Happy September 2nd and welcome to my new blog. I joked with my best friend that the last thing a songwriting musician needs in another outlet to talk about herself. Oh well. Here I go...

The summer has been spent finishing up my third album, which is tentatively entitled, "Songs from the Old Mill," unless I change my mind again and, I will. I've been recording songs on and off for about three years in between moving, having a baby (now toddler), selling houses, sinus surgery, and general living. The goal was to have it released by August 2009, but unpredictable events pushed it off so now it's looking like it'll be a bit later. I'll be posting some streaming songs (here? can I do that?) and on Facebook before they are finally mastered. I hope to do that within the next week.

My excuses? Well, for one, the Texas summer pretty much made it impossible to record here without hearing the sound of air conditioning piping through the vents and into the microphone. Most of our tracking was recorded here at some of Austin's best studios, but overdubs (vocals, harmonies, extras) are usually done here at home. Sure, I could have created a sound booth and all that...but seriously that's a pain and I don't work well all claustrophobic-like in a sound capsule. Plus, the house was for sale, so there was the need to pretend like we didn't live here and not mess things up. There were also some travels and some sad things...but that is life, so you put stuff off like recording, and you live. I recorded some vocals at night, but to avoid creating a total sweat pit, I saved a number of tracks to be recorded at a later time. Finally...now is later, so I'm finishing up.

And yes, the sinus surgery has made my voice sound different, as in *better*. Ask my band or anyone that knows me well, and they've known me most of my life having some sort of cold or allergy. No more crazy remedies like trying to use liquid oregano as a sinus rinse (seriously painful). All it took was an amazing surgeon and two weeks of cookies, ice-cream, family assistance and not lifting more than 10 pounds. The results are phenomenal. I gained 8 lbs from the cookies, but my nose is so much happier. Oh thank you amazing doctor and advanced western medicine. I can breathe SO much better and my heart rate when running is lower too (yay!). And for the record, sinus surgery is not code for other sorts of prettifying nose surgeries...it doesn't look any better, it just sounds better.

Later,
m