When I was at the Arts Northwest booking conference a few months ago, I spoke with Joanna Marratta, executive director of the British Columbia Touring Council. A very wise and approachable woman, she first asked me about what I did artistically and how I did it. At the time I had NO IDEA who I was talking to and was therefore fearless in telling her my passion for rocking out traditional music; for bringing the old scales, styles… magic of music that have held up cultures around the world and giving them a modern day Western relevance. She was moderately interested. Then I told her more about myself and my musical journey (go to my bio page for more of that story). She perked up as I mentioned my father sang Mariachi. I went on to tell about teaching English in China to avoid playing music, working at a hotel in Switzerland for admission to a global conference on conflict resolution, and on and on. She was especially interested in hearing about the diversity of Salt Lake City. Seriously, how is it that we have some of the nation’s top tattoo artists and piercing experts in Salt Lake City freaking Utah?! I would love to hear all your thoughts on this.
She listened and listened. Her response was simple. She said bring your STORY into your performances. Bring the tattooed counter-culture into your music dvd’s.That’s what draws people in; your STORY.
The importance of STORY has been prominent in my world also as I read about VOICES: Stories from Survivors of Sexual Violence communtiy art project.
I was also very moved by the Utah Phillips Tribute CD Release concert I experienced last night. Utah Phillips was known for weaving story into his music; sometimes right in the middle of a song! What Christina Baldwin calls “narrative therapy,” telling one’s story is even as important to the teller as it is to the listener. So it’s time to inject more of my story into my musical offerings. This month I will put aside my fear of boring you all with endless rambling (notice how long this missive is!) and practice being the storyteller and the storywriter as well as the music performer. I hope you’ll bear with me in my experiment and I hope that you will join me and also start the year telling your own stories in any way you can!
Narratively Yours,
Bronwen
Tin Angel Cafe
Friday January 28, 7ish – 9:30ish
Tin Angel Cafe
365 West 400 South
Please call: 801-328-4155.
for Reservations
Get Bloggy!
Pease check out :
my yoga blog; Ugly Yoga at uglyyoga.com
Please feel free to chime in on any and all posts!
BTW:
My yoga mentor, D’ana Baptiste, is on the cover of City Weekly this week! Congrats, D’ana!
Upcoming Shows:
January 7 and 28, Tin Angel Cafe
March 12, Stonecircle at the Peery Egyptian Theatre
The Sermon... 