Back in the day, drinking was a means of social connection, a way to loosen inhibitions, and a way to drown one's sorrows when a relationship has a bad moment. There are more moments of strife and drama in a young relationship than in a well-seasoned one, I have discovered. 

I did a fair amount of drinking when I was young. Mostly beer. When I moved to a small Upper Peninsula town in 1974, drinking was the common form of socialization in the town. It turned out I enjoyed drinking but I didn’t always enjoy…

The song “Closing Time” was written in recollection of my experiences as a 21 year old in a small town in northern Michigan back in 1974 to 1978. Bar life became a daily thing in those days. The little town I resided in had twenty-one bars, four churches, and about 300 year-round residents. We all made an effort to keep the bars in business, some more than others. 

Bars were the social centers of the town. Card tournaments, cribbage, bar dice, pool, darts, foosball, pinball games, football pools, Pong, and…

There are three songs on the album, “Worth Giving”, that I call the bar-fly trilogy. These songs were written based on my experiences as a bartender in small towns in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and northern Wisconsin. 

The three songs are: “Crotch Rocket Blues”, “Closing Time”, and “I Just Came in Here to Get Drunk”. 

I wrote “Crotch Rocket Blues” in the winter of 1978-79. It was my first time bartending in the winter months and I had never been around snowmobiles or snowmobilers before. It was a bit of…

Being a septuagenarian is an interesting experience. In so many ways, my life is the same as always; music, songwriting, house work, checking on my children and grandchildren, keeping my husband happy as much as possible, puttering about indoors for the winter and then puttering about the gardens in the spring. 

The body starts going weird in your 60's. Weaker. Less stamina. Tired more easily. My knees are just about shot. Hand pain occasionally from the “itis” brothers, so working with my hands to keep them…