Happy Birthday Jaker

Happy Birthday Jaker, if we were in Chicago, or if you were here, we'd give you a big ole hug like Gillespie:)
Jake and Jenny are quite a pair, rearing up a batch of red headed kids while blazing trails of cookies and scripture from Utah to Wyo to Chicago and on to California.
I love Jake's "Oh Boy, I'm gonna be in trouble" face in this picture. His sister has just given One of his three boys the ultimate gift for Christmas when it was Jake's job to ensure the kids got easy to pack and easy to share books.
I do believe if Jake got his wish he would just stay in school forever. He does have the scholarly look about him doesn't he:) You can give my mom credit for that. Jake was reading at 13 months. Believe it or not, but it's true. My Mom started doing "words" with him as a baby and before most kids are speaking, Jake was reading.
We love you Jake, and we want you to know that it's o.k. to be the oldest, the smartest and the favorite because that just lets us off the hook;)

Something New to Me

Sun Valley Singing

Sweet Things From Sun Valley

This Valentines Day Teddy got to cross one thing off her bucket list. I've always felt that I missed my calling as a lounge singer, so when the opportunity presented itself to sing for Valentines Day in the Lodge Dining Room in Sun Valley (thank you John) I jumped at the chance. Melodie and John are in charge of Entertainment for Sun Valley and this year they added Melodie and Me as "girl singers" to go along with the jazz pianist, Brookes from New York. (he is also fantastic) I had such fun dressing up and singing some of my favorite songs, and as always Mel is one of my favorite kick in the pants chicks. It was a perfect Valentines weekend AND it was made even better when we were able to catch the Doo Wah Riders in the Boiler Room. It was great! I can't wait until next time!

Mugging With Mel. It's safe to say we don't take ourselves too seriously:)

This performance made possible by my sweetheart Del:)

Songlist; Skylark, The Man I Love, I Know Why, Songbird, At Last, Lets Do It, Perfidia, You Make Me Feel So Young, Love and Marriage, etc. . .

Uncle Zed

Cal and I have some sad news this week. Our Mom's brother Zed died after a long battle with cancer. He was surrounded by his family as his spirit left this life for it's journey into the next. I like to imagine him being greeted on the other side by his Dad Byron who died when Zed was just 11 years old, his Mom Dixie who died from cancer just a few years ago, and his brother Bing whose battle with cancer ended back in the early 90's. I have to say that this family has suffered great loss through the years, but we have also known great joy. Zed was a quietly extraordinary man. Quick to make peace and find a solution. His first love was his wife Lannis and his kids, and a close second was his cars. He was a talented mechanic and could fix anything.





We will be celebrating his life and mourning our loss this Monday. He is loved and will be sorely missed.

This is Zed with his Dad Byron. Byron contracted polio just as he was starting his life and family but it didn't stop him from running a ranch, raising 6 kids, and being a real life heroe for his little boy "Bucky".

The Endless Possibilities of Editing

Recording

Speaking of recording, here we are sitting atop my Mom's gigantic record player. Every night we'd put a record on and run around the house with as few clothes on as possible. Our favorite records were; Electric Horseman, Star Wars, Kenny and Dolly and The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders training record. Those were the days:)

Cal and I spent the weekend laying down some tracks of the new songs Cal has been working on all year. My Sun Valley Caroler director Derek Furch helped us knock out as many songs in a day and three hours as was possible:) They are rough tracks; play it through, if it's good keep it and move on, just to get the songs on a recording that works to market to taxi and serve as a scratch track for when we take some serious studio time. We recorded 10 songs in 17 hours. Cal did all the guitar tracks and leads and I added harmony. Cal is the better guitar player so to save time he did all the guitar parts and I let him use my new Taylor guitar. It sounded AWESOME! So rich and full. At times they had to stop and clean up because of all the harmonic overtones carrying over. I can't wait to use this guitar in our live shows this year. Cal laid down some lead tracks with his new fender and they sounded sweet. It has a nice mellow tone and even in the basement studio setting we're really happy with the way it worked out.

For now, the only place to hear our new songs is on taxi, (or my mothers kitchen) where we're working to sell some songs to fund our music careers:) In the meantime, our finished CD is available on CDBABY. We hope to put out another album in the next year or so. Cal's songs just get better and better, and I even made a contribution to one. Go figure, maybe there is hope for me after all:)

As a side note, sometimes the $35 bargain motel room is not worth the $35. I now know more about the seedy side of 12th and Washington in Ogden than I ever wanted. It's great to be home:)