It’s about starting over . com

It was great! I loved every second of it and all I can say is, I want more!

This was my first house concert, that is, my first without Ray. We did a few back when we performed together, but I had never really done an official one by myself. Well, I guess you can’t say that this was really by myself–I had so many friends performing with me!

Judi and Lynn started the evening out with a 45 minute set of loves songs. I always love it when they perform. They’re secure in their partnership (musically and otherwise) and in their material so it’s like having a nice conversation with friends, or listening to them tell a few short stories. Lovely.

Then it was my turn after the break. It was completely informal…no introductions, no nothing. I just sat down and started playing! The audience of around 40 people were 100% attentive and they were there for a reason–to listen and to support and that’s exactly what they did. They seemed to have two states: quite and attentive or applauding. I was a bit concerned that they might not be fully involved in what I was doing at one point, maybe not listening to the lyrics or riding the ups and downs of each song’s emotions with me but that concern vanished when I spoke about one of the songs and they literally took part in the conversation. Oh yes, they were, both individually and as a group, 100% with me.

I did about twenty minutes by myself, and then Et Al joined me for the rest of the set. Lynn Lewis even joined in for a few songs adding his wonderful flat picking guitar and bass vocals. We were supposed to do 45 minutes, but they wanted us to just keep going so we did. By the time I called a halt, we had done almost an hour and a half!

Picture courtesy of Dena Maltinsky. From left to right are Dvir Cafri, Lynn Lewis, myself and Rahel Jaskow. Not in this pic are Tammy and John Worely. (click to enlarge)

I feel like a child who has had her first taste of ice cream and can’t wait to have more!

Thank you to Judi Lewis for getting this going. Thank you to Angela for opening her beautiful home to us. Thank you to Phillipa for organizing it, and thank you to everyone who came and made up such a wonderful audience. Most especially, thank you to my fellow Et Al-ers (including Tammy Worley who isn’t in the above picture, and Lynn Lewis who joins us from time to time).

Next home concert: June 17th, at the home of Susie Spira in Tivon. Watch for details!

Tonight, I’ll be giving my first living-room concert! I’m really jazzed about it, a bit nervous, but mostly, very, very happy. Luckily, I won’t be performing alone. I’ll be surrounded by friends and fellow musicians both on “stage,” and in the audience.

When I was a teenager, everyone who knew me could ID me from a distance because I was always accompanied by two things: My beautiful,  beloved, smiling Samoyed, Zsa Zsa, and my guitar. I would play anywhere and everywhere and didn’t really need an excuse. I was never nervous about it and anyone who came to visit knew that they would become captive audience whether they liked it or not. No one ever complained…at least, not to me. Evidently, playing and singing, if you’re not terrible at it, is a social ticket to almost anywhere.

During the marriage years, I did what so many women do–I put my passions on the back burner, or I should say, on the way-back burner, and eventually stopped playing and singing all together. It was only after my second divorce that I began seeking personal pleasure in life and that pulled me straight back to my biggest love and passion: Music.

But something had been lost during all those years. Lost and beaten out of me. That something was self confidence. Even now, after all I’ve been through and after all my successes, I still have very little. When I go to perform in front of others, the little bit I have flies right out the window. My hands get shaky and my vocal technique gets forgotten. So this performance tonight is extremely important to me.

Tonight, I’ll be sitting in someone’s living room in the heart of Jerusalem, The Holy City. The concert was organized by some of my very good friends and supporters. It’s a fundraiser meant to help me defray the cost of my upcoming move to Boston. I’m guessing that if I were to croak instead of sing, it wouldn’t make much of a difference–they would still all support my efforts. They might not come to another performance, but their support would still be there. So tonight, I’m going to be holding the image of the Joanna who used to play all the time at the drop of a hat, and see if I can’t recapture that feeling. That wonderful, relaxed feeling of making good music for people who enjoy it and doing it just by being myself.

Judi and Lynn Lewis will be performing first, and then it’ll be me alone. After a few covers and originals, the members of Et Al will join me. It should be nothing but great fun. Wish me luck!

Well, it has officially been WAY TOO LONG since I last posted! Wow, and several things have happened since my last posting.

What a silly thing to say! What kind of life would I have if nothing had happened during such a long interval of time? Well, thank G-d, good things are in the wind.

First, I want to say something about the blog carnival. It didn’t get posted on schedule this month for a couple of reasons. The main reason is that I was flooded with spam via the carnival site. Spam, brings to mind a can of an end-of-the-world substance that looks like cat food but that I would never feed to my cat. That and randomly submitted blog articles that have absolutely nothing to do with the topic of my carnival. The carnival is a very nice idea but sifting through all those submissions only to glean a few appropriate posts is not the best use of my time. So the blog carnival is off, at least for now. I’ll update the blog carnival page and then, after a few months, probably remove it.

Okay, so briefly, what has been going on over the last few months? Continue Reading »