Time has come today 3/5/06

Seems it's time for all sorts of creatures to be migrating, and I am going to be one of them. After 25 years away, I have decided to move back to the city. The City, here on the east coast, is New York. I didn't make that up, it's just how it is.

In 1980, I left Los Angeles for New York City; in 1981, fled New York for Chicago, and then Chicago for the Adirondack Mountains, and then, after a dozen turns around the sun, came here to the Hudson River Valley, to a small house outside a small town that was perfect for five year. This is the longest I have lived in any one house in my entire life. After big upheavals the spirit and flesh need time to heal, and that time was given to me. My cottage was the perfect retreat, nurturing, protecting. I painted the rooms the colors of spring. My dazzling dog Shekinah finished out her days here, and the garden accepted all my tears. I watched the same pair of hawks return to the woods behind the house to nest year after year. I planted irises and grew to love my neighbors. I earned a long-deferred B.A. (and let me tell you, there is no statute of limitations on parental pride. My folks were thrilled). I  rested and have been restored.

And now there is a fire in my head. My passion for my work is renewed, and along with it, a feeling that I have only just begun to explore what I can do, what I may be able to create. What elegant turns I can make in the air if I really let go and launch myself. Inspiration is everywhere and lately I have been spending more and more time in the city - singing, coaching other singers, hearing other artists, visiting museums, seeing plays - and therefore more and more time on the train and on the thruway. Remember those billboards that said "if you lived HERE, you'd be home now"? Appealing notion really when you have lived in 51 different places and have a concept of "home" drawn entirely from reading rather than lived experience (also appealing when you are driving from, say, Denver to L.A. and you're starting to see clowns in the road and herds of albino deer. You working musicians know what I mean). My mental billboard is now showing a picture of New York City,and I am excited. Excited to be moving. Excited to be singing more. Excited to be writing songs with wonderful songwriters like Carol Hall and Tex Arnold, and Janis Siegel. Oh yes, and that brings up another reason for my move. Moxie has retired, but Janis and I are deeply committed to the idea of the female vocal trio. We have recruited the incredible Ann Hampton Callaway to join us in our new trio, Gracie. We are starting to put together our arrangements and repertoire, and expect to be performing in 2007 - but watch for the occasional stealth date prior to that. The intensity and joy of this collaboration makes the city an even more alluring place for me to be.

So come spring, come moving van, come buyer for this house that has served me so well.
And, Dear Readers, keep the comments (and poems!) coming, too. For I know this: there's nothing so like home as a chat with friends.