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I was in North Carolina again this past weekend, playing a show in Waynesville and a concert in Asheville. On a rare weekend day off, I walked around the Bele Chere festival in downtown Asheville. It is normally a very crazy festival, but this day was called “Family Day” so there is no alcohol served and a much mellower vibe. There is lots of great music in Asheville, its like the Nashville of the Southeast. Its a very progressive enlightened community nestled along the Blue Ridge Mountains. I spend a lot of time in North Carolina this time of year, as it is high festival season. So you’ll be seeing more in the coming weeks no doubt.

The second half of this video is a couple excerpts from the concert I played with George on flutes. The final segment you’ll see sounds like there are tracks playing along with the harp and flute, but it is all done live, using whats called a long delay, it takes what we just played seconds before and loops it around again so we can play harmonies on top of what was just played. Hopefully the sound quality will be ok enough to hear the music. It all has to be scrunched to fit in these blog formats so we’ll see.

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I have been on the road for a month. I have a lot of footage to go through to show you that, but in the meantime I put together some clips from last weekend’s festival in Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. I hope I captured the essense of the Scottish Highland Games at Grandfather mountain. Playing flute with me is George Tortorelli

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I play each year for the American Cancer Society Luminaria Walk. It is part of an all day “Relay for Life” event at Santa Anita Racetrack. This is just one local group putting on this weekend event, as part of the whole nation of souls working towards the fight against Cancer.

All day the groups, people of all ages, many children circle the racetrack on foot. The entire track is lined with hand colored bags honoring their loved ones who are in  the fight or have passed from this disease.After the day is done, they bring all the champion children to the stage and announce their earnings and give them prizes and crowns. Its the sweetest thing you will ever see.

Then my part happens. I start to play the harp, there are hundreds of candles waiting in buckets to be lit, and the woman asks the audience, “Who here has a mother or a father who is dealing with cancer, many people come forward to get their candle lit. “Who has a brother or a sister, a friend or colleauge, and so on, and before long every single person has come forward and stands with their candle.
Then they all prey together, and do the final walk around the racetrack in prayer and meditation.

Here are some images caught from that, that I have edited together as best I can.The music is from my solo harp CD titled “Quiet Heart” The song is called “Walk with me” I hope you will feel what I felt when it was happening.

All the best… take care of yourselves and your loved ones.

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I have been learning my new video camera in hopes I can create some video content of my various adventures for this blog site. Its all quite new to me being on both sides of a camera but I am learning alot.

Here is my first try.

Since I am working on a new recording, and often there is waiting time in a studio, I put the camera on
a tripod and played around showing the various instruments I was using between recording takes. It is indeed a little rough, but hopefully a little interesting too. It shows about five or six of my main instruments I use, and lasts about eight minutes.

Lets see if this works…..

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Its a typical Monday morning and I’m sitting at the little Valdosta airport, getting ready to fly to Atlanta and then fly home to Los Angeles. It was a festival weekend and beautiful spring days here in Georgia. The festival was called “A Love Affair” because it took place on Love Street in a small historic town. The people are so very nice here and they sure seem to love the music. This is my fourth weekend in a row coming to Georgia just one more weekend to Florida, then home for two whole weeks..yay. I usally go somewhere by airplane about 3 out of 4 weekends a month. Out Friday, back Monday..All the way from LA to the east coast somewhere. I actually love to travel and see other places, sometimes the traveling is a challenge, but I really don’t mind it.

I have aquired some new video equipment and editing ability so soon I will be posting videos of some road adventures. Its incredible what you can do now right from the laptop so please check back soon for that.
Gotta get up.. time to get through security… more soon..

Below: photo of me at the Georgia festival festival weekend.. Is she concentrating, or is she asleep….?

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Hi friends.. its late at night and I’m sitting here at my laptop between recording takes. zzzzzz..
I am doing accompaniment music for my friend Amy Frosts meditation CD. I met Amy years ago at City of Hope as she was there as a grief counseler, we became good friends and have done lots of projects together since. We go to various retreats and she does “self-care for caregivers” workshops. She is there like the TV host and I am the band on the side that plays on cue while people do their exersizes or drawing or visualizing.  She takes meticulous notes on what I say I want to do, and then busts you if you didn’t do it. We call ourselves success teams.. and every Wednesday morning I am rushing to get done what I said I would do, before she calls. Its all good.

My house has a studio in it, mostly its for all my music, but other people come and record sometimes too. Mostly spoken word while I do the background music, but now there is a Mariachi band doing work here.

Enclosed is a picture of my fireplace that I’m looking at right now.
Time to go back to work…

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I am just learning how to use this blog program
so I’m just going to post a cool photo.

This is a recent picture George and I played for his daughter
Chandrika’s wedding. It was magical.

It took place in a botanical garden in Gainesville, Florida.
This shot was taken moments before he put down his
flutes to walk her down the isle. The bliss was so high
that there is light coming out of his solar plexis… literally.