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Author: Carolyn Murset

I’m a Singer/ Songwriter/ Actress/ Wife/ Grandmother/ Half-Hispanic Tortilla-Making Spanglish-Speaking Guitar Player.

Paint Me a Picture : | 15

Meet my guest and friend, Lauretta Swansborough. We met almost 20 years ago, when she and I were cast in A Man Who Came to Dinner. In this 2001 community theatrical production, I played the nerdy resident nurse, and she played the neighbor with the jar of pickled pigs feet. She had one line, and I had two lines, “Yes, sir!” and “No Sir!”, repeated at least twenty one times. I  got to wear comfortable nurse shoes and stuff a Whitman’s chocolate bon bon in my mouth before my character’s final exit. She got to wear a fur coat.

 

As Lauretta and I  spent more time off stage than on, we became good friends and learned about  the musical interests we had in common: songwriting, and singing….we continued acting, and her husband and their young son joined her on occasion. She started directing plays. I’d stopped doing that a decade earlier.

Coyote Video

Wallace Dayton Chatwin
Nora Trujillo Chatwin

I attended RootsTech in Salt Lake City, Utah the last week in February.  I learned about so many things involving Family History and getting family members enthused about getting acquainted with their ancestors.  I’ve wanted to branch out into video making using old photos. This is my first endeavor.  In this video I briefly tell the story of my parents meeting and marrying.

Valentine’s Day Herstory : | 14

Do you have fond memories as a school child bringing a shoe box to school in mid February, covering it in red or pink paper, then gluing  on heart shaped paper doilies, or cut out paper hearts, then having your teacher or parents cutting a rectangular slit on top of the box for your school mates to insert their mini Valentine envelope treasures? I do.

 

And, if I was lucky, a conversation candy heart would be tucked inside, saying, “Be mine”, or “You’re far out.” Is it obvious I grew up during the 1960’s and 70’s?

 

That was a few decades ago. My own kids did the same thing in the 1980’s, 90’s and on, and their kids probably ask their parents for an empty shoe box to take to school at the beginning of February.

Girl Plus Guitar : | 13

Come with me, back to the year 1973. I was fifteen years old, and my older sister and brother had just spent the past decade listening to the Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel on vinyl record LP’s. I wore bell-bottom pants, and parted my long, straight hair in the middle.  I liked to sing, so all this 1970’s teen needed was a guitar to accompany herself. Paul Simon’s guitar playing spoke to me, and as for George Harrison?….Something in the way he played moved me…

My Trujillo : | 12

  Hello and welcome!! You’re listening to Song Stories, Quiet Stories. This is podcast episode 12, My Trujillo, the third bonus episode of my one-woman original musical play, Tales of Tila, which premiered at the Electric Theater, St. George, Utah in October, 2018. I am your host, Carolyn Murset.      

Grandma Tila is sitting right next to me. I invited her to visit us one more time. If you’ll remember, she wasn’t here for the last episode when, I told you some of my own Christmas stories, including a couple with my other Grandma, and let you listen to some of my songs and arrangements. I asked Grandma Tila to think of some nice things to say about my Grandpa Trujillo, because his birthday is very soon, on the first day of the year. Grandma, tell them what you’ve told me. 

Winter Brown Noel : | 11

Hello and welcome!! You’re listening to Song Stories, Quiet Stories. This is podcast episode 11, Winter Brown Noel.  I am your host, Carolyn Murset.     

In  previous episodes, I’ve always had, or pretended to have a special guest with me. That isn’t the case today. The Christmas stories and the songs you’ll hear will be my own.

As I write this, the month of December is half over. Thanksgiving came earlier this year, and many folks put their Christmas decorations up the day after that, or even a few days before then.

My husband and I have been married quite a while now, and through the years have accumulated several containers full of strings of lights, garlands, and ornaments, some of which the kids and I made when they were younger.

Our nest is empty now. Our three daughters who decorated the house very joyfully and festively when they lived at home have  married and moved away now. My husband and I just recently took the bins and boxes down from the shelves in the garage, where they then sat in the dining room for a few days while I summoned up the courage to open them.

Christmas in Taos : | 10

Hello and welcome! You’re listening to Song Stories, Quiet Stories. This is podcast episode 10, Christmas in Taos. I am your host, Carolyn Murset. This is the second bonus episode of the new original one-woman musical, Tales of Tila, which premiered at the Electric Theater in St. George, Utah, in October 2018.  

I promised you earlier in this episode that I would tell you how to make biscochitos, our traditional Christmas cookie which is one of the things I gave to the children who came around to our house that morning.  Do you like the taste of black licorice?  If you don’t you may not like this cookie. I guess you could omit the anise seed, but then it wouldn’t be a biscochito, but that’s up to you.  

Relatively Speaking : | 9

Simonita Miera Trujillo and Federico (Fred) Trujillo, 1929.

Hello and welcome!! You’re listening to Song Stories, Quiet Stories. This is podcast episode 9, Relatively Speaking. I am your host, Carolyn Murset. This is the first bonus episode of the new original one-woman musical, Tales of Tila, which premiered at the Electric Theater in St. George, Utah, in October 2018.

My special guest, Grandma Tila will arrive any minute now. Episodes 1-7 go in order chronologically. so if you haven’t yet listened to those episodes in this series, it might be a good idea to do that now, then come back. That would give her more time to get here. This bonus episode stands alone, though.

Many thanks to those of you who have  sent me your story contributions. Don’t be surprised if you hear them in a minute or two! Are you listeners ready to get your Spanglish on? 

Ghost Stories by Gary Payne : | 8

Hello, and welcome! You’re listening to Song Stories, Quiet Stories. This is podcast Episode number 8, Ghost Stories by Gary Payne. I am your host, Carolyn Murset.

We interrupt  our regular programming  because it will soon be Halloween. It’s nothing to be afraid of, unless you’ve tried to move to a different location in order to retire and your respite lasts all of a couple of weeks.

You may not have seen Gary Payne onstage here  in southern Utah. For the past decade and a half, practically every time I’ve attended or volunteered at a cultural event, Mr. Payne, the unsung hero of the local theater scene  has been there, too, sometimes ushering, or taking tickets. But most of the time he’s served before the play even opens, building sets or gathering props. I’ve watched him herd large performing groups at  important fundraisers, too. Frightening? Absolutely.