Trailblazing Tour Announcement!

Hello hello! Hope you are finding your cozy spaces in this pre-holiday fall time. I hope you are getting in a routine which you are finding your groove and communing with your creativity. For me, it’s always an ongoing challenge to get in/stay in a rhythm. This month and next I am trying something different, and I can’t yet report on how its going, but I am blocking out Tuesdays to be my day when I dedicate myself to crafting my creativity and projects I have a hard time getting to. I understand how lucky I am to be able to ‘declare’ a day a week for this, but I’m at the point that it’s so easy for my time to slip away. And as I grow older, all I know is that ‘TIME’ is our most valuable commodity. So here we are. Tuesdays. No medical center, no excuses! HA! The excuses part is a little bit of joke. I thought yesterday when I went to my 2 doctors appointments that I was getting ahead and it turns out they were today (a Tuesday) Womp womp! FAILURE to read my calendar correctly. But the intention is there.

I’m starting off every Tuesday AM with a Zoom writing session as part of Terri Trespicio’s ‘New Rules Studio.’ I am a fan of her book ‘Unfollow Your Passion’ - I’ve read it twice. The cool thing about this is that there are 3-4 chances a week to drop in and write - much like a yoga class - but for writing. A prompt is given and you write what you want. You can read your work (if you want to) - it’s been a great way to kick off a Tuesday! It follows the guidelines of the Gateless Method, which I am also a big fan of. 100% Highly Recommend!

I am super excited to announce that next year I’m stepping into a new role (for me) as a music director and I’m going on tour! More on that in a minute… When I was in the 6th grade, my music teacher from school, Ms. Margaret Betz suggested that me and some of my friends create a string quartet to play at a function for a teachers day at school, called ‘Founders Day.’ We rocked it and to my great surprise, ‘The Coventry String Quartet’ was born & became my first gigging band. I assumed the role of music director (MD as they call it, NOT a doctor) and had business cards printed with our names and my landline phone number on it. We started playing churches, weddings, parties, you name it, we were doing it. We ended up making more money back then than I do playing locally in Nashville a good part of the time and we kept it up all through college. Anyhoo, my dear friend Amy, who was the violist sent me an old letter her Mom found in a box somewhere - a sort of ‘reference’ after we played a ceremony back in ‘96:

A review for The Coventry String Quartet!

It made me chuckle just a little as I geared up to announce the continuation of my boss-lady status… after quite a hiatus, I am assuming this role once again, this time as the MD to a show called ‘The Trailblazing Women of Country: a tribute to Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton.’ We start in Twin Falls, Idaho in late Feb and run all the way to Westhampton Beach, NY in May. I am soooo excited to working with Miko Marks and Kristina Train as the lead singers and be part of the all-women band backing them up.

I would love to see some of you out there! We won’t be in Ohio or Tennessee for any of these, but why not take a trip somewhere fun? 10 shows in California! In the winter!

I’m already thinking of all kinds of things about this tour! Of course first and foremost, the music arrangements and how we will perform this music. But also, the new places we will see, how I will exercise, what to bring, and even so much as how to share this experience with my newsletter. It’s definitely the longest tour I’ve been on in ages and I’m already missing my dog Baba in advance. :)

Soon I’ll be updating my website with the exact locations of the shows, but you can also go to IMG Artists to see more about that.

All right, it’s time to go look over some pie recipes and start making plans for what I’m baking next week. Currently drooling over some of the new Claire Saffitz creations! Peace and love, mp