“…the power in how you live. Even when doubt drags you under, you’re lifted up by all you can give. What can I say? To warm up bones that are frozen and blue? A new day will find you with things you had hoped would come true…” (the snippet of song in the video clip below)

Starting December singing with my sweetie was stellar. Particularly to enthusiastic audiences. Turns out this earnest scribe of tomes of home also likes to rock.

Over the last few years, amidst it all, I had meandered from music. Not just from performing, which is understandable given the circumstances, but from music itself. A drift that unmoored me. Thankfully, I’ve rediscovered the sacred guidance of my musical muses. 

This year Krekel and I did play some music, songs at a memorial for his beloved aunt, the wedding of some friends, his sister’s sweet wedding, and around our house. But most of the time my attention was on community collaborations and related work, including efforts in Montford and Stumptown. 

Levity often eluded me. Creativity without “purpose” felt pointless. Meanwhile, I was ignoring the impacts of such imbalance. Eventually a wise friend brought my attention to the amount of grief and challenge tied up in much of what I focus on. While my work can be joyful and generative, it is not easy. It requires moments of mirth to alchemize the heaviness and hurt. 

Then, like a divine gift, Krekel and Whoa was offered a few gigs. Preparing for and playing those shows, which started in late November, has renewed us musically. We’ve been a band for almost 20 years, and we’re better than ever.  

Though I honestly did not start writing about this musical renaissance in order to promote our last show of the year, it does happen to be this Friday, December 16, 2022 at New Belgium from 5:30 – 7:30 pm. 

[There’s a cringe I admit feeling about naming a brewery as the place we’ll be performing, since I have real beefs with WNC’s overblown beer biz. Yet I’m psyched to play for friends and fans. A multiple truths moment.]

It’ll be fun. 

Music (as I create it) is not separate from the “serious” work I do, it actually helps make it possible. 

I’m sharing these reflections in case you need to remember your muses too.

Like that deservedly popular quote by Emma Goldman says, “If I can’t dance, I don’t want your revolution.”

Movements for justice are fueled by music and art and fashion and food. Culture creates change. Hearts are healing as we make medicinal vibrations for the ancestors in our bones, for future beings tuning in to the tones. 

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warm up bones
lyrics by ami whoa

you’ve changed
not looking for answers in another drink
it’s brave
nothing to hide the things that you think

being alone in the darkness
not trying to cover your scars
facing the why’s and the what if’s
breathing the light of the stars

each page
you write are words you were brought here to say
the notes play
songs that you sing linger and stay

filling the world with wonder
the power in how you live
even when doubt drags you under
you’re lifted up by all you can give

what can i say
to warm up bones that are frozen and blue
a new day
will find you with things you had hoped would come true

(recording here)

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Asheville FM Interview

For those who missed it and wanted to listen, here is a recording of the conversation I had with Julia Haverstock about my “Shakespeare and Stumptown” research which aired on Asheville FM last month:

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There Is No “Migrant Crisis”

If you can, take some time to read There Is No “Migrant Crisis” – The problem isn’t new; it’s the bordered logic of global apartheid itself, a powerful piece of writing by Harsha Walia published by the Boston Review. 

Excerpt: “Following Eduardo Galeano’s invocation, ‘The world was born yearning to be a home for everyone,’ a world without borders is a world where everyone can find, make, and belong at home.”

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Love and thanks to my two Libra sun friends who captured the video and photos of our Grey Eagle show.

First image is a photo of a painting of Krekel and Whoa by our BFF, artist Phil Cheney.

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This is my last piece of the year. As always, thank you for journeying with me.

Much love.  

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