With the patience of Cov'id
As always the time sensitive bits first!
On Friday, Oct 16th, I will do my first “hybrid” solo show - livestreamed at The Bez Arts Hub with a safely SD audience. I’ve been feeling for a while now that my preference moving forward will be to do hybrid shows in conjunction with my favourite venues in order to help keep them afloat during these desperately lean times. Every artist is deeply grateful to the venues who present our concerts, and have enough challenges at the best of times, for their dedication and tenacity. The Bez is certainly one of those. Here is the link to either tickets for attending or watching the livestream: Shari at the Bez Russ Rosen is offering a discount for the livestream to those on my mailing list using the promo code MAILINGLISTPERK.
All my solo shows since March have been from my basement studio sitting at my grandfather’s Steinway so it will be very fun to have a little more elbow room and have live smiling humans in front of me. And actual applause! The truth is, it’s not about needing the sound of applause, its the completion of the circle that I miss.
Last week John McDermott contacted me about contributing a song to a concert for the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association. Not only is this an unprecedented time of loss, but so many of the ways we have to celebrate the life of a loved one and deal with our grief are prohibited. It is counter to all we know and need. Organizations in the field of Palliative and Hospice care are endeavouring to find ways to do their critical healing work with limitations they’ve never experienced before. Of course it was an easy ‘yes!’ and I went straight down to my studio to film “Making Friends With Gone”. As it happens, the song was primarily inspired by the loss of longtime friend Yetta Lees - a fellow member of the commune I told you about in the last letter, whose daughter, Kath Murray has been working for decades in the field of Palliative and Hospice care. In fact, it’s a song that is set in the hours and days following the memorial for a beloved, and adjusting to the new reality of “gone” which begins with that pivotal event.
As they say on their website, “CHPCA would like to acknowledge the grief so many Canadians have experienced during these unprecedented tines by holding an online concert in conjunction with National Bereavement Day.”
The concert will be aired on Youtube on Nov 15th at 4 pm PDT.
Find the concert here at CHPCA
Yesterday was my mother’s birthday. Given Esther would have been 106, I’m sure she’s more comfortable no longer inhabiting her body, but she made it to a respectable 88 with an ideal trajectory of remaining very strong and vibrant right to the last few weeks. We should all be so lucky. And that’s including surviving breast cancer and major heart surgery in her 50’s. To use the vernacular of her time, she was one tough cookie. She raised her 3 kids on her own after the love of her life (our Dad) passed away from throat cancer early Halloween morning of 1961. She set an example of a self-reliant independent spirit that definitely imprinted on me. She was wickedly smart, (which then seemed to skip a generation!); she was a duplicate bridge life master several times over; she studied investing and handily supported herself and put 5 kids and grandkids through University. And she was renowned for her ability to talk non-stop. Admittedly, that last characteristic was not without its potential for being mighty irritating, and is quite possibly the thing I did inherit. Damn. Sorry friends & family.
Last night my siblings, their spouses and all our kids gathered on Zoom for a couple of hours - laughed and talked over each other and celebrated the matriarch who had such an influence on us all.
I’ll keep you posted about upcoming concerts and in the meantime, enjoy your families, wear a mask, be patient and kind, and hang in there…
Fondly, as always,
Shari