Orders on the Farm

From the tour in CA to right now ... 12/09/08

Last time I wrote in here, it was after the show at the Palms. Yes, that show ... the show that my assistant Lori had to wrestle to get our names on the calendar on their website so she could uh, get the word out that we were to play there. We had a good crowd thanks to Lori ... 'nuff said 'bout that ... the rest of this CA run was a blur ... Kim Rogers KVMR is PURE GOLD and made the trip up to Grass Valley worth it.

We then came back to Texas and immediately left for Eureka Springs and Fayettville in AR, Shawnee KS, and Tulsa and Norman OK. We played for some nice people. All of which had the event on their websites (smile), were easy to work with, and made the 22nd through the 26th pass by with ease and grace on the road. On the way back from the show on Norman, I wrote what would become "Christmas in August" on my iphone. I'm cracking up now as I write this. Who would have thought I could use the notepad, recorder, and ipod on the phone to wrap up a song? Sure enough, on the 28th I was in the studio recording it based on what I had laid down on my iphone. 

In Texas from the 28th through the first few weeks of November we finished recording "Left Over Alls (the retrospective) and "Christmas on Wilory Farm" (the EP). One of my favorite studio moments was when Bob Pennington came in and laid down his Penny Whistle parts. He was fantastic and his abilities took us all by surprise. 

We squeezed in the Texas Book Festival, a benefit for the Katherine Porter School in Wimberley, and the Rice Festival while we were recording. It was kind of hard to put my brain in two places at once but it worked. A highlight was finally meeting my booking agent John in person along with his wife Lucy after one of those shows. I was relieved that he was "normal" as we'd formed a business partnership via the internet and telephone. We shared a laugh about that at the dinner table. 

Election day (I was sick to my stomach and actually left an election party because I was so worried I made myself sick). Then ... OBAMA won ... this is my blog ... not my email list and let's just say I get political in here. I'm so happy he won. I'm still smiling about this as it was truly a wonderful moment in history. 

We then did 2 back to back weekends of our "Life's a Song" workshop in Port Aransas, Texas and this is where this blog takes a really weird twist. My Dad called me on Friday, November 16th and informed me that my mother had fallen ill. I did the workshops ... camped at BAMC, held onto dear friends, and managed to hold my head above water through that time. This happened on the exact day that my dad started treatment for his illness ... so needless to say November was quite the month for my family. But the workshop ... oh, I could go on and on. Nice people, wonderful songs, and great energy ... very invigorating. 

Thanksgiving came and went (we had much to be thankful for and still do). We played a show at Wild Basin in Austin for one of my favorite people, Paul Barker. It was my first show after all this went down with my folks and I felt a little rusty on my music, but we had a good time and I hope the crowd did too. That's a pretty nifty place. If in Austin, try and visit that place. It's a nature center and wilderness preserve. 

I bought a nice fern (what I call this year's Christmas tree) and celebrated December 1st by decorating it. Every year I feel bad for the tree I buy that's been chopped down that I watch die over the holidays, so this year I'm guilt free. I bought something I'll plant after Christmas (if I don't kill it) (by accident - I ain't got a green thumb) (smile). 

I then played a solo show at Momo's ... yes, a solo show. It was fun and aside from some tempo problems I picked up on, I had a good time. I'm a fan of the metronome and I could tell I had not been working with it while I played. This show was a workshop, meet and greet, and Girl Guitar event ran by Mandy Rowden. It's a brilliant program for women who wish to learn to play guitar or gig with other women. One of the questions I was asked was a hoot. "How do you deal with women or people that are mean spirited in this industry?" My answer ... "Most of the really good players I know are too busy creating, working, and playing live to be gossiping or having a laugh at someone else's expense." I used to attract folks that were poop-heads into my circle. I don't anymore. I wrote about them and their B.S. in "I Found the Lions." Here's the secret ... I don't have a B.S. meter because I don't tolerate B.S. period. Life's too short. And way too fragile to waste a moment in the wrong camp with the wrong people. 

Last Saturday I played for the wonderful concert series in Onion Creek (Austin). We ate the best meal before the show. It was Beef Wellington. My oh my ... I hurt myself. I could not stop eating. Kathy and Ed cooked the pre-show meal and Vicki and Tom put on the show. They go through great effort to put on a show. It amazes me ... now these folks don't even have a website (smile) to promote what they do ... but they sell out every show they do because they care about what they do (like we do here) and who they choose to book for their season. 

While all this action has been going on I batched (ecommerce) and printed out the pre-orders for my new records. They have been pretty amazing. We are right around 2000 and this more than covers the cost of recording them as well as manufacturing. This is a time when labels are shutting down and downloading has taken over the industry. All I can say is I'm humbled and extremely grateful. We'll start mailing them out next week. If you are curious what it sounds like, check out Myspace on my homepage as I have several tracks posted for you to listen to. I'm doing pre-production on this jazz record which I hope to start in January. Funds from the these 2 projects will pay for that as well. I'm lucky ... way lucky. 

I took lots of photos the past few months  ... but I'm a little tired and this darn blog thingy is fighting with me and won't load them correctly. So, I'm signing off ... Happy Trails, Terri