Hi there,
I thought I'd update everyone on our tour/travel experiences the last several months. We've seen some extraordinary things, and while I know many of you all like to hear about the gory side of life on road, this is not a Halloween post today. Its been an exceptional year in many ways in spite of a few horror stories.
Some of you all know I contracted covid back in March. I felt some chills and extra run down, tested positive and within about 36 hours I found myself in bed for most of a month. Dylan never tested positive, thankfully. I continued to test postive and we had to cancel a busy month that I thought would mark our return to regular work. I was better in the nick of time to hit a round of dates all the way across the country. A long haul but we made it and I was grateful to get back at it.
But as my covid dragged on, I was encouraged by the kindness of friends, then despondent during my waking/lucid moments. We had worked so hard on a plan to get back to as close as normal as possible, as quickly as possible and now I felt like we were in a bottomless pit. Not only did we have to cancel dates, I wasn't well enough to get to work re-scheduling, or booking later in the year, stay awake, be creative... all the while the industry is squirrely burly with hope, but more like a 3 ring circus than "back to normal".
During a dark moment, I said to myself, "if only Don Was would call me and ask me to do a show, then maybe I could feel like I had something to look forward to and some hope for the year". I voiced this to Dylan, and followed by, "but you know what, its never going to happen so I guess I have to put on my big girl pants and face the shitiness of life".
I was still barely out of bed and had been too exhausted and despondent to even glance at my email. I have no idea why I thought of Don Was. Why would Don Was, a Grammy Winning producer, give a crap about me. I never met him. I sang background once at a show he attended but he didn't even arrive til afterwards. He's originally from Detroit, a hometown hero so to speak. I'm not one of the cool kids...My head is generally not in the clouds especially regarding my home, which often does a poor job at containing its jaded and bitter rustbelt nature. But somehow I found the ovarian fortitude one morining (?) 3 days later to open my email and find a message sent moments prior, asking if I would consider performing with the Don Was All-Star band's tribute to George Clinton. What the actual frack?
Me and Don Was, along with a truly legendary line up of musicians
After performing as a duo for a year, which I have thoroughly enjoyed, A chance to play with a 13 piece band was incredible. And while I was nauseous with anxiety for the first time in ever with a short time frame to learn music and prepare (I also said yes to taking on additional music), it was an adventure to remember. I got to spend some time with Don a couple days before, and I try to recall his words of encouragement, and his cool and warm nature towards myself and Dylan on some of the more challenging days since this July performance. It also gave me something to set my focus on and filled a much needed hole in my summer.
Later this week I'll be blogging more about that. But here are visual treats from part of our 2021. We really packed it in, and while its been crazy, I'm glad to be back to work and have no regrets!