What a Whirlwind Life Can Be...
Dec 07, 2023 by E. Joe Brown
Isn't that what we do when we have to be amazing? Last August, a good friend from my Western music world came to me and asked if I (along with my wife Linda and my sister Gency) would do a benefit concert for the Blue Star Mothers of Valencia County. He had started a monthly concert series in Los Lunas, NM, to support them. If you need to learn about the Blue Star Mothers, please google them and learn. As a proud retired armed forces member, I appreciate what the organization does for our "GIs."
When we all lived there, Linda, Gency, and I were once a performing trio doing Western music in Southern California. Our last concert performance was in September 2010 at Paramount Studios supporting the 75th Anniversary celebration of Republic Pictures where, as you may know, most of the B-Westerns were filmed. That was an absolute honor and a wonderful memory. Well, my friend (Tony) heard us perform a song or two earlier this year as part of a program and asked us to put together a complete program, and I foolishly said, "Okay" I didn't ask Linda or Gency or think about what else was on our collective plates. At least I did one thing right; I said don’t schedule us before December.
Over the next several months, I had to finish the final work of my second novel, coming out on January 24th, and complete a three-week book signing tour. Gency, also an author, was crazy busy on her first novel coming out January 6th and traveling a lot. So, we had less than a month to scrub off the rust and develop a whole show for the concert we performed last night. We did thirteen songs, and our close friend and fellow author Jim Jones joined us for a few songs. It went great and the audience seemed to have as much fun as we did on stage.
But there was a significant lesson learned from all of this. BE CAREFUL! YOU CAN EASILY OVER-COMMIT YOURSELF AND OTHERS. I know that's what I did this time, but I'm happy to have supported a fine organization doing wonderful work.
Happy Trails,
Joe