Hello, and welcome! I’m Carolyn Murset. This is my site for the “Song Stories, Quiet Stories Podcast.” I hope you will enjoy these podcast episodes.
About the “Song Stories, Quiet Stories Podcast”
I obsess about a few things, and one of my passions is keeping a journal. I want you to keep one, too. You don’t have to obsess about it, and you can call it whatever you want. Just write something about the everyday quiet things you do. Your life is probably more interesting than you think it is.
In my upcoming episodes, I’m going to tell you stories with songs, about people I know or have known who led quiet, influential lives.
And then, I’m going to give you one or two writing prompts from the theme you’ll hear in the song story. You’ll have a couple of weeks to toss around ideas of what to write, and then I’ll be back with another song story, and another writing prompt. No pressure. But, if you choose to write, you’ll be glad you did. People you care about will be glad you did. I will be glad you did, and I would love for you to let me know how you’re doing with it. Use the “Contact Me” page to reach me. Please write!
About me
I live a quiet life as many of you do, out of the spotlight. I’m a nice and friendly half-Hispanic grandma, singer/songwriter tortilla maker. I grew up in the 1960’s in Taos, New Mexico. I learned to play the guitar and wrote my first song while I was in high school during the 1970’s. (I’m 60 years old!) The guitar teacher didn’t play the guitar, but instead, drew chord diagrams on the chalkboard (with real chalk) and required me and my classmates to sing and accompany ourselves in front of the class every Friday.
My first guitar was a $25 special, complete with vinyl gig bag. Luckily, the neck broke before Christmas, letting me feel justified in asking my parents for a better guitar that wouldn’t need the neck repaired with epoxy and filament tape.
I listened along with my older brother and sister to the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, and Credence Clearwater Revival. When they left home, I added Linda Ronstadt, and Fleetwood Mac to the stack of LP’s my siblings left behind, and the tunes wafting through the wooden record player console eventually evolved through the decades into my iTunes playlist, with a little Allison Kraus, Chris Proctor, and Maisy & Lennon thrown in with the predecessors. What genres of music do you listen to?
Because of these musical influences, I consider myself to be a folksy / bluegrassy singer who can’t write a song without inserting a flat 7 chord here and there. My first weekly gig was back in the early 1990’s at noon on Friday’s at Chumley’s vegetarian cafe in Hurricane, Utah, where I was paid with a large slice of cheese lasagna. At another gig at a local restaurant, I once fell into the hot tub during a break in-between sets, and no one even mentioned my wet dress afterwards. But I got a lot of tips that night. Since then, I’ve played at fairs, celebrations, festivals, private parties, fundraisers, etc. Now that I think of it, all of those events would be celebrations.
I’ve self-produced three CD’s: “People Change,” “He is My Song,” and “My Gray Sky to Blue” which are available on iTunes, Spotify, and cdbaby.com, (and two cassettes, but I won’t go there). You can also find them by visiting the “Store” page on this site. I recently finished writing and recording a one-woman musical, “Tales of Tila”, which is set in Taos, New Mexico, based on my lively Hispanic tortilla-making grandma’s life. It’s also on CD and online on the same sites. I hope to take this show on tour. I also hope to have the energy to do it.
I’m very grateful to the local musicians who have contributed to my CD projects: John Houston, Gordon Strang, Lisle Crowley, Ryan Tilby, Lauretta and Pat Swansborough, Wayne Metzler and Paula Ferrario.
I’ve been a member of a couple of local bands that have since dis-banded. I play the guitar, and have studied with Trish Gale, Richard Hart, and will resume my role as a student of LIsle Crowley before I lose my callouses. I dabble with the banjo, mandolin and harmonica. I’m an original, but now, former member of the John Houston Gospel Choir in St. George, Utah.
If you’re into the southern Utah community theatre scene, you may have recently scene me (that was a pun) in The Addams Family Musical, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Great Circus Caper, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and Harvey. Tales of Tila will be at the Electric Theatre in St. George, October 12th & 13th, 2018. Two nights only, don’t miss it! Visit my “Events” page to find out more about all my upcoming events.
My remarkable five children and their incredible spouses have given me and my husband, Rich, thirteen grandchildren! Some of these youngsters jam with me in my music studio, and some of them dance with me.
So that you don’t envy my life, I want you to know that I don’t sleep enough at night, I scrub the toilet and shower, and make the beds for my AirBnB. I just changed my cat’s disgusting litter box (and I’m allergic to cats!) and I can only eat carrots, broccoli, and chicken without breaking out. Sometimes I eat the broccoli first.
First episodes
You know how I told you I’m an actress, too? A long time ago, I watched this talented lady doing a one woman musical play about her husband’s great grandmother. I loved the play and tried to get permission to perform it too, but they wanted to keep it in the family.
Around that time, my siblings had appointed me as the family historian, probably because I’d kept a journal for years and had shown interest in our family ancestry. Soon after they piled the family records onto my lap, I came across my Grandma Tila’s personal history.
In it she tells how at age ten she was the family bread maker, and when her older brothers would come home from working in the fields, they’d grab her tortillas from off the table, eat them, and call them crackers.
So she goes into the garden and in between the rows of corn, prays for help. I knew as soon as I read this story that I had to do something with it.