…the sun keeps shining through the driving rain
And I know that we can turn it around.
— Workingman’s Hymn, Josh Davis

I just broke down and bawled.  Our friend Josh Davis wrote a song called “The Workingman’s Hymn” and he recorded it last night for NBC’s The Voice.
At noon today, The Workingman’s Hymn was number 9 on the iTunes singles chart! This is not just a song Josh performed, this is a song he WROTE.

I talked to my brother this morning. He is out of work again, a computer professional with current certifications who is highly regarded, but also over 50. (Most computer work is contract now.)

My brother said when he heard The Workingman’s Hymn last night, it gave him goosebumps. He is living the story in that song right now.

When I got off the phone, I went to YouTube and watched the video for the song. And sobbed gut-wrenching tears… for the hope in the song, for the future of Michigan, and for Josh.

As an artist and musician, I have watched this show as a peer. I have learned about performing, staging, costuming… and that truly even the glamor job of musician is a “workingman’s” hard job. You can’t afford an off day on that stage (and all the hours preparing for it).

Please go watch this video. It will surely improve your outlook even if you don’t know Josh.

Watch The Voice tonight, Tuesday May 19, 8-9pm Eastern (followed by a 2-hour special which promises a huge roster of amazing singers… The top 20 from this season and a roster of well-established professionals.

PS  Josh’s other solo single, Hallelujah, was #12. Nice job, friend. 

Longtime readers here know that I sing with my husband Brian, as The Fabulous Heftones. One of the amazing things about singing professionally is that I get to meet and jam with other musicians who are top notch. It’s a joy!

One band we’ve known for about 15 years is Steppin’ in It. They played weekly (for years) at the Green Door, a music venue on the Eastside… my favorite part of town!

About Joshua Davis
Josh Davis is the front man for Steppin’ in It, and writes many of their songs. Lately he’s been doing more solo work (they all have). Josh got a surprise call from NBC’s show The Voice, and is on the current Season 8.

I don’t watch TV… we literally have no way to watch at home. I’d never heard of The Voice. But with my friend on it, I’ve been finding ways to watch.

The Voice is a Class Act
I’m really impressed at the respect the contestants receive from the celebrity coaches, and the way they are set up to cooperate and learn to feel connected to each other in spite of the competition. Very refreshing!

Please Support Josh: Vote before Noon Tuesday!
Josh is now in the final 12 people. At this point, the celebrity coaches can not impact if he moves on or not. It’s all up to us, the public. If he is in the top vote-getters, he can complete the competition. If not, he goes home. Please consider helping him out. (There are videos below to show you why he is worthy of your votes.)

Each fan can vote up to 41 votes.

To help, you must vote by noon, Tuesday 4/14!!!

Here are instruction pages on how to do it:

How to Vote for Joshua Davis on The Voice from Earthwork

The Lansing State Journal: How to vote for Josh Davis by Anne Erickson

Listen to Joshua Sing
Here is a video of the song he sang Monday 4/13. (America by Simon & Garfunkel, a wonderful song.) If you download it from iTunes before noon ($1.29) it will count as one vote and you can listen to Josh serenade you whenever you want!

And besides… Josh’s voice singing Simon and Garfunkel? I must confess I cried.

Here he is singing “Budapest,” a song that was a hit in Europe. I didn’t know it, but I think it’s my new favorite recording.

Thanks for your support and your consideration. Hugs from Michigan’s music heartland.

“Art is the unceasing effort to compete with the beauty of flowers – and never succeeding.”
—Marc Chagall (1990-1985)

Maybe you are like me, waiting for spring. It seems every year winter feels harder.

I did get a break this year when I drove south a few weeks ago. However, I nearly cried when Brian brought in this beautiful little bloom two days ago. He found it in our side yard. It had snowed that day, but the flower was there, along with the first robin we have seen this year.

Tuesday, the birds were all happy. There was no snow, and the side yard had many little violets blooming.

In Lansing, Michigan, where we live… well, there is always at least a light flurry of snow sometime in April. However, if we are lucky it won’t stick again this year.

I think we made it!

Look what we did on our lunch hour this Wednesday!

My weekly lunch date, Cynthia, works at Elderly Instruments (a very fine music store, where Brian also works). For years, at the corner of Elderly’s front lawn was a huge, overgrown evergreen bush. It blocked part of the sidewalk and also the view of the front door.

A week or two ago, the bulk of the bush was taken down. In the near future, we hear that a sign will be placed here. Meanwhile, it’s looking a bit unfinished!

Last week as Cynthia and I walked past, I mentioned that its raggedy look would be improved by a yarn bomb. She agreed.

So this week, we spent our lunch date yarn bombing. Some of the scarves were used originally at the MSU Horticulture Yarn bOMb project. They were sun faded, but we turned the brighter side out and got double duty from them!

We have casually talked about yarn bombing the yarn shop Sticks and Strings literally across the street from Elderly. We have said we would do it for a couple of years. I guess it helps to have a deadline!

Now that we know how much we can do in a lunch period, perhaps we need to get ON with it, yes? I must go dig out more recyclable scarves from MSU, perhaps.

Meanwhile, Cynthia has had a lot of good feedback on the project. The point is to give people something to smile about. I think it worked !

We finally have spring here in mid-Michigan. It was the hardest winter to live through that I remember, and I’ve lived here over 50 of my 55 years. We are winter-weary city slickers this year.

Perspective
We had a devastating ice storm 3 days before Christmas, and 40% of the Capital city was without power. Some friends outside city limits were 8 days without.

A friend slept on our couch one night, and I cooked Christmas dinner for me and 2 friends. Brian worked a 15-hour day on Dec. 25 getting the store computers (where he is webmaster) up and running so they could be back up and open on December 26… after being closed for 3 days before the holiday.

Juicy Spring Day
It rained big, fat drops this Monday, off and on most of the day. In other years, we might have complained. This year we agree that it ‘s better than snow.

Almost everything is green now. A week and a half ago, we had very few buds. Now look at it!

Rain
©1966 by Adrian Keith Smith
Age 4
New Zealand
From the Book:
Miracles, Poems by children of the English-speaking world
Collected by Richard Lewis
Simon and Schuster, 1966

The rain screws up its face

and falls to bits.

Then it makes itself again.

Only the rain can make itself again.

Will you be ours? Come solo and we’ll serenade you… bring a group of friends and we’ll celebrate you… bring the family and we’ll get the kiddos singing and dancing. Everybody can relate to love, no matter what their life situation is.

The Fabulous Heftones are Lynn Hershberger (Hefferan) (me) and Brian Hefferan… arguably the most romantic act in Lansing.

The Avenue Cafe is in the former Gone Wired Cafe (same owners, new name). It’s on the 2000 block of Michigan Avenue in Lansing, Michigan… my favorite block in Lansing. (Down the block from Green Door, across the street from Emil’s Italian Restaurant, sharing a wall with Everybody Reads/Triple Goddess Bookstore.)

It’s a family-friendly neighborhood “pub” of sorts… food made in-house and Michigan brews, and good locally-based music. Harmony, followed by more harmony.

Please join us.

(If you can’t make it… click here to hear us sing By the Light of the Silvery Moon.)

It feels like eternal snow here in Lansing…

Allowing the snow to be a blanket (warm, snug, fluffy), because it persists in tugging on my awareness like a toddler pleading, “Mom, Mom, Mom…”

Choosing to change all word meanings toward the concepts of “warm” and “knit.”

My JoyBug looked tucked into a soft white blanket, before I woke her to create a day together.

Sitting in a cafe, near the corner of two fully-windowed walls… Six inches from the sidewalk snow blanket.

Giving thanks I’m in a place where we are warm and safe indoors most of the winter. And where we can buy wool sweaters instead of raising sheep, shearing them, washing, carding, spinning and knitting the wool.

And where I can enjoy tea leaves from halfway across this globe, prepared for me for a few dollars.

Abundance, warmth and knitting are the words of the day. Even if I never pick up my knitting needles & wool.

So, how are YOU?