|
APRIL
2010 - IN THIS
ISSUE:
• Mother's
Day Shows & Gifts
• Click to read this newsletter
online
Dear
Friends and Fans -
I
just got back from Europe, I have a couple weeks to catch
my breath and then comes .... Mother's Day!
I've
made a tradition of playing Mother's Day shows. For
one thing, it gives me a built-in excuse to
talk about my mother -- which I always do anyway -- but
when it's a Mother's Day show it jjust feels more fun.
I also love the kind of audiences who come out for Mother's
Day
shows - folks with a little whimsy and adventure, who
want
to do something together that's not entirely fattening.
Not that I'm against fattening celebrations.
When
I see families, multi-generations, at my shows, it
reminds me of one of he defining experiences of my relationship
with my mother - the shared experience, immediate -- my
mother grabbing me and pointing, "Oh,
Debby! Look at THAT!"
Mother's
Day ... it never meant much to me until I turned - oh,
about 9 - when I asked myself: wait! What does my MOM
really want??? Oh sure, fingerpaintings are
always a big hit, but ... is there something else? The
idea that I could actually give
my mother something
about her instead of about me -- that
was, like, a rite of passage.
I
remember the year the lightbulb went on for me. I was
9. We'd just moved to Canada. Mother's Day
came
along
and I decided
I should really do something my mother would
like. I should invest. I
should take
my prize 1953 Two-Dollar Bills, exchange them for
mucho
Canadian
cash
and make my
mother
a meal she'd
never forget.
These
$2-bills were the only money I personally had. My Great-Aunt
Amy -- or was it her sister Ruth? Or the other sister,
Jean?? -- well, one of them sent me a $2-Bill for my birthday
every
year
and
I'd
been
saving them. So I took them all and headed down the street.
I made the exchange at a local shop where, conveniently,
I also shopped, selecting a wide variety of
impressive
foods.
The
next part is hazy: setting the table, artistically arranging
the food into separate bowls, selecting the correct serving
spoons
--
but what I do remember is my mother's face when she saw
the table -- a sumptuous feast of licorice, jawbreakers,
jellybeans,
chocolates and Snow-caps. Sadly she wasn't hungry that
night, but by the look on her face, I knew she was deeply
impressed. Deeply happy. So happy she was laughing out
loud. Well, actually, crying. But in a good way.
 Fast-forward
30 years. I'm in Germany on tour with
my band. I've left the hotel
early one morning, walking to the market, when I
see a flower shop busy with women, each leaving the shop
with
an arrangement - sometimes two.
And
then I remember ... it's Mother's day! My
own mother's been dead nearly a decade by then, but I go
in the store
and
I, too, buy a bouquet - huge, colorful, like
spring.
The
next part is hazy: walking who-knows-where
-- embarrassed, feeling indulgent, and fraudulent - knowing
that everyone must see this is a fake Mother's Day bouquet
-- a bouquet
my mother will never receive.
And
then I see her. A woman - maybe 20 years
older than me - heading down the street. When she reaches
me I stop her, and in my halting cow-German, I tell her
why
I need her to take this bouquet. I tell her I've just bought
it and I ask if she'll accept it for my own mother.
In
the U.S. this woman would think I was crazy, possibly even
dangerous, but my German is so
bad that I sound like a child. And she looks at
me as if I'm a child -- and with huge kindness, accepts
my flowers.
So
now I know there
are many ways to connect to your mother -- no matter where
she is.
If
you're in New England, bring your own mother, your daughter,
your sister, your inner-mom and celebrate Mother's
Day with me in two live concerts at Tupelo Music Hall
and Center for Arts in Natick (TCAN).
I'll
bring the Snow-caps. 
UPCOMING
SHOW and EVENT HIGHLIGHTS!
• MAY 7 & 8: Mother's Day Shows in Massachusetts:
Shows
at Tupelo Music Hall & TCAN Center for Arts in
Natick
• AUG.
16 - 21: Summer Performance Workshop in Maine:
Where musicians come to bloom - Earlybird
Registration ends May 1st!
More on these and other shows at my TOUR
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