Culmination

It's been just over 21 years and a couple of months since I sang eleven of my songs to some 150 friends and family members in celebration of my 45th birthday. I called 45 my "record-breaking year." I got together a few friends to sing with me, and a little back-up band. A Phoenix Rising Yoga buddy played keyboards, and I swapped her sessions for transcribing the music. I'd done a lot of healing of my childhood wounds, and was ready to come out of the shadows… I thought.

At the party, a dad from our school carpool asked if he could arrange one of the songs, and we were off and running on an adventure in learning the ins & outs of a small corner of the record business. Well, Ian (Freebairn-Smith) knew the record business. He had Barbra Streisand's Evergreen on his list of Grammy Awards as her arranger.  I knew nothing, but got an education over six months or so. Ten thousand dollars later, we had an audio cassette of my daughter's friend's mom Shirley Cavallero singing, "I Cry for the Children," a song I'd written in 1989.

We shopped that song around to movie producers, Oprah, and Streisand herself. No one seemed interested then, in a sad song about child abuse. Maybe, since its victims are coming forward almost daily, the timing is better now, for the song to be heard.

I hope so, because I just finished a recording project - singing that song, arranged this time by Barry Dow, sandwiched in the middle of eight other songs. I may not be out of the shadows yet, but I'm ready to let 'em fly, like fledgelings off a branch to see where they land.

Thanks to some very talented and very generous friends, the support of my honey Mark and my family, and some prodding from other friends, I forged ahead from August through November in Barry and Lynn Dow's basement recording studio, to capture sketches of nine songs. Barry took the pressure off by saying, "Look, Melinda, you're not making a 'record' down here; you're recording a few melodies that have popped into your head over the years… just so they don't get lost." (Or he said something like that, and it really helped. I wiped my tears, took a deep breath, and kept singing.)

The CDs are ready to give away. If you want one, let me know. 

Thanks to all the supporters and well-wishers, and especially my midwives: Barry and Lynn.

It feels like a timely culmination… just before we move north in a week… YIKES! Pass the packing tape and another box, please!