a surprise birthday blog!

As is becoming more and more my practice, I love surprising unsuspecting friends with a blog on their birthday.

We cross paths with a lot of people during the course of our lives. Some stay. Some go. So weave in and out of our lives for different periods of time.

When you’re in the music business, you see the ebb and flow, the rise and fall, the journeys that are unlike any other. And as with everything in life, we carry with us the moments and memories.

We remember sipping wine in a friend’s backyard late at night, talking about dreams and heartaches privy to very few. We see the progression and the maturation, the breathtaking beauty carved out of lessons learned, loves lost, hope found.

If you’re lucky, as I am, you get to cross paths with more than enormous talents. You get to cross paths with enormous people. (I’m not referring to girth, by the way.)

You become each other’s cheering sections and revel in the moments of giddy excitement, just as you share in the more trying times. And if you’re really lucky, you get to make music together – music that will go forth into the world and do what it’s meant to do, music that's made with people you love and admire.

I’ve written a lot about my project. I’ve been steadily introducing you to the players and singers. And today, since it’s Caitlin’s birthday, I think it is an excellent time to say how unbelievably ridiculously awesome she is.

You may know Caitlin Evanson from the people she’s played with – namely Taylor Swift, Ringo Starr, and a long list of notable others. She’s a violinist, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and I’m guessing there are probably many more talents than I know about.

I am unbelievably excited for her to be playing violin on my record. Some people are true artists, and Caitlin is one of those who brings the beauty of who she is at her core to her playing.

So whatever you are doing today on your special day today Caitlin, I hope you know the gift you are and are celebrating it with all the things that bring you joy. Happy Birthday!!!

Thanks for stopping by. Please tell your friends. And since it’s Caitlin’s birthday, I say we all have a piece of cake! 

a sneak peek at the title song!!!

Well, as promised in my last blog, I have finally gotten a video up from the Valentine Love Fest concert I played with Garry Novikoff, Lorraine Ferro, Tanya Leah, and Peter Morris Dixon!

Those who know me know that there’s nothing I love doing more than making music with my friends. Of course, if you had my friends, you’d enjoy making music with them, too, because they’re insanely talented.

So in what might possibly be the shortest blog I’ve ever posted to date, I give you an informal love fest among friends joining me on what will be the title track of my new CD, “In Color.”

Enjoy and thanks for stopping by! Please tell your friends…

a Valentine's Blog...with water, water everywhere!

Happy Valentine’s Day! You’ll be glad to know that I am wearing my dangly heart earrings made for me by my multi-talented, Emmy-winning friend, Debi Cochran. As a matter of fact, I’m in such high spirits that I am foregoing my traditional all black attire today in favor of, well, possibly incorporating some other color like purple or red with the black. (Baby steps, you know.)

It’s been a heck of a week, boys and girls. It began last Sunday with a Valentine’s Love Fest concert that my buddy Garry Novikoff put together. I’m still figuring out how to post a video clip of it, so stay tuned in the next few days for that, because it will be your sneak peek at the title track of my upcoming CD In Color, and who doesn’t love sneak peeks? No one, that’s who!

So we’ve been having an interesting winter here on the East coast. Snow and ice, and snow and ice, and then some snow and ice. And as the temperatures turned frigid this week, our tree roots decided it was the perfect time to block drainage and send everything back into our house and all over the place, flooding it.

Well, you know me – Suzie Sunshine, trying to look on the bright side, even of dirty flood water. “What’s the lesson in this?” is always my question. Or “What’s the blessing in this?”

I’ll tell you right off the bat, two practical things – get rid of everything you can while it’s your own choice, and don’t leave anything you value greatly on low ground. Obvious things, I know, but still, they needed to be said.

We amass stuff in this country, and it seems like the smaller our dwelling, the more stuff we like to pack into it. But the truth is what we are attached to is a feeling, a memory, a moment in time. And those things we carry with us wherever we go. I’m not saying we don’t want to or shouldn’t keep physical mementos, but we don’t really need to save the piece of lint that was on the sweater that was under the jacket we wore when he kissed us. The kiss is still with us.

So as I watched a lot of waterlogged carpeting, furniture and assorted items going out the door, I began to think that the universe had a funny way of moving my life forward. But I asked for that, truthfully. I want to let go of anything that no longer serves me. I just didn’t realize it would a) be a lot all at once, and b) include chairs.

This is a strange time in my life and the lives of many that I know. It is one of transition, of growth, of moving forward into the unknown in ways we never have before. It requires both courage and faith, and it demands our trust in our own inner knowing and well being.

Valentine’s Day is a day where we can celebrate love – in all its various forms. It is a chance to acknowledge that no matter where our lives take us, or fate, or circumstance, or relationship, what is of value and eternal is love. It cannot be destroyed by floods, or distance, or changing times.

So as you partake of your chocolates, I wish you the sweetness of a happy heart filled with love, precious memories, and the promise of even greater joy ahead than you’ve known in the past.

A special note as I close out this very bizarre Valentine’s blog: Today is my friend and producer Tanya Leah’s birthday. I have written about her many times and at great length, but I cannot pass up another opportunity to say what a gift she is. Aside from being an insanely talented genius, she is a generous, loving, light-filled soul who makes this world a whole lot brighter because she’s here. Happy Birthday, my friend!!

And Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you! Thanks for stopping by. And please tell your friends.

xoxoxo

Ilene

Super Bowl Blog 2015!!!!

It’s Super Bowl Sunday, boys and girls, and being the avid football fan that I am, I have no idea who’s playing. It’s possible I won’t find out, either, since I’ll be done watching after Idina Menzel sings the national anthem.

I jest about not knowing who is playing. I’ve got Google and I know how to use it. And what’s more, all this pre-game discussion about deflated balls has got me wondering about things I’ve never contemplated before. So yay, football for expanding my horizons.

As I’ve stated in previous Super Bowl blogs, my knowledge of players is confined largely to those who’ve made their way onto Dancing with the Stars, or have found themselves in the middle of a salacious scandal…and also, Joe Namath. Ah, Broadway Joe – sigh.

I’d like to talk to you about a more important topic, though, than the men who will be jumping on each other as “sport,” tonight, and that is – food.

I just came from the frenzied free-for-all known as a supermarket on Super Bowl Sunday. And there, I witnessed delicacies I didn’t know I had been missing. “Pigs in footballs,” which I could not distinguish from the “pigs in blankets,” because they looked exactly the same to me.

Chili con Queso, in a tray the shape of a football. Chicken wings, ribs, 7 layer dip that had 4 layers, because, call me crazy, I counted them when it looked shy a few layers. And tortilla chips – who knew there was such an unlimited number of varieties? Corn, white corn, with a twist of lime, scoop shaped, strips, restaurant style, and those are just off the top of my head. Blue corn! How could I forget the blue corn!!! Wait, there’s actually blue corn??? What was God thinking…or is this courtesy of a couple of guys with a chemistry set? I’ll have to investigate…which I’ll have plenty of time to do…during the Super Bowl, no doubt.

Me, my purchases were not as highly caloric, because I was shopping in preparation of the next snow storm, set to begin tonight. I suggest my fellow east-coasters utilize their prayer time for something more practical than which team will win tonight. I myself am going for “Please, God, let it drift out to sea and miss us completely.”

I feel like I should actually talk about football now – the sport, the strategies, the players, their strengths and weaknesses, the teamwork necessary to be crowned champion.

Wow, I just realized I know none of that. So I think my work here is done. Enjoy the game! And may the best team win…whoever they are.