Beehive Hip-Shake in 2018....2017 memories....Muscle Shoals on the Horizon

As Spring comes on strong in the Northeast U.S., I'm filled with Beehive Queen gratitude for an amazing year in 2017. I've been all around the world..The Paris Conservatory and a wonderful German music school with The Sessions Panel...two trips to New Orleans to bond and play with my musical brothers and sisters there, and a chance to show my continued and everlasting support for the New Orleans Musicians Clinic... the always-vibrant scene in Nashville...sit-ins with my dear soul sister Sarah Potenza (our gospel shows at the AMA in Nashville and the Rhythm & Roots Festival RULED) and great times on stage with Bonnie Raitt, Keb Mo, Elvis Costello, Little Steven VanZandt, Rosanne Cash and The New Orleans Suspects...and of course, much time spent in NBC's Studio 8H, truly a second home, with amazing musicians of of the SNL Band, led by Lenny Pickett and Leon Pendarvis. I continue to serve proudly on the board of IMA (Institute for The Musical Arts) in Goshen MA and to visit their always-slammin' Rock and Roll Camp for Girls each and every summer....my heart it there with those wonderful girls. And I continue to support Casey Cares and to both support and serve on the board of The Rock and Roll for Children Foundation. Always, always, I hearken and thank my brothers in Christine Ohlman & Rebel Montez--Michael Colbath, Larry Donahue, Cliff Goodwin and Chris Bickley-- and in particular this year, as we ponder sessions for the long-awaited follow up to "The Deep End," "The Grown-Up Thing", which will be once again produced by Andy York and feature wonderful special guests. You've been hearing the songs for a few years now..time to hunker in the studio! Most wonderfully, my second home, Muscle Shoals, has come alive in the last six months with high-profile studio visits by the likes of Demi Lovato and Steven Tyler. It's only fitting that this cradle of American soul music, in which I am now so deeply embedded as an "adopted daughter" (my phrase!) should finally become the mecca it deserves to be. 2017 found me producing a way-sold-out-to-the-walls tribute to the great Spooner Oldham, "A Spoonful Of Sugar: The Women of Muscle Shoals Music Celebrate Spooner Oldham," as well as gigging with those American treasures Travis Wammack, Donnie Fritts, Lenny LeBlanc, Kelvin Holly, David Hood, NC Thurman, and Mike Dillon. In early 2018 we said goodbye to Scott Boyer, one of the founders of The Decoys and a true musical force from the Shoals to Macon, via his longtime association with the Allman Brothers. I'll depart for the Shoals again on July 18 after sharing several New England stages with another force, Big Al Anderson. Truly....I am so blessed to have so many true, strong friends and musical collaborators in this life. It almost seems a dream sometimes, but it's real....and I'm so glad. See you on the road, cats and kittens, and in The Beehive!