Some special friends joined me a few weeks ago for the 12th Mountain Mama Madness weekend at Kathy Scott’s lovely North Georgia retreat cabin, The Gathering Place.  It’s a simple and apt name for a place I have come to cherish. Cherished too are all the wonderful people who choose to come there for these singing weekends which were the brainchild of hostess and head Mountain Mama, Kathy herself.

The theme was Hazel and Alice, as in Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard.  A new level of appreciation and depth of feeling emerged as we studied the seven songs I brought to the group and found our own voices to put behind them, our own stories to tell because of them, and our own interpretations of them.  The gift of their music becomes even clearer when looked at closely and sung with full spirit and open space and easy safety.  For sharing in that happy task, I thank all of you mamas who were there doing all that with me.

I invite all who weren’t there to considering contributing your special selves to a future mountain mamas weekend.  The next one is September 25 – 27 and we will explore the Louvin Brothers.  There’s a Singing Workshops page right on this website where you can learn more.

I am reminded of my travels in Europe which began 18 years ago with a one-way ticket and a backpack.  I consistently met interesting people along the way, and I used to reason that I got along with such a large percentage of them (much larger than in real life) because of the filtering process that had to take place before we could even have the chance to meet: that is, they were, like I was, choosing to stray far away from home, to learn, to explore, and to grow a little bit by trading in familiarity for exploration.

Same goes for you, Mountain Mamas; you’re explorers, and you are a special lot!