Thanks.

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06 Boy on a Bicycle

In a few days, Raylene’s “Lambs In Spring” for the first time will be available on iTunes and CDBaby – and lots of other digital download sites. It’s beautiful, without a doubt.

I know, but had forgotten, how beautiful it is. There’s an added poignancy, now that she is gone.

I’ll post the details when I receive them…hope you seek it out.

Jamie Robinson should be congratulated, too, for his great contribution to the CD’s success.

More later…..

Those pages listed the small things that fade and sink into memory – children’s play, things found, songs sung. Imagine my surprise when I came to this:

“There was the last day we sang “Gillis Mountain” as we tooled along in my big black Defender. That was the day I cranked the volume high as it would go, so we could scream out the words ‘I took a trip up Gillis Mountain on a sunny summer day.’ Goodbye, Gillis Mountain. Goodbye. You’d think the accumulation of so many little goodbyes would have prepared me for the bigger ones, but they didn’t.”

Little goodbyes are not accumulative. They stand alone, each in their own still frame, neat and manageable.  But the big ones stand taller and are not easily tamed.

Goodbye, Gillis Mountain.  We’ll hear you in our dreams.

For years now, the Songwriters Association of Canada (SAC) has held song circles named Bluebird North in homage to the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville. Great little showcases of writers which (usually) leave behind the schtick and schmooze of the the bid’ness of songwriting. They’re always fun – unless you get a hotdog vendor onstage with you who is clearly there to sell…er…hotdogs, despite and at the expense of everyone else on the stage. They usually come with a lot of ham and a load of cheese.

Not so Saturday. The very fine emerging songwriter, Mel Farrimond, created a Bluebird North in Halifax at the Music Room in the city’s North End. Ian Sherwood, Chelsea Amber, Erin Costello and I were the invited artists. Really nice mix, really collegial and fun, fun, fun. Lots of good questions, very inclusive and some truly wonderful songwriting.

Erin Costello – my new songwriting crush – played to the point of jaws audibly dropping in the audience. You know, when you can actually here the collective intake of breath after a song. But everyone was good in their own way. Even I was not so bad.

Saturday nights lead to Sunday mornings and this one, which came in with snow and wind, was made less cold by last evenings memory. Thanks Mel, and thanks SAC.

Related Show

• Artist: Susan Crowe with Shari Ulrich
• Date: Sunday, May 12th 2013
• Time: 9:00pm
• City: Susan Crowe with Shari Ulrich in Halifax
• Venue: The Carleton
• Address: 1685 Argyle Street
• Venue phone: 902) 422-6335‎
• Country: CA
• Age restrictions: All Ages/Licensed
• Notes: With West Coast legend Shari Ulrich…details to follow…
• Add to Google Calendar | Download iCal

Hard to know what to think when I heard the news of an East Coast Music Award nomination  - Best Solo Recording – for All The Diamonds. Certainly know how I feel: sad that Raylene’s not here to enjoy this moment in time; incredibly proud of this part of her legacy; privileged to be the keeper of this flame.

We both knew this recording could not have been made without Jamie Robinson as musical producer. He’s a talented man. Moreover, he’s a decent man, trustworthy and reliable. I know Raylene’s first words would be that Jamie deserved the honour. That, of course, says as much about her as it does Jamie.

We miss her still, with a sadness that at times seems to deepen more than abate. Persistant wondering and failed attempts to understand. These times serve to test the faith of the faithful, and the faithlessness of the faithless.