Becky Reyes: Blog

Hello everyone!
It's quiet. It's the middle of the night and my head is filled with music. I have thought of you so often over the last few weeks as I've been wishing there was a way to include you in our activities. Scott and I have attended a couple of rehearsals with Buzz and the Soul Senders and with Kevin Pakulis. Talking with Steve Grams today was wonderful, too. We talked about a song we're going to do together and Steve invited Scott up to sit in with them. Can I just tell you that working with these musicians is such an honor? That the enthusiasm I've percieved from each of them is so encouraging.
The past few weeks, getting ready for our upcoming event, Music in the Plaza - Becky Reyes and Friends, has been at times mellow, sometimes joyful, other times electric! I've experienced spontaneous bursts of laughter A LOT of times because the music I'm hearing is SOOOOO good. Each of these acts brings an original twist to the music.
Today, listening to Buzz's soulful voice and singing [...]

Last night, my Bisbee Enclave partner, Charlene Mitchell and I met up with Gretchen Baer, one of our most prolific and inspiring painters. We had dinner at POCO and hightailed it up to Gretchen's studio at Central School Project. We talked and enjoyed the evening, then something very magical happened. We decided to study this one particular painting of the Bisbee waterfalls. Gretchen pointed out a face in the water and we saw it immediately, then, hidden in the brushstokes, we found other figures, faces, animals, angels, birds, and the more we looked, the more we found. It was exhilarating! AND, later, when the conversation turned maudlin (I was recalling my former life steeped in depression), Gretchen cut me off and said, "let's have a dance party" so we danced and I let loose those shackles. We danced, moving in her dimly lit studio, with only her paintings witness to our movements, blurring the lines between reality and dreaming. --------- The first time I saw Gretchen paint, [...]

She met my dad in 1954, who told her that he probably wouldn't live into his 30's as he had already survived 2 bouts with Hodgkin's Disease and was told by his doctors that he "wouldn't live to be an old man". Mom went home and studied her brother's (Dr. Jorge Gaytán) medical books and decided that she didn't care. She went to dad and said they'd go through it together and that he'd never be alone, stating simply "I'll take whatever time the good Lord gives us together".

Tonight as we were coming home from our gig at Viaggio Italiano in Sonoita, I caught the glimpse of a red object just down the hill from us on the plain. My initial thought that it was a reflection of a red light in the window but I quickly realized that it was the moon rising over the hill just slightly below us. It was a bit of an optical illusion because the moon doesn't really rise below us, but it seemed that way. It was huge and red, as if looking at the moon through a glass of red wine. There were no other lights around us (Sonoitans love their night skies, and I love them for it).
I immediately thought I surely must find an omen in a blood-red moon, but the only thing that came to me was that this world is stunning. I stared at the moon until it rose higher and turned a lighter and lighter color. It was breath-taking.
I shared this on facebook and my friend, Candy Royden, asked why the moon might have been red. I responded, "Don't know why the moon was red. I first thought that [...]

   I'm pretty sure that when I started performing again, I thought I'd be working a few times a week. And I dreamed that it could someday sustain us, but I never dreamed it would be this much fun and that I'd be doing it so often!
   Half the time though, I'm working on my newsletter. I want my newsletter to first of all, let people know where I'm playing and with whom, and second to inform people about other entertaining events that are going on in the communities where I play. So often I hear, "There's nothing to do", but I'm here to tell you that there are plenty of things to do out here.
   I'm going to try to cover events within a 100 mile radius of both Tubac and Bisbee (Bisbee being my hometown). We have artists and galleries, car clubs, fabulous restaurants, unique lodging, resorts, golf, birding, hiking, farmers markets, community gardens, coffee roasters, micro-brewers, vineyards and so much more! AND we are also a day's drive to Tucson.
   [...]