Writing A Blog

Usually when talking to people about all kinds of things, I seem to be able to hold my own  whether it is politics, weather or whatever...But when it comes to writing a blog  I sit here and wonder  what I should talk about...Sometimes, like today, I just start in and hope things start to jell...  Jell does make me think of the days when I made jelly...All growing season I would gather what I had growing in my garden..raspberries, loganberries,  strawberries,  Boysenberries and apples..  I got them ready for the  freezer  as I picked them...At the end of the  growing season I would take everything out of the freezer , put it in big  stainless bowl/basins...After all was thawed, the juice let loose so I squeezed it all  and started making the jelly..Being a mixed berry jelly was good as the above berries were strong enough flavored that I could  add a bit of water to stretch it out without taking away from the flavor..Oh yes, I had a few gooseberries  and red old fashioned currants that I added also.  Cooking all of it took a long time..I usually spent the whole day into the evening before I finished the project...Used to get 125 to 150 jars  i.e. some one third pint, half pint and pint jars..  It was so good...just juice, sugar and pectin....it possibly would have jelled without the pectin but after all the work  I didn't want to take any chances...  Everyone in the family  looked for their jars of jelly after it was all done...   You ask, what does this have to do with music?    Well, I was always a radio rambler  so  had the radio tuned in to good music  to listen to while I worked..It  seemed to make thiongs go along better...  You might ask why the apples...Well, apple juice adds juice  without  taking away the main flavor...Also I found that the apple helped clarify the jelly  because one of the marks of good jelly was to have it as clear as possible  and with apples, mine was....Those were good times...  Thanks for listening....

Quiet Shoes the Movie

Quiet  Shoes...the movie...is now available On Demand on CLICK  in the Tacoma, WA  area

Check it out..   Quiet uses my cut of Have You Ever Been  Lonely..    Also  two songs I wrote:  Yes, I'm Just  Looking   and Meet Me In Ponderay (written with Harvey Thomas)

MY SONGS

Just a reminder that some of the songs I have written or co-written are on my two cds...In The Beginning  Vol 1 and Vol 2.
All Of Our Dreams            Catch A Little Moonbeam           If Only I          See Me Through
What Lonliness Is           Meet Me In Ponderay           Soft Sand, Silver Stars          Tailgater
Still To Rock No More         Tell Me Honey           Wishing To Know       Yes, I'm Just Looking
You Know How It Feels To Cry

These songs are also available for your next recording project......Listen to them and think about what your interpretation would be...
Thanks for listening........

Happy New Year

An old year is gone and another year has dawned... I don't exactly  make resolutions...I usually write a list  of things I want to accomplish sometime in the future....Then as the year progresses, I try to work on some of the things on the list...Such as:  I have several notebooks of unfinished songs and stories/articles so have started a bit on that..
Also, over the years I have accumulated "paper"...it seems as though paper always says to me, "Oh, save me."......So I do...Well, I started looking at paper with new eyes as I have been going through things...I keep wondering why I saved some of these things  as I throw  the paper into a grocery bag which when full goes into the recycle bin...  The garbage company picks that up every two weeks...Since they started that a few months ago, I have really been trying to fill it up and thereby clear some shelf space...It is amazing when you see how much gathers up in the two weeks.   When the days are too cold and wet to do much outside, then is a good time to catch up on a few things...So maybe you too need to clear off the desk and a couple of shelves...Have at it....    Happy New Year...

Background Of A Song

     Many times  people ask songwriters why they wrote a certain song or why they wrote it the way they did  or how they got the idea...Well, there  are as many answers to that as there  are songs and songwriters... A person can sit in a public place watching people and get so many ideas... Or,just looking out a window at whatever is there  or having an emotional thing happen in your life or a friend's life... I wrote Still To Rock No More after my Dad  died...I was feeling down  one day thinking about everything and I thought,  "You  know, Mamas and Daddys  are the hands that rock the cradle...I should  write about that."  ..Well, I sat down at the piano and wrote down  when the hand that rocks the cradle is still to rock no more...I intended to write about my Dad....The melody had come with the phrase...many times that is what happens for me...But as I  wrote all of that down, the rest came at a good clip so I had to write fast to keep up...I  reviewed the first verse and as I finished that, the second verse started flowing...When I had finished, I left it on the piano for a few days before I went back to it...I finally picked it up again and put chords to it and sang it over again...over again to really get the feel of it...When I finally figured I had said what I needed to say in the way I needed to say it, I called it quits and sent off the copyright and recorded it...People say you should write and re-write a song...don't be satisfied with your first draft...But  sometimes a song  comes along that needs to be left alone when you finish it...As I just said, you say what you have to say in the way you have to say it at the time...Every time I listen to or sing that song  Still To Rock No More I am satisfied that I did it the way I should have...However, instead of it being about my Dad or Mamas and Daddys, it was a Mama song....Sometimes a song just takes off and you don't really have control over it...Don't worry about it...maybe that is the way it is meant to be....Happy Songwriting...

Michael Travis West

     I am welcoming Michael to my website  with this cd ...West Country..all songs on this cd are written by Michael..  He has been on the music scene for many years singing, writing and performing.. He writes mainly in the classic country genre sometimes leaning to gospel..  So click  on   his name and listen to Michael's great songs...If anyone is looking for songs for a recording project, please  give Michael's songs an extra listen....Thanks for listening.

Music Memories

I just came  from a blog   http://www.sandramarie53.blogspot.com/          There was a picture of one of my first records, Have You Ever Been Lonely  b/w Snowbird....Brought back a lot of memories...I sang with  Harvey Thomas for quite some time on Friday and Saturday nights...The above two songs were requested many times each night..One  night I counted the number of times Snowbird was requested..seven..I made note  of this to the one who requested it...She replied  that she couldn't ask Anne Murray to sing it again but she could ask us... So after that we just sang  whatever the people requested no matter how many times requested in an evening...
I first met Harvey when we were coming  back from skiing...Our children wanted to stop for a hamburger so we pulled in to a  little restaurant and ordered up...My husband and I wandered over to the other end of a big room to see where all the music was coming from...There sat Harvey and his "Infernal Music Machine".  He saw us standing there and asked if I could  sing...I told him I could sing a little..So he said to come on up and asked if I knew several different songs...I told him which ones and he started to play..So I started singing..  He played a triple neck guitar i.e. six string, twelve string and I think the other was an eight string along with a foot bass and an automatic drummer...Really keeps  you on your toes to keep time...If you missed a beat you just waited and came in somewhere else..  It only took me a couple of songs to know where I stood...Met so many nice people going around to different places singing...private parties and clubs for weddings, birthdays, etc.  When we recorded Meet Me In Ponderay, all of the music was recorded by  Harvey at the same time, no  dubbing...For me, I sang the melody, went back and did one harmony, then back and sang a second harmony..  I called it the  "Kari Trio..Me, Myself and I"..   Meet Me and  Have You Ever Been Lonely were recorded at Wiley Studio in Tacoma, WA  with Bill Wiley at the console on a two track machine...We had a lot of fun doing the dubbing on the tracks...It is so much easier now with computers and lots of tracks to work with....The studios gradually moved up to  four track, then  eight  and on up...As I wrote once in a song..."Memories  are wonderful  things, locked in a treasury fold,  I wandered there all alone  then    Through my sweet memories gold....Yesterday's flowers were sweet,   Filled with the nectar of youth...Held in the sweetest bouquet there   in a dear innocent truth"  (copyright  1969   renewed  1997)        There is my trip down memory lane for today.....