our own kind of rockstar

What does this winter photo have to do with an outdoor concert in Moncton in the middle of the summer? I'm just back from a fantastic weekend with friends to see U2 in concert in Moncton...the show was great!!...it rained all day Saturday and the world became one giant mud pit....slimy and slippery brown everywhere! The six of us huddled under a small gazebo to stay out of the rain. We drank coffee (or beer) and talked and laughed. Early in the day, we escaped the muddy mess for awhile to go into town to stock up on rain gear (who travels with rubber boots?)...on the way back to the camp site..while stuck in traffic..we sat in the car next to a man asleep under a bridge along the sidewalk...with his face gray and lined with exhaustion. Something in me makes it impossible to not feel incredible sorrow when I see that..and i'm grateful that I have never hardened in that way....i'm warm and dry with money in my pocket, food in my belly,and have people who love me and care about me. I don't care how he spends the money I have to slip under his ball cap or the apples I leave him (it's all the food we have in the car)...just like i don't care if someone wants to spend $1200 dollars on a purse..who am I to judge? But life really can throw curve balls at us and many of us are fortunate to weather them and some get left out in the rain...Who knows this man's story and what brought him down that path..we're all on our way to someplace..and in my case..on my way to see Bono and U2 play to a crowd of 80 000 people.......everything is relative and we can't all be zillionairre rockstars like Bono but we can be our own kind of rockstar....where it's hip to be generous and real.

"One love
One life
When it's one need
In the night
One love
We get to share it
Leaves you baby if you
Don't care for it"

- Lyrics by U2 "One"

chasing skies and prairie storms

I think maybe i've been a bit of a stranger to my blog..but i'm still kicking around and have been having a great and busy time over the last while. I had a short and successful run of shows around Saskatchewan in the late spring with Underneath the Fray.... I called it the Spring Thaw Prairie Run...well before I knew we'd have all that rain.....My songs tend to predict weather it would seem......
In early July I headed down to Montremarte, Saskatchewan for the All Folk'd Up in Montremarte Festival..a nice little folk festival down on the pretty prairie and had a fantastic time. Met some great folks and talented artists too! I've been building myself a new website and am getting ready to record my second album which I hope to have out in early 2012.

Thanks for stopping by and checking in..i'll post more updates on my album in the coming weeks and some stories too.
Hope you are enjoying your summer wherever it finds you,
Cathleen

new songs for spring

I love that spring is now here and summer close behind it. In the words of my friend Lois..."today it smells like summer". I was just out around the province for a few shows and songs with the lovely Lois Mullins aka Underneath the Fray on a short tour affectionately called The Spring Thaw Prairie Run through all parts prairie. I love the open road. I love the creative process. I love that I can combine the two together in a way that means something to me. I try to write what I know and keep it honest. This month of May, I wrote most of what will probably be my third album....but first...let's get this second album out first.

Art is funny....it requires me to live in the moment, yet also live into some imaginary far off future...

Cozy toes and Winterfires

Am I allowed to say that i'm really... tired of winter? It is cold and -30 here today and i'm pretty sure the calendar says that it is March 1. To combat my cold weather blues

i'm going to post this picture of my feet wearing of pair of socks I knitted while gazing into a cozy fire. It isn't that I have alot to complain

about.
This winter I attended a self-directed creative residency. My late father's last gift to me came in the week I was to write a cheque to cover my portion of it...so I decided to focus on the symbolic theme of connections during my time. Wow! Talk about a nice break from

reality….a yummy breakfast waiting for me each day, a handy gym and my

amazing space

where I had time to dream and create. I just know that that time was for planting a few creative writing seeds that will grow forward over time....into my first book of poetry and short stories... In January

I also won a Saskatchewan based CBC Radio "Canada Reads"

contest. I paired my song "Highway" from my debut album

with the moving and brilliant novel by the late author

Carol Shields titled "Unless". Truth be told…I don't enter contests...I tend to think that competition is for horses...not artists….I read that quote somewhere once and it stuck with me... and I don't ask the wonderful people who support me musically to support me musically. But believe me..it is awesome when they do.

I guess this is a time of hibernation but first…some cozy toes and tea are in order.