new beginnings

My website is a home for the continuing journey of my music and the videos that we are making to accompany it. I’ve been a singer/songwriter all my life, I had never thought about adding videos and making the move from live playing to the online world until 4 primary cancers hit me one after the other. After I had a lobe of lung removed to treat lung cancer, I doubted if I’d be able to sing again. I’ve never smoked, so that was a huge shock. It’s enough, I have since discovered, if you carry genes that make you suseptible , just to inhale smoke from others. Before the ban, there was plenty of that in my performing life. In the end, I just couldn’t imagine life without being able to sing, so I slowly got back into it. I’ve had to make adjustments to how I sing, I don’t have quite as much power or actual breath! We’re lucky to have our own recording studio, which allows me, with the endless work of Steve, to use a few tricks of the trade to smooth out my imperfections. The scars in my side, make it really painful to play guitar , but even that has had a positive effect. I’ve played more keyboards, bought a piano and found that the volume of the piano means I just have to really sing up to hear myself over it. My voice is a bit stronger and better controlled as a result. I’ve written more as a consequence too, just because I love the sound of the piano. Once we got the video making bug and after working on Frozen In Time and Rebel with a highly talented pro team, ( check out Eva-Jean Wright, who was responsible for directing Rebel and shooting Frozen in Time and Rich Bertenshaw, whose camera work on Rebel was faultless), we’ve bought our own gear and have since made How Long ourselves and are in the process of shooting video for another song. For sure, there is a huge amount to learn about the filming process,but, along with my daughter Sarah, a trained artist with experience of portrait photography, we are beginigng to get our heads around what is needed. The lovely Jen Gilling is working with us on the current video, using her expertise in make up to get me looking my best. That, alone, has has given me a huge boost of self confidence. Up this point, you could fit what I knew about make up on the back of a matchbox and still have room for your name and adress! I had no idea how much you could transform a face. We’ll be shooting more for this project in a few days. This project will be very very different from what has gone before and will require long hours for Steve, as he edits and adds effects to it. I have a long list of songs which we plan to film for, stretching far into the future. Some, simple performance based, some more complex as we learn about special effects etc. So far, I’ve been really lucky to have had my cancers found early and treated, but of course I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t consider the possibility of having more. That is where this process comes in. Sitting worrying about an uncertain future is not going to alter that future as far as getting more cancer is concerned. What that attitude certainly will do however, is ensure that the future will be shadowed by fear of something that may never happen. If I have more health problems, I will deal with them as they arrive, same as always. In the meatime, I shall enjoy what I’m doing. It has been huge fun working with my husband and daughter as well as a real joy to learn from the pros, how this should really be done. We press on.