You may be wondering why you haven't heard from me in a while. Well, guess what?
Live music is a thing again!
It feels like leaping into an alternate reality that I've gone from a year with almost zero performances to this VERY full summer! But, despite my reservations about leaving the cocoon-like, introverted existence of the pandemic and wearing heels and makeup and again and, like, being SEEN, I have to say I am loving it!
I’ve had some really sweet moments over the last few months. One of my very first performances back was at a nursing home, singing jazz standards with the incomparable Victor Mestas on piano. I was blown away by how engaged the audience was, and I could feel their deep appreciation for the music. I was struck by the fact that we were all survivors in that room. We all made it out the other side of the pandemic, and here we were, celebrating life with songs written way before I was born, when most of these folks were young and beautiful, dancing, falling in love, their eyes full of stars and their hearts full of dreams.
Yep, I cried in the middle of a song that day. I did.
I’ve also been busy singing at weddings this summer. Sometimes they are a long drive away, sometimes they go late into the evening, sometimes there’s a ton of equipment to load in and out. Plus I gotta do my hair. These are all things I used to complain about, but this year, I feel so much joy that I get to witness people as they celebrate their love and transition into the next phase of their lives together. It’s such an honor. And the audiences have been more engaged with the music and expressed more gratitude than I’ve ever experienced.
After a year without live music, I am really feeling how much people have missed it. How much they appreciate what we are offering. How the power of music, at its best, helps people connect with their own hearts, feel feelings they may not have even known they had, and have a shared moment of poignancy and aliveness with the people they love.
And I am eternally grateful that I get to be a part of it all. The love I feel for the music, and my bandmates, and the audience, it just makes me feel SO ALIVE, and I know I am in my right place in the world.
Sometimes I wish I could go back in time and whisper in the ear of my 5-year-old self, “Guess what, sweetie? When you grow up, people are going to pay you to sing!” I love to the think of the happy dance and cartwheels she (I) would have done. It’s beautiful to realize that I am living the life that my younger self always dreamed of. It wasn’t an easy or linear journey, but damn, I got here as soon as I could.