| It was my fiftieth birthday and when I got up | | | | childbirth." They repeated this over and over |
| that morning I decided to celebrate by giving | | | | more loudly as the night wore on and they |
| myself the day to do anything I wanted - | | | | became more inebriated. The last worrisome part |
| something that I had always wanted to try and | | | | of the night was when they insisted on carrying |
| had never allowed myself time to do. I decided to | | | | my organ down a steep flight of stairs. I was |
| try to write music. It seems unbelievable that I | | | | sure they were going to drop it. |
| had been playing piano since the age of four and | | | | "Christmas in the Country" was the aftermath of |
| had never tried to write music of my own. It just | | | | the holiday season when I lived in Vail, CO. For |
| never entered my head that I would be able to | | | | Christmas Eve I had the honor of playing a church |
| do this. I didn't believe I was intelligent enough. | | | | service for President Ford and his family. A week |
| When I began composing, the music and lyrics | | | | later on New Year's Eve I was on my way |
| would flow out in complete form. I would sit on | | | | uptown to play in a bar when I was in an |
| the couch in the evening watching TV and writing | | | | accident. The woman who hit me turned out to |
| words and music at the same time. Sometimes I | | | | be the sister of the man who hired me to work |
| didn't even listen to them until the next day. Many | | | | at the bar. I had to be careful how I handled the |
| of them were about places and things and events | | | | event for fear of losing my job, which I really |
| in Colorado. I wrote songs about everything and | | | | needed. |
| everybody. I realize now that the compositions | | | | When we moved to Grand Junction, CO I started |
| followed my own experiences with music. I | | | | my own dance band called, "Aces and Eights" |
| worked my way through folk music, country, | | | | after the hand of cards that Wild Bill Hickok was |
| blues, pop, show music, even some rock, and | | | | holding when he was shot. I had this band for |
| then the music started turning spiritual with new | | | | about ten years. I remember well the first and |
| age lyrics about a visionary world. | | | | last jobs. |
| At one point I was in contact with one I called | | | | The first gig was in Telluride, CO, a ski town |
| Frances, as I spelled it for a long time until it was | | | | about 150 miles southwest of Grand Junction. I |
| corrected to Francois. A couple of years after | | | | had booked a three piece band at a club and hired |
| that the last name came down and it was | | | | a trumpet player and drummer, both college |
| Couperin, who was a famous French composer | | | | students. We all went in our van with the |
| and musician, a harpsichordist for the court of | | | | instruments including my organ. My husband was |
| Louis IV and the teacher of the royal princes and | | | | driving. The drummer said he'd been in an auto |
| princesses. | | | | accident earlier that day, but he was all right. We |
| A year later, I began to receive information from | | | | made it through the first set and he got sick. He |
| a spiritual source that flowed the same way as | | | | had to lay down on a couch backstage and the |
| the music. Some of the information came from a | | | | trumpet player took over the drums. He'd never |
| being named Sashuyon and one of his former | | | | played them before, but had studied how to do it |
| incarnations had been as Tchaikovsky. This is | | | | in college. Thank goodness for his talent. We had |
| where the Russian influence came from in the | | | | to pack the van carefully going home so there |
| music. | | | | was room for the sick drummer to lay down on |
| Eventually I was in touch with the Musical | | | | the floor. We had taken the rear seat out and |
| Universe and the Science of Music started coming | | | | that was the only place he could lay down. He |
| through. This science will give the world much | | | | was pretty sick by this time. He had a concussion |
| needed new technology by applying music to | | | | from the accident. |
| seven established sciences for new ways of | | | | The last job was in a town about the same |
| healing not only humans but also the earth herself. | | | | distance northeast of Grand Junction. It was New |
| The day I decided to start composing music, the | | | | Year's Eve and that night I had booked a five |
| first song I wrote was entitled "Walk, Walk, Walk | | | | piece band. We had to take the equipment up |
| with the Angels." I hated it. I didn't want to write | | | | three flights of stairs. But that wasn't the worst |
| religious songs. Then I realized that while writing | | | | part - the travel was treacherous that night. The |
| the song I was seeing a vision of angels parading | | | | roads were snow covered and very slippery. My |
| across the top of Grand Mesa, a 14,000 flat top | | | | husband was driving and did a very good job, but |
| mountain close to my home in Grand Junction. I | | | | I was scared both going to the job and home |
| decided it was meant to be and went on to write | | | | again. There were snow shoe rabbits all over the |
| another song. This one turned out to be very | | | | roads on the way to the job and coming home it |
| different. It was about the female singer in my | | | | was deer and moose that were all over the |
| dance band. It continued on from there. | | | | roads. |
| One evening while driving to choir practice a song | | | | That was the night I "hung it up." Our son Neil |
| started coming through and I had to write it on a | | | | was about four when we moved to Colorado and |
| piece of paper while driving the car. This was kind | | | | by this time he was 14 - too old for a baby sitter |
| of hard to do and also kind of dangerous. This | | | | and too young to stay by himself. I never played |
| song was entitled "When the Columbine Turns | | | | another dance job. |
| Blue Again" and was inspired by a trip we had | | | | After moving to Los Angeles I decided to try to |
| made up onto the Grand Mesa to cut firewood | | | | write some pop music so I signed up for lyric |
| for our fireplace. I was later informed that this | | | | writing classes and started going to workshops. I |
| was a reflection on a previous life I had lived. | | | | had signed up for twelve weeks of lyric classes. |
| By the time I had twenty-five songs written I | | | | The classes were held at the teacher's house. |
| decided to write a musical play and fit the songs | | | | One night after I'd been going there for about |
| into it. I called this play "Boomtown, U.S.A." Our | | | | three weeks, I left her house and headed for my |
| area was a boomtown at this time based on the | | | | car. It was across the street and down a little |
| oil shale development that was going on at this | | | | ways from her house. |
| time is western Colorado. This play will soon be | | | | While walking to it I noticed two homeless men |
| available on my website. | | | | walking towards me pushing their carts. I saw |
| As I worked the songs into the play, I began | | | | them cross the street and head towards me. I |
| hearing arrangements for them and tried to | | | | hurried and just got inside and shut and locked the |
| incorporate these arrangements into the piano | | | | door when they were knocking on my window. I |
| accompaniment. Most of the music in this group | | | | started the car and tore out of there. I never |
| was of a country western flavor. Besides piano, I | | | | went back to finish my lessons. |
| played guitar and mandolin and my sister and I | | | | Another night I was at a workshop in a |
| sang at various events as teenagers. I know this | | | | downtown high rise and when I came out to go |
| influenced these early songs. | | | | to the parking lot which was about a block away, |
| The music eventually became a little more in the | | | | I had to walk among street people laying right on |
| line of pop music with some influence by early | | | | the sidewalk and reaching up as I passed, asking |
| 50s rock and roll. It still didn't stop me from | | | | for money. I never went to anymore workshops. |
| writing about everyone and everything. One night | | | | I lived in Los Angeles about five years. I was |
| as I went into choir practice I heard someone ask | | | | there for fires, floods, earthquakes and riots. I |
| "Where's Joe." The answer that came back from | | | | was teaching music at a preschool one day and |
| another member was "Joe's not here." This | | | | the other teachers came in, locked the doors and |
| became the title of another song and was in the | | | | pulled all the shades shut. I sat there and |
| blues genre. This happened quite often. | | | | entertained the children while they waited for their |
| For some songs I drew from events that took | | | | parents to pick them up. The rioting was within a |
| place in my childhood. The song "Daddy was a | | | | block and a half of the school. |
| Bootlegger" was a true story because my Dad | | | | "Talk to Each Other" was inspired by actually |
| was a bootlegger. He ran a still in the blackberry | | | | seeing a woman lift the lid of a garbage can. I also |
| bushes on our property and he quite often spent | | | | was acquainted with a teacher at the school |
| some time in jail when caught. My Mother hated | | | | where the student was shot. I entered the song |
| this song, but did like most of my other work. | | | | in a contest to "Heal L.A." after the riots. It got an |
| For twenty-five years I played for dances every | | | | honorable mention out of 1200 entries and I also |
| New Year's Eve. I never had a New Year's Eve | | | | got an eighteen month contract on it, but nothing |
| off. One year I had surgery on my right wrist and | | | | ever came of it. |
| I still played a four hour gig with just my left hand | | | | I was there for the big earthquake that did so |
| and left foot on the organ. Anyone who plays | | | | much damage. Our house didn't receive much |
| piano or organ knows that the melody is most | | | | damage, but one day when I went to the |
| always in the right hand, so this was a very | | | | preschool where I was to teach it was completely |
| difficult night. This was when we lived in Ohio. | | | | destroyed from an earthquake. |
| Another night that was kind of unforgettable, | | | | When the fires were burning I could open my |
| while we were still living in Ohio, was when I was | | | | front door and see the flames behind a hill not too |
| playing a dance for a group of state patrol | | | | far away. My big worry was having to leave my |
| officers. I was about 8 months pregnant; the | | | | cat locked in the house while I was teaching. I |
| officers were drinking merrily and kept yelling at | | | | gave the neighbor a key and asked her to let the |
| me all night, "don't worry lady, we're all trained in | | | | cat out if the evacuation order came. It never did. |