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January 29, 2001

Good evening again from the chilly environs of Northern New York. There's water and anticipation in the air this evening as the surrounding community pulls in tight for the impending arrival of what is expected to be quite a doosy of an ice storm. Let her come, I say, full of fury and calamity. This seems to be the mood I am in.

Apart from heading into pre-production for the new record, I have been working on a rather amorphous writing project regarding loss and grief and healing (there's a giddy topic for you). The following quote from Freud was sent to me by a lovely friend:

"Although we know that after such a loss the acute state of mourning will subside, we also know we shall remain inconsolable and will never find a substitute. No matter what may fill the gap, even if it be filled completely, it nevertheless remains something else. And actually this is how it should be. It is the only way of perpetuating that love which we do not want to relinquish."

Beautiful.

Posted by bethamsel at 4:20 PM

January 22, 2001

A very good evening to you lovely folks. I type this from back in the wintery landscape of Western Massachusetts, warm in my house with Edie The Good swatting at my toes. He's a sleek black thing, muscular and green eyed, good with a golf ball or a piece of twine and who believes the holidays and their unbiquitous wrapping and ribbons are made just for his sharp little claws. He is the original feline paper shredder. Good for home or office and he's economical, too. Uses no petro-chemicals or electricity! Runs solely on kitty krunchies and a bit of freeze dried salmon (yuck)!

Edie is coming up on his first big adventure. I have decided to move to Colorado in the Spring and my make home, once again, against the back drop of a very big sky. I will still be in the east for a good chunk of the year, especially with Falcon Ridge Folk Festival and the record coming, but The Horse Ranch beckons and life is too good that close to the mountains.

What does this mean? I will stay in touch much more closely and frequently through the website. I will be posting new music as MP3s with fair regularity for you to download, along with lyrics, right here on the site from where ever I may be. I'll finally be travelling up to the Pacific Northwest (thanks to all of you wonderful folks up in the Seattle and Portland area who have been so vocal and supportive. I'll see you in August!) and will most likely see more of Texas than I have to date. I am most definantly going to be eating a geat deal more green chile and flour tortillas. I couldn't ask for a better listener community in all of you. I am thrilled for this next step and look forward to you coming along as part of the adventure.

In the meanwhile, I'll continue working on the record with Dave Chalfant and perform (and snowshoe and simmer great caldrons of potato leek soup). Thanks to everyone who came out to the Moneypenny House concert this past Saturday night in Cambridge. Didn't Kerry, Heather, and Jen do a great job? I laughed so much that night, my jaw hurt driving home. Now there is an occupational hazzard I can live with!

Much love to you. I am now back to my five pound book: Cryptonomicon...
Beth

Posted by bethamsel at 4:22 PM

January 12, 2001

I am typing this by the blue night-after-full-moon light pouring through the southern bedroom window. I am in my beloved state of Colorado, on a horse ranch 12 miles east of Boulder. This is one of the last parcels of undeveloped land left in the area and it is a true haven amid ticky tacky cookie cutter tract estates. I would like to know where the land developers, who built the golf course down the road, think they're going to get the water to keep that sucker green in the brown withering heat of August.

But not to be done in by the unfortunate march of wicked "progress" in a place I dearly love, I wake up every morning and turn my face towards an impossibly blue dome, blink at the brilliant sunlight and gaze out in awe at the first breath of the Rocky Mountains. The landscape is wide and exposed and tawny in hue, as if the color has been blown out, and at this scale I feel properly small. Do all of you have that particular place where in your whole body relaxes, something akin to home? A place you know so well, you could shut off the lights and in that utter perfect darkness go forth still with full confindence? I do hope so.

In the spirit of home, I proclaim January to be a season of House Concerts! What's a house concert, you ask? It is an intimate, unplugged evening of music right in the heart of a music fan's home. What's more, you could come in your slippers and pajamas and you would be warmly welcomed. Actually, if you come in your pajamas, I'll give you a little treat just for being bold and adventurous. I have two incredible house concerts lined up this month across the country from one another (The Moneypenny House Concert run by the Musica Extraordinaire Kerry Bernard in Cambridge, MA and The Sawmill House Concert right here on the farm in Lafayette, CO) for your cozy listening pleasure. Wha's more, I am about to enter the studio to record a follow up to A Thousand Miles (!!!) and I will be road testing most of the new material at these two shows (along with Louise, Come Down, and the Warning). Please do make your reservations in advance. What's more, I hear there is going to be a big wheel of brie at the Colorado show...

Did I mention I will be at the Tin Angel in Philadelphia for the very first time at the end of the month?

Did I fail to mention the Bald Eagle, with her 8 foot wingspan, that flew past my head this morning in keen search for her prairie dog breakfast? I had to sit right down there on the gravel road to catch my breath.

I hope you and you loved ones had a wonderful transition into 2001 (get ready for a year full of Space Odyssey references) and survived the holiday season intact. Thank you so much for all of your support and continued kindness!

Posted by bethamsel at 4:23 PM