“Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.” -Kahlil Gibran

[singlepic id=355 w=320 h=240 float=right]Greetings from La Dolce Vita Family Farm in Longmont, CO.

Yup. I said La Dolce Vita Farm. And I couldn’t be in a more perfectly named place at a more perfectly named time.  This is me and Mona. She’s about to have some piglets. Isn’t she beautiful?  My life is rather sweet right now and every minute that I sit with this sweetness I say a little prayer of thanks. It’s not always been this sweet and I’ve not always been able to see life’s little sweet spots.

This is my last stop before heading to Jackson Hole for 5 weeks then touring back through CO, NM & OK and home to Texas. Jackson I’ll have 2 residencies and some regional gigs and time to work out the new album release schedule/launch.  I’ll be on the road till Mid-September and when I return to Austin, we’ll be releasing the new album. The day before I left for this tour, we recorded the final tracks for the new album.  Every single moment has been precious and what’s amazing is that we began both routing the tour and planning the album well over 8 months ago.

This is a really weird job that has its downfalls and it’s magic. There are sacrifices, trade-offs, unexpected benefits and it sometimes requires huge leaps of faith and more flexibility than a master yogi. It’s a service job at it’s core. Not only do we work hard to continue to give fans lots of soul-lovin and songs and shows, we also work for hundreds of employers a year in terms of venues and other projects that keep us afloat. It requires thousands of hours a year of cat-herding, planning, scheduling, rescheduling, rehearsing, budgeting and more. It’s a labor of love, sure, but when done right, it has some SWEET moments.

[singlepic id=359 w=220 h=140 float=left]And that’s where I am right now. In a very sweet spot. My Colorado landing pad is my dear friend, Anna’s farm with her beautiful Sicilian husband and children. I used to spend my teenage holiday afternoons at her family’s gatherings where 2 dozen family members sang in harmony and played guitar. She and I, along with another great singer-songwriter from our teenage years, Hannah Vincent would work up 3 part harmonies and play coffeeshops and curb-sides for tips. I haven’t seen her in 5 years and it feels like I’m reunited with family. We even got to sing/play together on the 4th of July in LaPorte here in Colorado for the first time in over 13 years.

[singlepic id=360 w=320 h=240 float=right]Every week of this tour has been sweet. I am so grateful to my booking agent, Dori who has been a life-saver in terms of keeping the logistics straight, the amazing folks who have hosted me like family along the road and of course, all the musicians I have had the pleasure to work with on their home turf.

AND to top it off, Mark Addison has been sending me mixes of the album. We’re getting close to having it mastered. Dori, my awesome agent is busy helping to schedule release dates. . . I’ve also been able to work remotely with my amazing graphic designer, Sanne who’s doing great work, Suzanne Koga who is an amazing consultant/manager and Ray Flowers who is helping me manage the release of the album (yikes, so many moving parts!).  So wow. A really sweet team to top off the sweet album and the sweet tour-dates thusfar.

I’m grateful.

It’s not always a smooth road. In fact, it’s a really inconsistent and often exhausting road.  And I think that sometimes, when things have gone well in the past, I’ve not been able to stop and notice. This time is different and I just want to say THANK YOU to all of you who have been a part of the new album, of the tour and who have been touched by the music.

Wishing you Love and La Dolce Vita in your own little moments.

Wendy Lorraine