Tish's Corner
November 2006
Hola Everyone!
Again, winter is already sneaking in as I finally catch up on last summer!! August was my favorite summer month this year, an adventurous and fun time. I stayed closer to home in Austin for the month, but had a few shows around Texas. I played with several different combinations of Marvin Dykhuis, Darcy Deaville, and Troy Wells. Marvin's great vocals and multi-instruments, Darcy's violin and mandolin , and Troy's country guitar and harmony gave each show a distinct sound. Another nice event to take place was being invited to sing on the Austin Lounge Lizards new CD "The Drugs I Need", which should be out by now. It's always fun working with Tom, Boo, Hank, Korey and Conrad. I'm sure you'll love this CD.
Friends from Germany came to visit, and we all took a drive from my last show in Houston all the way out to west Texas, through Big Bend down to Chihuahua, Mexico to attend a wedding. In order to pass the time crossing all that desert, we made up a music game by bringing up a basic theme of everything from rivers or town names to colors or just about anything, and come up with a list of song titles in any genre using words under that particular category. It's pretty amazing how quickly the hours and miles went by and to discover how many songs we keep stored in our memory. Sometimes we'd have to remind ourselves to stop for fuel and water! It was also interesting to find that for most of the categories songs of mine could qualify. "Taos To Tennessee" even fit under "states" and "towns". We just couldn't think of any Tish song with an animal in it.
Mexico was great. We left there with lots of warm and fun memories. Funny ones as well, such as trying to communicate among a bunch of people where some spoke one, maybe two languages, but few spoke all three: Spanish, English, and German. This got particularly humorous when telling, or trying to tell jokes. Each time I visit Mexico, I am reminded of what a special and magical land and people we are neighbors with. I feel lucky that my ancestors, my parents, that I come from that too. A part of me always feels like it belongs there.
Like so many of us, I am really concerned and sad and torn about the issues facing the border that separates, and also unites, us with Mexico. I know that neither extreme of ideas of solutions we hear are good for either country: No control at all is probably not very safe for many reasons, but show of force and building a wall sends a terrible message from one neighbor to another. Not that any solution is simple, but if we paid a little bit of attention to history, we'd see that if political, corporate and industrial leaders had cared about phrases like "human rights", "workers rights", and "livable wages" when dealing with places such as Latin America over time, there probably wouldn't be a "border crisis" now. The same can be said for immigration and related situations going on all over the world. It's really bad that people just wanting to work to earn a decent living have to go through desperate means and suffer humiliation and hardships to strive for what most of us can take for granted through no struggle of our own and without having to leave our own country ии. but, OK. On that subject, I'll stop there. For now. Hopefully, all will turn out well.
We are exposed to so much news today, whether we want it or not. It's almost impossible not to feel affected by it. I suppose it's better to know than to not. But, I think it makes some of us hypersensitive, or desensitized, or both. Well, this is my struggle. I want to ignore the terrible things out there, but I keep peeking.
So, sometimes it feels like the world is about to end. The universe is in charge of the nature plan. However, there are some things we can control, like trying to do some good where we are, whether we are being kind to someone who needs help, thinking environmentally, trying to be sensitive to those different than us, or voting on election day. You never know, we could change the world! (I mean, for better!)
I am working on some changes myself; things I feel dissatisfied about, things I know I could do better, be better at, personally and professionally. I've been trying to get out to listen to more music and I've met some really impressive musicians. I am thinking of some new musical directions I'd like to pursue. Meantime, I am looking forward to some concerts coming up, three in Belgium, one in southern Germany, and one in Holland. One of my new music friends from Hamburg, Uli Rademacher, will be joining me, as well as long-time friend and hot Texan guitar player, Troy Wells. I hope you can attend one of these shows. I think you'll like it.
If you are interested in vintage Tish, a CD has been released on Varese Sarabande Records earlier this year, titled "Tish Hinojosa Retrospective". They chose 18 songs from most of my releases going back to 87's "Taos to Tennessee". The song choices aren't all the expected ones and it makes for an interesting listen. Look for it at your usual CD store, and it will soon be available at our website. Don't forget to also pick up "From Texas for a Christmas Night" for the upcoming holidays. I think you'll like that too.
I'll try to get another Tish's Corner in for the end of the year. I hope all is going well for you. Thanks for visiting, I appreciate you dropping by. Happy Thanksgiving to all. Safe and loving and peaceful holidays!
Love,
Tish
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