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Hello, and welcome!  This is Song Stories, Quiet Stories podcast, Episode Zero!  I live a quiet life as many of you do, out of the spotlight.  I’m a friendly, half-Hispanic grandma, singer/songwriter tortilla maker. I obsess about a few things, and one of my passions,…. Is keeping a journal and writing a personal history.

    I have volumes and volumes of handwritten, type-written, digital, and photo journals. I want you to keep one, too, if you don’t already.  You don’t have to obsess about it, and you can call it whatever you want. Just write something about the everyday quiet, or noisy 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 lead 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 more writing prompts.  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.

    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. Listen to hear how my Dad repaired my first guitar.

    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. If you were a songwriter, what style of song would you write?

  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.

        Did  you listen to my procrastination song, Somethin’ Else?  I’m really good at putting things off. I think I might be addicted to FaceBook and not keeping house, as you’ll hear in the song after that, Domestic Desperation.  What unpleasant tasks do you put off? Do you have any avoidance behaviors?

    So come back next time for episode #1.  Subscribe now, here, at mycarolynmurset.com or iTunes, so you don’t miss it.

    Awhile back, my siblings  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. So, por favor,  come back for episode one and hear the rest of the Tortilla Tale. This is Carolyn Murset.  Thanks for listening. Thanks for writing!