10.21.07
Posted in Uncategorized, music news, life at 10:50 am by Deb
Whew! Somehow, I can’t seem to continue to keep this up. Between working, taking care of a 3 1/2 year old, gigging and life, why can’t I find the time to do one more thing? I love the idea of blogging, it’s just time consuming. I do continue to journal every morning. Once in a while I skip a day, but mostly I manage to keep up. Dick asked me last night if I thought anyone would ever actually read it someday. I never really thought about it before. I suppose my grandchildren or maybe my great-grandchildren will be interested somewhat. If I write with that in mind though, I may not feel as free to write what I am really inspired to write at the time. I don’t want to censor my journal any more than I already do. When my grandfather died, we found a couple of his journals. It was fascinating to read through them. He had just left home for the first time and was in pharmacy school. It was very cool to get to know my grandfather - the real person that I never knew - through his writings. I actually made a decision last month that I want to focus more on my music and less on extras. As a result, I have started taking a dulcimer class once a week for 6 weeks. When that is over, I’m going to take something else. It forces me to put in my own practice time in each week. I would like to do even more than I have, but at least I’m doing some, and it’s more than I was doing. Unfortunately, I am a fast learner, so it doesn’t take a lot of practice to get ahead. Imagine what I could do if I put more time into it. I am working more this year than I have before. I have another student and started another music class, “Fun With Music”, for 4 - 7 year-olds. I’m also teaching more Music Together classes and should be buying the Albany site soon. OMG, then I’ll be running a growing business in addition to everything else! We also will probably be running the Open Stage at the new Eighth Step site in Schenectady. Thankfully, we will be rotating it with other hosts, so it will end up being only once a month. So…just how full can my life be with music anyway?
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09.16.07
Posted in Uncategorized, music news at 8:11 am by Deb
Well, we finally did it. Last night was our long awaited show at Caffe Lena. We had a great crowd and played very well. I think it was a combination of excitement at finally headlining in a nice listening room, especially on that means so much to us, having such a warm and supportive audience, and having another person providing a different instrumentation. Whatever it was, last night was probably the best performance we’ve ever given. My grandson, T, videotaped most of the first set. Thank-you, T. I can’t wait to see it. Hopefully we can put a bit of it up on our site soon. Now the goal is to make a demo DVD so that the essence of our shows can, hopefully, get put across. We realized the other day that our music alone is not the heart of our performances, and how do you transmit that to someone who is just listening to a CD? This may be the answer. I think T is probably very good at this, so I’m excited to see the result. There were family members, old friends, new friends, and strangers there last night. Everyone were as wowed by our performance as we were. Thanks also to Dave Danks who played very well and added a new dimension and depth to our music. We just all had a blast, and it showed. I think we’ll keep playing with him occasionally and hopefully will get more gigs that warrant a third person. Maybe we’ll be The 3Ds.
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08.26.07
Posted in Uncategorized, music news at 12:12 pm by Deb
We had a very fun gig last night in a new venue. We shared the show with two other musicians, Steve Grogan and Molly Durnin. We all did two alternating short sets. Although it was a minor annoyance having to bring our equipment and do all the set-up and break-down by ourselves, we still had a good time. For one thing, it was nice sharing a show with younger people. Also, there were a fair amount of people who came specifically to see us. That was a nice change. We’ve actually had a gradual increase over the last few months of people who return to see us or hear about us from friends. The down side was there was no publicity in the paper. Oh well, it was a chance to break into a new place. Molly was very good. She did two songs that she had written the night before. They were both good, but I was very impressed with the second one. I felt inspired to write and discouraged at the same time. After the show, we chatted with Mr. Math for a while. I mentioned my dilemma about not having a secluded place where I could go to compose my songs. He told me about a famous artist who painted on someone else’s back porch because he didn’t have studio, yet. My reaction to this was to dismiss it and tell him about having too many distractions from Grandsweetie when trying to write or play music. He then told me about some great mathematician who did much of his important work “with his grandchildren on his knee.” At that point, I decided to give up. He just didn’t understand. Later last night, after unwinding at home for a couple of hours, I decided to read before going to sleep. I remembered Molly’s two songs and the things that Mr. Math had told me. At 3:30 am, I had a wonderful new song that I plan to debut at our next show. It’s called “A Brand New Day.” It’s a new style for me and is fun and light. The lesson I have learned from all of this is a lesson I should have learned a long time ago: If I want something, I need to go out and grab it rather than waiting for it to find me. I’m sure I’ve learned it many times. I just get caught up in the struggle and forget. Thanks to Mr. Math for the encouragement and to Molly for the inspiration.
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08.23.07
Posted in Uncategorized, babble at 10:59 pm by Deb
It’s hard to believe that it’s been so long since I’ve written anything. A friend commented on a post from back in March. That inspired me to write this tonight. I actually forgot about it, that’s how crazy things have been. At least I’ve been writing in my journal every day. I even managed to write a song the other day, and though it wasn’t great, at least I wrote it. I had a dream the other night about getting ready for a gig with X, who is gone - maybe to another life by now. I wonder how long before you jump into another go around. Anyway, we had everything set-up, so I went off to find a quiet place to tune-up and warm-up with my lap dulcimer. I found an empty dining room and started playing an old traditional song, “The Water is Wide.” As I was playing it, I realized that I had never played it on dulcimer before and really liked how it sounded. I usually play guitar and like that version very much, but this was even better with beautiful harmonies. Now I am working it out on dulcimer for future shows. I’ve never had a dream that gave me inspiration for music before this, or at least I haven’t noticed. I have been dreaming tons lately. I think it may have something to do with the medication I’m taking. I’m certainly not complaining. I love remembering my dreams and writing them down. A couple of years ago, I read quite a few dream books. They were all encouraged about writing down dreams as soon as you wake up. I’ve found that it helps me remember them longer, helps me remember more about them as I write and seems to help me continue to be able to remember them as the days go on. I still go through phases of not remembering, but usually remember at least little snippets. It makes it hard to get out of bed in the morning, though. I just want to stay in bed and dream all morning. No chance of that actually happening these days. Grandsweetie’s been home most of the summer. Between work, taking care of her, housework and chores, and doing all the gigs we’ve been getting it’s a wonder I can still stand. So much for getting lots of rest to cure the Graves. School starts in a few weeks. That will help a lot. I’ll also get more work at that time which, though it will keep me a little busier, will relieve the stress around money. Meanwhile, we are entering the big birthday marathon. First comes my birthday on Wednesday, followed by FyreGoddess on Friday, then my youngest son, RC2, on Saturday. Whew! It makes my head spin just thinking about it. Hopefully, I can get back on track in so many ways toward the middle of September. Look for more then.
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05.05.07
Posted in Uncategorized, babble, life's stories at 11:50 pm by Deb
Life is full of strange twists. I just recently saw the movie “Following Sean.” It’s about a filmaker’s reconnection with a young man who was the subject of an award winning film he made in college. Sean was a 4-year old living upstairs from Ralph Arleck in Haight Ashbury, San Francisco in the late 60s. The original film is a series of “interviews” with him. “Following Sean” is a look at how his life turned out many years later. There were many predictions made, by people who had seen the original film, about how Sean would turn out. As someone who raised her children in a very unorthodox environment, I was very anxious to see the film. I had mixed feelings about it and got into a very interesting conversation about it with my daughter. The next day, I still had our conversation on my mind all day. When I checked my e-mail, I found that someone had commented on my blog entry about living in the artist commune, Project One, in San Francisco. I also found an e-mail from an old friend who happened to live in a sister commune, Project Artaud, at around the same time. I hadn’t heard from him in a while and was a little struck by the serendipity of his timing. However, I was completely blown away by the comment which was from a woman who actually lived at Project One when she was 9-years old. I immediately wrote back to her and have been fascinated by her own struggles throughout her life as a result of her experiences. I told her that many of us who raised children during those wild times made mistakes and might do things differently today, but all in all loved our children and thought we made the right choices at the time. We were running from what we saw as an oppressive society and looking for more freedom, giving that freedom in turn to our children. A lot of good things came out of that time, and all of our experiences made us who we are today. I keep wondering why I’m having these connections with that time all of a sudden. What is the message here? Once again, I wanted to share it with X, but he’s not here to enjoy the irony of it all. Hopefully he’s chuckling about it wherever he ended up. I hope I can keep the connection with this woman. She is a wonderful artist. I’ve enjoyed our e-mail conversations so far and hope to have more.
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05.03.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 1:37 pm by Deb
Finally it is springtime around here. Upstate NY is a tough place to live at this time of year. You have the promise of spring with the flowers all beginning to bloom and the trees sprouting their leaves, but it is still pretty cold! It’s not unheard of to have snow in April or May. Then, all of a sudden, we get hot weather! Where I grew up, spring was usually a gradual thing. This is the land of extremes. I don’t usually complain about weather (except extreme heat with humidity), but I have to admit that I’m getting a little sick of this all or nothing weather. Today the sun is shining, and it’s about 60 degrees. I’ll take it. I don’t even mind spring rain as long as we get some sunshine once in a while. I think one reason I’m having a hard spring is that my new yard is all clay. Everyone in my family is too busy to help me mix some compost and topsoil into it, so it becomes a swimming pool everytime it rains. I am an avid gardener with a very sore back. Not a great combination, so I depend on the stronger backs in the family to help out. Hopefully, we will get the new garden in before my seedlings decide to give up!
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04.21.07
Posted in Uncategorized, babble, music news at 8:04 am by Deb
Boo-hoo! Our Caffe Lena showed got snowed out! We’ve rescheduled for September. We have been playing so much ( 4 - 5 times a month, sometimes more) it’s been hard to do this writing. I am writing in my journal everyday, though. Thank goodness I have that at least.
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Posted in life's stories at 8:02 am by Deb
A few weeks after the Magic Kingdom, my first child was born. My due date was on my birthday. That night we had a small birthday party for me. Everyone sat around watching me for any signs of labor. It was, without a doubt, the strangest and most uncomfortable birthday I have ever had. I finally threw everyone out, though X’s sister stayed for the weekend. The next evening, my water broke. This was it! We were both convinced we were having a boy. She certainly surprised us! Still a traveler in my soul, I was planning to hitchhike to the hospital when the time came. When A heard about this, she insisted on driving me. 19 hours later, here was my daughter - a true beauty. Was I disappointed at not having a son? Not even for a moment. I loved her more than I thought was possible. We almost named her “Karma” being the hippies that we were. I decided that I didn’t want to saddle my child with a name that might be hard to live with somewhere other than California, and being a “gypsy”, I wasn’t sure where we might end up. X also reminded me what the word meant. Did we really want a child named Karma? Our friends at the time named their daughter “Honey Tree”. We settled on a mainstream name. I did, however, change the spelling of her middle name from Lee to Lea because of the numerology involved. Lee would have made her name a “4″. Since she was already a Virgo, I didn’t think a 4 was a great idea - attention to detail, critical, lots of the same characteristics. The Lea spelling made her name a 9 - a very powerful, out-going, take charge of your life number. Boy, did she ever take charge! (and has continued to do so…) Although she did have problems with kids in school for being raised so differently, no one ever teased her about her name. I couldn’t really do anything about the different lifestyle, though I did try to compromise some. Sorry Fyre, by the time you reached schoolage, you had already taken your first steps in the VW bus while driving down the road somewhere in Arkansas. And, you had already been to more Grateful Dead shows than most adults and hung out with street musicians, jugglers and artists. I couldn’t take that back and wouldn’t want to anyway. It helped make you the beautiful and unusual person you are now.
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03.03.07
Posted in music news at 9:56 am by Deb
Our big show has finally come close. We were offered a Friday night at Caffe Lena. Dick used to be a big part of Lena’s. He was a companion of Lena Spencer for quite a while and was the president of the Board of Directors after Lena died. Caffe Lena was also the place where he first heard live folk music and decided to be a part of that scene. Below is our press release:
Local musicians Cavanaugh & Kavanaugh will be performing at Caffe Lena on Friday March 16th with special guest Dave Danks.
Much of the traditional music Cavanaugh & Kavanaugh performs is in the Irish and Southern Old Time tradition. Deb and Dick also perform original songs and tunes on guitars, mandolin, fiddle, mountain dulcimer, banjo and more. Life partners, as well as musical partners, who coincidentally share the same last name, they enjoy performing together and sharing their stories and songs with an audience. A subtle blend of ethnicity, humor and more, they bring their varied experiences to life on the stage. Dave Danks will be joining the C/Kavanaughs on stand-up bass and mandolin. Dave is from the Saratoga area and plays with many area musicians including The Zillionaires.
http://www.CavAndKav.com
http://www.myspace.com/cavanaughandkavanaugh
We’re hoping to record the show. We’re also planning to go back to our favorite studio, Moondog East, to do more recoding there as well. Hopefully that will happen this month or next. Wish us luck!
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03.01.07
Posted in Uncategorized, babble at 2:35 pm by Deb
My body has finally decided to make me stop being caretaker to the world. I have been diagnosed with Graves Disease. The really bizarre thing about all of this is that X’s live-in girlfriend/partner of the last 13 years has Graves. That was one reason why she couldn’t care for him when he was dying or pick up the pieces after he died. The disease is triggered by intense grief (often from the death of a loved one) or stress. The stress I’ve had for years now, though it certainly was compounded recently. The grief was very intense. Now I’m trying not to be stressed out about this illness. Last week, I thought I was going to die. I have never felt so sick in my life. My pulse, when I woke up in the morning, was 128. I’ve always had a slow pulse and low blood pressure. I was also shaking 24 hours a day, like really shaking. I’m finally taking some things that have calmed things down a bit, though I do get exhausted very quickly. Boy, I really need a vacation now. In the meantime, I’ve started a new schedule of going to bed by 9:30 pm and waking up at 5:30 am. Yikes! That’s a tough change. However, it’s giving me time in the morning to do things for myself like my journal writing and writing or practicing music, time to have a good breakfast, and time to hang out in a relaxed way with Grandsweetie before going off to work. My days have been so much less stressful as a result. Thanks to my wonderful partner! And… I’m planning to get back to writing my life stories again now that I have made time in the morning. I don’t have X to ask about details anymore, so I’d better get to work before it all disappears.
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