for coming to so many of the shows...it's always a comfort to me to see your smiling face in the audience and you and James have become my something familiar in a space of unfamiliarity.

I travel back to the US on the 10th....2 days after my birthday and though I've had many thoughts of just staying...I know I have to go back. At least for a while. You can't evade the inevitable forever; but I'm happy for now, for all I've experienced, for love, for you.

xoxoLo.