Lisa Lynne: A Harpgirl's Journal

Vblog #37- Lark in the Morning Music Camp!

2011-08-12T17:51:00.000-07:00

Words just can't describe this wonderful music camp, so I'll just let my video do it.

Adoption Story Part Five - The meeting..

2011-07-04T11:17:00.000-07:00

At last.. part five of this story!

Here are the previous parts:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four

On June 14, 2011, I met my birth mother Olivia. After a lifetime of not knowing who or where I came from, it finally happened. Not only did I get to meet the woman who gave me my life, but a whole family of warm and loving people that are now in my life! I feel so blessed. I am still searching for the words. It's a profound self-puzzle with the pieces coming together everyday.

My family, Olivia's family, all of our loved ones have been so touched by this. The story takes on another level of complexity as Olivia is a stroke survivor. Eight years ago she suffered her second massive stroke which left her unable to walk, and with Aphasia, where the language part of the brain is impaired in both expression and understanding.

So, what we are experiencing is all about the heart. She was absolutely there and her spirit is bright and buoyant. She was smiley, a hearty person, and even spunky. I wondered beforehand if we would all be bawling our eyes out, but Olivia was steering the ship. She was joyful and playful, all smiles and thumbs up. She was full of connection and expression, taking it all in and clearly proud of all of her loved ones. Here are some moments from this great day.

The more I learn about her, the more I am amazed what parts of us are inherited in our blood, and what parts we learn along our way. I will write more about this as I continue to reflect, but she was indeed was a self-made woman. Very smart (as all of her relations), strong and independent. After she had me, she put herself through school and got her Masters Degree in business. She started as a clerk in a major company and worked her way to senior management.

When she was young she was not in the Peace Corp which I originally thought, but in the Foreign Services working for the Embassy. That's how she was in Thailand where she met and was briefly engaged to my birth father. She never married or had any other children. She lived her truth - in an alternative lifestyle (especially brave in the 60's and 70's) and had a great love / partnership of 30 years. She read spiritual books, (she had "Conversations with God" in her collection so maybe she had heard my music already) she ran the LA marathon in her 50's. She always loved music, dancing, her animals, she gave to many animal charities.

I was so nervous and happy going there. My sister Jenny went with me and she drove us towards San Diego on a sunny Tuesday. Olivia was waiting in her lovely and comfortable care home with her brother (my uncle) and his wife and two of his children, more extended family gathered from around Los Angeles to help celebrate this day. They were all so wonderful, warm, and funny too.

There are so many remarkable things that we all discovered that we have in common, both physically as well as small habits and tendencies. We all visited for six hours of continuous smiling, learning more about her history and her family members (who there is much musical talent within) much laughing and connecting the dots. How she and I both lived by our lists, we went to lunch and they noticed how I curl and tear my napkin at the table was just like her. There were many various personality traits big and small, and even the things I cannot eat. It's so completely fascinating. I am still trying to get my mind around it all.

We had a lovely time and I already love them all so much. I smile every single time I think of them, and that is all the time, so I am always smiling. I will go back again in August and October.

It's clear that Olivia is so very loved by all who know her, and now, including me.

Lisa Lynne Adoption Story - Part Four - How I found her.

2011-06-12T08:27:00.000-07:00

Welcome to part four of the story. Here are links to part 1-3
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

How the connection happened..
It was January this year. It was harp day in the hospital and I was visiting in the office of a retiring administrator at Kaiser Permanente. She is a wonderful person and very hip senior nurse responsible for bringing my program in their units now over seven years ago.

She told me she'd be spending time with her newly found daughter she had given up for adoption. I told her I was adopted too! She said that not a day went by that she didn't think of the baby she gave up. She had found her birth daughter with the help of a woman from North Carolina who loved to help folks find each other.

It was a sign for me to start again. I wrote to the nice lady. I was driving to do a concert with Aryeh when she called with my real name and my biological parents names. We had to pull over..My birth mother chose the name "Maria Elena Hart" for me, and "Hart" was the real name of the biological father. She chose his last name for me even though she never married him, or even told him she was pregnant. I was so effected by this I could hardly concentrate on the music we performed. I ended up confessing to the audience what was on my mind that night. Many up to me afterward wishing me well and sharing their own story.

I remember that night well!

A fun jam at the end

Because my birth mothers maiden name was common and no first name was given, she referred me to someone who specialized in hard cases. His name is Paul Brown and he started his company "Miracle Search" because he found his own birth mother, and wanted to help others do the same.

He spoke to me at length and told me his story. I knew he was the right guy to help me, but I had to time it right. This was so huge to me, even when the smallest fact came in, I was lost in it for days, I can't concentrate on my life and what needs to be done. My days and weeks are always so busy with so much going on.

These first details affected me so much it was hard to absorb. In the meantime I wanted to write her a love letter and tell her about my life. Maybe she would be alive, but not able to meet me. Maybe she has family that doesn't know and she wants to keep it private. If she could read my words and know where I was coming from, then maybe she would see me. Or at least know how I felt about her. Because I also wanted to honor my family I grew up with, I wanted to write it for all of them. That letter became this blog.

As I went through scanning my paper photographs long boxed away, my heart went through so much. I was admiring the pictures of my family, missing my dad and Grandmas. Remembering old boyfriends, and what a worried teenager I always was. It took a lot longer than I thought. Weeks went by.

When I finally gave the go ahead to Paul, he called me at an airport soon after. I knew when he was going to call and was ready with my laptop and headphones. While I sat there amongst hundred of other travelers, I was receiving some potential answers to my life.

There were 347 possibilities in California, women born in the right year with the correct last name. 47 with at least one brother the right age that she had mentioned in her interview at the adoption agency. Of those 47, 10 were no longer living. Of the 37, 11 were still in Los Angeles, and of the 11, there was just one, that seemed to have only one brother at the right age.

So, because I chose the option of a "partnership" search, I had to make the calls myself. Paul prefers this middle option because he believes that the sound of the voice, talking to the birth mother has a potent effect in the heart connecting.

The idea of me cold calling this list of potential "targets" sounded impossible to me. I have a hard time even calling a festival to see if they received my promotional pack to perform there. The idea of calling a woman after over four decades to find out if she gave birth to me, was more than I can wrap my mind around. Now there was a list. And she was on this list somewhere.

Paul was a wonderful coach. From his vast experience he told me that 80% of birth mothers are happy to be found. 20% are hesitant or unwilling or even upset. That 20% is the percentage you have to prepare for.

I carried around this one name and phone number with me for the next three weeks. Working on my story letter to her and her family, about me and my family. I thought I had to get everything in place before I could call her. Plus I was nervous and I was stalling for time.

I was in Morro Bay for a memorial day festival weekend with my dear Aryeh, and he said over newly served enchiladas, "Why don't you just call?" My heart pounds just from that! "but I'm not finished with my blog" excuse.. excuse.. but suddenly I knew he was right and it was actually the perfect time. I had written out all my suggestions from Paul, about how to talk to the women I would call. So we practiced.

Aryeh

Aryeh and I on cell phones in separate rooms. He used his best 'older-lady-with-Spanish-accent"-voice, while I practiced my lines..

"My name is Lisa and i'm wondering if you can help me figure out where I fit into the Ramirez family" we ended up being goofy and silly, but I felt better about it.

He gave me every possible reaction we could think of. "I don't know what your talking about" or "I don't feel comfortable talking about this" "say what?" "go away!" etc, so I could practice every possible answer, but I kept flubbing it, we did it over and over.

My plan was to call the next morning, Memorial Day, because it was a holiday maybe she/they would be free and together, and maybe we could all have time to recover from whatever happened before a normal work day.

So, alone in my friends lovely home and surrounded by Angel images, beautiful crystals, wise quotes and Goddess treasures, overlooking a magical forest and bay, I knew this will happen here and now. I just can't get my heart to stop thumping. I called Paul for a last minute pep talk. He said, "It could be any one of these 347 names, you won't be this nervous for each one"

I had my questions and answers all spread out on the table in front of me. I knew everything that I would say, but the word that was going to mean everything was Thailand.

I knew from her vague pre-birth interview paper that she had been in Thailand.. and also it was for the government? (a mystery), and I had to somehow get that into the conversation, and when I did, it could go either way, I would know it was her, and she would know I knew, or it would be a dead end right there.

So there I sat, 10:00 AM, deep breath, almost press the number.. wait.. deep breath,….close the eyes.. start again, no wait, need water.. I should pee...almost press.. just another minute, maybe I should meditate, or pray.. ok do that.

10:15, 10:30. My heart still pounding, but there was no turning back. I couldn't stay like this I would have a heart attack. I do a lot of pulse raising things.. big stages, audiences, talking to large groups, I even play my harp right when people leave this world. But nothing felt like this.

I wanted to chicken out, but like in swim class when your at the edge of the diving board, you want to turn and run back to safety, but there is already a line of kids waiting to go. Can't go forward, can't go back. Just GO!!

So I pressed the button, and a woman answered the phone. She wasn't the person I was asking for, she was her sister-in-law.She was so very nice, I relaxed some.
She said that the person I was calling for no longer lived there.

The person I wanted had been moved to a full time care facility, since she had her major stroke eight years ago. My heart is thumping. She said the person I was calling for was severely affected by the stroke and lost her ability to speak. And she never married, and she never had any other children.

"Do you know if she's been to Thailand?" She said I should call back in a few hours when her husband was home. He was the brother of the woman I was asking for. She said she knew that her sister-in-law had been in the Peace Corp.

I called Paul, he said to me "Peace Corp! are you kidding!!!" Of course, the Peace Corp!! It must be Thailand!! You got it on the first call!!!! He was thrilled and amazed, and it was only then dawning on me, I might have reached her. On the first call.
The Peace Corp. My heart was exploding, with happy and sad.

I called again a few hours later. A man's voice on the phone. Her one brother. All my questions and plans went out the window. He had the questions, he was very direct, "are you looking for your birth mother?"

Finally, I said, "yes". He said, "you found her". And I was talking to her brother, my uncle. It was her brother who was the key!.. because of him, and that he was an only brother, was the reason I found them all.

He was protective and asked my intentions. My voice felt like it was hardly coming out as I explained that I only wanted to let her know that I had a good life, and that her decision so long ago turned out good for me.

We talked for 45 emotional minutes. Yes, she was in the Peace Corp and stationed in Bangkok. There was so much to say, so much relief, so many questions, and putting puzzle pieces in together for each other. It was a surreal dream. It felt like the skies just opened, and sun was coming in. It all went by so fast, its hard to take it in still. But my birth mother was alive! and near San Diego, my uncle was helping with her care. He saw her often and they went out to parks sometimes in her wheelchair, and my birth mother could communicate with nods of yes or no.

He was going to see her the next day and he would tell her about our contact and read her my blog story! Just like you have read here! He told me he had found out about her giving me up years later. He had always wondered about me. I had been on his mind many many times over all the years.

I realized that even though I was so sad at first to learn of her physical situation, I was so happy that she was alive, and this wonderful uncle cared so much, and it mattered so much to him, and there was more family.. and cousins, and second cousins! The blessing felt so enormous.. He was being her voice for me. It was so big, for all of us!

Everything was so surreal. Aryeh was there thank goodness. I think we were laughing and crying all at once, he helped me so much. All in the parking lot of a dairy queen in Morro Bay.. on Memorial day!

By the time we made the four hour drive home to San Francisco, there were photos in my email! I couldn't believe my eyes were looking for the first time of my life upon
the woman who gave me life. And I could see how I came from her! Perhaps I will post photos of her in the next writing, but I want to make sure that's all okay first with their family.

Best sister ever for my whole life

And... I will soon have photos of us all together! Because in three days on Tuesday the 12th, I will meet them! Me and my sister Jenny are driving down together to go to her care home, and there I will meet my uncle, his wife, their daughters, and my birth mother all at once!

My uncle said she listened to my letters from my blog very intently. He asked her if she understood and she nodded yes, he asked her a few times to make sure she understood, and he asked her if this all made her happy, and she nodded yes, and would she like to meet me, and yes. He printed out these photo's I sent of me, and she now has these pictures with her!

My parents

My sister Jenny

I know that there will be a lot of emotions. I don't know how my birth mother will be as she is on a lot of medication. My uncle has done his best to prepare me for the reality of the situation. I'm not even sure what I will say to her, or how much we can connect. Or if she will realize its me and what is happening at the time. All I can do is show up and just try to do and say the right things. An think of lots of "yes or no" questions! Maybe she would like to hear me play my harp. There are already so many blessings. This story so far has unfolded much differently than all my many imaginings . But it is my story, and now I have one.

So, my friends and my precious family.. stay tuned. Much more to come and
very soon.

End of part four

Here is part five

Lisa Lynne Adoption Story - Part Three

2011-05-31T09:06:00.000-07:00

If your just now joining me, part one and two are listed down to the left in the archives.

In 1990 I received my first information about the circumstances of my adoption. My biological mother's privacy was protected by the LA county bureau of adoptions. So I couldn't know her name, but could leave a letter in my file. But only if she checked the file, it would be there for her. So I typed out one page on and old style typewriter and told her about my life. I had a wonderful family, a fine childhood, and that I was a musician, and a happy person. I said the things I loved and experienced. Mostly I let her know that I always thought so much of what she did, to give me up in hopes I would have a better life than she could give at the time.

Strangely, after I wrote the letter I felt a sense of peace about it knowing that if she wanted to look and see there would be a message from me there. It's probably still there now.

To go back a little bit...

By 1985, I had been working as a professional musician. I moved from Orange County, CA to Hollywood and finally attended Musicians Institute of Technology in 1988 & 1989.

Right when I got into school in 1988, I had a car accident. I had only whiplash but it ruined my van which I relied on for all my gigs. I had to take another three month Top 40 tour in Alaska to afford another van and re-start school again in six months. I learned about video editing on the side, and although I was in the bass guitar program, I ended up creating my first serious band for my harp.

After that I was working various music jobs and was also a cocktail waitress in a Hollywood club were I waited on rock stars and movie stars. I ended up writing a popular column in a music paper that tattled on the stars that were bad tippers. I was an anonymous columnist of "True Tales from Behind the Tray" by Jackie Daniels.

In 1990, we lost my father's father, Florencio S. Franco. a loving man who adored is four sons, one daughter, 11 grandchildren including me, and many great grandchildren. He worked for the railroad in Los Angeles his whole life. He loved music and had a lovely soprano voice which he sang to us in Spanish. While his heart failed, my Nana never left his side. They were so in love, all the way to the end and married for over 50 years. He always said "mama was the boss". She wouldn't leave his hospital bedside. When finally she did for a moment to eat. He went to heaven. She lived another decade but counted the days until she would join him.

My sister Jenny married Jeff, a super terrific guy. They have two kids, Trevor and Annelyse who are a great joy in my life, the biggest blessing ever. I never had kids of my own, I love them as much as if they were mine.They are now 14 and 10.

We do a lot of fun stuff together, we make video movies with special effects, cooking shows.. music shows, dance parties, arts and crafts. Trevor's too old for that stuff by now, but Annelyse is always ready for fun. I visit them in Laguna Beach pretty often. My sister Jenny is the best mom ever.

My father was diagnosed with Cancer and twice he was able to beat it with surgery and radiation. In between those times he was able to enjoy traveling in his RV for summer long trips with Margaret and visiting the kids and now grand kids.He still loved campfires and outdoor grilling and was always ready to go anywhere to see me play my music.We have so many great photos because Margaret was a photographer.

My mom Carol never remarried but enjoyed a life of working in National Parks and living in beautiful places with mountains and forest. She loves nature so much. She, my aunt and my grandma were always doing crafts and inventing good ideas.

I was sending out tapes of my music while still waitressing and got my first record contract in Germany. I traveled there several years in a row to do concerts and make my first few records there.

Those records never quite made it to the US, so I was still street performing on Venice Beach Boardwalk. This lead to more traveling and street performing around the country and Canada.


International Buskers festival in Nova Scotia, Canada Ireland

There were years of day after day performing long hours for tips and tape sales in every place possible. College campuses, art fairs, street festivals and shopping malls. There were snow storms and broken down vans, terrible motels, walking pneumonia IRS audits and US Customs fines.

One time I had a late night gig, and an early morning recording session. I opted to park my van by my bedroom window and leave everything inside. When I came out the van was gone. For three days I posted pictures of my harp at every pawn shop. That's all I cared about, not the guitars or mandolins or electric gear, I just wanted the harp. A Latin TV station I had just performed on showed pictures of the van and told my story. The next day the van was recovered and I was told to go to impound. The van had a screwdriver still stuck in the ignition. It was stripped and empty. Except for the harp.

Somehow I sold over 100,000 tapes and CDs on my own little label. Because of that, I was invited to the top floor office with my harp to RCA/Windham Hill. I was asked to play my harp, and to show my manufacturing receipts for my CD sales. I was signed to a major recording contract.

Around that time I met my magical musical partner George Tortorelli at a festival in Florida. We were a couple for the first two years of our now 13 year friendship. He plays flutes for all my music, we have toured extensively as a duo and had every kind of adventure. He lives in Florida where we perform often. He was already a well known musician in his own rite. We have a very special sound that people truly love. He taught me all about enjoying life, shutting off the pager and canoeing through nature...and where to hang hammocks in Maui. He is truly the wise brother I always wanted in my life. Still is.

George and I at the Florida Folk Festival on the Swanee River

Right when my first major label album release came out, I had an extreme headache so I went to an emergency room and while I was filling out forms I had a seizure. I had brain swelling and the left side of the brain was torn in two places. I was in critical care and it was a mystery why it happened. I also developed blood clots in both of my legs from the hip to the ankle. I had emergency surgery to put a permanent device in my main artery that would protect my organs from stroke. I was bedridden for six months. It was a slow recovery and it was eventually determined that I had contracted west nile virus in Florida, which caused the brain swelling. I was trying to feed a baby owl that had fallen through a fireplace. The owl was sick and dying. The mosquitoes were biting the owl, and then me. The legs were hardest to endure and recover from. I have had a few more blood clots since then and my legs have never fully been the same.

So after all I had been through to that point in my music life, I missed my big chance to promote that album and do all the planned performances and activities around it.

But the next year I had another chance, and things changed for me. I was touring in beautiful performing arts centers and theaters across the US. Making more records in fine studios, and performing with some of the greatest musicians you can imagine. After many tries I finally had a record in the Billboard Top 10 New Age Music charts. I had a full band of my dreams.

The best thing about this new level was the tools you get to use. Writing and recording the music was my highest love. To be able to record with state of the art technology was the greatest experience so far. To be able to hear at new levels.

My next very important relationship was with Gilberto "Gil" Morales. He was my good friend and gifted audio engineer for my music before we were together as a couple for eight years. He was an important part all that decade of music. He also was a musician who played many instruments. A true friend for life.

My fathers' mother Adelina lived a long life and we made a lot of plans that she would visit me from heaven and how I would know it was her.

This is her 90th birthday party surrounded by all of her children. All my aunts and uncles and cousins I grew up with and their babies came together to honor Adelina. This is the whole Franco clan, me on the right.

Only the very last weeks of her 95 years did my Nana lose her memory. But in this moment when I held up her face she recognized me and Margaret took this photo. It came out with a white star reflection of light on her chest. She passed just a few days later.

As the record industry changed and the economy shifted, the big bus mega tours weren't happening anymore. Windham Hill label folded up shop and I ended up signing to New Earth Records and working more on my own label and my own touring and promotions. I had a big experience around the Columbine tragedy and started doing Therapuetic music in hospitals. My programs grew faster than I could keep up with. Weekdays were playing music in intensive care units and weekends flying to the east coast for shows. I handled all parts of my business from my mobile office and worked a lot in airports. I never stopped day or night. I got another blood clot in my hip while performing in Utah, and had emergency blood thinning shots, and now pills too.That was hard for me because I have always gone the natural route. But the blood thinners helped me out a lot. I finally admitted.

My father's Cancer returned and this time it was in his lungs behind his sternum and there was no solution for it. He endured many procedures to prolong his life. It was a hard four years while his health declined. Margaret was devoted to him every moment. They were so in love after 24 years of marriage. He just wanted us to be normal and kept telling us not to be sad and worry. How much he enjoyed his life. He never complained.
He kept telling us how proud he was of all of us.

I stayed there with them in Nevada to help Margaret and be there for his last part of life. I wanted to tell him how much I loved him, and how I couldn't have had a better dad in the whole world. There was so much I had to write it all out. Even though he already knew it. I wanted to tell him anyway everything I learned from him. And that I would do all the things he wished for me, and we would all be okay even though we would miss him our whole lives.

On one of the last days of his life, I read him my letter with shaky hands. Margaret took a picture of the hug he gave me. I will treasure this photo my whole life.

He died on January 22, 2009. With all of us around him.

My grandma on my moms side passed just a few months later. But she still came to my fathers memorial with my mom. She was sharp right to the end. She knew how to live and taught us all how to enjoy life. We released white balloons for her in the park where we gathered.

George and I had a funny gig playing on a cruise ship. I brought my mom along. We sailed the Caribbean and thought it was funny that folks kept wanting to hear our cosmic version of theme from Titanic.

I decided to start taking better care of myself and moved to a place right on the beach in Marina Del Rey for a year. I just kept taking walks to strengthen my legs and figure out what I was going to do differently than the workaholic thing.

Along came Aryeh, and his beautiful son Abraham. I fell in love with them both.
So I moved to San Francisco. Its a happy life here. A healthy life too. Aryeh is a great musician and we create music together as well. I love his parents too.

I still go to L.A often. I have my hospital music programs now over 10 years. I have special gigs and speaking engagements. I get invited to present my music and story at large conferences and spiritual retreats. I am fullfilled most when I bring my 15 harps to schools and hospitals to teach people to play. I still fly for shows and festivals, but half as much. I take more time off and spend time with my friends, I do cooking and mosiacs. I take much better care of my health.

My mom Carol and I bought a house together in Northwest Montana, she lives there now and we visit. She says she has never been happier in her life.

As I was just writing this, my mom just read part two
of my story and posted this:

"Right now there are tears on my cheeks as I have just finished reading the blog my oldest daughter is writing about her adoption, childhood and search for her biological mother. I am crying because I made many mistakes over the years but I'm also crying because the woman gave me the greatest gift and these are tears of joy and gratitude."

See how lucky I am?

Jenny is a full fledged soccer mom. They are busy bees having lots of fun too. She's been married now for 16 years.

Margaret is just starting to come out a little bit. Her grief is long and hard. She visits us and I her. She carries on the festivities that she and Dad enjoyed doing for the kids. Her two daughters are grown. My stepsister Gwen and I visit sometimes.
We all miss my dad so much.

So, were up to date. An unusual set of divine interventions happen, and I decide it's time to look for my birth mother again.

I had no idea it was going to happen so fast.

End of part three.

Here is part four

Vblog #36 Performance at Ohio Harp Gathering

2011-05-29T17:24:00.000-07:00

Once a year in Northwestern Ohio, "The Harp Gathering" brings harp lovers and harp players from all over the country and Canada. They take workshops all day from incredible harp artists around the lovely Sauder Village Inn. In the evenings there are shows where wonderful performances from the visiting instructors take place. I got to hang with my buddies Kim Robertson, Charlene Wallace and Louis Trotter. There were several more amazing harpers that I had never met including the hosts Denise and Michael Grupp-Verbon from Tapestry, also Frank Voltz, and Timothy Harper from Canada. I was loaned this harp to use by Jeff Lewis from "Lewis Creek Harps" to use. As you can imagine, it was a love fest with all those lovely people and harp enthusiasts in one place, and it was a busy three days. I taught three workshops, one about working with other musicians, one about music business and promotion, and one about my "Hands-on-Harps" programs for hospital harp music. Every minute was fun, and the hotel was first class.
I edited together a few bits from my part of the evening concerts. For more information about this event, visit www.HarpGathering.com

Lisa Lynne Adoption Story - Part Two

2011-05-16T21:40:00.000-07:00

This is part two of my adoption story. If your just joining me, there is "part one" below, just scroll down to the explanation there of my intentions with this writing and how the story begins. Thank you all so much for the support you are giving me. I'm so glad I have all of you to share this experience with. It gives me courage.

Here goes..

There are two parallel things happening at the same time.
Once I made the decision to hire a specialist to help find my biological mother, its happening much faster than I imagined. There are lists, names and possibilities already emerging, and I am pulling open boxes of photos from my life. I feel as though I'm running to catch up, and also going backwards in time. I want to have my story place in case I make contact with any of my biological relations. In case she would rather not meet, maybe she would read this and know I was okay.

There is a lot of curiosity from my family and friends, so I will tell you this much. Soon I will be caught up with the back story and we'll be in real time.

Based on my unique circumstances and a very common maiden name of my birth mother. It's a miracle we can narrow it down. But we have. There are 347 potential women that match the information. From that, there are 47 in California, eleven in Los Angeles, (where I was adopted) and there is one of the 47, who might have all the right details that we are looking for. I have a name, the contact info, and it will be up to me to make the first contact. I'm getting advised how to do it. And I'll go one by one down a list until I find the woman who has been in Thailand.

I get a little dizzy just thinking about what I'll say, but I am being coached by an expert with vast experience at bringing out the best situation possible. I am going to try my best to go about this with the best wisdom I can. It's possible I will have answers very soon. So I'm rushing to write this down!

So, this story is for my biological mother, this is what happened in my next chapter of life.

I left off when I was eight, learning to play guitar. It was the best thing that could have happened to me. It shook my soul. When I first saw my twin cousins playing their guitars, I was transfixed. They taught me "Blowing in the Wind" and I played it over and over, and bought my first guitar with my own saved money from the Sears catalog for $14.99. After some lessons my dad surprised me with a new classical guitar from Mexico. My first guitar became a home for my hamster.

Two years later my parents separated and then divorced. I took it really hard. My mom tried to explain that people who marry young often grow apart. I was angry and sad. We moved to Long Beach and I suffered migraine headaches and stomach aches for the next several years. I didn't like my very curly hair so I tried everything to straighten it. I had to baby sit a lot and I regret to this day how I was mean to my sister.

My dad picked us up for every other weekend. He did as well as he could, he showed up for us. In their 16 year marriage he was a homicide and narcotics detective in East LA. An intense job, and those guys partied pretty hard to relieve the stress. When my mom left to find herself and seek a happier life, he was suffering. He remarried quickly to another sheriff woman who felt envious of his great love for his daughters. It only lasted for seven years, but that was a hard time of life for all of us. My father later referred to that time as his darkest seven years. They were mine too.

My mom was working two or three jobs to make ends meet. At home I was a gloomy teenager who blamed her for the divorce. I was often not helpful and disobeyed.

Not long ago, when I was remembering those years with my mom. I said I felt so sorry how I was. I would even endure puberty again if I could do that part over. She said she didn't remember that I was bad, she remembered that I was sad.

My mom Carol during my teenage years

Jr. high and high school were not my finest years, but
there were two very bright spots, music and sports. I found out I could run and high jump, so I did that. My dad drove far to my track meets to cheer me on. I was also on a softball team that went to the championship. I was just an okay player, but while daydreaming in center field a game winning home run hit came right to me. I froze, but held out my shaking glove. The ball plopped in, and we won the championship. They hoisted me up and I cried happy tears. I couldn't believe it.

And of course there was always music. It was the ongoing soundtrack of my life which I buried myself in. At every age I was consumed with albums of the time, pop music, rock music, even classical and Latin music. Every night I spent holding my transistor radio to my ear under the covers and listening for hours to AM pop radio of the 70's. I made up shows with the kids I babysat. We pretended to be in bands like the Partridge family with big adventures.

In high school I met two singing sisters. They had sweet harmony voices so we sang songs of of my favorite groups. This was the beginning of my soul waking up.

Things got better. We moved from a tough Jr. High school in Long Beach to Huntington where I spent my teenage years. I spent high school being shy and quiet, but finally found friends with some fellow misfit musicians. I moved out of my moms apartment at 16 and started playing electric guitar and bass in garage bands. I always had a part time job and did well wherever I worked. I was good at creative writing in school. I graduated Marina high school in 1981.

During that time I also experienced an awakening of sort. I was given a simple book about meditation so I tried deep breathing and relaxing my head and stomach. I stopped being so worried all the time and realized that I could choose to be happy and be relaxed about things. Like a veil was lifted, it happened very swiftly. I started again to understand how lucky I was. I went back into a place of thankfulness. Like how I felt as a girl, and I've been there ever since.

I loved getting dressed up with my friend and playing our original mandolin music at Renaissance fairs.

It was at the Renaissance fair in Agoura, California that I first discovered the Celtic Harp in a booth selling harps. I sat down at it and felt the most familiar thing I had ever felt. I could play all the chords I knew on guitar. It took me a year to save up $700.00 for my first harp. It was 1985. I was totally in love with the harp. My heart and hands felt on fire when I played.

From around 18-20 years old, I was working in retail at a record store. I was the youngest assistant manager in the chain. I had headaches often, and a hurting stomach when I took aspirin. One day it was unbearable so I went to a hospital. It was a perforated ulcer that tore a whole wall of my stomach. I had emergency surgery that saved my life. I had to lay flat for three months to heal. I still have a long scar from it.Thankfully, I had always paid my health insurance.

Not long after I turned 21, I was willingly drafted into playing bass for an all female classic rock/blues band that had steady gigs at biker bars and military basses. I joined and played full time with them 3-5 nights a week for the next eight years.

I also worked as a food waitress in the daytime and went part time to Jr. college for music. I traveled to Greenland and Alaska on long tours playing top 40 music for dance clubs. I also played in a popular original band of all guys that played heavy metal in clubs around Orange country. I brought my harp everywhere and even on the hard rock stage to see if the rocker kids would like it, and they did.

Exploring Greenland

The traveling I was doing was not glamorous. It was playing bass doing Top 40 music six sets a night, six nights a week in various dance clubs or military bases.

During the daytime I would go off exploring various things to see. I always took my harp on the road with me too.

When I was not traveling I was playing harp at restaurants, for weddings, and any kind of job I could find. I was determined to save enough money to go to Musicians Institute in Hollywood. It was my dream to study there and it took me a quite few years and a lot of waitress tips to save the tuition.

The Island of Sitka, Alaska,

The early 80's was a great time for my Dad. He met Margaret, it was true love for real. Margaret was also a single mom working hard to support two daughters of her own. It was true love. Soulmates. They married in 1985. Margaret was a happy addition to our family and uncountable good times were had. So I had yet another mother to love too! She made my dad so happy, and that made us happy too.

I was always very close to both of my grandmothers, and was so lucky to have them well into my adult years.

My fathers mother Adelina Franco was a traditional Mexican grandmother. She adored all of her children and grandchildren, of which there were many.
I visited and stayed with her often especially in the later years of her life. She was always blessing, and kissing and praying. She enjoyed her Spanish soap operas and nobody could come close to her cooking, as much as we tried.

Margaret Hughes was my mothers mother, she was a world traveler and we went on many trips to Mexico together. Her favorite place was Mazatlan.

Even though I had so much love in my family, I always wanted find to find my birth mother to let her know, if she ever wondered or worried what became of me, that I had a good life, and I always understood she did a great and selfless thing for me. At first, it was going to try right when I was 18, then 21 and each time, I put it off, thinking that I wanted to be far in my music career so she would be very proud of me.

But the years went by, and I was a struggling musician for a really long time. I always thought it would cost a lot of money to find her. But I was finally well at least with supporting myself with music. So I took the first step by at least writing to the original adoption agency.

It took over a year for them to pull my file. They could not release names but they could release some general info. So a big envelope came, and it was so big to me that I would know something. It took me days until I could even open it. This was what was inside.

It went on to say that the birth mother was 24, her height and weight, and her special interests were music, dancing and all sports. She had a brother who was 16, her mother was a seamstress who was separated from her father.

It said the birth father was Polish, born in New Jersey, 23 years old. 6.1 with hazel eyes, black hair and fair complexion. He was a recruiting soldier in the marines who enjoyed fishing and hunting. They were engaged, but she broke up with him and opted not to tell him of the pregnancy. So he never knew I was born.

I remember reading these papers over and over a thousand times. The adoption lady said even though I could not contact, I could put something in my file, and my birth mother was free to check the file if she ever wanted, so I wrote her a letter.

End of part two.

Here is part three

Vblog #35 - My presentation at Society of Arts in Healthcare

2011-05-09T22:52:00.000-07:00

This event meant a lot to me, as these brilliant people attending were from all corners of the globe. They were doers of good, creators of excellence, specializing in the finding and creating ways to implement arts and music in the healthcare field. I tried to edit down to a manageable size, but my editing got sloppy and I was too tired of it to fix it, so I'll hope you don't mind. I was working a slide show from my laptop on the screen, but for this I just inserted the same pictures. At the end of this presentation, there was a standing ovation, my favorite part is the very end after the websites, the moment she says.. "enjoy your lunch".

Lisa Lynne Adoption Story - Part 1

2011-05-05T20:02:00.000-07:00

This is a really big for me. I am learning things that have been a mystery for my life. This story is meant for my biological mother or father, or any of their relations I may find.

This account is also for my wonderful family and friends who are so excited about this. They are all so supportive and anxious for updates. This is a way I can tell them all at once. It also helps me to write this as I go. Most importantly, its for my biological mother. If she needs time, or doesn't wish to meet me, maybe she can at least get my message from this.

My primary reason for finding her has been the same all my life. I want her to know that her decision turned out as she would have hoped. I've had a happy life, I became an artist, a music maker.
Most importantly, I have always thought of her with so much love and reverence for the brave decision she made so long ago.

I want her to know if she has ever thought of me, maybe she thinks, today I am 10, or 18, 21, or 30. I was also thinking of her and so grateful for my life that she gave. I have imagined all the possibilities and I know that anything can happen. Or not happen. I have learned much in the past few weeks, and I'll share that as I go. It seems like its really going to happen. I'm working with an adoption specialist who is wonderful, leading me through all the steps. My heart pounds when he gives me updates on the phone.

So thank you for being with me for this. As soon as I get some of this background written, I will be writing in real time. It’s all happening much faster than I thought it would, so I’m scrambling to catch up. So here goes.

I always knew I was adopted. As long as I can remember my mom would tell me the story like a fairy tale with a happy ending. The year before adopting me, they lost a baby born premature. As my story was told to me, a mom and dad were sad because they lost their baby boy. They prayed for another baby and God gave them his smallest angel, and that was me, and I made them happy again.

My adoptive father Florencio Ernesto Franco was a sheriff in East LA. My mother Carol Lee Franco was a homemaker. Like many people in that era, they met in high school, were engaged and then married after his time in the service.

This is the only time I will call them “adoptive” because they are my mom and dad, so I'll refer to them as that. For the woman I hope to find, I will call her “biological” mother. Florencio and Carol Franco took me home just weeks after my birth, and named me Lisa Lynne Franco.

My mom speaks of they day they brought me home as if it was yesterday. It was a full year after applying to adopt. There were many interviews and a lot of hoping and waiting. They finally got the news that there was a little girl who was here and she would be theirs. My mom said they were taking me home for the first time and she could not believe the length of my eyelashes. My dad had to keep pulling over the car so they could look at me.

We went straight to the home of my dad’s parents. My Nana and Tata, where there was a party for me! I had many aunts and uncles, lots of cousins, I could feel how happy everyone was.


Adelina and Florencio Sr.

This might be hard to believe, but I'm certain I remember that day. Just brief moments, images, and smells. I was wrapped in a blanket and facing the ceiling. I remember the lamps from the ceiling, I remember being passed around from arms to arms, big giant smiley faces peering at me, kisses from sweaty happy kids on my forehead.The smell of home cooking and sound of my Nana’s voice singing my name.. There was mariachi music on the radio. I know I remember this, and I remember having a very conscious thought.
This is going to be just fine...

I grew up in Southern California around Whittier and Diamond Bar. It was a middle class upbringing and a lot of fun and celebrations.


My dog Pokey

I loved sleepovers with my cousins playing endless board games, riding bikes, putting on shows. We dressed up for Sundays with homemade Mexican food, always a birthday or new baby, and music.

Water sports

When I was five my little sister Jenny came along, born in the usual way.

It was a surprise to everyone!

Me on the left, - hmmm... not so sure about this.

Well.... I guess its okay.

Baptisms, first communions..

Bubble baths

Lot of outdoor adventures

An avid reader of fine literature

We went camping often. My dad taught me to fish.
I loved fishing with him and would sit patient for hours.
I caught some big fish too and could reel it in myself.

We went on summer long trips in our trailer.
We drove and camped our way to Alaska.

Home was fun too.

Me in 2nd grade.

I was in bluebirds and campfire girls

My moms mother Margaret married many times and
was a globe trotting adventurous woman.

My moms family is also very close. My mom Carol is quite the beauty,
she is quiet but very funny. She's on the left with the big hair.
Me, the skinniest legs of all.

My dad worked in the East LA sheriffs station his whole career. He worked undercover for burglary cases, homicide and narcotics. He would sometimes bring me by the station on his day off and we'd have orange soda there.
When he came home from work my sister and I would run to him knowing he would give us a flip in the air and say "va va voom!!" .. and we would say
"do it again dad!!" over and over.

I started playing guitar when I was eight years old. I got pretty good so I got lessons and learned lots of songs. My dad would always ask me to play my songs at our campfires. My mom had read that if you play music for a baby, they will be musical.
So she put music on for me in my crib in hopes that would happen.

End of Part 1

Here is part two

A flying harp and musical vist to Cedar Key

2011-04-04T15:24:00.000-07:00

Since my flute partner George lives in Florida, we get to play in some of the most beautiful places in the country. Cedar Key is no exception, and one of George's favorite places. This past weekend was very cool, and I tried to capture images as they happened. I never seem to be able to get much of us playing though.. because we are always playing at that time! But we stayed in some lovely homes and got to see some of the local community. This video starts on the plane, and ends on the plane too! I do all my editing on the ride home. Hope you enjoy!

The new recording is here...

2011-04-01T20:36:00.000-07:00

I know when I was growing up, I loved looking at the liner notes of the albums I owned.

Back in those days we had vinyl with big covers filled with artwork and words, and I would study it while listening to the music over and over again like we all did. Those big covers were gold to me. I'd devour every picture and line of Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, YES, Beatles, Carole King, Genesis, to name just a few.. before that it was The Partridge Family, The Osmonds and the Jackson 5. The list goes on and on...

I always wanted to know what was behind the inspiration of the album and every song.. and I have missed that with artists now. Because of the small CD covers, and more so as people are getting their music by download. So here is my attempt to share a bit more about this recording.

This recording is the second full collaboration of Aryeh and myself, and also features another of my favorite musicians in the world George Tortorelli. I have been working with Aryeh for about three years now. Our first CD is called "Two Worlds One". We've also appeared on each others separate projects as well. George is my longtime music partner and we have been performing, touring and recording together as a duo and in groups pretty much full time since 1997. George lives in Florida where we still tour often. (Even as I write this now) For those of you familiar with my previous recordings you have heard him often as he has been featured on just about everything I have done for the past decade. He is a wonderful musician and dear friend/brother as well. Here is George recording his bamboo flute.

Finally this recording puts all my favorite people and sounds together and I'm so happy about that. I was a major fan of Aryeh's music long before we met, (and long before I ended up being his partner/partner) and finally we are able to merge all of our gifts together in one place. Aryeh and I play all the instruments you hear except the flutes played by George. Our combined instrument collection is vast, and we feel so lucky to have so many instruments to make this music. Here are just a few of them.

So what is it like on a typical recording day? We'll, because of the advances in technology, home recording studios have the capability to record as high quality as professional studios. I have been in many high end studios in my day, and when I compare our current home studio recordings to my expensive pro studio recordings on Windham Hill Records, you cannot tell a difference. I do have some excellent microphones (those were quite expensive) Aryeh has his own recording gear and can run pro recording computer programs. I wont bore you with those details, my eyes glaze over when the talk turns to gear, but it suffices to say, between my gear and Aryeh's, we have quite a good setup.

Our studio basement is totally sound proof, so we can record anytime of day or night. Aryeh likes to record early. Earlier than me, so a typical morning would be quick toast and tea and at 8:00 AM we get going. Me with my second mug of tea, sitting there blurry eyed and grumpy until the heater kicks in. San Francisco mornings can be quite chilly.

When the room warms up, the tuning begins. That is the most tedious part of recording. All our instruments, all our strings.. temperature changes, the tuning has to be perfect for recording, so often it takes multiple tries. Sometimes you are minutes into a perfect take, and you have to stop for one note being out of tune and start over. Sometimes digital information gets lost or corrupted for some bizarre technical reason, hence you may hear some rare-but-salty-sailor-talk from Aryeh. Its challenging to say the least, when your all warmed up to play, filled with inspiration and ready to rock, but that one note goes sharp or flat so you have to start all over again, tuning note by note.

Finally the music starts happening and the ideas fly. We get thrilled about some parts, we debate others. I might play a tune three times through and we choose the favorite, sometime we have to make choices between technically perfect takes or imperfection but with more vibe and feel. To find the balance is key, to capture what is real, combine our years of experience and hope that the finished piece conveys what we meant to say.

The new tracks get listened to upstairs on all different stereo systems. Aryeh likes to go back and work on string parts by himself and play them for me when he's done. Then I say, "its too much, or its beautiful, or its too weird." Eventually we find the place where we are both happy.

As we go along, when its time to add George's flutes, sometimes we record while on the road, even in hotel rooms! Sometimes the parts are recorded at his place in Florida, and sometimes if he's out west we do it in our place. Here is a movie clip of George doing flutes in our studio.

After a few months of this.. We move on to final mixing in a bigger studio. Most of the mixing is done by Aryeh at our place, but we need more specialized outboard gear, and so several days are spent going back and forth to nearby sound studio in San Francisco fine combing the details, the balances, the levels of solos, go home and listen again, go back and tweak a little more. We can get quite caught up in the tiniest details.

Then comes audio mastering, and that is key. That is where we spare no expense to get the highest possible fidelity and clarity that technology has to offer. We send the finished project for post production to Bernie Becker's Mastering studio in Pasadena, (near LA) Mastering is taking all the elements, boosting them, creating a sparkling sheen on the overall sound, making sure everything is even and clear and bright and warm as can be. Bernie Becker is a legendary guy, and the nicest man ever. He and his son Dale have worked on every recording I've done for years. Here's Bernie.

Meanwhile time to decide on the artwork and do credits (my job, and my longtime awesome graphics and webguy John), and everything to do with the actual manufacturing.. and in about nine months total (same as making a baby) viola.. you have it.

Then comes the promotion (also my job) so a whole new set of tasks around sending it out to radio stations, retail outlets, press releases, concert performances.. the list is long. At this point in time Aryeh runs away and hides... in the studio, already working on his next music!

n this day and age, the way the music industry has changed, its more often independently done in-house by the artists themselves. I have experienced many different levels of album releases, some were big time with lots of people and help, and money. And some on my own label, humble and modest. This one is somewhere in the middle. But every album might be like having a new child.

You do the best you can, give it all you've got, and send it out in the world, hoping it does well, and is happy. But in this case we hope it makes people happy. We hope it makes them feel what we feel.. the love and reference for the instruments and sounds, the music that comes into the heart, out of the hands..hopefully into other hearts.

When we start hearing back the wonderful comments from the listeners, we breathe a collective sigh of relief that all that work and dedication, wisdom, faith and perseverance, debate, devotion, and even a few tears, (or was that beers)... was more than worth it.

And after all that work we have no choice but to go to Mexico and celebrate.

My niece and I making our latest movie masterpiece.

2011-03-29T14:46:00.000-07:00

I don't have any kids myself, but have one sister named Jenny, she has two kids that I adore, and we do a lot of crazy fun creative stuff together. Trevor is now a teenager, so he's rather busy with other things, but Annelyse is my buddy, my partner in crafting and crime.. so we make movies. Here is the latest when she got her first pair of skates. I do the filming, directing and editing.. Annelyse provides the the star power, she is also does all her own stunts. With a little help from my Imovie effects. Hope you enjoy!

A musical visit with patients and nurses!

2011-03-29T14:20:00.000-07:00

Here's a short excerpt of bringing all my harps to Marion Cancer clinic in Central California. It's always so amazing to me how quickly people can play. I think it amazes them too. The thing about the harp is, its so much more friendly to the beginner than people realize. I love it so much to see people light up when they hear the music they are able to play. And all the harps playing together in surround sound is quite something to hear.

Mostly I see people being empowered by the experience. Most are dealing with very serious health challenges and to accomplish this unique thing that they didn't realize they could, I think that makes them know that other things are very achievable too. So that's why I do this. I love every minute of the workshops. I have to admit that loading and tuning the harps is more of a task. It takes me about two hours to set up, and with 17 harps its about 600 strings to tune. One by one. But I try to think of that time as a meditation time. I am usually struggling against the clock still tuning as people are coming in, but I think I'm the fastest tuner in the west. I also set up my projector with images, do a little concert, with all the harps in a row behind me, like ships. I tell stories of the harps, and we have questions and answers. After the intermission I select a harp for every person based on their personality, or body size, or medical condition. I see big smiles as each person holds their harp, and we commence making music. Its that rare time, when you know you are in exactly the right place, doing exactly the right thing, and all is well in this place and this moment, and its my favorite feeling in the world.

A musical visit to an elementary school!

2011-03-29T09:05:00.000-07:00

As part of a Central California tour we stopped to visit an elementary school in Taft, California. We brought all of our instruments hoping the kids would be interested. They were so many of them and they were so young! So you never know what could happen, but we hoped for the best and sure enough it was a rousing success. We shared all about our instruments and played for over 400 kids.They were totally attentive and interested and with some very, very good questions.. "how old are you?" "are you married?' and so on. It was a true highlight of the trip. Here's a peak of a song we all did together.

Impromtu music making with guests from Finland

2010-10-20T08:57:00.000-07:00

Aryeh and I are hosting guest musicians in the group "Parahulta" from Finland this week, and last night we played together some of their beautiful music. This song is called "Waltz for Kuisma" written for their son. Aryeh met them and learned it from them on a trip to Sweden. He loves the song so much we recorded it on our first "Two Worlds One" CD and this is the first time we have all played it together.

Musical Merriment at the Celtic Fair

2010-10-09T07:59:00.000-07:00

Hi Friends, Last weekend Aryeh and I played music at the Grass Valley Celtic Fair. We have done this for the past three years and its always so sweet. I made this video to feature Aryeh's Nyckelharpa and the song being played is from his album "Twisting of the Rope" which I played on too. This time I had a new little camera so I was able to run around and get images faster than with my bigger camera. Whip it out when a parade is going by. But I'm still learning this tiny device and I notice the sound quality is not so good but I will work on that. But I hope you enjoy it, each video I make is my new favorite.

Vblog #32 - Serenading the folks in the South

2010-09-29T09:24:00.000-07:00

George Tortorelli and I have been a music duo since 1997. That's 13 years of full time music making. We have been all over the country, to many states playing at festivals and concerts. Here is just a sample of what it is like when we play. The music you hear was recorded live for our album titled "Love & Peace". There are no overdubs, George works with a looping delay system that allow him to create flute harmonies live on the spot. The harp is also delayed so I can play one passage over another. We have always been so grateful that we have a sound that people of all ages and walks of life enjoy and use for their life.

So here are some images of what its like when we play at a street festival. Its not as mellow or fancy as a concert. But I love this the most because you can really see the people. At a concert, its all dark and you can't see the faces, the front row is set back so far and the lights take away your sight to them.
People have paid $25.00 or more to see you, you hope and worry they are happy but you can't see them so you can't know. You feel pretty alone on the stage.

At a street festival, which is where I started and still enjoy doing, people don't have to be there, but they stay because they want to. From way back when I started on Venice Beach, that's how it was, I loved that they were free to come or go, to listen or not, and they always stay and they always listen, and that means so much. I would trade a fancy concert for a big ol street fair any day.

This slide show took place the recent two weekends where we visited North Carolina, and Georgia. On Labor day the Henderson Apple Festival has their hometown parade and every darn time it makes me cry. Its silly but it always happens and ...I can't help it. Thousands come out and smile and wave to the happy families riding by in their collector cars, dressed up dogs and clowns, high school bands and fire engines, war Veterans from each war, all the way back to WWII, people stand and cheer and the very old men in their uniforms walking and holding American flags if they can. Police officers and council members, little miss Apple fest, candy throwing cub scouts and miscellaneous farm animals on homemade floats. All those people are truly happy and proud to be in the parade, or smiling and waving from their lawn chairs lined up. One of them was me. There truly is such goodness in the world.

A visit to a Mosaic house...

2010-08-28T23:39:00.000-07:00

When I'm not doing music, I'm doing mosiacs.. one of my favorite artists is Laurel Skye. She has a very unique home in Arcata, CA, where she teaches and shares. Its astounding what she has done. Here is a video of that special place..

A favorite old tune in concert...

2010-08-07T20:00:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,
I just wanted to share a tune that I grew up playing. We wanted a fun song to end a recent concert so we worked up "Country Road" by John Denver. It was fun to put down our harps and
strings and complex instruments and just bang out some guitar and mandolin for a bit.

I always loved this song and it reminds me so much of my father, we used to go on camping trips all through my growing up years, and at the campfire, my dad always wanted me to play this song. I played guitar when I was a kid, and he loved to hear me play and sing this. We didn't realize what a sing a long it would turn out to be!

My "Harps for Hearts" music program

2010-07-09T10:28:00.000-07:00

As many of you know I have been involved with putting live music in hospitals for some time now. I have just passed my 10th year of being involved with City of Hope National Cancer Center with my "Hands-on-Harps" program. I often go to speaking engagements with my power point slide show to demonstrate the power of music and how having it in various healing environments benefits everybody. I have been procrastinating putting my slideshow into a movie, but a recent opportunity has presented itself for a keynote speaking gig, so I finally did it.
Here it is!

Vblog #29 - Golden Toad Music Camp..

2010-06-30T20:58:00.000-07:00

omigosh.. this was so fun. A highlight of the year so far. It was a last minute decision to attend Golden Toad music camp.. It was so wonderful, and inspiring. I will write more soon but just wanted to get this posted.

Lisa Lynne Vblog #28 - Getting ready for a show in Vacaville..

2010-05-15T16:47:00.000-07:00

Hi Blog friends, Here is the next episode of my video series. I am hoping to show the reality of how it all comes together.. rehearsals, sound checks.. back stage..its the real deal.

This was around a benefit concert for a Women's shelter in Vacaville, California.It was a rare show with vocalist Molly Pasutti singing lyrics to versions of our favorite tunes. We have a new album out featuring Molly and Barbara Higbie who I perform with more often. Barbara joined us onstage and also opened the show.

Its fun to goof around with such a cheerful bunch of great musicians.
Lisa

Vblog #27 New music!

2010-02-22T10:03:00.000-08:00

Greetings.. I'll write more soon, but just wanted to post a new video blog of the music we are working on. Aryeh and I were in Pasadena last week, putting finishing touches on the first vocal music I have ever released! Molly Pasutti wrote beautiful lyrics to my instrumental compositions over the years, and finally its recorded. So it will be released soon, and I'm very excited. Here is the video... the making of..
Two Worlds One - Still the Moon

Vblog #26 - Photo shoot and impromtu Carole King

2010-01-31T10:32:00.000-08:00

Hi Friends, I'm trying to get a bit more organized with my blogs and videos. I am now numbering them in a sequence, so it makes more sense to organize the time stream.

This one was just last week. I have been working for month on a new recording with my partner Aryeh and vocalist Molly. She has been my friend for over a decade and she writes the most beautiful lyrics for many of my instrumental songs and sings them with her most beautiful voice. This project has been in the making for a really long time.
Molly and I met and started performing together about 10 years ago. Everytime we did, it was magic. We never had a recording, because we both had such busy lives. We finally started a recording at Sony studios, but again life got in the way, I moved, Molly got married, these very special tracks laid dormant. Until, Aryeh discovered them and swiftly brought them back to life. We added more of our beautiful instruments, had a couple of our favorite guest musicians, and completed the new CD over the last several months. Right now the wonderful sound engineer Bernie Becker is putting the final moves on the mixes and it will be out and available in early Spring. So to say this work is long awaiting is quite the understatement.

Last week we had a photo shoot for the cover of the album. We went to a studio in Northern California not far from where I live, and went for it. Here, Aryeh captured an impromtu moment of us goofing around with songs and my bandura. It was a rather tedious session as photo shoots always are. I never played this song before (Carole King one of my very favorites) on my Bandura, but it worked rather well!
I hope you enjoy this glimpse of an ordinary day playing 70's love songs on Ukranian Bandura on an ancient antique Chinese bed.
Lisa

Medieval Minstral Trio

2009-12-10T08:16:00.000-08:00

Hi Friends, Heres a tune from the other nights show at Open Secret in San Rafeal, California. Aryeh and I are joined onstage by Hudost founder/guitarist Jemal Wade Hines.
I was getting over a terrible cold at the time, but it was fun nonetheless!

A trip to Montana

2009-11-19T11:02:00.000-08:00

Hi Friends, Last week I went to Montana where my mom and I purchased a house. She will be living there near her sister and I have a very nice getaway place. We had fun making this video, It shows the house, the surroundings and a funny look at the local police reports. I hope you enjoy it. Also, the music you hear is George and I improvising with
him on guitar and me on bass mandolin.

All about House Concerts

2009-11-01T19:33:00.000-08:00

Hi Folks, Here is a video I made about doing house concerts.
Its also includes some footage about my "Hands-on-Harps" workshops
and my work in using live music in medical environments.

I hope you enjoy it.
More to come!
Lisa

Harps & Faeries

2009-08-27T17:21:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone, Earlier this month I took 15 harps up to Eugene,Oregon for the Faerie Worlds festival. I wanted to give anyone a chance to learn to play on my harps and it was a wonderful time. We stayed on an organic farm nearby with dear friends and my mom came along to help out too. I had people sign up for the time slots and I handed out the harps to anyone who wanted to try. We play glissandos, and scales,some simple songs and even rounds. People love the experience and are quite amazed how easier it was than they thought. I really love doing this because the people areso happy and inspired by it. I would like to think I will have contributed quite a lot of harp players in the world by the time I'm done! The music on this video is from my CDs called "Fairie Tales" and "Maiden's Prayer" George Tortorelli plays flutes on the video and in all the music. He was a huge help as it is quite a physical feat to pull this off. I hope you enjoy this.

The Light & The Longing - solo harp piece

2009-08-12T16:31:00.000-07:00

Greetings from San Francisco everyone.
Its been a busy summer of concerts and festivals. I just wanted to post a sample of a recent show at the Coffee Gallery in Alta Dena, California.
I also wanted to dedicate this piece to my Grandmother Margaret Hughes who left this world on Monday night. She was 93. An incredible woman who traveled the world often by herself up to just a few years ago. She shared with me her fierce independence and love for Matazlan, Mexico and now I will carry on her tradition of keeping a time share there which I'll visit yearly. Here she is, and here is the song.

2009-06-29T20:46:00.000-07:00

Hi Friends,

As most of you know, when I'm not touring I love to bring several of my harps to various places and share them with groups of people that have never touched a harp before.

Sometimes its a hospital, a school, various retreat centers, yoga studios or rehab facilities. This time I experimented with an outdoor festival and joined Aryeh at the Strawberry festival in Oxnard, California. I had no idea how it would go over in a wild loud festival. Would the people be into it? would they be respectful and gentle with the instruments? I was a little nervous as it was quite a chaotic place. But the same thing happens that happens every time. The people love the harps so much they are in awe of the instruments and the sound. It was so much fun and the people were so cute. The workshops had their own audiences and the parents of the kids were taking photos and smiling. It was a grand success and the festival directors loved it too.

Next I will be doing it at the Faerie Worlds festival in Eugene Oregon in July. I love getting people from all walks of life inspired and empowered by the music they can make on the harp. Its fun to see their faces.

The songs featured on this video, are "Lauda" performed live by Lisa & Aryeh from our "Two Worlds One" CD. For the harp workshop, the background music is from my "Fairie Tales" CD, a song I wrote called "Road to Kaylee"

Song for my fathers memorial

2009-03-17T08:19:00.000-07:00

My wonderful father left this earth on Jan 22nd this year after a long battle with Cancer. We were very close and our family was altogether during his passing. On February 15 we celebrated his life with a memorial service of lots of music and storytelling. I played some songs with my dear friend Molly Pasutti on vocals and Aryeh on guitar. I just wanted to share one of the songs here. I hope you enjoy it.

Lisa & George play Florida State University

2009-03-10T16:27:00.000-07:00

Hi Friends,

Its been awhile since I posted. I had taken a hiatus from everything as my Dad endured the end of his long Cancer battle and on Jan 27 he left the earth. We were all there by his side. His memorial was beautiful and I gathered some images of him and the music I played with the intention of sharing moments of it with you. I am in the process of doing that, but it is slow and I can only do it in small steps. It still feels so unreal. My heart has been broken and it doesn't seem like life can ever be the same.

I recently resumed performing and last week I was out to Georges hometown Gainesville, Florida to play a couple shows. One of them was playing at Florida State University. It was March 4, 2009.

On the way out of the grounds after our lunchtime concert we saw a small chapel type venue right on the lake. It serves for special performances and meetings at the University. No one was around so we brought (sneaked) our instruments in and took advantage of the high ceiling, beautiful sound and sunny blue day.
The sound you hear is totally natural, no effects. I recorded it with my little digital zoom recorder and matched it up with the video. So the sound is totally natural with no reinforcement or effects. So this is it, an improvised piece.

It was the eve of 2009

2009-01-17T12:53:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone,
Here are moments from a special evening where Aryeh & I played some music for a very sweet party on New Years eve. It took place just outside of San Diego at my friend Gary Stadlers home. (You may know his wonderful music Fairy Heartsongs, Heart magic and more..I get to play harp on some of his music). We did a little variety show and I took some various images from that as well as a laser light show that was done outside. The lasers are indescribable. No video or picture could possibly do justice, but I edited in some of those images too. The way we saw it, was facing a forest of trees and the lights were as big as a house. We were literally standing in the middle of it and all the lights and colors surrounded everybody. It was like a dream, of being in the middle of a solar system. The gathering was filled with very special artists, many who create magical events at burning man. The dancer is Danielle Bibeau, the light show by Randy Johnson. The song featured here is from the CD "Two Worlds One" called "Walk with Me". I hope you enjoy this.

A Happy Holidays Video

2008-12-15T19:20:00.000-08:00

Seasons Greetings:
Here is a festival we were a part of last weekend in Franklin, Tennessee.
Its just south of Nashville, and it was so cute.
Enjoy! And the Happiest of Holidays to you and yours!
love, Lisa Lynne

Women of Windham Hill in Atlanta November 22, 2008

2008-11-27T17:25:00.001-08:00

Greetings, This is the latest installment of our show last Saturday with the "Women of Windham Hill" It features behind the scenes fun as well as excerpts from the concert at the Rialto Center at Georgia State University. You will see myself on Celtic Harp, bass and percussion, Liz Story on piano, Barbara Higbie on piano, guitar, violin and voice, and George with flutes and percussion, Sean Harkness on guitar and bass. The songs on here are opening wiht "La Rotta" from my "New Morning" CD, then in the soundcheck and concert you hear "Calling all Angels" I can get you the info on that song if you like. There is also piano works by Liz Story easily found, Sean Harkness on Guitar has a website of his name, we also play "Circle of Joy" by me, "Light and Longing" and ends with "To Be" on a few of Barbara's CDs.

It was a really nice time as it always is. I hope I captured the feel of what it is like and try to show different things each time. There are a few other videos of the same group in different places if you go back in time on this video blog.
I hope you enjoy this, and a very Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours...
love, Lisa Lynne

Week of November 4th

2008-11-11T11:17:00.001-08:00

Hi Everyone,
I brought my video camera with me to celebrate voting and decided to keep going allweek with it, catching moments of what my life is like. There are images of where I live, places I go, my work in the hospitals, performing with friends, going to Agape,
traveling, and a festival in Florida. I hope you will enjoy this 9 minute whirlwind
tour that takes place in just six days.

You will hear music that is live, as well as from recordings. Here are the songs featured in order of appearance.

Lauda - Two Worlds One - Lisa Lynne & Aryeh Frankfurter
Bandora's Box - Seasons of the Soul by Lisa Lynne
Wake up - by Hudost, www.Hudost.com
All My Guitars - by Hudost
Welcome - from Seasons of the Soul by Lisa Lynne

Lisa & George play Mossy Creek in Georgia

2008-10-23T14:29:00.000-07:00

Hi Friends,
Twice a year in Spring and Fall, George and I play at the Mossy Creek festival in Perry, Georgia. Perry is a couple hours drive south of Atlanta, its also south of Macon. So you can say its absolutely.. southern! We have been doing it for years and its one of our favorites because it takes place in a wooded forest and its beautiful there. This year I collected a good sample of what goes on there, in hope you will enjoy how sweet and sincere all the people are, and how much they love music.

Recording Live for Echoes Radio Program

2008-10-08T23:42:00.001-07:00

Hi Friends, I haven't posted in awhile, but have some new videos coming soon.
This was last week when Echoes Radio invited me and fellow harpist Aryeh Frankfurter to perform pieces from "Two Worlds One" for their worldwide radio show. The host is John Diliberto, who interviewed us and introduced our songs. We recorded two separate shows of six songs each, one show for the "Living Room concert" series and one for the Seasonal show. To be invited is quite an honor.

If you are not familiar with Echoes, I highly recommend it for all lovers of World,folk, new age, ambient, all kinds of special music from incredible artists. www.Echoes.org John & Echoes has been a great supporter of my music throughout my recording career.
So, this is what a recording session looks like. It was in Glendale, California at Broken Wave Studio. Recorded Sept 23, 2008.

Harp center concert / Luna de Amor

2008-07-07T09:09:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,
Its been awhile since I posted, but lots has been happening. I have lots of footage to go through of the past several performances, but here is one tune in the meantime.

Myself and Aryeh Frankfurter did a small tour in Los Angeles and San Diego. The Sylvia Woods Harp Center is a long standing mecca of everything harp related. After 16 years of being the biggest harp store in the country, she is closing her doors and becoming a mail order business only. It happens that 95% of the business is mail order anyway, so its really just a logical business move, but for lots of people including ourselves it was quite sentimental and we were honored to play the very last concert there on July 14, 2008.
Here is a peek, its just one tune until I can go through the rest of the footage. Its one of my earliest written pieces called "Luna De Amor" it was originally written for my CD "Moonsongs" where it appeared in about 1996. It was recently re-recorded with Aryeh playing viola and it appears on the newest recording. "Two Worlds One." I hope you enjoy it. More to come! Lisa

Fairy Festival in Glen Rock, Pennsylvania

2008-05-06T17:31:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,
Here is last weekends adventure. George and I traveled to Pennsylvania to join the
annual May Day celebration. It took place on an organic farm along the beautiful mountains and forests of Southern PA. Our friends in the group "Hudost" invited us to join them there, so we played along the path and also on the stage with them. (www.Hudost.com)It was so cute with many families dressing up and enjoying the spring.
Here are some of the moments captured...

Concert in Wisconsin

2008-03-15T09:34:00.000-07:00

Hi friends,

Here is the latest installment from the "Women of Windham Hill" shows.
We were in Grand Rapids Wisconsin last week where it was shocking cold.
The people were so nice there though, so it was a fine time.
My leg is doing much better so I am back to traveling again.
The weather is warming up at the beach where I live so I can take walks again.
I will collect some footage from there for next time.

Until then!
Lisa

Adventures in Utah

2008-02-16T10:29:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone, I just got back from a couple days in Utah with the "Women of Windham Hill" tour. We did a clinic at the University of Utah where we talked to students about doing music as a career, and what its like to be.. umm....us. It was really really early and we were a bit bleary, but it was fun. Then we did an afternoon show for school kids and the evening was the normal concert. The next night was Valentines Day and we did just a concert.

The whole time I was struggling with big pain in my leg which I knew to be a blood clot because I have a chronic circulation problem from a past injury and how much I fly etc. I have had trouble with deep vein thrombosis for 10 years now and it flairs uponce in awhile. I already had a surgery for it to place a filter that guards my lungs and heart etc, but I ended up in the emergency room with a new clot in my hip and thigh. They have a great hospital in Logan, I was there after the show each night getting injections of blood thinner in my stomach! I have always been a person who goes the natural/organic way of health to try to deal with this, lots of herbs and vitamens, etc. but this time I have to have some big time help from the mainstream medicine. It was all rather rough but the show must go on!

I'm back in LA now staying in bed to get over this, excellent doctors and good people are helping me with it now. Since I can't bear to give myself a shot in the stomach, there are have some wonderful nurses volunteering from both City of Hope and Kaiser hospital where I do my music programs coming to help me with it, its only a few more shots, then just pills and hopefully it will be managed once and for all.

I hope you enjoy the video, its so fun to make these. I have always loved home movies and I like to document these times forever.

take care for now, lisa

Another show on the road....

2008-02-01T19:39:00.000-08:00

Hi there, I got my editing program fixed up so here is another installment from
the road with the Women of Windham Hill, this was done in mid-January in New Jersey.
The lineup is myself, Barbara Higbie, Liz Story and George Tortorelli. We have been doing lots of shows in the Northeast, next week we will be in Utah.
I tried to capture some more of the backstage stuff this time, but its always a challenge to remember the camera. I'm hoping to get better at it as time goes one.
So here is another day in the life....

Recording in San Francisco

2008-01-25T21:47:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

Right now I am sitting on the floor of Aryeh's recording studio in San Francisco. Its quite cold and its rainy outside. We are working away every day and he is often glued to the computer doing edits. Here is my view from here.

And here is me with my mandolin

I have been trying to get some new video together from a recent show with the Windham Hill gals, but my video editing program is having a glitch so I am limited what I can create, but as soon as I get it up and running again, I have some really fun footage from some recent concerts backstage. It looks like yet another trip to the Mac store for some fixin. I love my mac.. it goes everywhere with me. Here's me at my table at the Highland games in Orlando where George and I played last weekend.

So thats all for this time.. more to come! lisa

Concert in San Diego

2008-01-05T14:58:00.001-08:00

Hi Friends, here is a version of "Earth & Sky" with myself and Aryeh Frankfurter playing viola. This was a recent concert at the Seaside Church in Encinitas, Californina.

Behind the scene...

2007-12-21T09:47:00.000-08:00

Here is a look behind the scenes of a typical Windham Hill show. Featured here is
Barbara Higbie, Liz Story, George Tortorelli, Sean Harkness and myself. These shows were last weekend, in Stockton New Jersey, and Scottsdale Arizona. When I got to the first show, I opened the case and the harp had some damage from
the airline. But thankfully it was still playable.

We have so much fun on these shows. Its such a great group. Our next shows are in January so more to come!

Happy Holidays to you and yours.
love, lisa

On stage with Circle of Joy

2007-12-19T07:57:00.000-08:00

Hi Friends.. its been awhile since I posted last. Its been so busy with lots of shows and traveling. I also moved to another City in Los Angeles, I live in Marina Del Rey now.. I have always wanted to live on the beach, and I am steps away from big sand, incredible ocean and I walk there every day. I will post some pictures soon.

I have a few new things to post so I'll get to it. I just finished a couple shows with the Women of Windham Hill, its a wonderful show featuring two recording artists that were on the label early on, and myself. Barbara Higbie is an incredible multi-instrumentalist and Liz Story, a pianist like no other.I am playing mostly harp but get to play a little bass. Backing us up is George Tortorelli who I get to play with all the time, and Sean Harkness an incredible guitarist and recording artist in his own right. Of course we get a lot of mileage out of joking about the "Women of Windham Hill" tour.. its all so fun, we are perpetually doing shows around the year, here and there in clusters. We wont have any shows for a couple of months then suddenly we are all together again like we never parted. We just played in New Jersey and Arizon. This footage comes from Scottsdale Center for the Performing arts near Pheonix. We have such a good time because they are all so funny and people always love the show. Here is just a quick tune called Circle of Joy. I will be putting together some other footage of behind the scenes that will appear here soon also. Thats all for now! love, lisa

Performance in Alta Dena, California

2007-10-01T19:51:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,
The weeks post takes us to a wonderful intimate venue in Alta Dena, California. Its about 15 miles northeast of Los Angeles. Its called the Coffee Gallery and its a wonderful place to play because in the back of the coffee shop there is an intimate
theater with excellent sounds and lighting. We have played there twice and each time sold out. The two gals singing are both wonderful artists in their own right, they are singers and writers Adjoa and Ashley Maher. We formed this group just to play at City of Hope, but ended up wanting to do even more, so here it is. We are doing a favorite song of ours by Sarah MacLaughin called "Angel".

Festival in Missouri

2007-09-05T21:59:00.000-07:00

Hi there, here is a show we do each summer called "Festival of the Little Hills" in Saint Charles Missouri. It takes place in a small river town, the place where Louis & Clark began their historic expedition to the weston the Missouri River. The people of this town are so very nice, they love our music so much that I keep going back each year.

You will hear sound clips of a few other street performers, our friend Bob Culvertson on the Chapman stick, and our friend Mark Holland on the Native American flutes. You will see George playing an incredible hand made flute in the shape of a long snake, you will see two ladies trying to extract an over filled trash bag, and hear the million secada bugs making their unusual song. Because there is so much other sounds going on at different levels, I opted to put in a recorded song over the images, so thats what you are hearing, "Little Dirt Road" from my New Morning CD. I left original sound from the other musicians of course.

So you can see what a typical weekend is like in the many midwestern towns and cities I visit. I hope you enjoy it and get the sense of how human it all is..

Big Sky Harp Conference

2007-09-01T15:43:00.000-07:00

This summer in Big Sky Montana the harp conference took place.Here are some clips that I put together, please pardon the shakey footage, it was so busy that I was lucky to get any video at all. The harp conference brings hundreds of harp peformers and enthusiasts from all over the country and world. We go there to teach the participants and share our music with everyone. The was the final stop of the tour with Aryeh Frankfurter and you will see in the opening clip of us playing harp and viola on the main stage. Following that is Aryeh's set where I played Octave mandolin and we were joined by another two wonderful harpers William Jackson and Grainne Hambly playing pennywhistle and concertina. Next is a trio with Kim Robertson on harp, myself on harp and Aryeh on Nickelharpa. The last segment ends with a jam session in the hotel lobby featuring harpists Kim Robertson, Aryeh Frankfurter, Sue Richards, and Seumas Gagne. I am mostly taking the footage, and also playing mandolin. The website for future conferences is www.BigSkyHarpConference.com

Video - Table for Three

2007-08-15T13:36:00.000-07:00

Hi there,

I am just starting to go through the videos taken of performances we did on the Northwest tour I did this summer with Aryeh Frankfurter. One of our stops was in Eugene Oregon. We performed at the Eugene Hotel, a really cool and funky place where senior residence live, and they host concerts to the public in the heart of Eugene, which is a special town south of Portland.

Our host for the evening is David Helfand, a well known harper and recording artist in his own right. He's a magical musician and we enjoyed the time with him.

When I host concerts at City of Hope, my favorite part is getting to have the performers stay at my house, and getting to play with them also. So we were happy to play some of Davids music with him in the unique setting of a closed restaurant after hours.

It was late at night after the concert, we were exhausted, but that never stops the music from flowing. Sitting there improvising with our instruments with all those empty tables and chairs was surreal and dreamlike. This is a piece written by David, (you can check out his website at www.DavidHelfand.com) Aryeh Frankfurter, also a harper extraordinaire (www.lionharp.com) is playing viola, and I am playing my octave mandolin.

So here you go..

Video -Lisa Lynne visits Bele Chere festival and plays in concert

2007-07-31T11:32:00.000-07:00

Hi there,
Below is my latest video entry from the road. It runs about seven minutes long. I was in North Carolina again this past weekend, playing a show in Waynesville and a concert in Asheville. On a rare weekend day off, I walked around the Bele Chere festival in downtown Asheville. It is normally a very crazy festival, but this day was called "Family Day" so there is no alcohol served and a much mellower vibe. There is lots of great music in Asheville, its like the Nashville of the Southeast. Its a very progressive enlightened community nestled along the Blue Ridge Mountains. I spend a lot of time in North Carolina this time of year, as it is high festival season. So you'll be seeing more in the coming weeks no doubt.

The second half of this video is a couple excerpts from the concert I played with George on flutes. The final segment you'll see sounds like there are tracks playing along with the harp and flute, but it is all done live, using whats called a long delay, it takes what we just played seconds before and loops it around again so we can play harmonies on top of what was just played. Hopefully the sound quality will be ok enough to hear the music. It all has to be scrunched to fit in these blog formats so we'll see.

I hope you enjoy this entry... more to come soon.
love, lisa

Video - Lisa Lynne plays harp for Highland Games

2007-07-21T15:26:00.000-07:00

Hi friends, I haven't posted for while because I have been on the road for a month.
I have a lot of footage to go through to show you that, but in the meantime I put together some clips from last weekend's festival in Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. I hope I captured the essense of the Scottish Highland Games at Grandfather mountain. Playing flute with me is George Tortorelli

Video - Lisa Lynne plays Celtic harp for Luminaria walk

2007-06-11T11:12:00.000-07:00

Greetings friends.

On Saturday June 9, 2007 I played as I do each year for the American Cancer Society Luminaria Walk. It is part of an all day "Relay for Life" event at Santa Anita Racetrack. This is just one local group putting on this weekend event, as part of the whole nation of souls working towards the fight against Cancer.

All day the groups, people of all ages, many children circle the racetrack on foot. The entire track is lined with hand colored bags honoring their loved ones who are in
the fight or have passed from this disease.After the day is done, they bring all the
champion children to the stage and announce their earnings and give them prizes and crowns. Its the sweetist thing you will ever see.

Then my part happens. I start to play the harp, there are hundres of candles waiting in buckets to be lit, and the woman asks the audience, "Who here has a mother or a father who is dealing with cancer, many people come forward to get their candle lit. "Who has a brother or a sister, a friend or colleage, and so on, and before long every single person has come forward and stands with their candle.
Then they all prey together, and do the final walk around the racetrack in prayer and meditation.

Here are some images caught from that, that I have edited together as best I can.
The music is from my solo harp CD titled "Quiet Heart" The song is called "Walk with me" I hope you will feel what I felt when it was happening.

All the best... take care of yourselves and your loved ones.
Lisa Lynne

Video demonstration of Lisa Lynnes favorite instruments in the recording studio

2007-05-20T23:19:00.000-07:00

Hi Friends, I have been learning my new video camera in hopes I can create some video content of my various adventures for this blog site. Its all quite new to me being on both sides of a camera but I am learning alot.
Here is my first try.

Since I am working on a new recording, and often there is waiting time in a studio, I put the camera on
a tripod and played around showing the various instruments I was using between recording takes. It is indeed a little rough, but hopefully a little interesting too. It shows about five or six of my main instruments I use, and lasts about eight minutes.

Lets see if this works.....

Photo -Monday mornings...

2007-05-07T12:03:00.000-07:00

Hi Friends,
Its a typical Monday morning and I'm sitting at the little Valdosta airport, getting ready to fly to Atlanta and then fly home to Los Angeles. It was a festival weekend and beautiful spring days here in Georgia. The festival was called "A Love Affair" because it took place on Love Street in a small historic town. The people are so very nice here and they sure seem to love the music. This is my fourth weekend in a row coming to Georgia just one more weekend to Florida, then home for two whole weeks..yay. I usally go somewhere by airplane about 3 out of 4 weekends a month. Out Friday, back Monday..All the way from LA to the east coast somewhere. I actually love to travel and see other places, sometimes the traveling is a challenge, but I really don't mind it.

I have aquired some new video equipment and editing ability so soon I will be posting videos of some road adventures. Its incredible what you can do now right from the laptop so please check back soon for that.
Gotta get up.. time to get through security... more soon..

Below: photo of me at the Georgia festival festival weekend.. Is she concentrating, or is she asleep....?

Photo - Late night tracking at my house

2007-04-26T01:14:00.000-07:00

Hi friends.. its late at night and I'm sitting here at my laptop between recording takes. zzzzzz..
I am doing accompanyment music for my friend Amy Frosts meditation CD. I met Amy years ago at City of Hope as she was there as a grief counseler, we became good friends and have done lots of projects together since. We go to various retreats and she does "self-care for caregivers" workshops. She is there like the TV host and I am the band on the side that plays on cue while people do their excersizes or drawing or visualing. Anyway, she does great work www.AmyFrost.com Every Wednesday she calls me and asks what I have done for my goals. She takes meticulous notes on what I say I want to do, and then busts you if you didn't do it. We call ourselves success teams.. and every Wednesday morning I am rushing to get done what I said I would do, before she calls. Its all good.

My house has a studio in it, mostly its for all my music, but other people come and record sometimes too. Mostly spoken word while I do the background music, but now there is a Mariachi band doing work here, and last summer we did a record for Hudost here. www.Hudost.com It came out really nice.

Enclosed is a picture of my fireplace that I'm looking at right now.
Time to go back to work...

Photo - Lit from Within

2007-04-13T20:31:00.000-07:00

Hi there, I am still learning how to use this blog program
so I'm just going to post some cool photos for now.

This photo I just got today, its a picture from Febuary
when George and I played for his daughter
Chandrika's wedding. It was magical, etherial, surreal.

It took place in a botanical garden in Gainesville, Florida.
This shot was takin moments before he put down his
flutes to walk her down the isle. The bliss was so high
that there is light coming out of his solar plexis... literally.

Welcome

2007-04-06T09:53:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone, Welcome to my new blog. This is the place I'll keep you all more informed of my happenings. I'll be posting stories, anticdotes, photos and footage from the road and in the recording studio.

Check back frequently because I have a few new projects in the works and I'll be sharing more about them soon.

Please feel free to leave me a message anytime,
I always enjoy hearing back from you.
More to come!
Lisa