If you are finding it difficult to bloom in this time of change, let me encourage you with a story from my own life: I've been listening to my library of unreleased recordings, the ones rejected by labels in the 80's and 90's. What I hear in these old recordings makes me smile. Some are gems and some are not gems, but the music is in full bloom. When something blooms, there isn't much additional comment needed. The sudden appearance of a bloom is it's own reason and miracle. And so it goes for music, too. When music flows, get out of the way.

I was spending my days and nights experimenting then, trying out new rhythms, arrangements, musicians and writers. The record companies didn't like these experiments. Their chronic rejection became funny after awhile. The joke was this: If I cared deeply enough about a piece of music, the label execs felt obligated to hate it.

Recording companies are owned by business people first and foremost and though they swear they are lovers of music, they just want hits, not experiments. Poetry does not keep them awake at night, profits do.
This is a hard lesson to learn. Such are the stories behind FAMOUS BLUE RAINCOAT and THE WELL.

	Here's my encouragement: Just keep blooming. That's all. Stay tuned to the impulses that are inside you. No matter which important person swears that they know your path, they don't. Stay patient and faithful. Make different mistakes. Our world needs stubborn visionaries who can hear themselves through the din, more than ever, now.

This woman, who now lives in Northern California, let me join her choir when I was eight years old. She taught me to read those funny little square notes of Gregorian Chant and to sing in Latin with feeling. She taught me to serve the song, rather than the other way around. Under her guidance, I experienced the collective soul of a choir, finding that harmony is a matter of love, as well as technique. She gave me my first solo in church. This gentlewoman set the tone for my life in music, for a certain spiritual position or place to stand, within song, that had meaning. I can’t completely describe this position in words really, but it has something to do with yearning and service. She is the original version of that. It’s as if she wrote a beautiful prayer on a little piece of paper in my heart, showed me how to fold it into a perfect paper airplane, then invited me to sail it high and far over the heads of our congregation.

The impossibly high standards that I learned early on, made my work in the music business more difficult. However, I’m still here and she’s still here, and that little paper airplane still flies. I’ve been wanting to thank her for the longest time. Thank you, Sister Mary Mark.

Here are some projects on our wish list this year:
 
1. a two-disc audiophile quality CD/DVD of the songs from FAMOUS BLUE RAINCOAT, with film, photographic stills, audio-visual interviews, new tracks and enhanced tracks from the original sessions.
 
2. a comprehensive- definitive- ultimate - official compilation of my most requested songs, culled from your letters.
 
3. I am asking God for a session with Billy Strange. He was my first guitar hero, and a girl never forgets her first. Visit his site HERE.

Norman Seeff

When I go out walking with my dog I think about those of you who have written, and a feeling of great riches fills me to the brim.
May this new year treat you well.
 
Keep blooming. That's all.