to Dance beneath the Diamond Sky....

the jingle jangle morning I come following you...

tonight i played a song for the Birthday celebration of Judy Collins at Town Hall in New York City. It occurred to me that the accomplishment of her life is simply in living 85 years - and singing your way through every one of them.

She still hits some bell like high notes, and that is an inspiration for me as I enter my 70’s. Can I keep singing? forever ever? Until I Want to stop? Well, some of us do - she smiles…. Hey - follow that cab!

I took the subway home, Express, which was really stuffed full of people at 11 on Saturday night from 42 Street.. That was a weird way to end the night but boy you sure get uptown fast. I did not have dinner but a late lunch and was kind of hungry, and that felt good to find a piece of old bread and chew on that with a cup of tea. I will have breakfast tomorrow.

There were some stellar moments on stage and back stage. First I want to say that it doesn’t usually happen, such camaraderie as I saw tonight, us girls singing together watching Judy sing on the monitor.. If they only could have heard us, a hearty choral harmony ‘who knows where the time….goes” Richard Thompson was there for that one. It is a testament I think to the spirit the true spirit of Judy, that she inspires kind and reasonable behavior

from people who might otherwise be self absorbed to such a degree that they can’t participate… other than to wait to play. I do not judge, we do what we do to do our job. But the women at this show were all quite kind and sincerely happy to be there. It felt so good.

I had planned to do Mr. Tamborine Man after Russ suggested it, I think. I learned that song when I was young and most songs I learned before 25 just sit in there waiting to be brought tout again. Never the less I sang along with it two or three times. Just to be sure watched Dylan sing it at some festival.

(Newport). and he left out the last verse. I decided I would do that as well.. My choice was to make the song more atmospheric, interpretive, less dependent on the repetition and rhythm that is its basic structure. so we can do some rubato, we can emphasize, we can make it as dreamy as the words. we had one chance to run through the idea before the show and I think we did very well. We listened to each other, we pushed it up hill, we jumped on it to slide down…. it was emotional but you weren’t sure why. I had been studying the lyric .. i had mistaken a word all these many years. ‘far from the twisted reach of crazy sirens”. But its not crazy sirens. its crazy sorrow. It’s sorrow. He is pleading to go to sleep, to fall beneath the waves and forget about today until tomorrow. …. down the foggy ruins of time. the ruins. Far past the frozen leaves, the haunted, Frightened trees.

…..out to the windy beach.

far from the twisted

reach of crazy sorrow.

and then,

Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free….

Stephen Stills came up to my little partition and said

“That WAs the SHIT, I just wante to tell you man. that was….. “

i ll have to lay my head down soon it’s gonn fly away…. then Lexie and Carla and I slipped through the crowd and hit the subways. we are a nice team, each of us is funny and boyish and very pretty too. Carla went to the estate sale of Dolly Partons ex husband. so ..whaaa? She’s everywhere. so is Lexie. she’s that 13 degree person. she connects me to the whole world, for i always meet someone who knows Lexie. or knows someone who i later meet who knows Lexie. amazing.

I believe I made a new friend or two tonight. the two Norwegian women who played were really quite fantastic. great harmony. ill get names and update this if you want to know who all was there. I was treated so respectfully and kindly..

then Mr. Stills took my hand as he sang ‘ahh ha mama!! ‘ at the end of suite sudy blue eyes. I don’t even know what to say except, my teenaged self has come to stay for a few days. She’s not sleepy and there is no place we’re going to. I’ll let you know when I get to use my computer again.