I give great credit to the book by Roger Kain, “A Guide to Tough Vocals”. Those are the best exercises, best results. For me. I get annoyed by the production value on some of these vocal workout CDs. Synthesized yuck - with too much reverb. Kain’s CD is clean piano, with what sounds like rock and roll singers. Not operatic. And he uses some pushy singing, encouraging some rock and roll attack with classical know how. It’s fun. And a little scary to sing so aggressively. My opera friend is paralyzed by the thought. She won’t try it. But I have to say, and I say it often, this book changed me.

Roger Love’s “Set Your Voice Free,” comes in second. He talks about developing the upper chest voice, and pushing that area with the results that the rest of your voice is strengthened. It did. In the last few years I’ve used both these books.

I ordered Karen Olesons “I’m Not Crazy I’m Vocalizing” from her online website last month. Good title. I don’t like her dramatic and self conscious talking voice (she doesn’t talk much), the production is overdone, the songs over the top. But I have to admit, I have fun with some of the exercises. Songs that incorporate exercises. Still, I can’t recomment this one for $40. There’s something annoying about it. Can’t place it. Maybe too much synthesized yuck.

Books:
Atonement
The Last Days of Dogtown, by Anita Diamant. Set in 1800s, Cape Ann, Mass.
Dreams of My Father (I sat down to read this at a bookstore, wondering whether the fuss was simply the machine churning out PR for our next presidential candidate. It was happily surprised. He can write! think! and still talk politics)

Swing a Cat is heavily into rehearsing as well, our first gigs are coming up, and there’s still lots of work to do. The Boswell Sisters songs are so much fun, and so much work. It’s a pleasure to work with 2 other women who hear the same way I do, (mostly agreeing on) how three voices should fit together. I just love the work of making harmony. This stuff makes me happy.

The Ocean:
Nat leaves soon to bring the boat back up to Maine. He’s always short on crew. It’s a 2 week trip straight up from Georgetown in the Exumas. One of these days I will get to ride that fast current up the east atlantic coast. But the kids won’t stand for those offshore, grueling days of pure sailing. Not yet. We looked at a 52′ schooner for sale in Maine. Thinking about changing our life. I always miss the coast. Low tide, bilges, too much wind, fog, boatshops, sailmakers. A working waterfront. A schooner, onboard music, selling boat rides. But would it be a fine pastime transformed into drudgery? They said that about music.

The Life:
Sheesh, I know I haven’t updated in a while. We have a damnable dial up interent connection at our house here in the woods. Which sometimes … I can deal with, with immense patience. Lately there’s been none of that. I had the worst case of sinusitis imaginable after I thought I was almost over my winter cold. That was after we got back from the warm water lovely parts of the Bahamas. All better thanks to my “neti pot”.

My daughters are becoming longer and larger. But. They still can’t keep a clean room or wash dishes without haranguing. Or wash and put away their clothes. What does it really matter? It’s just my sanity, my ability to think straight. I keep wondering what they will be like, and wanting them to grow up, be reasonable — but then, I would miss all their charms… they way they see the world is always worth an eavesdrop. Or hearing them singing together, or discussing with them the meaning of some beatles lyrics. (such as “who is father mckenzie?” and, “there’s only 7 days in a week, mom”)

Mother’s day was yesterday. No one cleaned the house while I was gone.

3 cords of wood to stack. The wood was unfortunately dumped at the in-laws down the hill, the dump truck couldn’t get up our icy driveway. Usually the dumped wood sits for weeks. But to maintain the family relationship, besides really needing them for child care sometimes, I am working harder than ever to stack it all as quick as I can, and clean up that mess of bark and splinters that’s at the end of a wood dump so she can have a lovely lawn (yes, on her driveway) or at least not blame any of it on me… Half there, and half up at our place. My little ford focus makes a reluctant but good wood hauler. I’m careful not to stuff it and break something. My wrists are sore. My back is great.

Playing through a great book of country blues, that style is really my fall-back, my hands just get happy. One of my students brought it to me, wants to use it as a workbook. And it’s the best I’ve seen: Stefan Grossman’s Complete Book of Country Blues.

Books:
The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss
Clapton
Sailing Alone Around the World, by Joshua Slocum

Best ever “chewy chocolate chocolate chip cookies”, when you need a break from stacking wood:
http://www.theppk.com/recipes/dbrecipes/index.php?RecipeID=111

I think that I won’t tell you I’m going back to the Bahamas in a month. The tentative plan is to go to Georgetown, at the bottom of the Exumas. While stacking wood, I’m dreaming of that clear blue green water, brown toes, swimming, anchoring, sailing- getting out of these sorel boots, this stinkin’ winter coat, these thick sheepskin choppers! I linger on my photos from the past year, editing the colors to an even more vibrant hue…

We’re leaving for a week tour, south of this cold weather, with all of us in the ford, and I mean a full house: 3 adults, 2 girls under the age of 10, 2 guitars, 1 banjo, 1 fiddle, 1 uke, bags of doodads and wires etc. Three duffles, hot sauce, books, cds to sell, and earplugs. Cozy.

Thanksgiving on Thursday, as usual. Mom is deep into her dementia so I will visit her after the holiday, while we’re down there. Life is a crazy thing, and I don’t try to control it. I only vow to treat each moment preciously, and pay attention!

A quote that I can’t forget, spoken by a patient of Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn:
“Ten years ago I turned my face for a moment, and it became my life.”

Books:
Eckhart Tolle: A New Earth
Rory Stewart: The Places Inbetween
Tom McCarthy: Remainder

Rant#1–Somebody please tell me why we continue with the electoral college. It seems this move called “the election reform bill” simply means that people want the electoral vote to accurately represent the popular vote. What am I missing here? What was the real purpose of the electoral college? Anyway…

Have you had enough of hypocrisy?
Have you had enough of the spending spree?
Have you had enough?
Does it make you want to scream and shout?

Have you had enough of the rubber stamps?
Have you had enough of the wire taps?
If you’ve had enough, then it’s time to throw the rascals out!

We’ve let them take the test too long
They’ve gotten all the answers wrong
No plan, no shame, no oversight
Now’s the time to put it right!

Have you had enough, cause they’re all corrupt?
Have you had enough of being divvied up?
If you’ve had enough, then it’s time to throw the rascals out!

Well, do what’s right and spread the word
It’s time to make our voices heard
You cast your vote it don’t cost a dime
Sittin’ it out will be a crime

I’ve had enough, and it’s time to throw the rascals out!

It’s been a long summer filled with music, kids, weddings, funerals, and the vast Atlantic ocean. Went to some great festivals; down to Philly for the big folk fest, also went to the Lowell Festival, to Mystic for the Sea Song Festival, and then up to the Champlain Folk Fest where the BEST part was hanging out with octogenarian Willie Beaudoin, whose brother Louis was so influential on all these NE fiddlers. Willie and I just sit and play old jazz tunes (no one else likes that music) talk about Django and all the great players, and show each other a thing or two. He learned the guitar on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific. He probably floated past my father who was somewhere out there too. Too late to ask Dad what the name of his vessel was. I suppose through the internet I could find all that out.

Our most elegant venue I played with Nat was in the beautiful Unitarian church in Nantucket. That morning we played for Nantucket TV, and that was fun, out on Straight Wharf with the wind whipping my hair every which way, the kids scarfing down the crew’s donuts and staying quiet.

Saw old friends- Bob Carlin who has a new album out with an African player, he is just as funny and the same snappy dresser- as always. A great jam with James Leva and Jane Rothfield at Philly. Got to play with Bob Naess at a wedding (an old hero of mine from the “Gypsy Gyppos”, which any old time fan should know about). Got to sit in with The Hot Club of Portland at the Portland Lobster Company (at low tide on Commercial St). Good beer, great summer spot. Their guitar player (Bryan Killough) has worked out the Django solos to a T. He is amazing. Plus- they trusted me, sight unseen, to hand them a chart and sing.

Glad to be home — not going anywhere far for a little while. Gotta make sure the kids have real shoes for school. Hide the flip-flops. Looking forward to getting back to teaching. Been working on learning some Joseph Spence tunes, they make me, my hands, happy.

Great books from the summer of 2007:
The End Of Faith, by Sam Harris
They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky, by Benjamin Ajak, Alephonsion Deng, Benson Deng, Judy A. Bernstein
Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell
Flow, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Ahab’s Wife, by Sena Jeter Naslund

TTFN-

Saturday we played the Northampton dance with the full band. Horns were glorious, that’d be Lise and Adam. Love it when I sing things I don’t expect, because of what’s happening around me. I can’t not respond. Listening to Louie Prima has changed me. I love his abandon. Like on “Five Months”, or “Pennies from Heaven”. He really rocks. Also that bit of work I did with Murphy’s Blues. I had to relearn how to sing. I didn’t know how to push and create tension. Uptempo, aggressive, is harder, getting loose, still strong, and still in my true voice. The lyrics are usually tossable — it’s more about rhythm and tone than content. Those sad love songs have always been easy. Give me Hoagy Carmichael anyday. I can feel those.

St. Dan, our bassman and Mr. Enthusiasm, sent me pics. Grunge lighting. Tried to clean up the color in photoshop, but the highlights get blown out. From left to right: Lee Blackwell, Lise Brown, Liza Constable, Dan Goitein, Adam Scotera, Ellen Cogen (pinch hitting on piano for Chris Haynes who was home waiting for his baby boy to arrive).

Nat gave me a great book. “Two in a Boat”, the story of a couple that sold their house and went sailing. What happened to their relationship through the trials of sailing under stress. Do I know about that? Is he trying to scare me off sailing with him? Haven’t finished it. I have 4 books going now: Jimmy Carter’s Palestine Not Aparteid, 101 Days by Asne Seierstad (Bookseller of Kabul), and Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich. All great reads, and I feel so damn informed

…….But I have to tell how I fixed the iPod.

My 2 year old iPod has been acting up, freezing in the middle of songs, not starting up when cold, when hot, when ignored. This has been happening off and on for months. Nat always fixes it somehow, when I’m through with it forever this time, through hard reboots, reset, restore, etc. then hands it back with a smug little smile. Not so this time. We looked up all the pages on the web we could, then I found one. How To Fix an iPod that Won’t Boot

“These hard drives get warm as they spin, and the metal casings warp outwards. Some hard drives won’t work correctly when the casing isn’t secure. The solution is to put the pressure back on the disks.”

I read though many many thankyous, “OMG, this actually worked!” So I opened the Ipod up (with the edge of a knife and a guitar pick- it took about 10 minutes to figure out), put close to 1/8″ sticky notes on the back of the hard drive, and clicked the back into place again. OMG - it totally worked.

http://www.commondreams.org/

Here’s something that Sam and Abby sent to me. I won’t copy it in here, you’ve got to get there yourself. As suggested, read and then try it yourself.