Liza Constable

I’ve been listening to alot of podcasts lately, since I’ve been doing a lot of driving this summer. I always seem to enjoy the program “Speaking of Faith”. I am tired of Christianity and far more interested in Buddhism. Being raised a lax Unitarian, it’s not a far leap. Krista Tippett takes speaking of faith in intelligent directions, always.

Anyway, I stumbled upon Jon Kabat-Zinn in the last year or so, trying to deal with the death of both my brother and mother, searching for ways to live my life, be healthy, be awake, get through greiving, and make this life work…

I stopped the ipod at this moment in the conversation and “rewound”:

“The key to creativity is cultivating spaciousness of the mind”. Exactly, I thought, that is exactly what I am looking for. I know these are the times that I am producing the best work, the best thoughts, the best energy.

So he goes on, “Well, actually the spaciousness is already in the mind…we can’t cultivate it, what we can cultivate is intimacy with it so that we actually know how spacious, how luminous, how creative and reliable our own minds are. Now that would be good to start learning in kindergarten!”

http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/

Schedule page finally updated! Something about spring, lots of energy to get though those lists…

Had a great gig with Blue Ox, what fun playing those fierce swing grooves, and playing with old friends. I did my best to hire everyone that worked with me on the “in my girlish days” album. It was such fun, and inspiring. Time to make a new album of this material.

And Swing a Cat has had some great gigs too, at Del Rossi’s Trattoria of Dublin NH, and at the Belknap Mills, in Laconia. The mill has a wonderful room, very well attended, with an unusually pliant crowd (they were serving martinis and cheesecake!). Next we’re playing at Daniels Restaurant in Henniker NH, followed by some summer concert series around NH. I love those outdoor gazebo gigs! That is, until the bugs come out…

Rumblestrip will be attending the New England Folk Festival this weekend, starting off with a contradance in Concord on Thursday. Marco Brehm will be helping out on bass, we’ve got waltzes, contra dances, and there’ll be a special one night only appearance of Liza and the Swing Thing… don’t miss it!

Other than that, it was my birthday yesterday. I got tea and toast in bed, thanks to my 9 year old, but then I had to wash the dishes. Books, chocolate, champagne, oh and a beautiful old japanese woodblock print from my father in law…things I love. I bought myself a really nice “Glyph”(ukulele) made by Dave Means, of Annapolis MD. It’s a lovely thing. And a well deserved upgrade, after a few years of the mexican built Martin S-O that the kids sat on (I did reglue it, but it’s nothin like the Glyph).

I’m going to try to do monthly updates. Feels good to be into spring at last!

Life: Really, NH weather is so behind. There’s been the tease that spring is here, but there’s not a bud poking out from the garden, from under the few inches of snow left. I made some maple syrup for the first time in years, my neighbor had more sap than she could boil. Keeping the woodstove hot for days made the house unbearably hot. But, it’s like gold, tastes so good, like real food vs fast food. Home baked vs store bought. Or maybe it’s all the bits of tree bark didn’t get strained…

As well as the beginning of mud season, it’s also birthday season. Piper and Zooey turned 9 and 11 respectively in the last 2 months, and we’ve been eating cake. I have been perfecting my vegan cake, it’s the best: from the cookbook “Veganomicon” (the same author as “Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World”). Wicked chocolate with a taste of almond. I also made coconut lemon cake. Everyone loves me.

Family, circa 2009

Music: Rumblestrip is chugging along, festival invites are coming in, which is alway nice to have happen during the long new england winters. We are playing for the Downeast Festival this coming weekend (last weekend in March) in Topsham Maine. Always a fun festival, full of people we know, with that enthusiasm those Mainers are known for. So true! I’ll be teaching a workshop on swing guitar at the festival as well as helping out Nat in his fiddle workshop, playing for dances, including the Survivors Dance in Yarmouth on Sunday afternoon with Perpetual Motion (John Cote and Ed Howe). Google DECDA for more info. You can listen to the beginning of our new CD on our MySpace page,   www.myspace.com/rumblestrip1

Swing A Cat Trio has a concert coming up on the 4th of April, at Del Rossi’s Trattoria in Dublin NH. We’ve been working hard on expanding our repertoire, we’ve got a handful of Boswell Sister’s songs to do, and lots of others from that era, 30s and 40s. The music of my mother. Mom used to play old records, and we’d dance around trying not to make the needle skip. Swing a Cat has some other gigs shaping up for the summer. Check out our new website at http://swingacat.wordpress.com or listen at
http://myspace.com/swingacatmusic

I have lots of ideas for new recordings, and need to get all that in place and get it done. Argh! I got pretty overwhelmed last fall with the sudden death of my brother and the expected death of my mom at the end of the summer. The waves of grief, the purposeful activity as someone’s life comes to a close, like what to do with all the stuff, taxes, paperwork, lawyers. Ugh. Thank god I have 2 sisters, we are all working together, for better or worse. I now have lots of new tools, since my bro was a woodworker and housepainter out on Nantucket. Which is pretty exciting. He would totally understand my excitement. Time to finish the studio that is waiting (as a tarp covered deck) in the backyard… that’s probably what they would have wanted me to do, in fact, they were already insisting that I do. There is no escape from family!!

Family, circa 1969