Reflections

at LAST!

2007-10-27T11:16:00.000-07:00

I have finally, FINALLY released a new song.

It is called "Rain", and I actually wrote it two years ago, it has just taken me this long to get it released!

If you'd like to hear it and/or download it, you can do that at iTunes, and here is where to click:

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playListId=266985855

For some reason, I can't seem to enable that link, so just paste it into your browser window, and I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

Or, you can click on the link, to the right, over there ----------------->
that says "Hear Rose's new song!"

If you love this song, which I hope you will, would write to me and tell me so?

http://rosenidaho@hotmail.com

I've been a stranger...!

2007-01-03T15:17:00.000-08:00

...but I have good reason.

I am working, and my children are in school, and I have been busy, busy, busy!

I have had some good gigs here, in my new city, but it is difficult to start over trying to get my name out there, especially since I don't have much time to pound the pavement.

Patience has never been my strong suit, but I am learning it, the hard way!

I have been writing, though, and I believe I have enough material for another album....that is, if "Rain" is ever released! We are still waiting for one musician to be finished, and there have been many complexities, but everyone involved in this project believes in it, and is excited to see how it is received.

Bear with me, friends. Even when I am out of touch, thoughts of you all help me and give me courage.

"anonymous"

2006-08-17T09:12:00.000-07:00

I have recently received a comment here, on this journal, telling me that I am saying things that are not true, and that I need to "search myself for the truth" because "God knows".

I am very surprised by this, since I put very little personal information here at all, keeping my private life mostly private...and of course, the little I did write was absolutely true.

I am sad that this person did not care enough to write me and ask me about something they thought was incorrect....instead, they took refuge in an anonymous attack.

Yes, God DOES know the truth - and I will be happy to defend anything I ever say on this journal, if anyone has the courage to write me personally and ask me about it.

June...and new beginnings

2006-06-26T11:41:00.000-07:00

In a matter of weeks, I found myself a single parent, with no home, no possessions, and very little money.

My children and I lived in a shelter for abused women for several weeks, and then I was able to get a "day job" and move us into a small duplex.

Thankfully, the CD has gone into production, so I can concentrate on surviving and keeping my family healthy and happy while my producer works his magic on it - thank you to all my fans that have written and expressed support and encouragement!

The release date has been pushed back to August....thank you for your patience; I promise, it's worth it!

I am writing the new material for the next album already...each day brings me new experiences, new emotions, and therefore...new songs!

Already April

2006-04-05T11:26:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's already April, and my CD was supposed to have been released in March.

Because of continuing health problems, I have not been able to finish it yet, but I am very close, and, more importantly, I love, love, love what this album is beginning to sound like.

It's a new direction for me, working with Mr T. The sound we're creating is just as classic, just as gentle as before, but more clean, more sophisticated.

I'm delighted with his creative genius; so often his ideas are just what I wanted for the feel of the song, but I didn't know how to express it in words.

There will be several photo shoots, both for the album itself, and for use in marketing....a new friend of mine, who owns a beautiful antique store, has offered to let me look through a large collection of vintage gowns she recently bought, for use in my photos and videos! That's every girl's dream, right?

I have enough material now for another CD and maybe half another one after that. When I am in the studio working regularly, I find music flowing out of my heart and mind much more often.
I try to carry a notebook with me all the time, so that I can write down ideas as they come - sometimes I am somewhere public, the library, or the church, and I suddenly start muttering and scribbling and tapping my toe.

People look at me oddly, but so far no one has actually called the men in white.

Hoping to keep it that way.

I miss the steady stream of mail I was getting from new friends who've discovered my music - every single letter encourages me to continue, and I love and appreciate all of you that have taken the time to write me.

Soon.
It will be soon!

Into the New Year

2006-01-24T08:58:00.000-08:00

January is always a long and difficult month, and this one is no exception; with some tragedies in my personal life, I am comforted by working.
Creating, recording and performing music encourages me and lifts my spirit, and thankfully, I have used that drive to complete all the lead vocals for my CD "RAIN"!

MrT, my producer, pushes me hard to give him the very best I have, and I am always happy when I step out of that sound booth.

I have a couple more sessions to complete myself; I still have to lay down all the grand piano tracks, and the background vocals, too, on several songs.
That's good - I don't really want to be done! I mean, I want the CD finished, but I hope I can start immediately on then next album, so that I can keep working.

I have had some delightful reviews, both of "Close Your Eyes" and also of some of my performances, and also have received many wonderful encouraging letters. These things help me and keep me pressing on, but truly, the number one thing that makes me continue in music is the music itself.

Merry Christmas!

2005-12-25T12:11:00.000-08:00

It's Christmas Day.

At our house, we don't have turkey...we have lasagna! Yes, I know that's odd, but we like the tradition.

And there's no snow here today; it all melted during the last week, and it's in the mid-forties now. It's nice to have a respite from temperatures in the single digits!

Someday, I'd like to record an entire Christmas album, with only one or two of my favorite standards and the rest originals. I think we could use a few more truly classic Christmas carols, don't you?

I hope that all of you have Love this Christmas season...and that the year 2006 is an especially magical one for you, as well.

Peace!

More Sessions!

2005-12-04T21:58:00.000-08:00

I spent two days this week in the studio....and I've discovered that singing can actually be work!

Of course, it is always tiring to sing with your whole heart and pour yourself into each line, each note...but to sing ONE LINE forty-seven times (or close!) gives a new definition to the word "tiring".

I could hear what I was doing wrong....and MrT, of course, could too, and neither of us were willing to settle for "good enough" on "Dark Angel"....it is such a beautiful song, and it really deserves perfection.

He said, several times, "I'm sorry to push you so hard," but I am, truthfully, thrilled to be working with someone who takes my songs as seriously as I do, and will fight for just the exact feeling on each phrase with the same unrelenting insistence that I would.

When I came out of the sound booth, we sat and listened, for a minute, to the last half of the song....the half we had slaved over with such intensity - and it was worth it. It was more than worth it!
In the booth, with the headphones on so loudly, I never really sound very good to myself - I can hear every tiny rough edge in my voice, and it's such a...flat sound, not flat as in pitchy, but flat like you're singing into your answering machine flat.

(Which I hope you never do; friends don't let friends make singing messages.)

But sitting in the studio listening, my voice sounded so rich and warmly emotional that I asked him "What did you do to it?" thinking he had added some effect! But he said "Nothing, not yet."

All those things he was saying to me, all the different takes, all the little differences in tone and phrasing really made an incredible difference. I believe it is going to take that song from "pretty" to "knocks your socks off".

We'll see. *smile*

I've recorded almost half of the vocals for the album...I'm very pleased to have come so far.

Festival!

2005-11-08T09:13:00.000-08:00

This weekend I performed in a music festival on the Oregon Coast.

I love it there - especially in the wintertime - there are fewer tourists, and the weather is so wild and wet and windy.
I lived there for ten years, so I know many people in the area, too.

I sang in a couple of venues on Saturday, and late that night I sang in the Open Mike event....in the true spirit of open mike events, I sang a song that I wrote in the car on the way to the coast! It went over very well; in fact, I was beseeched by all for an encore, which made me happy, and so I sang "Lover Man". That is one of my very favorite songs to perform - it's full of longing and it's very sultry, but in an old-fashioned, classy way.

Sunday afternoon was the big concert, and I sang two sets, along with three other female artists, in a beautiful old theatre. I love performing there - the acoustics are wonderful and it's a really lovely historical building.
I'm always nervous when I have to play the guitar standing up. I did well, but I could tell I was nervous, because I was standing a bit stiffly - also the microphone was only hot enough for me in a particular spot - so I was trying to keep my mouth right there!

After the break, I sang my set with the piano, and I'm the most comfortable that way...I sang one of my new songs "Missin' You' and it went over very well. I did it first, because it is a little difficult, and I.....oh! did I mention I had pneumonia????
Did I forget to mention that little fact? So yeah, I was wheezing and coughing in my dressing room and wondering how in the world I could possibly go onstage at all, but of course when I got out there, sheer adrenaline made me do it well.

So next I sang "Rain", which I have never performed in public before, though I've recorded it....it is so dramatic and full of ache, and I could hear that sort of stillness come over the crowd that happens when they are taken by surprise...when I finished, there was a moment of stunned silence before tumultuous applause...that little moment of silence always just floods my soul with pleasure, like the first long drink of cool water after a hot day of labor.

I finished with "Luminous", and it thrilled me to hear murmurs of pleasure and applause as I began the introduction...enough people are familiar with "Luminous", and love it, to recognize the delicate, opening bars.

When I was done, I went out to my CD table, and I sold all but two in about twelve minutes. Every single person who bought one wanted me to sign it, and most everyone took a business card, too, which pleased me....I hope they will check out my website so I can let them know when the next CD comes out!

After my adrenaline crashed, I was utterly exhausted....I am still weak and coughing relentlessly, which keeps me from sleeping decently, but I am HAPPY! because I can see that every year that I come to this festival I perform better, sell more, and have a fan base here that is visibly growing.

What more could a musician want?

Sessions

2005-11-01T15:37:00.001-08:00

I had my first session with the musicians.....rehearsal/rough tracking was the order of the day, and to begin, I got lost.

I drove around for some time, and then when I did find the street, I couldn't see house numbers on anything.
I knocked on a couple of doors - I don't have a cell phone, what else was I supposed to do? and finally asked a couple of passing kids.
They thought I was nuts, but it did help me find the right house.

And there they all were....six insanely talented men in a smelly basement.....oh, yeah, we're talkin' the Snake Pit, and I'm the first Funk Sister.
It was so wonderful, so amazing, to work with people who get it - I've never heard myself sing that well.
I never wanted that night to end, though I hadn't had any dinner, and I was getting a migraine, too.

I can't wait till next time.

Yeah, it's that "wait" thing again.

Call Me Softly, Revisited!

2005-11-01T15:37:00.000-08:00

Gosh.
It's rare that I am utterly happy with a re-write - usually I have such an emotional attachment to the original, for whatever reason, that nothing I create afterwards can live up to it.
But in the case of Call Me Softly....
....well, sheesh, I must have written eight different verses.
All ok, none perfect.

And then suddenly, it just happened.
It just worked.
And there it was - just seeing the words on paper made me get chills....before even listening to it or trying it on the piano.

When I handed it to MrT the producer, he just glanced down at it, and then he looked back up at me, his eyes getting big.
"I just got chills," he said.

Yep, it's a winner, and we're going to transform it from a pretty song into a sweeping, glorious declaration of love that will last for decades.
If not centuries.
You just remember I said that.

Waiting in the Wings

2005-10-16T18:01:00.000-07:00

*sigh*

I hate waiting.

Right now I am waiting for a few things....waiting for a particular gig to fall into place; I've been phone-tagging with the manager of the venue, and it doesn't seem like she doesn't want to reschedule - only that she is slightly overwhelmed by her new position of event planner!

I'm also waiting to start sessions with my Dream Team. I go into the studio on the 25th, and that means, for now, I am cooling my heels.
Someone whose name I won't mention knocked my guitar over and broke a couple of strings, so I can't even practice - it's driving me crazy! I need to make some money, like, yesterday.

I'm waiting for the link on my website to be made active so that people can buy my new CD "Close Your Eyes" there. I'm so happy that it's finally done!

"...watching the world and it's winners go by/I'm waiting for my turn to fly..."

I've been waiting many long years to record my music and see where it could take me....I guess I can be patient a little longer.

But only a little!

Call Me Softly

2005-10-08T19:35:00.000-07:00

MrT the producer was here most of the day on Friday....we looked over all the music for the new album and did a fair amount of discussing and arguing over some of the songs.

One of my favorite songs to perform is "Call Me Softly" which is on the album "Close Your Eyes" and will be on this one as well; it is a love song with a very classic melody and a powerful message - when you love someone, you want your love to reach across time and space and difficulty to comfort and cherish them, no matter where they are.

Because I wrote this song with a specific situation in mind, I chose to paint a picture... in the first verse, the woman sees the man she loves when he was a child, being abused and treated badly, and she longs to have somehow been there to comfort and hold him, even though she didn't even know him then.
It is an emotion I have often felt about those that I love; when I hear about some way they were mistreated, even if it was long ago, I wish I could have been there, and so that verse was special to me.

*sigh*
However....as MrT pointed out, the first verse doesn't really fit with the second verse, which is much more direct, talking about the man waking in the night thinking he hears her voice, only to discover the bed is empty. He said that is a much more powerful picture, and the other verse must coincide.

I protested that if people saw the video, it would make perfect sense.....but of course, I know, as a songwriter, if you have to explain what the song is about, it isn't a very good song!

At first, this song wasn't going to be on the album at all; we had more than enough material, and this song is already on 'Close Your Eyes'.
But with the sort of sweeping, gorgeous arrangement and production that he does, this song could be so moving, so powerful....neither of us could resist the idea of doing it together.
So I am faced with a re-write.

Re-writes make me nervous! I am always afraid I cannot come up with something that will match the original flow. But in this case, it is especially hard, because the other verse packs such an emotional wallop, I don't know if I can do it again. This song came to me in the middle of the night, I sat straight up in bed and wrote the whole thing down without even pausing, and I'm a little afraid to try to edit. Can I possibly write something that I can feel when I sing it, the way I do the original?

I guess we'll see.

Musicians!

2005-10-06T11:14:00.000-07:00

Tuesday night I met some of the musicians that will be working me on this new project.
I was pretty nervous, but MrT the producer introduced me all around. There's Ty, the quiet drummer who looks like a muscle-y Care Bear; Jimmy, the lawyer/funky guitar player who might actually know more blonde jokes than I do; Jerry, the intense, brooding Other guitar player (I've actually heard some of his work, and I confess, it makes me weak in the knees), and Mark, the upright bass man. I've heard there is also Gary, the oh-man-that-is-so-sweet jazz trumpet player, but he was not in attendance.

It was cool - we sat around in Starbucks, looking like an entourage for sure....we couldn't have been more obviously musicians if we'd been wearing dark glasses and Doc Martens.

Actually, a couple of them probably were wearing Doc Martens, and I didn't notice, because I was too scared! I wasn't, though - I was wearing high-heeled black boots with buckles up the sides.
Uh-huh, I'm practicing to be a huge star.

We are supposed to start sessions in a couple of weeks, if all goes right - I can't believe this lofty dream of mine seems to actually be coming true, all of a sudden!

I hope I don't start being a self-absorbed jerk.
Hmm. I don't feel like one.

Beginnings

2005-10-06T07:53:00.000-07:00

Well.

I'm often embarrassed, truth be told, by the contents of some musicians' blogs.
So often they are either heaps of far-too-personal confidences involving the exact location of their new, drunkenly-acquired tattoo and the number of mojitos they consumed the previous night, or else they are so boring and lame that it forever rips the veil of happy illusion from our eyes to read them.
I could cite a certain celebrity's blog which is supposedly written by her revolting little dog, but I'll refrain.
Just this once.

Perhaps I'll be just as silly here - I do hope not.
Perhaps if I begin to maunder on in too-revealing fashion you'll write to me and set me straight.
Or just send a letter bomb; either way, I'll take the hint.