With A Guitar & A Pen (2024)
“With A Guitar & A Pen”
The journey of singer-songwriter is an unpredictable one. There are some given elements such to it as gigs and travel. The artistic muse is more of a mystery. Sometimes creativity flows so quickly that you have to run to keep up. Other times it feels like the well is empty and you’ll never find it again. The road and streams of records has kept me going for five decades. Marvin Dykhuis has been my trusted guitar man and travel companion for three and a half of those decades. I met him and became quick friends when I moved to Austin in 1988 with a
baby, a toddler, and a husband in law school. That was the year that my career kicked into high gear in a whirlwind of record deals and road gigs across the country and around the world. Marvin has been with me through it all, including the story in the song about the famous limo/tow truck ride from Connecticut to NYC at 4am so we could be on Good Morning America.
This career is not for the timid!
“If I Could Only Fly”
Although this is a somewhat sad song, there is so much beauty in the lyrics. It speaks to the traveling musician longing to be with loved ones but is married to the road. In my early days on the road I often felt this way being away from my family. That feeling will always be part of life. It feels so good to have love, but it feels so bad to be homesick. Blaze Foley was one of Austin’s most colorful characters. I didn’t get to meet him because he died shortly after I moved there, but stories about him still circulate and he left us some wild stories and thoughtful songs.
“His Cowboy Way”
This is a song I wrote for my husband Lynn at our wedding in 2020. It is our love story. We have been friends since 1990. He lost his love to a long illness in 2017. I had mourned a marriage break up. Through our friendship blossomed a very sweet love. It’s funny how life’s twists and turns lead us to unexpectedly beautiful places.
“Wild One”
Lynn has a ranch in southern Arizona where we like to spend as much time as possible. His ranch manager runs a horse business. She and the vaqueros do the work. We get to enjoy the beautiful horses. I am pretty new to ranches and horses. I have come to appreciate that horses are beautiful and sensitive creatures with many personalities. There was one retired horse that was apparently in his last days, still, he carried himself with calm dignity and grace. I imagined that was reflecting on the wonderful life he had lived.
“Luna Traviesa (Mischievous Moon)”
Spanish was my first language since my parents were both from Mexico. I often credit the kitchen radio always tuned to the Mexican station for my love of the Spanish language and Latino rhythms and songs. I wrote this playful song in the style of one of my favorite Mexican composers, Agustin Lara. The lyrics take me back to favorite places in Mexico that I have loved.
“Flores En El Jardin (Flowers In The Garden)”
I don’t often write with others, but fellow singer-songwriter Lisa Morales invited me to write a song with her. She had a guitar riff and I had a title I had been playing around with. We wrote this pretty quickly. Flowers In The Garden is an urban setting using flowers as a metaphor for the uniqueness of people, mostly women, because flowers are feminine in Spanish. The song speaks of the beauty of diversity and power as flowers grow even through cracks in concrete.
“Canto De La Montaña (Song Of The Mountain)”
When driving around I often like to tune in to local Spanish radio. My taste in Latino music is as diverse as my taste in American. I love everything from Merle Haggard to Joni Mitchell, The Beatles, and Weezer. In Latinoland, I love songs from the tropical and 1940’s, to crooners, Mariachi and conjunto. This song is a fantasy love song about a cowgirl on a flying horse who remembers a ranch and a love from long ago.
“Wild Wild West”
Lynn and I decided to take a cross country road trip after visiting my son and family in Seattle. This song was inspired by the beauty and majesty of the great northwest.
“Colton’s Perfect Heart”
I saw a TV human interest story about a child who died in an accident and his parents donated his heart for organ donation. The mom’s sister invited the person who received Colton’s heart to a family celebration so the parents could hear the heartbeat. Quite a story and a reminder of the importance of organ donation.
“Because Of You”
My daughter is a librarian, but every once in a while she is inspired to the music bug. I loved this sweet song the first time I heard her ukulele version of it. I added a few extra lyrics and lalas. I see it as a nice way to end a record with love.